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Cavaliers Sound Quality


Penguin

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All that I am gonna say is that I think the majority of the hornlines that are taking the field these days all have exceptional tone quality for the style that they are going for. I think everyone should consider what the corps are going for. for example when you have a hornline that was made up like PR's was is sure to have a very dark chocolate like sound. But as it was said before any hornline can play soft but what happens when they play above a double forte is what counts. Now I feel the only hornlines that can control the best are the Blue Devils and Cadets. But this is just my opinion :rolleyes:

I disagree its not easy to get a horn line to play soft and in blend. I think the most important thing when coming to judging a horn line is Blend. You should hear ALL sections the Sops/Trumpets should NEVER ever be louder then the Contras/Tubas. The rules of the pyramid On the bottom are contras/tubas the Baritones then mid range then sops/trumpets on top. I bleive thats only counts if its in blend. from PPP to FFF

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I disagree its not easy to get a horn line to play soft and in blend. I think the most important thing when coming to judging a horn line is Blend. You should hear ALL sections the Sops/Trumpets should NEVER ever be louder then the Contras/Tubas. The rules of the pyramid On the bottom are contras/tubas the Baritones then mid range then sops/trumpets on top. I bleive thats only counts if its in blend. from PPP to FFF

I would like to suggest that the style of show you are doing also dictates the sound of the brassline. For example, a brass line playing jazz would probably have a brighter sound because of the nature of the idiom....more soprano voices, more aggressive low brass (baritones, etc) and a somewhat brighter mellophone sound....

This is one of the reasons why more and more corps have gone away from true jazz shows.......for one thing, many young judges don't credit these hornlines for the style they are achieving. I know we fought that all the time.......the legitamacy of the jazz style and the fact that we are asking our performers to do so much more with articulations, inflections....no offense to all of you classical buffs out there, but teaching jazz to a DCI brassline offers many more challenges to the students and the instructors. In addition, when you achieve it at a high level, you often don't get the credit you deserve!

The extremes of ranges are more demanding, the style is more demanding and the nuances of a jazz book are much more demanding...yet many judges percieve the exact opposite when evaluating a jazz show.

I mean...."The rite of spring", all you have to do is accent one upbeat eigth note every once and a while......contrast that to a Buddy Rich chart or Pat Metheny....there ain't no comparison really.

As always...IMO!

Peace Out!

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w/Stp: (minus the stupid)

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It will be interesting to see how this new style of brass playing will be remembered in 10/20 years by drum corps fans. A lot of people remember Cadets '93 because it was visually clean. People remember SCV '89 and Madison '95 because those shows moved them. Cadets '83 will be remembered because it totally changed drum corps visually. How will people remember the shows from '03? Will people remember Cavies '02 because it changed brass playing for forever? I think you can make an argument that the shows that excite, move, and shake the audience are the shows that will be remembered the most. But also you can make an argument that the shows that are the cleanest will be remembered by everyone also.

It's all apples and oranges - but if everyone played with the same style, then it would be SO boring! So Phantom should play like Phantom, the Cavies should play like the Cavies. Then the people who like the Cavies style will come to shows and buy hotdogs while Regiment plays and the people who like Regiment will go take a waz while the Cavies are on the feild. You sell more tickets that way. haha.

Apples! :P

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w/Stp: (also minus the stupid)

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This is one of the reasons why more and more corps have gone away from true jazz shows.......for one thing, many young judges don't credit these hornlines for the style they are achieving. I know we fought that all the time.......the legitamacy of the jazz style and the fact that we are asking our performers to do so much more with articulations, inflections....no offense to all of you classical buffs out there, but teaching jazz to a DCI brassline offers many more challenges to the students and the instructors. In addition, when you achieve it at a high level, you often don't get the credit you deserve!

The extremes of ranges are more demanding, the style is more demanding and the nuances of a jazz book are much more demanding...yet many judges percieve the exact opposite when evaluating a jazz show.

I mean...."The rite of spring", all you have to do is accent one upbeat eigth note every once and a while......contrast that to a Buddy Rich chart or Pat Metheny....there ain't no comparison really.

As always...IMO!

Peace Out!

w/Stp: (minus the stupid)

that's the primary reason I also steer my high school bands away from doing jazz. It is extremely difficult to get correct jazz inflection and articulation to be uniform across a hornline, and when you get it right.... nobody notices. Heck, I didn't even appreciate 93 Devs until I listened to it on CD and caught everything they were doing, amazing stuff. But on the field, I didn't even notice....

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No corps' brass line today can top the quality of sound that Phantom Regiment produces. The only corps in history that had a better sound was Star of Indiana from 1990-1993. Right now the next best sounding corps are the Vanguard

The statement about Vanguard being the second best is where I have to disagree. This year especially, I heard lots of edge and phasing in their playing. You can blame it on their show difficulty level, but Vanguard cannot top the Cavalier's sound. The Cavaliers have the perfect blend and balance.

Phantom plays loud...

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... :ph34r:

Edited by raphael18
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Wow, some of what I'm reading sort of surprises me. It really seems to me like an ideal brass sound on the field would be much like that which occurs in a symphony hall. At least I've always thought that it should be since its where 90% of the best brass players are playing. And I know that you don't have the strings on the field (thank goodness!) but if you listen to their horns and trumpets and bones and tuba you'll hear an amazing pyramid that occurs. That pyramid is what good brass lines go for. Yes, BD, SCV, Regiment, and Cavies all do this to an extent. But all of the corps bring out sections that they favor. BDs high sops are out of this world, whereas Regiment has a gorgeous low brass sound. Its just a difference in taste of the brass caption heads. Also I read someone say something about newer music calling for more of a mezzo sound? What is up with that? There's a difference between a mezzo and a thin sound that so many corps putting on these "new and innovative" shows do. (and no that wasn't meant to be a Cavie bash as easily as it could've been one)

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