Hardest visual program to date?

[OMello1]

- Velocity - from start to finish, how fast you move, how far you move, and how long do you move at that speed. Is there a long break in the ballad? Do you move within a confined space or are you all over the field?

- Direction changes - the extremes to which each member is asked to changed direction and step sizes abruptly. This is harder to do at high velocities.

- Number of sets - this is a huge factor in difficutly. If you only have to know 100 or so sets, I don't care how fast you're moving that's nothing compared to the guy who has to know over 200 places to be.

- How often you're playing - not fast licks, not loud chords, just how often is the horn on the face so that instead of breathing in you're blowing out air. Fast and loud does play into it, but i'd invite some old fogies out there to try running and sustaining a pitch at a mf. It ain't easy.

- Proximity - how tight the intervals are. it's hard to maintain focus when when a snare drum is about to take your legs out and a tuba is about to decapitate you.

- Guard (not a lot of people mention these girls and guys, but hey they're on the vis sheets) - drop spins vs. spinning a rifle and a sabre at the same time, spinning in the middle of nowhere or within and around the rest of the corps. The acrobatic and athletic nature of the guards has grown immensely, and a truly difficult book will try to push what people can do while throwing stuff in the air.

All excellent points. You've been taught well. :)

Let's not forget one of the biggies:

Phrase length (are they changing direction, tempo, velocity, meter every 24 counts, 16, 8....4????)

M

[OMello1]

All this talk about certain corps standing still while playing the hard stuff, etc. is all just exaggerated nonsense. You can pretty much pick a show from any corps and see examples where they play very demanding passages while on the move and then you'll find others where they stand still and play. Every corps.

And then people will totally blow things out of proportion mostly because they just don't like that corps. It's rather comical, actually. I heard some people making fun of the 1997 Cadets because they stood still to play that ridiculously difficult opening statement. As if NOTHING ELSE in the show was demanding and played on the move. Moronic. Put down the stop watches, stop counting notes, put the metronomes away and ENJOY THE SHOW.

The bigger consideration about moving vs. not moving during "difficult" musical passages whether is makes sense within the larger context of the show design to move them or not. So a corps is standing still to play some music...does the music sound like it should be moving? What is natural? I think you will find that most corps stop when the music sounds like they should stop, and vice-versa (and the corps that know what they are doing will *rarely* just stand there...watch corps like The Cavaliers and you will notice how much "production" they do, even when they "stand still").

M

[liebot]

All this talk about certain corps standing still while playing the hard stuff, etc. is all just exaggerated nonsense. You can pretty much pick a show from any corps and see examples where they play very demanding passages while on the move and then you'll find others where they stand still and play. Every corps.

And then people will totally blow things out of proportion mostly because they just don't like that corps. It's rather comical, actually. I heard some people making fun of the 1997 Cadets because they stood still to play that ridiculously difficult opening statement. As if NOTHING ELSE in the show was demanding and played on the move. Moronic. Put down the stop watches, stop counting notes, put the metronomes away and ENJOY THE SHOW.

maybe if more than half the hornline was playing, i'd be impressed.

anyway... i think star 91 is one of the hardest visual programs to date - they were playing their ##### off the whole time they were doing some crazy ####. i don't know, i just watched it again - it really impressed me.

[GMichael1230]

Anyone recall 1983 Alliance ?? THeir visual program. written by Zingali, was very exposed and quite mature.

1982 Vanguard, full of little nuances and tempo changes

1984 Garfield Cadets, tough sell....a new fish in an old sea.

...well, my picks for hardest ?

1985 Phantom Regiment

1987 Phantom Regiment

1995 Blue Devils

1998 Cadets

1997 Blue Devils

1989 Star of Indiana

1991 Star of Indiana

1992 Star of Indiana

2000 Cavaliers

~G~

Edited October 6, 2005 by GMichael1230

[GMichael1230]

I was told that Cavalier drill, because it looks cool doesn't mean it's harder than other corps drill.

And I was told the moon was made of green cheese.

What on earth are you trying to say..another classic Tommy statement.

~G~

[PhantomR]

I'll post this one to.

2002 Phantom... I know how hard it is to do an arrangement of Shostakovich's 10th on field... and a high school arrangement at that. I can only imagine what kind of power and dedication it took to march and play a drum corps arrangement of that song.

~>conner

[DrumCorpsMom]

1998 Cadets

2002 Cavies

[Fudge]

'91 Star!!!!!!!!!! Sheer Emotion in the closing of the show. I still cry when I watch that show.

'90 Star. Still brings tears to my eyes too!

'98 Cadets

'95 Cadets looked pretty difficult, especially when about three or four folks hit the ground,going into the company front! OUCH!!!

I will always love the '85 Garfield Opener!

[liebot]

And I was told the moon was made of green cheese.

What on earth are you trying to say..another classic Tommy statement.

~G~

though i didn't say this, i think there is a certain amount of truth in this statement. cavies' drill is harder than everyone else's, but i don't think it's so much harder like people seem it make it out to be. michael gaines' knows how to make great use out of contrary motion, creating a greater amount of velocity then there might necessarily be. other drill designers tend not to use contrary motion as much -- that doesn't necessarily mean that they are less effective drill writers, just that they have a different style. i think the best example of this is BD - they're hauling ### all over the place, but because of the way their drill is composed, it doesn't look like it's that fast. when you have two people doing a pass through at a 6 to 5, it's going to look harder/faster than people moving on one direction (or not directly opposite directions) at a 4 to 5.

to summarize this in one sentence: cavies drill is harder, but not that much harder.

[rut-roh]

maybe if more than half the hornline was playing, i'd be impressed.

Thank you for illustrating my point beautifully. Now you're counting how many people are playing. For a 20 second passage in the show. Ignoring the rest.