crowd impact

[Melissa Sampson]

I just wondered from a performance standpoint, how much do you hear the crowd during your show? Do you hear when people yell out names, or when the crowd yells Vanguard? And does that affect your performance in any way? Or do you just tune it out. I am guessing different sections probably have more opportunity to hear the crowd, like the pit, dm, and colorguard.

I can only imagine how exciting it must be to be on the field, and hearing about 2,000 people yelling VANGUARD.

[ravedodger]

I always heard the crowd.

I remember playing at the Concord Pavillion in '91, my drum corps debut. After the crowd went crazy for our warm-up (C-tuning--or the Cal-Chords as we called them), I was amazed that that many people were there to watch US! Then we started our show, after the release of the big chord in the intro, the crowd went crazy. Then I got nervous and actually forgot the music for half the show--I was worked up!

After that, I never really got nervous at all. I just used the crowd noise to let me know that I was doing my job and I let it help me maintain focus.

These days, I don't really notice the audience at all, except the little bow I give after performing solos.

[raphael18]

Honestly, I remmember the crowd at the beginning of the show, in between the songs (sometimes), and after we were done.

My first year in corps, while I was at the Americanos, we had a staff member remind us that we were there for the crowd, and that we should make a point out of picking out one person in the audience with which to communicate, but I admit that it was very rare that I actually did this until 03, when it just became part of the show for me (then again, that's what aging out does to a performer).

[JayM]

Unfortunately, I think I was usually too focused on the show to really take it all in. You can't let your guard down for too long...you'll end up missing the next horn move, etc.

[ColtsMello]

I always find it easier and more fun to perform to an active crowd. when a crowd is quiet or "dead" it sometimes feels like the show is lacking energy. Although we are told not to listen, crowd interaction is a major part of the effectivness of the show.

[FieldofBlueDreams]

I hear it usually only when i expect to hear it. By that i mean the beginning and the end, stuff the drummers/guard do... but there's always that time when you hear something during a part when you dont expect it and its kind of distracting only because its in the back of my head like "what the hell did they just say?"

Before i marched i was always like, man its gotta be so cool to play something really loud and have the crowd go nuts... but on the field during huge impacts all i could hear was sounds from the field...i could see people clapping but i couldnt hear them.

Edited October 24, 2006 by FieldofBlueDreams

[soccerguy315]

to echo some others...

during big hits, I don't really hear it because it's too loud on the field. I hear it in the breaks after we release and between songs.

[Mark Walton]

For me, I heard the crowd a lot my first show, especially after hits, it got distracting.

but as the season went on, i heard them less and less, as said above i heard them at the beginning, in between tunes and at the end. At the beginning, depending on the show, you can hear individual names, or just lots of crowd noise.

[piojon]

the best part is when you you have that huge hit and the crowd goin nuts after it

[GGarrett]

I can remember the first time I heard a crowd applaud loud enough for me to really be distracted by it. While it did bring a good feeling

to me and I was very proud to hear that, it did distract me from what I was doing. At the time, I was in the Guardsmen and many of the

competitions we were in were a step up in crowd attendance from what I was used to in a smaller corps. It was quite an eye-opener to

hear that simultanious roar of the crowd in approval for something in your show, and being inexperienced to that did cause me to lose

concentration.

But, it did become addictive! By the time my second year with Guardsmen was in swing, I was missing much of the crowd response, in

that we had a demanding show and concentration was critical. And certainly by the time I was in Madison, the crowd noise was insane!

But again, you miss much of it as your focus is really on performing the show. I could hear my name every once in a while, along with

some other guys names, shouted out.

Ultimately, it was the end of the show response that was the sweetest of all. I got to experience that again this past summer, and it was

quite a feeling after 20+ years!! ^OO^