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Gunshots During Old Corps Recordings?


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The gun shots marked both the beginning & end of a show, (judging wise) of course blanks were always used.

If you are ever fortunate enuff to find yourself out east after DCI Championships try & make it a point to attend the DCA Championships (on Labor Day weekend) as well. It's a great party atmosphere, certainly more of a Drum Corps "family" feel to it & alot of the older traditions can still be picked up on if you know your history, If not, someone there will be MORE than willing & able to offer you a beer in the parking lot, sit ya down & clue you in on your own past. AND the gunshots are still being used there.

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The only section to finish the show together was the Drumline.

From a musical standpoint, you're correct. However, the guard held it together somehow. I'll never figure out how they managed that. One of those sad moments in history that you wish you could rewrite. Just rewind the tape, and this time they play with no phasing. Let it happen the way it was supposed to. *sigh*

The guard held it together because they didn't listen to the horn line. When they rehearsed the change the week before (in a hotel banquet area) the guard was told to count and ignore what was going on in front of them musically.

One of the main reasons the hornline phased so bad was because they couldn't hear each other. When they played the first chord the crowd went wild. When I marched SCV in 83 all I used to hear from the horn players who marched 82 was how they could barely hear the guys to their left and right because of how loud the crowd was in the dome.

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And you knew you were over or under time. If tempos lagged or sped up, it would not of course go off when corps members expected it.

It was very pleasing when it went off at a certain point in Danny Boy, at the correct time. I can almost hear that section of music with the gun going off. (unless we were playing Can Can)

Nancy,

I can picture it and hear it in my imagination, the gun going off has 2-7 goes into the final push!

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One of the main reasons the hornline phased so bad was because they couldn't hear each other.

You could very well be right. I know the crowd was loud. But I've also read this explanation on RAMD: Re: Santa Clara, and the Bottledance

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One of the main reasons the hornline phased so bad was because they couldn't hear each other.

You could very well be right. I know the crowd was loud. But I've also read this explanation on RAMD: Re: Santa Clara, and the Bottledance

Hmmm, I don't recall hearing to much about the drum major and the conducting. In 1983 I marched in SCV and spent most of my summer in between two horn players who marched 1982. It seemed like on every free moment I was relieving 82 finals. They were always consistant that they couldn't hear the commands. And from my experience with with SCV at the time, verbal commands were the standard during the show. Usually there was a high mark time of 4 counts, then the verbal command. The hat didn't come off until the end of the show. So I'm not sure that it was used as a command to start the closer. Well... maybe I'm confused, I guess it comes with age. :)

Just to throw this out, how many of you ever talked on the field during a show? Me, never. But I remember hearing a judge's tape of Blue Devil's show from 1982 finals and hearing the voice of horn player coming across the tape.

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Hoping to improve their GE score in 82 SCV changed their last couple minutes and threw in the bottle dance after the two shots.

I was just watching that show! if you listen though the hornline is so off it's not even funny. Phazing problems all over but the execution wasn't being judged so they still came in 2nd.

Funny, hearing the shots ring out is so much a part of DC that it's like Dutting is part of it now.

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Hmmm, I don't recall hearing to much about the drum major and the conducting. In 1983 I marched in SCV and spent most of my summer in between two horn players who marched 1982. It seemed like on every free moment I was relieving 82 finals. They were always consistant that they couldn't hear the commands.

Again, you could very well be right. I wasn't there, and certainly never marched Santa Clara . . . though I would've loved to. But Kevin makes a good point in that RAMD thread: If crowd noise were the issue, then wouldn't watching the drum major for visual cues compensate for that?

Maybe someone who marched Santa Clara that year could enlighten us? (I know, it's probably not a favorite topic of conversation.)

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Hmmm, I don't recall hearing to much about the drum major and the conducting. In 1983 I marched in SCV and spent most of my summer in between two horn players who marched 1982. It seemed like on every free moment I was relieving 82 finals. They were always consistant that they couldn't hear the commands.

Again, you could very well be right. I wasn't there, and certainly never marched Santa Clara . . . though I would've loved to. But Kevin makes a good point in that RAMD thread: If crowd noise were the issue, then wouldn't watching the drum major for visual cues compensate for that?

Maybe someone who marched Santa Clara that year could enlighten us? (I know, it's probably not a favorite topic of conversation.)

If I recall most of the hornline was next to the sideline on their knees, many of them couldn't see the dm. And something that comes to mind, there were some problems with the drumline rushing. When I saw SCVs video from finals (taken near the press box) it's amazing how loud the crowd is. You can see the corps on the field, but you can't hear a note coming off the field.

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If I recall most of the hornline was next to the sideline on their knees, many of them couldn't see the dm. And something that comes to mind, there were some problems with the drumline rushing. When I saw SCVs video from finals (taken near the press box) it's amazing how loud the crowd is. You can see the corps on the field, but you can't hear a note coming off the field.

And, of course, as Jan points out in the RAMD thread, the acoustics in Montreal's Olympic Stadium were not the greatest. So maybe that, combined with all the crowd noise, was all it took.

The sad thing is that on the telecast tape, you can hear the phasing all too clearly. And yet even the telecast announcers don't seem to be aware of what happened.

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