karuna Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 (edited) Well... DO THEY? 4 minutes ago, karuna said: First : thanks for the long and informative. Nice to hear more details. Second: shouldn't the percussion score be at least 50% derived from the front ensemble? Watch the judges on videos. Most get out as far as they dare from the front sideline , and focus on the battery way more than the FE. Sure you can say " well they can still hear what's going on behind them" but clearly their focus is behind the back hash where there's bass drum lick (or w/e). They're still doing what they always did and only stand in front of the pit when the battery is doing absolutely nothing (and miss almost everything good happening there the rest of the time) I just wish I got the impression that these guys were more focused on the entire percussion ensemble and not just the battery. And before you say "but they do" yeah some do but I've heard plenty of tapes which pretty much prove my point. If it were up to me I'd put all those judges on the front sidelines into a seat 5 or 10 rows up and make them watch the full ensemble the whole time. </soapbox> <flamesuit="on"> <duckandcover> Edited July 18, 2023 by karuna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheOneWhoKnows Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 Yes. Even more so now that they can’t enter the field. This is precisely why Bostons perc scored struggled to win last year. Their front ensemble appeared to be too easy compared to other corps. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karuna Posted July 18, 2023 Author Share Posted July 18, 2023 (edited) 10 minutes ago, TheOneWhoKnows said: Yes. Even more so now that they can’t enter the field. This is precisely why Bostons perc scored struggled to win last year. Their front ensemble appeared to be too easy compared to other corps. That's what you'd expect but... Just rewatching a bunch of videos to see if the percussion judges spend more time in front of the pit. Anecdotally my answer is no. In fact they are "on the field"as far as they dare trying to hear some lick from the battery instead of staying on the track and listening to ALL the percussionists. Edited July 18, 2023 by karuna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waxman Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 I listened to a lot of percussion judge tapes from when I played in front ensemble and judges were still allowed on the field. There was definitely a larger focus on battery, with a worst case scenario being that they miss pretty much everything up front other than the ballad. The really good judges made an effort to catch the big front ensemble moments as well though, and of course it all depends on how the show is arranged - if your big front ensemble moments are overlapping with your big battery moments and the battery's far from the front, it's obviously way harder for them to catch it all. I haven't listened to tapes recently, but just from watching the judges move around at some of these shows - and with more corps staging the battery to have big moments up near the front ensemble - it seems like they're catching a lot more of them than before. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karuna Posted July 18, 2023 Author Share Posted July 18, 2023 1 minute ago, Waxman said: I listened to a lot of percussion judge tapes from when I played in front ensemble and judges were still allowed on the field. There was definitely a larger focus on battery, with a worst case scenario being that they miss pretty much everything up front other than the ballad. The really good judges made an effort to catch the big front ensemble moments as well though, and of course it all depends on how the show is arranged - if your big front ensemble moments are overlapping with your big battery moments and the battery's far from the front, it's obviously way harder for them to catch it all. I haven't listened to tapes recently, but just from watching the judges move around at some of these shows - and with more corps staging the battery to have big moments up near the front ensemble - it seems like they're catching a lot more of them than before. Lol I still think this is happening. If the battery is playing, that's where their eyes and ears are focused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFA1970 Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 37 minutes ago, karuna said: Well... DO THEY? Maybe the music sub cation judge pays more attention to the pit performers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumManTx Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 Good ones do bad ones don’t. Bluecoats front ensemble is what pushed them over the edge last year to a Sanford. But they also had periodic moments throughout the show that allowed for there to be split focus from the battery to the front. Specifically in the closer. A judge can only be in one place, gotta make sure there are chances to hear both individually and as an ensemble. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Guns Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 24 minutes ago, DrumManTx said: Good ones do bad ones don’t. Bluecoats front ensemble is what pushed them over the edge last year to a Sanford. But they also had periodic moments throughout the show that allowed for there to be split focus from the battery to the front. Specifically in the closer. A judge can only be in one place, gotta make sure there are chances to hear both individually and as an ensemble. I was just getting ready to say this. Bloo's front ensemble got them past BD to win the Sanford. And it was well deserved and earned. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cappybara Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 Aren’t there two percussion judges at the regionals and finals to divide the attention? Don’t the GE judges that have more of a music focus take the entire ensemble as a whole into account, thereby focusing on the front ensemble? We got a taste of that last night when Jay Webb, a percussion focused GE judge (who I think is being pretty unfairly lambasted on DCP btw, this happens whenever a crowd favorite gets scored lower by a judge), scored PC quite low in percussion? PC’s two lowest ordinals last night were percussion and GE. Doesn’t seem like that’s a coincidence given the GE judge had a percussion background. And yet no criticism is being hurled at Mr. Teal… 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resipsaloquitur Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 8 minutes ago, Chief Guns said: I was just getting ready to say this. Bloo's front ensemble got them past BD to win the Sanford. And it was well deserved and earned. If the drum set were part of the FE it's gonna get very interesting this year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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