Corps methods: was: Overage sop in BD?
Briteangel
First of all, Tim Root's comments on this newsgroup now go way beyond the
scope of decency. This newsgroup is for opinions and comments on drum and
bugle corp, not a place to carry out a spersonal vendetta. I must
apologize for having to take up your time.
When and for who a person marched for is irrelevant. The audience, the
spectators, the crowd are what counts in the entertainment and enjoyment
of the evening. Yes, it's a great high to win, but I don't know about the
rest of you, but I live for the applause, the cheering of the crowd. Our
very YOUNG BD marcher is trying to use a crystal ball or something, and it
is certainly cracked. In this, a FREE country, I am entitled to my own
opinion and to express it. While I might have been tempted to produce my
credentials before, now it has become a matter of pride NOT to. Who I am,
or what I do does not make my opinions any less valuable. This particular
season I have been in the stands, and the stands have not been very good
to BD. Mr. Root needs to check out the other opinions, particularly the
comments made about "smoke and mirrors," "easy drill routines," Sorry,
this has taken up enough space. Hopefully Mr. Root will not decide to
publicly take up this arguement when I am already e mailing to him. That
is the forum this belongs in.
Gary Zinter
I don't know this whole thread or what "indecencies" occurred, but I do
know that philosophical differences concerning "method" are generally
misinformed. I marched with the Blue Devils. My best friend marched
with the Cadets. Both of us had distorted views of the other corps'
methods and philosophies. Staffs (and members) tend to pump each other
full of crap about other corps. Every approach is different and has it's
pros and cons, and I do believe that some are better than others. I have
problems with some aspects of the way I was taught, too, but I think
that's normal if you have learned to think critically for yourself, you
know?
I've also learned that a lot of the philosophy that corps publicly
promote is only the smoke that screens priorities that are really, very
often, the same from corps to corps. The only way to know for sure is to
be there AND be in on the private statements made by the person or small
group of people that determine the direction of a group.
Ain't group dynamics a hoot! :)
P.S. If who a person marched with or taught wasn't important, nobody
would feel the need to make ambiguous, broad judgements of other corps'
"methods," nor would defense of those methods be necessary.
Gary Zinter
gary....@bsis.com
zin...@ix.netcom.com
whitney densmore s
In article <4tin3j$h...@darkstar.ucsc.edu>, ti...@cse.ucsc.edu (Tim
Root) wrote:
<snipped the briteangel and Tim exchange>
> Let's turn this into a real thread!
> Let's turn this into a real thread!
> Let's turn this into a real thread!
Okay, okay, okay!
> To everyone. What corps did you march and how did you practice.
> At home and on tour. Do you feel that the methods were good? Were
> they uneccesarily harsh? Did they get the desired effect?
I'll take a shot at this one. This will be long (and dated) though.
Strolling down rehearsal memory lane....
SCV B, 1973 - 1976
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We were basically a parade corps that did actually perform one corps show
in '73 at Pacific Procession (maybe at State Competition too, but hell, I
just can't remember). Our primary focus was basics, basics, and did I
mention basics?
We practiced twice a week: Tuesdays from 6:30 - 9:00 or so, and Saturdays
for I can't remember how many hours. Maybe 10-1 and 2-5. The summer
was filled with breaking down each and every basic maneuver or guard
basic move to it's finer details. We learned all the basic marching
moves, some by command, and cleaned each foot position, body
angle/direction within a given move, over and over and over....
Of course we also worked on spacial relationships and making (and
keeping) forms by learning mini-drills.
Practices were tedious but could be fun. For example, we used to have
"drill downs" in which the guard would have to perform commands given by
the instructor or guard captain. While the commands were given, if you
made a mistake, you had to remove yourself from the squad and sit out
until one person was left (the winner :). The grueling 'drill downs'
were the ones performed with our arms out from the sides of our body,
parallel to the ground. Dropping your arms lower than parallel was
considered a mistake. Looking at the ground was enough to make you sit
down. Hell, marking time with the arch of your foot lower than 2" above
your knee could get you removed.
We did put out a competitive winter guard too for all the years I marched,
but I don't remember increasing the amount of practices.
SCV '77-'79
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We practiced three times a week from September to the end of May, except
that we had a camp almost every month from January through May. Mondays
and Wednesdays, 6:30 - 9:30 and Sundays, 9-9 or so (can't remember is we
did 9-9 all season or not - who cares ? :) Anyway, we had a strong
basics program and discipline was of utmost importance. I recall that
in between sets the entire corps would stand at attention or parade rest
(can't remember is this was *all* of the time).
We also had silent rehearsals a few times on tour - if you talked, you
were out for the rest of rehearsal. This method was good in achieving an
intense rehearsal environment, however, the punishment became
counterproductive to the unit. Cleaning the drill with a hole didn't make
much sense (to me). Sort of like this one...
Yah, I've told this story before. I ended up at parade rest for a rehearsal
out at Lockheed when the bat I brought to rehearsal (yes, we used bats from
home while we waited for our bedposts...er, sceptres to be made) wasn't
white. No, I did not agree with this method. Standing in one position
for 6 hours because my sister wouldn't let me tape her bat white seemed
like a waste.
Hmmm... what else... Oh! If a guard person dropped their equipment
during the show, then that person would have to perform that section
numerous times (50, I think) right after the show for, Lenny. Heh - I
remember this happening the my sister Charlotte. She ended up with
someone else's flag pole during the show (we didn't ensure that we got
our own equipment when we first started doing equipment changes - this
was corrected, I believe) that didn't have a cap on the end of it. So
when she went to do this one move in concert, the flag slipped from her
hand. She ended up doing the 64 count section 50 times with Lenny -
right in sight of the audience. I remember the curiosity of the
fans around me as to why she was made to do this - I also remember
how pissed off she was and how awesome she performed. She never dropped
in that section of the show - and you bet that the girl who had that pole
never left the cap off from the end again.
The best rehearsal method that SCV used in my day (I wonder if they
still do this) is while on tour, the guard used to do individual run
throughs of the whole show, in front of the rest of the color guard. We
would find individual errors with hand positions, timing, angles etc in
doing this. We also found out who didn't know all of the show :-/ Yes,
this was tense and put a person on the spot - but was it ever effective!
BD '81 & '82
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Again, a strong basics program, but much different than SCV's in that we
did some "cross training" of sorts (see following paragraphs) and dance was
just being introduced to BD by someone with strong dance training
(Stacey Lynde). We learned a technique that is used by many modern
dance troupes in the country (can't remember for the life of me the name
of the originator :-/ ). We had the 'psoas' system explained to us by
getting out Gray's anatomy at rehearsal. Rather than focus from the feet-
up or from the shoulders-down, BD's guard learned to focus from the
centre-out. I've said this before - I had to learn to walk all over
again once I joined BD.
Not only did we get out the textbooks, but we went as a color guard to
see the Martha Graham dance company (official name escapes me) perform at
University of Berkely. We critiqued the show at a subsequent rehearsal.
We did the same after attending a color guard show - we discussed what
made the greatest impact on us as an audience and how we could
incorporate that into what we were doing as a color guard.
What else? We had a drum instructor (Don Currie) sit down with the guard
and teach us to read time signatures. We used some tune from Ambrosia's
"Somewhere I Never Travelled" (perhaps, "The Brunt"?) that changed time sig
several times within the tune. We also learned the difference between
"in front of the beat", "on top of the beat" and "the back of the beat"
so that we could understand how some tunes "swing" and how that would
affect our perception of where the downbeat is in a given tune (this, of
course, would affect our marching and guard work timing, donchya think?).
One of the cool exercises that we did with him was when Don would provide
something like eight beats of a given tempo while we had our eyes
closed... we would count out the amount of beats he told us to in our
heads and then strike the floor with our drum sticks on that count. At
first, it was hilarious to hear how terrible we were at keeping a
consistent tempo in our head! By the end of that session, we were pretty
clean at attacking a note on the count of 16 after 15 beats of silence -
and not a single dut was heard (and we were guard members!)
I also recall going over some excerpts of Uta Hagen's work on performing
that were greatly applicable to drum corps, although geared towards the
stage. Shirley Stratton is one hell of an educator.
Hell, what else? We had a contra player, Ray Atlas, sit down with the
guard and teach us to sing harmonies. That was when we were considering
singing during the show (but never did).
Oh, I forgot how much time we spent practicing. Same as SCV, three times
a week, except rehearsals were a 1/2 hour longer, I believe, or maybe
they just started later. Oh, but in '81 when we had a winter guard, we
were together Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday all season
long. That was a bitch for those of us who commuted, but worth it.
Now for crimes and punishment...
There was the time in '81, Laurie McCumsey and Kate Hill didn't
show up on time (for the umpteenth time - discipline existed within BD,
but with much broader parameters than SCV [understatement!]). We set up
for OTL and stood at attention until the two ladies showed up. I think
that we waited for an hour (but I could be wrong). Although standing there
was brutal, I don't recall anyone being 'too' late to rehearsals after
that incident.
Now this was a bit harsh. While on tour in '82 (I think), the flag line
(thank goodness I wasn't in that line!) performed a show that Jay Murphy
was none-too pleased with. They were dirty, to put it simply, with
stick-out errors. Jay decided that the flagline would do a complete
stand-still run through with no errors - and Jay has no tolerance for
mistakes. If he saw a tick, he would yell "cut" and they would start
over at the beginning of the show and continue until the next tick. This
went on until the wee hours of the morning (2 am? 3 am? I don't know).
All I remember is that Jay finally gave up when Laura Brown (yes, fellow
RAMDer Rob Brown's sister) went to toss her flag when her arms completely
gave out and the flag just spun to the ground. Jay finally gave mercy on
these poor ladies. Did this method get the desired effect? You bet.
> Tim Root
> BD 86, 87,88
> web page 96 http://www.blue-devils.com
My memory sux but these stories are pretty close to the truth :)
Whitney Densmore (aka Harper and Mathias)
Blue Devils '81 & '82
SCV '77, '78 & '79
SCV '73, '74, '75 & '76
Robert Brown
> Now this was a bit harsh. While on tour in '82 (I think), the flag line
> (thank goodness I wasn't in that line!) performed a show that Jay Murphy
> was none-too pleased with. They were dirty, to put it simply, with
> stick-out errors. Jay decided that the flagline would do a complete
> stand-still run through with no errors - and Jay has no tolerance for
> mistakes. If he saw a tick, he would yell "cut" and they would start
> over at the beginning of the show and continue until the next tick.
This
> went on until the wee hours of the morning (2 am? 3 am? I don't know).
> All I remember is that Jay finally gave up when Laura Brown (yes, fellow
> RAMDer Rob Brown's sister) went to toss her flag when her arms
completely
> gave out and the flag just spun to the ground. Jay finally gave mercy
on
> these poor ladies. Did this method get the desired effect? You bet.
Well, that sounds like my little sister. When she's frustrated, tired,
and generally pissed off, arms go up (or down in this case) and she
usually has something to say about it.
Another technique we used to do was the 3 minute hi-leg left mark time
usually run by Mel Stratton (if memory serves me correctly). If someones
foot was below the knee, everybody had to stop, and the counter started
all over. After 30-45 minutes, this got to be a pain, and whoever caused
the misstep starting hearing about it from the members.
I remember M&M rehearsals at Mars working on Johnny One Note. The horn
line couldn't go to lunch until we had less than 15 ticks during a run
through per side (you remember, when drills were symmetrical). Boy, talk
about creating a rivalry between side 1 and side 2. Our worst competitors
were in the same corps!
After reading about the SCV silent rehearsals I had to laugh at our
attempt to out hype either SCV or Madison at retreat. Our definition of
out hyping another corps was to merely be quiet at retreat. Not an easy
feat when you have a french horn player from Florida pretending he's a
sprinkler system. Of course, every once in a while we would succeed
during retreat at getting some poor hornline member from SCV to snap to
attention when BDs horn seargant (where did that name come from) would
call the corps to attention. That usually got a chuckle. Of course, it
happened to us too.
The best retreats where always the ones were BD lined up next to the
Bridgeman. We could not stop from laughing when we were trying to be
sooooo serious. Anybody remember BD Picassos at retreat.
Anybody got any good retreat stories?
RB
BD 81-85