Making vocals work in drum corps...

[felixh]

For any of this to work, we are going to need real vocalists. We have plenty of high school and college horn players and drummer trying out on their instruments in drum corps. Corps are going to need to go after true vocalists to set the same standards. That means no more pit or horn members being the vocalists. It just sounds bad. I would hate to see the soprano soloist or some guard chick start trying to rip notes on a marching snare drum for part of the show. Corps will need to audition specifically for vocal musicians with real vocal instructors to make the cuts and teach throughout the summer. If the whole corps is going to do those non-word vocal sounds for anything more than a quick effect, they need to have a professional teaching them how to do it as well.

The same thing with electronics. Now that all this is here, it needs to be done well. DCI really got themselves in deep when they allowed this stuff. And for the next decade or so we are going to have a lot of corps fumblinging around with bad ideas presented poorly, until they can really get some experiance. Corps have been using brass and percussion for years, and have got it down. Vocals and electronics are new and are gonna keep sounding bad for a while. I just hope it turns out to be worth it.

If vocalists were held to the same high and rigorous audition standards as drum, horn and guard personnel it would make for a more professional and quality end product...if they are here to stay then they must be held to the same high standard... B)

[MiamiSun76]

I can certainly live with acoustic vocal ensembles like 2000 Boston. I really don't see solo or small ensemble working in front of 70 brass and 30-40 dancers.

How about a segment from Shostakovich's 13th Symphony (Babi Yar). Plenty of instrumental/choral passages that don't require amplification.

[Jared_mello]

All I'm really specifically picturing, is something along the lines of Metheny's "First Circle." I heard it on the recording with the vocals, and then saw it live without it. Preferred it with.....still though, something like Madison '93 or Bluecoats '98, in my opinion, is a more effective means of conveying that same musical texture.

[MarimbasaurusRex]

One thing comes to mind when reading this. Vocals have always been part of drum corps. Not as singing and narration but as field commands, counts, etc. While they had their functional uses, they were also used for dramatic effect. A really well placed "present arms" could send a chill up your spine. The drum major's count of "& 2 &" right before the peak could add just that little bit of anticipation to put things over the top. How many times have people cried out Vanguard!, and don't get me started on Garfield's Amen.

Somehow the more traditional vocal elements were almost invisible to us as vocals. Yet, they sometimes served to illuminate the human emotion of the activity. This gets back to ScribeToo's solid points about integration of the voice. Vocals go south (IMO) when they are thrust out front for no particular reason. The use of amps obviously encourages this. But, it seems senseless to use it just so some kids can "doo bop" or whatever, as if that's a meaningful accomplishment, or when narration takes the place of a creative and effective show design.

On that note, I'm reminded of a college band show I was forced to march, the infamous EUP Disco/Verdi show. You can bet a narrator was needed for that one. Narration after Don Carlos went something like this... "And now the Fighting Scots take you from the Italian opera house to Studio 54 where Giuseppe Verdi is Stayin Alive!" Urgh!!!! I wanted to crawl in a hole and die.

Do something with it! Make me wonder where the #### that cool sound is coming from. Thrill me. Don't embarrass me.

[torn8o]

Well.. as a trained and semi-professional singer, I'd only argue the level of excellence and execution with you.. and that could take years. I will say this, however: It takes upwards of ten years to properly train a voice to that level of execution and excellence you expect out of drum corps.. I believe there are members who are at or approaching that point and utilizing them in conjunction with brass and percussion -- not as a featured effect but as an additional effect -- could be quite stunning and out of this world ground-breaking.

We haven't seen it yet. Doing what's been done so far is just dipping the toe in the pool (with the possible exception of the Bluecoats this past year .. I thought the tabla {sp?} was fantastic).. and quite honestly I think what has been done so far has also been quite predictable. Hey.. let's sing some cool broadway harmonies.. hey.. let's rap.. hey.. let's drumspeak (and yes, I know the tabla could fall into that category.. I don't consider it part of that category because it expanded my knowledge of an idiom I thought I was pretty well versed in).. hey.. let's narrate. All done relatively well -- even though there were hiccups now and then.. but all done effectively within the context of the shows they were a part of, IMO.

I'd prefer to see some corps.. or some composer out there.. actually compose something utilizing voice as though it were an instrument in the choir of "voices" already on the field. Think like Copland. Even his folk songs were written in a way that the voice is treated like one of the instruments.. it's not music accompanying voice.. it's voice as part of the composition -- it's more of a "duet" between orchestra or ensemble or piano and voice. Make it so the voice is incorporated into the composition and adds a texture to the music -- almost so that I wonder to myself "what instrument is doing that?" but in a good way -- and make it so that my focus is NOT drawn from the overall production to watch one solo singer/speaker or a small singing/speaking ensemble. I would find THAT ground-breaking.

That's why I'm so fond of the Bluecoats' use of tabla.. I didn't find myself watching the pit when they were chanting.. I didn't have my attention pulled away from the rest of the corps while they did their thing.. I looked.. but they were still playing so I could go back to just hearing it and watching the rest of the show.

In other words.. treat vocals in drum corps as a tool, not a gimmick.

Stef

Good post!

[torn8o]

Scouts '93 was an incredibly well integrated vocal. Boston in 2000 fit in great with that show. VK '88 during the percussion feature!!! #### I didn't even mind (not necessarily saying I liked it...) BD's narration that much this past summer since their was some serious #### going on underneath it.

Man, it never even dawned on me. Not only has singing been in Drum Corps since the early 80s but VK clealy had what you might call "voice overs" in MANY of their years of ENTERTAINING antics. Of course, they were not amplified. But, they did exist. I would love to see the type of use VK used sometime. 87 and 88 particularly stick out in my mind as very well thought out uses of vocals.

[Jared_mello]

Narration after Don Carlos went something like this... "And now the Fighting Scots take you from the Italian opera house to Studio 54 where Giuseppe Verdi is Stayin Alive!"

HAHAHAHA :P

[Jeff Ream]

if you have to tell me what to think or feel, you didn't design it right.

and if you have to sing and plug in, you're taking away from a fine soloist on an instrument

[Morgoth Bauglir]

if you have to tell me what to think or feel, you didn't design it right.

[Orpheus]

Thats why I said it will never work. Dream and suggest all you (we) want but the bottom line, its drum and bugle corps. Kids try out or desire to play drums or brass, or spin equipment, not join a glee club.

True in general ... but if a corps wants one or two top-quality singers, they'll probably be able to find them. Think of Garfield's featured dancer in '87 or Star's juggler. Or the young lady who played Carmen in the Scouts' show last summer. None of them were "drum corps people," per se, being different sorts of performers altogether, but the corps managed to acquire their talents for the summer.