Can a top rated band beat a....top......21 corps

[SCVsopAaron]

Yep :P

:P

[Matt_S]

Preformance/Enterntainemt value, YES

In actuallity , getting 135 members of a band to preform a drum corps show would be difficult. But HS is getting close. loved Ronald Reagans show this year.

Well, most top BOA bands get somewhere around 200 or more kids to perform at a very high level. If you make cuts so that you're down to your 135 best kids, it wouldn't surprise me if the show was that much cleaner.

[Matt_S]

Has anyone ever noticed that its largely individuals from these two places that take the greatest offense to attacks against band?

Heh, I've definitely noticed that - and guess which state I'm from?

I would guess it's because band members from those two states have seen what so many of the schools around them are capable of. It makes it that much more troubling when someone blasts the band activity, because we know better and we've seen it each weekend in the fall.

Heh, I think it's even more interesting to hear someone say "bands suck!" when they only ever see DCI shows, and don't ever see the best that the band world has to offer.

[wolfgang]

Heh, I've definitely noticed that - and guess which state I'm from?

I would guess it's because band members from those two states have seen what so many of the schools around them are capable of. It makes it that much more troubling when someone blasts the band activity, because we know better and we've seen it each weekend in the fall.

Heh, I think it's even more interesting to hear someone say "bands suck!" when they only ever see DCI shows, and don't ever see the best that the band world has to offer.

ding ding ding!!! We have a winner

[wolfgang]

This is my opinion ofcoarse. I feel that there is no high school band that can beat anything higher than a 22 place D 1 drum corps. I have seen some top HS bands......but none that I feel can touch most of the D 1 corps. The drumlines in band would have an especially tough time competing against 'any' D 1 corps.

Triple Forte

I would suggest getting out of your cocoon and seeing what is out there in the country. If you haven't noticed, Chuck Naffier (ArrangerX), who has arranged for D1 corps for years (Crossmen/Troopers most recently) and judged bands across the country, and who I would say qualifies as an expert, stated the top bands could be as high as 8th (which is more generous than I was stating).

As I pointed out, using 2 bands from my home state as an example, Carmel has the Cavies music arranger as their band director, a big name working with their drum line, and one of the best drill writers in the business writing for them (and I would state this wouldn't be like band #30 in his pecking order; he would give this one his best effort).

Avon has a former DCI D1 percussion arranger/current DCI judge and Carolina Crown's current brass caption head as their band directors.

Common sense- is it so difficult to believe that with this caliber of talent teaching the kids, the same talent that instructs/evaluates the best marching groups in the world, that those kids would play at an extremely high level? And, as I pointed out, there are other great music/visual educators that many people have never heard of out there that also do great things, they just aren't able to travel around the country every summer for 2 months.

It never ceases to amaze me that a lot of people seem incapable of enjoying the best of corps, band, winter guard, winter percussion without demeaning the other. Different activities all, but excellence is excellence, no matter where it occurs.

[oldtimedrummer]

This is my opinion ofcoarse. I feel that there is no high school band that can beat anything higher than a 22 place D 1 drum corps. I have seen some top HS bands......but none that I feel can touch most of the D 1 corps. The drumlines in band would have an especially tough time competing against 'any' D 1 corps.

Triple Forte

IMO, Bands like Avon, Center Grove, and Centerville could all easily beat some of the lower to mid tier D1 corps in percussion. I remember watching Centerville warm up four or five years ago at BOA nationals in the convention center (9-5-5-8, plus 12 pit), and thinking then they could have easily taken a couple of the top 12 in drums.

Edited November 22, 2005 by oldtimedrummer

[oldtimedrummer]

but range isn't everything. if you can't back that range up with skills then your pretty much a 1 trick poney and they are a dime a dozen. i've heard people who have had a great range but can't play too well. so the argument of a trumpet line haveing a awsome range doesn't mean much if they can't back that up with a good sound in lower parts, technical ablity, and solid marching.

i know people who have great ranges but couldn;t make it in a div 1 corp. or maby not even in a good div II. because they don't have the other skills to back them up with they arn't screaming. do the best highschool brass, drum, and gaurd members goto corp? yea SOME do. many more(and many who are better than the ones who go off to do corp and make leads/soloists) never go off to march corp they go to college and maby never play again. or they go into a different area of the music world and only march in their college band.

and a questions does come up who does a kid march wioth if both their corp and their highschool are competitng against each other? if your in a higher spot in both(or any spot for that matter) which do you march for? and if you do get to march with both can you hold up through two shows back to back?

Agreed that you must have both the skill and the range. Good point. Most HS kids from around here wait till their out of HS to march. Our HS won't allow anyone to miss band camp while marching dum corps, even if it's with the Cavaliers.

Edited November 22, 2005 by oldtimedrummer

[drumcorps4ever]

Well, I HAVE been to BOA several times, and DCI a few times too. There may be a FEW top HS bands that could take the lower tier of Div I/II, NOT many..........

We'll never know until DCI allows woodwinds so it's apples to apples.

usually, the BEST band kids march corps, but not always. I think the average talent level in DCI is much higher than the average talent level in band, even more so in the top 8 corps.............

In a head to head competition, even if the adjudication was equal to level the playing field, the band would get waxed.

I don't see ANY colorguard in HS in the US beating Cavies or BD or Cadets last year............ :)

[Matt_S]

I don't think anyone questions the fact that no band could top the Cavaliers or the Blue Devils in just about any caption. But you know what? There are hardly any drum corps that could beat the Cadets or Cavaliers in a caption, either.

So when the original poster of this thread asks his question, please don't answer "no, the Blue Devils are head and shoulders over any band". We know that. They're also head and shoulders over just about every other drum corps.

Carmel or Lawrence Central or Ronald Reagan couldn't beat the Cadets. Obviously. But could they beat the Mandarins, or Pacific Crest, or The Magic?

[Michael Boo]

I've been quiet on this topic since it began, but here goes...

Most of us are drum corps people (members, instructors, fans). Many of us are band people (former or present marchers, fans).

We thrive off each other. The better the band activity does, the more kids there are for drum corps. The better the drum corps activity does, the more impact it has on band kids, their instructors and writers.

If we thrive off each other, we need each other. This Thanksgiving week, I choose to be thankful that both exist.

We need more bands. We need more corps. We need more kids in both. Let's celebrate those who are in either or both and salute both activities, because we're more intertwined than many of us might realize or be willing to admit.

Bands or corps, corps or bands? I say bands AND corps!

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Mike