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January 30, 2007

DCI Approves 150 Member Limit, Electronics Denied

On Sunday, the DCI Board of Directors reviewed the rule proposals and came to a decision about each one. Among those passed include the percussion judge in the stands until July 4th, extended pre-show warm-up (like BOA), and the biggest being the new 150 member rule going into effect in 2008.

Just a little about the last one - there are definite pros and cons to this 150 member rule...

The pros: more young people get to experience being in a Top 12 corp (a 10% increase), bigger and better both in sound and visual appeal, and it allows corps to better utilize their buses since the new ones now seat 55 per bus (x 3 thats 165 seats). The cons? Harder for the midrange corps (10-17) to fill brass spots because everyone wants to be in a Top 6 corp, midrange corps don't have the new buses so its a moot point for them, and it will possibly open an even wider gap between the elite and those in the midrange.

Now there are a few things that didn't pass, but the biggest news maker is the 10-10 tie for inclusion of electronic instruments that ended in defeat. The purists dodged a bullet this time, but I don't think they'll be as lucky in the future. Me personally? In a world of pop singers and Pro Tools making it where anyone can sound in tune, I would like ONE thing to stay true to the original and not just be another "me too" for technology. Yes, electronics and music are here to stay, but that doesn't mean that everything has to go there.

I think of cars....what happened when automatic transmissions came about? The beauty of shifting gears without all the work, why wouldn't you want it? Did every single car from then on come with an automatic? No. Maybe there's something to the process that connect people to the machine? I think this hold true for the Drum Corp fan too - we see bass guitars in the pit in college bands, synthesizers in the pit of BOA bands, maybe....just maybe people still want to see the muscle car come with a manual transmission. It just always seemed right.

Posted by Ryan on 12:16 AM

January 17, 2007

DCI 2007 Rules Proposals

01_16_2007_talkbackSo the annual DCI meeting is coming up on January 25th and there are 15 proposals on the table this year. Not being a fan of rules in the past few years (i.e. removal of the drum trophy during the DCI Championships), I was pleasantly surprised that *most* of the proposals were halfway decent. If you would like to read through the propsals yourself, go on over to the DCI Rules page and take a look. They are only a page each so you can run through them all in 15 minutes or less. If you find something you do or don't like, let DCI.org hear about it.

DCI Rules Page - http://www.dci.org/rules/

The one that applies most to the readers of the DrumlineBlog is the Percussion adjudication modification.

Basically they are proposing the percussion judge be in the stands/box for the first half of the season to get better reads of the overall show, increase understanding of the shows to reduce "run-ins" during the season, and to reduce missing keypoints of the show when being in the wrong place on the field. After July 5th, they are on the field and getting down to the details.

I think this is a GREAT idea! Nothing sucks more than not getting rewarded for difficult passages when the drum judge is on the other side of the field. I'm still reading through these, but the one that sticks out is the "Inclusion of electronic instruments" proposal by guess who: George Hopkins. Ugh, is my first response. It's the one area where I like how drum corp has remained "pure" in that regard...well not so much anymore, but not as bad as BOA. Now I work with a BOA Grand National Finalist band, and I like electronic effects when they COMPLIMENT the show concept, but when they are used to REPLACE CREATIVITY is when it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Some great bands do A, the lesser ones seem to be stuck on B. So when I see this proposal, I see it as a slippery slope that has good intentions in the beginning, but ends up being a substitute for being creative. My prime example is the Cavaliers from this past Summer - robotic movements from the corp and unique sounds from the front ensemble like the typewriter made for an extremely enjoyable show. Is that the foreshadowing of the future of DCI? A show about machines that used no *real* electronic sampling...the last of a dying breed.

Posted by Ryan on 10:32 PM

January 06, 2007

Welcome to the New Year

Ahh, the new year - welcome to 2007. Time for WGI contests, Drum Corp show announcements, and NAMM. We've got some exciting events planned in the new year to get you through until the WGI season heats up. First off, we'll have someone at NAMM this year checking out the latest from the drum manufacturers. After that, we've got two reviews in the works that will be revealed at a later date.

Zildjian logoBut first to start off the new year, we've got an announcement about something cool going on with Zildjian. John Ratzenburg's Made in America which airs on the Travel Channel will be doing a show on the Zildjian company. Here are the show times for the coverage on the Travel Channel:

  • January 9th @ 9PM EST
  • January 10th @ 12AM EST
  • January 13th @ 3PM EST

Here's the Z-News Announcement from Zildjian

Posted by Ryan on 11:41 PM