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BOA Bans Ensemble Amplification. Is DCI next?


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Be a sad day if the band has to stand for inspection before entering the field.

 

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15 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

I know one way to achieve 100% enforcement - remove A&E entirely.

a great idea on a million levels, and it'll never happen.

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15 hours ago, drumcat said:

Hi Jeff,

You cannot ask any judge to make a cheating call from the box. We both know that.

The ensemble cheating can only be tackled by not allowing field instruments to be individually mic'd. End of story. If that's a non-starter, I can always make a senior louder and a freshman not. Marching band has to decide if they want to allow the well-funded bands the chance to cheat, or if they prohibit the obvious temptation. The purpose of shoving a little mic in everyone's bell is literally to have that option. The ethical question is whether you do it equally or not, and no one can tell.

Thus, reinforcement of field instruments individually is always effectively cheating.

No, you don't strip search kids, and dude… you should avoid saying that out loud.

All that needs to happen are some PSAs in the building. Tell the kids:

BOA Prohibits Individual Field Marching instruments with wireless microphones

Xerox that 50 times, tape it up around the buildings. Then every kid knows that if they're wearing a battery pack, they're cheating. Usage is event DQ; no exception. Zero directors would risk it, as it would mean they'd get fired.

As for the sampling stuff, it is difficult. But you knew the WGI rule. One action, one sound, volume range via performer. Have the director of every entering band sign a paper saying that they are in compliance with the rule and concept, and if they violate it they will face disqualification.

If you drop the wirelessly mic'd field instruments, the "cheating" aspects will disappear. If you program a chord onto one note, you're not going to get caught. But if the kids know the rules, it's always unlikely the adults will have them cheat.

Finally, let's consider where we're at.

BOA has found that this is so common or so obnoxious, they've called it out publicly. It violates the spirit of what they're doing. The point is that you don't have to always catch people to be effective. Sometimes, you just have to remove the temptation.

until you add an actual penalty with conesequences as point reduction up and to disqualification, kids will do what adults tell them most of the time. hell WGI has a rule about posting recaps on social media before finals for that class is over. I saw Mark himself call someone out after a prelims round the other week. Looked at the rules.....at the discretion of the chief judge up to disqualification.

 

signs are worthless.people will find ways. look how remote control of the sound board came about. and even witht he WGI rule, used by all local circuits, at times i have had my doubts....and couldn't get to where i could actually see the kids hands without being on the floor and being in the performers way.....and for a floor coordinator, i was younger than most.

 

i'd also eliminate shotgun mics along the sidelines too unless specifically used by solists. but again, whats proposed has zero teeth and will lead to a game of "i saw so and so...". Then you end up with Pesceone asking to see someone's ID after they come off the field.

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12 hours ago, Lead said:

And those same kids, in the parking lot, in warm-up, when they watch other kids on the field, YouTube videos, etc... will say, "Why are those kids wearing wireless packs?" to their director... and it will get reported.

which goes back to my earlier posts that it becomes a #### show of "so and so did...."

 

and then you have to actually check kids to see if they have them on. have fun with that

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5 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

until you add an actual penalty with conesequences as point reduction up and to disqualification, kids will do what adults tell them most of the time. hell WGI has a rule about posting recaps on social media before finals for that class is over. I saw Mark himself call someone out after a prelims round the other week. Looked at the rules.....at the discretion of the chief judge up to disqualification.

 

signs are worthless.people will find ways. look how remote control of the sound board came about. and even witht he WGI rule, used by all local circuits, at times i have had my doubts....and couldn't get to where i could actually see the kids hands without being on the floor and being in the performers way.....and for a floor coordinator, i was younger than most.

 

i'd also eliminate shotgun mics along the sidelines too unless specifically used by solists. but again, whats proposed has zero teeth and will lead to a game of "i saw so and so...". Then you end up with Pesceone asking to see someone's ID after they come off the field.

As I said… you need to eliminate moving mics by rule. You poo-poo'd that.

Then if you can't move mics, a kid might have a pack but there has to be a mic taped in the instrument. That would be spotted. There's no need to search the kid, and you should really stop suggesting that's even up for discussion.

If you've made that illegal, and you've told everyone it's illegal, you might have a compliance issue later. OK… that's better than today!

What's proposed doesn't have zero-teeth. As I said, if you make the rule change, it's a lot less likely to occur. If it does occur, specifically if someone gets a photo or video of a microphone on a marching instrument, you can DQ the group.

If all that happens is everyone keeps doing all the whinging and moaning about how nothing will ever work, that is also correct. Maybe you'll change your mind and find that trying something is better than not trying.

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7 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

a great idea on a million levels, and it'll never happen.

Maybe not.

Then again, I never thought anyone would point out how A&E operates largely in fundamental opposition to instrumental music education.  And I never thought someone from within the rulemaking machine would emerge to propose doing anything about that.

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Interesting "reread" of Michael Boo's 2011 article in 2023: 

https://www.dci.org/news/2011-dci-rules-change-proposals

Under "Remote Soundboard Control: 🤭

Purchases of the required equipment would be at the discretion of the individual corps. While some may offer that this would only ramp up the A&E (amplification and electronics) arms race, Glasgow offers that most corps likely already have access to the necessary equipment.

Edited by keystone3ply
cx
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18 hours ago, drumcat said:

As I said… you need to eliminate moving mics by rule. You poo-poo'd that.

Then if you can't move mics, a kid might have a pack but there has to be a mic taped in the instrument. That would be spotted. There's no need to search the kid, and you should really stop suggesting that's even up for discussion.

If you've made that illegal, and you've told everyone it's illegal, you might have a compliance issue later. OK… that's better than today!

What's proposed doesn't have zero-teeth. As I said, if you make the rule change, it's a lot less likely to occur. If it does occur, specifically if someone gets a photo or video of a microphone on a marching instrument, you can DQ the group.

If all that happens is everyone keeps doing all the whinging and moaning about how nothing will ever work, that is also correct. Maybe you'll change your mind and find that trying something is better than not trying.

no reduction to score, no teeth. it's really that simple. i have been in rules congresses for band and drum corps. i have seen a dozen "best practices' proposals get thrown out there that were to restrict certain things to make  it "fair". and after a year of honor system, they all came back with a score reduction added...because that made people decide to stop.

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15 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

Maybe not.

Then again, I never thought anyone would point out how A&E operates largely in fundamental opposition to instrumental music education.  And I never thought someone from within the rulemaking machine would emerge to propose doing anything about that.

and i see more and more music teachers...not the marching band kind...incorporating more technology into what kids are taught and how to use it.

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8 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

and i see more and more music teachers...not the marching band kind...incorporating more technology into what kids are taught and how to use it.

Using technology to teach is fine.  Using technology to replace - not so fine.

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