Time to Say Goodbye, after 15 years

[Jeff Ream]

6 hours ago, garfield said:

You also forgot opening up the idiom to another 60% of music kids, and their parents.

Imagine the ability to start a new corps if your instrumentation looks nearly identical to the HS and college bands most of them came from.  Is it easier to birth and grow new corps with common instrumentation?  Notwithstanding all of the other challenges of starting and running a corps into sustainability and competitiveness, at least the new corps won't have to retrain it's MM's.

So, a very real question is how the varying voices of instrumentation will be judged.

 

i'd ask this as a parent...you get all of that at school for thousands less. whats so special to pay 5 grand?

[Jeff Ream]

4 hours ago, Poppycock said:

A lot of disposable income from the legacy group (donations, volunteers and sponsors). 

hasn't stopped them in any other decision. 

[Jeff Ream]

4 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Hey I remember that easier to start a new corps refrain before. It was when DCI went to all key and one reason was easier to start new corps as members could bring their own instruments. Would keep costs down for new corps and one reason why all key didn’t bother me that much.

Problem was it didn’t work out that way and never did get a read why. Moral is don’t expect too much from the changes

and adding amps would shrink the size of the pit.

 

oh oops

 

don't get me wrong, i am not opposed to those changes. but i predicted what became the reality despite the PR spin

[Jeff Ream]

1 hour ago, Terri Schehr said:

I’m fine with that.  Just not marching on the field. 

adding soloists is the gateway. just like amps led to synths, and any key led to any kind of brass.

[JimF-LowBari]

5 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

and adding amps would shrink the size of the pit.

 

oh oops

 

don't get me wrong, i am not opposed to those changes. but i predicted what became the reality despite the PR spin

Oh yeah if we and amps “just for the pit!” then we won’t have to double parts for the bells. 
 

How much room in the semi do we need for the golf carts to haul all that crap to the field....

[Tim K]

5 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

let's be honest, many in the band world looked down on drum corps. Some still do actually

Very true. In Massachusetts, two circuits Eastern MA and CYO had band divisions. In many cases, the drum corps were the more alluring, but for those in the bands, we were always told we were the musicians because those who marched in drum corps did not read music and the buglers were taught to make sounds, not create music. At the time I marched that was no longer the case with most drum corps, but the belief was drum corps was all show.  It is also interesting to note the local drum corps at that time, which in my era would have been 27th, North Star, Boston Crusaders, and Holy Family Defenders, actively recruited percussionists from the bands because they were less likely to have picked up bad habits than those who marched in less competitive drum corps and many color guard members were recruited from the drill teams. 

[KeithHall]

The day I see Madison Scouts play "Rhapsody in Blue" with a clarinet soloist....I'm outta here!

I love drum corps today but adding WW will change the whole complexion of an activity that we fell in love with! DCI might as well merge with BOA and become BOW (Bands of the World). Drum Corps has always been different and so now the talk is adding WW. Here's one thing you won't see....the flash from the brass instruments when they go up! I'm okay with most of the changes that have happened since 1970 but adding WW's? Nope!

[cixelsyd]

 

13 hours ago, denmum said:

But that was part of the overall discussion, that woodwinds would require another bus or two so I think we were all taking for granted that the member total would be increased.

 

13 hours ago, cybersnyder said:

It’s the only thing that makes sense. Otherwise, you’re taking away 20 or so brass instruments and replacing those with woodwinds. Even amplified you would be cutting the sound of the corps. 

The sound of the corps will be cut anyway, to maintain ensemble balance with the woodwinds.

13 hours ago, Guitar1974 said:

I don't see it going down like this at all (DCI increasing corps size to accommodate woodwInds, extra buses, etc).  I see it like this:

1) DCI soon adopts rule that allows any instrument (woodwinds)

2) Due to many factors (high cost of obtaining and maintaining instruments, need for additional instructional staff, the fact woodwinds are finicky instruments, etc) corps will relegate 99% of woodwind use to solos or small ensembles.  A novelty instrument, used- at most- like trombones/sousaphone/etc now.

That is what we were told about trombones.  Yet in the first year (half-year, given the short notice), already someone spent major chunks of their show swapping out the entire bari/euph line for trombones.

As for solo-only, that is what we were told about amplifying brass.  And now they are amping the whole field.

Technically, the instrumentation change and the corps size change are separate issues.  But it does not surprise me that people are trying to bundle them together.  Frankly, the case for increasing corps size is so weak, this is the only argument I could imagine making for it.  (And still an insufficient argument, IMO.)

[Terri Schehr]

6 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

let's be honest, many in the band world looked down on drum corps. Some still do actually

My high school band director didn’t like my marching in drum corps AT ALL.   I didn’t march for two seasons to appease him and came back and marched three years with Guardsmen AFTER I graduated. 

[cixelsyd]

13 hours ago, garfield said:

You also forgot opening up the idiom to another 60% of music kids, and their parents.

Imagine the ability to start a new corps if your instrumentation looks nearly identical to the HS and college bands most of them came from.  Is it easier to birth and grow new corps with common instrumentation?  Notwithstanding all of the other challenges of starting and running a corps into sustainability and competitiveness, at least the new corps won't have to retrain it's MM's.

Well, we changed all the brass instruments to be common with those of band.  Let me count how many more corps we have as a result... just a moment... okay, done.  Zero.

More importantly, I am not convinced there is any sincere interest in having more corps.  The only time growing the number of corps was a significant DCI goal was in the 2009 DCI business plan... which is what precipitated the whole G7 civil war.  I believe that the concept of directing DCI resources ($$$) to fostering more corps instead of enriching existing corps was the one thing the G7 found most objectionable.  It was also the one thing missing from all their own rhetoric.  They could not even feign interest in preserving the corps we had, much less growing more.

The current DCI strategic plan has one kernel of hope, something about changing the tour to "increase participation".  Even if that does mean increasing the number of corps, I have yet to see or hear anything from my five strategic plan threads that corroborates that hope.  And if increasing corps size by a busload is even up for discussion, then that hope is dashed.  (Oh crap, that explains it.)