Santa Cavaliers Cadets

[thehandsofdevin]

The identity of drum corps percussion is going fast and soon it will be gone. Let me explain:

The days of one instructor moving on and having apprentices take over to develop their own style is gone. People are staying in longer and longer and instead of ever moving on they just move over to another corps.

Every year I listen to drum corps, the percussion sections sound more and more the same. HERE IS AN EXERCISE FOR YOU: With out looking listen to parking lot clips of book writing and tell me if you can tell any of the open class corps from the top 3 down from one another. I can't because it is all the same. I say this even though the demand has gone up it has become boring and redundant.

So what I really wanted to talk about in this post is high-level instructors moving on and spreading out. Is it good for the activity? I look at the newest addition I like to call the Capital Vanguard Cadets. I thought we already have a Vanguard Cadets now we have two and it once again is becoming more of the same.

I look at what is happening at Cavaliers. Now we have the Santa Cavaliers and everything is becoming a big melting pot of drumming goo. I will put money on it that Bret Kuhn is teaching/writing at some capacity next summer. Colts, Bluestars anyone? Just what we need, another Cavalier drumline. Maybe all the instructors should get together and come up with one playing style so it is easier for people to move around. Wouldn't it be great if one person wrote all the drum parts in DCI?

Drum Corps percussion is getting dumbed down more and more every year. Is it really in the best interests of the lower level programs to have the higher-level guys writing and consulting them. There are plenty of good people out there that could be great Caption Heads. But the drum corps are more concerned with the big name than having there own identity. Spartan’s has more of a percussion identity than most of the top 12. But I think we should get rid of Chris Dufalt and, I don't know, Have Tom Aungst write the book. That would be great for the activity.

Boy I can't wait till next year when I get to see the Cavalier Cadets (Colt or Bluestars if not both). Or maybe I will get more excited when I get to watch both Vanguard Cadet shows. One of next years best shows will be the Magic of Lee Still at Scouts writing for Magic show.

Devin

[bawker]

People hire the "names" because they have a proven record of success within the parameters that are rewarded by the judging community.

Now, then, does that create a sort of inbreeding as far as styles and books, when you have a designer doing multiple shows? Sure it does, to a certain point. Look at Michael Gaines drill for the Cavaliers and Spirit a few years ago...very similar in nature; just as a Scott Boerma or Beddis arrangement might be for two different groups.

It's a bit of a sticky wicket to introduce "new" blood into the top-tier corps design staff...simply because the nature of the beast is to get "the best", and keep them.

Perhaps it may be better to focus on the good work/ new sounds/ new ideas that's done in the other 12 corps in Division I (for instance, the X-Men have a new brass arranger this year), and some of the talent in II/III.

Like you said, though, they often use the "names" as recruiting tools, and sacrifice the orginality of their books, somewhat. However, there's still much more of a chance of a new rising star to come from these ranks than elsewhere.

[MUSICandCHARACTER]

Wow, quite a first post!

Anyway, in some ways I agree with you. But I think might have taken it to an extreme.

Winning breeds emulation. But that will get you only so far. Eventually you have to break out to get noticed. Part of the reason the batteries sound the same is that to score well, there has to be lots of percussion and fast moving stuff.

During the quarter finals movie presentation, they interviewed a judge about how they discriminate between top corps that are so close. He said it comes down "to the book." I took that to mean that if two corps are playing very well, and very clean, the harder book will score higher.

Unfortunately, that can lead to books that don't fit well together musically. But to say the corps, even the top corps, and melting together is a bit hyperbolic. The Cavies win in 2002 with original music and some amazing drill. They win again in 2004 by playing themes from the 007 movies and actually making a 007 on the field like a college marching band spelling out the school name (and to me it was cool).

The Cadets win in 2005 with a dream (nightmare) and some rather abstract parts.

The parking lot may sound the same -- but on the field different things are happening. So the parking lot stuff sounds the same. Kind of like saying HS marching cadences sound the same.

The pendulum swings from year to year and always someone does something unique. 2000 BAC with the "Red" program was different and moved up in a hurry.

Just my random thoughts.

Jim

[SCVdrums]

yeah.....i hate it when kids that aren't in the top 3 or 4 corps get to work with the innovators of the activity.....

i'd much rather have last years section leader than some guy who proven he writes a great book and who

teaching philosophy happens to help them grow into something they didn't even think they could be......

good lord.....

[mobrien]

Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that the Yankees lose the final game in the series tonight, and Steinahole decides he's going to replace Joe Torre as manager. Do you think he'll look for an A-list manager with proven experience in winning championships or some nice guy managing in AAA-ball?

NOW, there all sorts of other teams that WOULD give a shot to the guy with great potential working in the minors, but that doesn't mean that everyone will (o stick with the baseball analogy, some of those given their chance to manage in the big leagues were brought along by winning managers, then recommended to others looking to hire: in that case, Ozzie Guillen is comparable to Mike McIntosh...). The fact that the Cavaliers hired someone who's already demonstrated the ability to operate at their level of success isn't going to singlehandedly result in homogenizing the artform any more than it already is...

Edited October 11, 2005 by mobrien

[thehandsofdevin]

Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that the Yankees lose the final game in the series tonight, and Steinahole decides he's going to replace Joe Torre as manager. Do you think he'll look for an A-list manager with proven experience in winning championships or some nice guy managing in AAA-ball?

I think they will get the best they can. Do you think that Joe would work for more than one team at a time? Do you think the Yankees would hire some one to tell them how to play but only shows up for a few practices while giving the same game strategy to another team?

We can't compare a sport to an art.

Devin

[lilskydiver20]

Well, I'm just gonna say that I agree that the lower corps, although it may be good for them, I don't think they should have Kuhn, Gusseck, or other big names. Not to discriminate or anything. If I was in a not so big name corps, yeah it'd be awesome to have them write for ya, but I don't agree. They had to build thier names up, and I look at their writing style as unique to the original corps. For them to go off and help another corps, it's awesome but I'm gonna get bored with the parts.

Every line's got a signature, and pretty soon they're all gonna be alike.

Not liking it.

[thehandsofdevin]

yeah.....i hate it when kids that aren't in the top 3 or 4 corps get to work with the innovators of the activity.....

i'd much rather have last years section leader than some guy who proven he writes a great book and who

teaching philosophy happens to help them grow into something they didn't even think they could be......

good lord.....

I am glad that Crossmen took your advice in 1979 when section leaders Thom Hannum and Chris Thompson took over, giving us innovation through the 80's and 90's. Then if you look after Thom went to Cadets and Chris went to Madison Crossmen did what corps are doing today they put the band-aid on with Fred Stanford. How well did they do then? Then once again they let the unproven in and that gave us Mark Thurston.

I guess what I am trying to say is these lower level corps need to quit trying to put a band-aid on the percussion program. It is a temporary fix that I think makes the corps worse. Where has this successfully worked? How long will these "TOP" guys stay around? Looking to the past not very long. Is Ralph Hardimon going to make a 5-year run with Capital Vanguard? Do you think that Bret Kuhn is going to work for years with a low level corps with the intention of building it up to a top 5 drum program? These things will never happen they will write their book collect their money and leave the staff to decipher what they were given. No corps is going to be better in the long run this way.

I agree that some of the people they are taking over for needed to go. They were given years and never contributed to pushing the envelop in design, and were never going to. But I also think this is a product of the drum corps system the past 10 years where everything is starting to mesh together and there is no innovation. (Playing a bunch of notes real fast is not innovation Blue Devils have been doing that for 20 years) So I guess I can't blame them for doing all they know.

I even will say that the top writers today get worse every year. Maybe it's the ego of they can play this so I will write it idea. Take a lesson from Hannum at Star in 93. Those were some of the best players ever to march they could of played anything. But Thom wrote music and technique with quality of sound and a lot of the guys arranging today that are "TOP" arrangers used to write music and some even taught technique. When I watched Cadets rehearse this year I thought I was watching Blue Devils in 97 lots of very demanding note patterns and everyone had a different look to their technique. To me that just wasn’t the musical cadets that I remember. Listen to 90 cadets that was musical and demanding and they had great technique. Just because they can play it doesn’t mean it is musical.

That’s all for now,

Devin

P.S. Wait till my next topic "Is there to many degree's in drum corps" or "is education taking the edge off of drum corps"

[g0at]

The identity of drum corps percussion is going fast and soon it will be gone. Let me explain:

The days of one instructor moving on and having apprentices take over to develop their own style is gone. People are staying in longer and longer and instead of ever moving on they just move over to another corps.

Every year I listen to drum corps, the percussion sections sound more and more the same. HERE IS AN EXERCISE FOR YOU: With out looking listen to parking lot clips of book writing and tell me if you can tell any of the open class corps from the top 3 down from one another. I can't because it is all the same. I say this even though the demand has gone up it has become boring and redundant.

So what I really wanted to talk about in this post is high-level instructors moving on and spreading out. Is it good for the activity? I look at the newest addition I like to call the Capital Vanguard Cadets. I thought we already have a Vanguard Cadets now we have two and it once again is becoming more of the same.

I look at what is happening at Cavaliers. Now we have the Santa Cavaliers and everything is becoming a big melting pot of drumming goo. I will put money on it that Bret Kuhn is teaching/writing at some capacity next summer. Colts, Bluestars anyone? Just what we need, another Cavalier drumline. Maybe all the instructors should get together and come up with one playing style so it is easier for people to move around. Wouldn't it be great if one person wrote all the drum parts in DCI?

Drum Corps percussion is getting dumbed down more and more every year. Is it really in the best interests of the lower level programs to have the higher-level guys writing and consulting them. There are plenty of good people out there that could be great Caption Heads. But the drum corps are more concerned with the big name than having there own identity. Spartan’s has more of a percussion identity than most of the top 12. But I think we should get rid of Chris Dufalt and, I don't know, Have Tom Aungst write the book. That would be great for the activity.

Boy I can't wait till next year when I get to see the Cavalier Cadets (Colt or Bluestars if not both). Or maybe I will get more excited when I get to watch both Vanguard Cadet shows. One of next years best shows will be the Magic of Lee Still at Scouts writing for Magic show.

Devin

Honestly, I like it. Shows have gotten better, better and better. I couldn't be happeir, and most people wouldn't have thought a thing about it until you stirred a fire.

[mobrien]

We can't compare a sport to an art.

You may have noticed that this 'art' also involves competition, with scores and everything. More to the point, those scores depend heavily on the quality of writing that goes into the program.

In other words, yes, you CAN compare the two.