Contra Lines

[Feathers Up]

1995 and 1996 Cadets were great contra lines.

1988 and 1998 BD had great Contra lines. One hand One Heart...Contra bass line, and crescendo was incredible if you stood on the 40 yd line side one at shows. You could literally feel it through the ground.

1990 and 1991 Star had incredible Contra LInes

1992 Crossmen has a pretty good Contra Line.

Pyramid of Sound...comes from the approach that Francis W. McBeth put down in writing years ago.

"Listen Down to the tubas is a phrase I have heard uttered from:

Jack Mehan (Blue Devils for many years.)

Donnie Van Doren

Wayne Downey

Gino Cippriani

And just about every other excellent horn instructor in the activity.

Not only does this serve the purpose of balance and blend...BUT more importantly for drum corps...tuning issues are minimized in an environment where the musicians are asked to move around in various drill staging situations and constant temperature and atmospheric variables come into play.

Lastly....a jazz band...is lead by the lead players from a sense of style, volume, and articulation choices.

A wind ensemble is generally built upon listening down to the above mentioned issues to be assesed and addressed by the musicians while they are playing in real time.

Drum corps basically uses a blend of these two styles especially when you are playing jazz (ie: BD , or Madison)...or if you are using a mellophone dominated book...(ie: Cadets or Star).

I tend to agree with most of that you said...Certain styles of music call for different balances..Although everytime I've heard the word pyramid in relation to music, It was used to teach building from the bottom up. It seems that some people don't understand the way sound works...In terms of projection, the low voices are dominant..For example, when you hear a drum line warming up in the distance, you mostly hear the bass drums, not the snares....The same applies to wind instuments..Lower sound waves travel further....If you listened to BD and Phantom Regiment from the sidelines, BD would be louder...But at the same time, someone sitting 20+ rows up would argue the opposite...

This is not an opinion, it's physics.....The issue of balance is also a personal taste...I tend to lean towards 60/40 bass to treble...This also reflects which corps I enjoy listening to the most..