Vocals, How many corps Have done it?

[Jeff Ream]

I'm sure there are repeat viewers...some liked it, some did not, and I think most didn't care...as long as they were entertained. How 'many'? I have no idea...do you? And if so, what is your source for that number?

Agaion, outside of the few we always talk about, where is your proof that the rule is 'less than popular' in the overall sense?

IMO rule changes by themselves don't bring in fans...the corps performances do...which of course includes the things that are legal. Since attendance is on the rise, I fail to see how you can call amps a negative. Smaller pit" I thought you said the average size is down by one. Personally, I hope they do not lead to smaller pits in general....since they provide some great music.

Mike

ah but Mike, he who shall not be named or bashed said in his powerpoint w/all the typoos that we WOULD see smaller pits, and amps WOULD draw in new fans.

so why say these things if you dont have evidence to shwo you were right?

or, once again, were we fed a bunch of BS just so he could get a rule passed?

[MikeD]

When Ralph Hardimon "invented" the "dut", it was as a rehearsal technique. Why would anyone use it in performance? It's the equivalent of Dr. Beat, and you wouldn't use him, would you?

I judged a band show in Denver last week. They were dutting all over the place. I explained that, since I was the music judge, I was charged with evaluating both instrumental and vocal sounds. Since this utterance appeared in the show, I assumed it was to be judged for timing, quality, balance... etc .

It was an interesting critique.

Gee, Frank, we just addd some duts into the band I work with..a few in the battery and one spot with the pit...primarily to control tempo changes. We have, according to one of the DM's, 20 tempo changes in the opener (Ghost Train)...I wrote it, but I never counted them!

Mike

[elphaba01]

However, I believe the "AAAAAMEN" was scrapped at finals.....I could be wrong!

"Unamplified & Effective":

My pretties: I realize that this goes "Way Back", but: The "First Corps" that I heard using "Vocals" was the St Kevins Emerald Knights, at the Drum Corps News concert which was held at CARNAGIE HALL, New York City, in the Spring of 1962.

St Kevins membership included their Parish's CYO Choir, and in the course of their performance that evening they sang "Somebody Knows". It was performed without any "backing" and without the amps which are son "In vouge" today.

They did a great job on the number and recieved a "Standing O". They are the only drum corps to have actually perfomed a "Vocal" at Carnagie Hall.

Elphaba

WWW

[ironlips]

Elphaba01,

Is that on the Carnegie recording? (I'll have to go to the stacks now.) I do recall that the Kevin's guys played that little fanfare just before the announcer says, "To open our concert this evening, it is with a great deal of pleasure that I introduce, from St. Albans, New York, The St. Catherine of Sienna Queensmen."

Mike (my old and true friend from back in the day),

I think "duts" are fine as a rehearsal technique, but if you use them in performance you are making a statement. I suggest that statement is: "We can't establish a tempo without this."

[MikeD]

Mike (my old and true friend from back in the day),

I think "duts" are fine as a rehearsal technique, but if you use them in performance you are making a statement. I suggest that statement is: "We can't establish a tempo without this."

That's about the size of it! It's not so much to set a consistent tempo, but the battery does an accelerando in "Ghost Train" to get the train moving, so to speak (from 90 BPM to 160), and right now it sounds more like the train is trying to move in 4 directions at once! :)

I have a freshman and soph on snare...both new to MB...a junior on tenor who never played it before (she was a bass last year and pit before that), 3 basses...one a classified junior...a freshman, and a soph trumpet player who switched over in August. Not a lot of experience there for the caliber show we're doing...the winds (esp WW) are way ahead, skills-wise.

"Ghost Train", as I arranged it, anyway, has something like 20 tempo changes, according to the DM (he counted). So...we do what we have to to keep them together...I tried without...but for the next week or so...we dut to start the train up and dut to slow it down at the end...I have the center snare dut 1/8 notes to subdivide the beat as we decelerate. Maybe once they get a more accurate feel, we can take them out (he said doubtfully)

Mike

[ironlips]

You do what you have to do. Perhaps you could find another syllable that sounds more like a train.

Chut...Chut...Chut..Chut..Chut.Chut.ChutChuchuchuchuchu....woo, woooo..........

[MikeD]

You do what you have to do. Perhaps you could find another syllable that sounds more like a train.

Chut...Chut...Chut..Chut..Chut.Chut.ChutChuchuchuchuchu....woo, woooo..........

Not a bad idea we have all sorts of train effects already...might be another...I do tell the guy doing the duts to keep them as quet as he can, just so the line can hear...not way up in the stands, like some groups I've heard.

Mike

[elphaba01]

Elphaba01,

Is that on the Carnegie recording? (I'll have to go to the stacks now.) I do recall that the Kevin's guys played that little fanfare just before the announcer says, "To open our concert this evening, it is with a great deal of pleasure that I introduce, from St. Albans, New York, The St. Catherine of Sienna Queensmen."

Mike (my old and true friend from back in the day),

I think "duts" are fine as a rehearsal technique, but if you use them in performance you are making a statement. I suggest that statement is: "We can't establish a tempo without this."

"SKEK's" Fanfare:

Yes indeed, the 1962 "An Evening With the Corps at Carnagie Hall", FCLP 2060. The "Fanfare" was from the "El Cid" movie track, and the announcer was Mr Richard I Blake the sound engineer for the early years of Fleetwood Records.

Other "Notes" from that night include the senior Interstatesmen shooting off blanks from their rifles, "Pepe" Nataro's "Sunny Side of the Street" indy solo, Tommy Martins "You Made Me Love You" solo, Don Angelica's showing up in a bullfighters cape, and the "debut" of the contra bass bugles as carried by the Garfield Cadets.

Elphaba

WWW

[ironlips]

Elphaba,

I've just listened to Vol.2 of "An Evening with the Corps at Carnegie Hall" (Hawthorne, Intertsatesmen, St. Kevin's) and enjoyed the remarkable barbershop harmony of "Somebody Knows". It's probably the first recorded instance of vocal music in a drum corps performance, and pre-dates that "A-men" by 15 years.

The audience response was clearly favorable. I suppose that was a combination of having high musical expectations of SKEK to begin with and experiencing drum corps in that esteemed venue. That was a heady evening for us all. I imagine that in the days that followed there were plenty of corps moms and dads who nonchalantly noted at PTA meetings all throughout the land that their kids had played (and/or sung) at Carnegie Hall.

[MikeD]

I imagine that in the days that followed there were plenty of corps moms and dads who nonchalantly noted at PTA meetings all throughout the land that their kids had played (and/or sung) at Carnegie Hall.

It IS an amazing place...my daughter performed Brahm's "Requiem" there with our HS Symphony Orchestra and combined choirs, along with the Liszt "Les Preludes".

Mike