Star of Indiana Rehearsals

[raphael18]

I have been wondering about this for a while now. I've met, and heard stories about how many corps operated in my short time with drum corps, but not suprissingly I haven't heard much about Star behind the scenes.

I really was just wondering how they rehearsed.

Was it laid back like BD ("never up before 12") or long and hard like the Cadets (5 hour blocks)?

[84BDsop]

I have been wondering about this for a while now.  I've met, and heard stories about how many corps operated in my short time with drum corps, but not suprissingly I haven't heard much about Star behind the scenes.

I really was just wondering how they rehearsed.

Was it laid back like BD ("never up before 12") or long and hard like the Cadets (5 hour blocks)?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Never up before 12???? Not ever...9am latest, and that was rare.

You don't acheive what BD has by slacking off until noon...

We worked just as hard as anyone else....it was the staff's discipline approach that was different and uniquely Devils

[raphael18]

sorry, that was a little bit of light humor

although - its in quotes because a guy I marched with that marched there relayed it like that

Edited April 16, 2005 by raphael18

[Walter]

I can probably sum this up in one word: ZINGALI !!!

I never had the pleasure of meeting or even taught by him, but I could imagine his HAD a "NO B.S." approach !!!!!

His work with every corps he taught was proof of that!!

Ask anyone who was taught by him!! B)

[RickCogley]

BD "slacking"?! Yougoddabekiddingme. I think it's true that rehearsal _styles_ might be a bit different, but as to the amount of rehearsal and the goals therein, top level corps are pretty similar.

However, I did hear that Cadets for example, are on the intense side, and might shave off a little sleep time to get more rehearsal in. Don't know if it is true though. It would be cool to hear from someone who marched in both an East- and a West-Coast corps.

I heard that Star's rehearsals were pretty demanding.

Any FMM's lurking around who can say?

[84BDsop]

BD "slacking"?! Yougoddabekiddingme. I think it's true that rehearsal _styles_ might be a bit different, but as to the amount of rehearsal and the goals therein, top level corps are pretty similar.

However, I did hear that Cadets for example, are on the intense side, and might shave off a little sleep time to get more rehearsal in. Don't know if it is true though. It would be cool to hear from someone who marched in both an East- and a West-Coast corps.

I heard that Star's rehearsals were pretty demanding.

Any FMM's lurking around who can say?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So.....whi;e we're waiting for Bawker, Woobie, or one of the Tyes to show up...what were Lancer rehersals like, Rick?

[RickCogley]

Hi Sam - I thought our rehearsals were run well, and I felt we had enough time to relax and sleep on tour. We sure rehearsed enough, time wise. I'd say our food was not quite the same as corps from the left coast, but well, we survived! We were jealous, though, that's for sure.

27th was intense, but more laid back than some other eastern corps, and mostly we put a lot into it ourselves. For example, the drumline had a bit of what you might call a macho style, doing a lot of endurance exercises and sort of pushing through pain. The drumline was always playing on something - obsessive, like that - but that was simply self-imposed. Typical drummers, always beating, lol.

It seems funny to recall now, but there was a story going around the corps about Boston Crusaders' "tennis ball practice" where the rumor was that the instructors would throw tennis balls at the ticks. Ouch. The instructors would just mention that sometimes - sort of a gentle threat - and it was enough to make us fall in line. ;-) We did 27 pushups for ticks, and mostly thought of it as good exercise, but there was very little abusive behavior from instructors. I remember one incident where an instructor went too far verbally, past cajoling with a little colorful language, to outright abuse, and someone must have talked to him about it because it never happened again.

Now, back then, it might have been totally different for the other sections of the corps, but drummers simply did not do basic block and other sort of things for M&M - we just worked with the entire corps on drill, coming in after they had done basics. From our perspective, we did get a lot of guidance on rolling our feet etc, and since we had spats it was pretty obvious if we didn't, so we paid a lot of attention to that.

I remember Charlie Poole (in case folks don't know, Charlie was the perc caption head, a snare drum individuals champ, and all-around awesome guy) before shows, getting a bit upset with us when we were relaxing too much - "guys, attacks!" or "Phrasing!" or whatever. We'd always say "Charlie, relax, watch the show!" and we'd usually go out and play pretty well. That little exchange was sort of a signature of especially the 84 season.

I was a rookie in 27th in 83, and that year was a very "scottish" book - we played Orb and Sceptre, Camelot etc - and it was just so fun to play, but very hard. We worked really, really hard that year - lots of long rehearsals, and I think we ended up 6th in drums? Anyhow, all that work paid off in 84 with a lot of vets in the line, and a different-style book. Not necessarily "easy" per se, but more groove-oriented.

In 84, we had Rob Carson (for those who might not be familiar, again, Rob marched snare with SCV, and won individuals a couple of times - an awesome player) come over from California, when our snareline was really executing well, and he had us doing a lot of mental exercises - meditation, holding hands, chanting, etc - to get us to the next level. It seemed VERY strange, and we were totally skeptical of it. However, more and more frequently as the season progressed, the entire line went into what I usually call "the zone", and just had basically perfect shows - it was like floating on air, and you could not even feel time passing. So, I started believing in the mental aspect of it all. I still can get that deep concentration today, and use it to get a crapload of work done in a short period, or to tie strategies together on the projects I manage.

Some miscellaneous things I took away from my seasons, about rehearsal -

* endurance exercises are good, but you better not do too much of them late in the season - it wears you out.

* psychological aspects are key - you need to be able to be cool under pressure - 30,000 screaming fans is something that can kind of freak you out. The zone is your friend.

* maybe it was my own hands, but warming up slowly, with slower rolls, and lots of legato made for lots warmer hands during shows. When we rushed through a warmup and tried endurance stuff, my hands just got too tight.

* the occasional motivational speech was welcome, and refreshing.

* we very rarely "dutted", and I still think that it should only be used if drill demands it rather than all the freaking time. Sorry, pet peeve of mine!

* we didn't have a "dr. beat" and all the tempo stuff was done by hand.

* we rarely got to hear recordings of ourselves during the season except for a few judges tapes. Corps have such a benefit these days with technology that lets them get quick feedback.

* when an ageout becomes and instructor, the relationship is difficult to maintain. People who get into this position may not necessarily be ready to instruct, and I am sure mentoring is needed.

Enough rambling for now!

Cheers.

[84BDsop]

Rambling, ####....that was great!!

Somehow I always pictured 27 as beuing a little mroe hard-core in it's approach. instead, it sounds closer to BD style.

As for the stuff Carson brought to you....hmmmm....there's a reason we only beat you by 1/10th in drums!

And re Poole....was that him saying "All the way down...all the way down..." right before the 84 drum solo (between the DM count off and the pit entrance)??

[RickCogley]

I had to crank up the volume, but you're very observant! Yes indeed, that's Charlie, and he's saying "all the way home" I think. I remember him saying this sometimes, but I had never heard it on the recording before. Good catch!

About Rob Carson, well, we were clean in June, but, any extra edge helps. Monotony is definitely not good. I'm pretty sure he came over between tours.

I'm sure there were a lot of things that 27th did that were different from BD's approach, and I have always thought there was a difference b/w east coast and west coast in terms of that.

A buddy of mine Steve Goselin from the 83 snareline went to devs in 84 or 85, and he said Tom Float was curious about the exercises. Said he showed Tom some, and said how we'd just keep going and going, and Tom made a comment about the style being different this way, since the devs would do a lot of stops and tap-offs in between. Said it kept the hands loose.

Getting pretty specific, but Steve also said that the style of drumming was more "relaxed". We used to wrist everything, with a tight grip, where apparently the style at devs was a looser grip. Looser doesn't imply messier, but you can hear it in the way the fast singles were played. At the end of tunes like Crown Imperial etc, there was a signature passage of accented 24th note triplets. Basically the pattern was this, over a 4/4 bar -

>..>....>..>>..>..>..>..

We played those pretty tight and aggressive with all fingers on the sticks, and, we had a couple of guys in the line who wanted to play them more legato, like devs might do if they had a passage like that to play. We spent the summer correcting their styles! On the other hand, usually, you would hear a lot of fast, evenly accented notes from devs lines. Very cool-sounding 32nd notes played legato - if I recall there were a lot of signature passages like this in the drum solos in the early 80s. Steve mentioned this as one of the big differences in grip and feel.

Talking about style, if you listen to older phantom regiment lines, you can hear the actual style Marty Hurley taught in the passages. I know those cats were taught to keep the fingers on the stick, and they had their left pinkie finger curled tight. Basically, everything was stroked out. And, SCV was different again - I could hear a total difference in the way they approached the drum - the 81 line was a perfect example - you could see their beautiful matched grip "dog paw" look, with the drum tilted forward slightly, with wrists cocked slightly. Oh, and don't forget Bridgemen - those guys had a definite style of playing. I noticed similarities between Bridgemen and Star in 93 - a very aggressive line, but with a relaxed style on roll passages. Very Bridgemen-esque.

So, maybe the personality of the corps actually sort of manifests itself in the style of playing.

[johnric]

sorry, that was us that slept late and started at 12!!