…and marching band, WGI, etc. Props for any sort of marching arts are only as good as the best “band dad” in your group. Some band dads are great engineers, but staying in budget is always the trick. Aside: that term was not (properly) defined in Urban Dictionary, so I added a definition ð
When it comes to props, the name of the game is cheap since they’re only used for a season. But they need to last a whole season, and work consistently. Sometimes you need to solve a problem which doesn’t have an off-the-shelf solution. When structural strength is not a concern, 3D printing can help.
Our trumpet soloist also has a 3D printer, so I dropped the spool off at his house and he was able to print all of them up. The cork was cut from a large sheet. It had sticky backing, but he made sure it would stay permanently with cyanoacrylate (CA) glue a.k.a. super glue.
At first I thought he paused the printer and switched from orange to white filaments to get the stripe look. Nope, it’s just white electrical tape – you’d never know from 10 yards away.
If you want to print straight mutes that are show themed, you can find the STL files here. I tried getting the cork from a local music shop without luck, so we bought some from Amazon.
Flag Clips
Another prop we had was a Route 66 street sign made from 1.5″ inside diameter (ID) PVC. The goal was to be able to clip a flag to the sign post so they can be moved around together without issue. Here’s the first version to give you an idea:
Version 1 barely survived one show, but that’s OK. The trial and error revealed where additional material need to be added for strength.
From feedback from the guard I learned the flag clip part could be a little bigger to accommodate the flag silk. Version 2 had a double-detent design to help prevent the flag from falling out on it’s own.
The clips slip over the PVC and it has enough room for pole tape (we used chrome Duck Tape). To hold them in place we just added a strip of duct tape on the opposite side of the clip. Here you can see the sign in the background. There are two small bulges on the bottom half of the post where the clips are fastened.
Both Shannon, our trumpet soloist, and myself have Creality Ender-based 3D printers. They’re not expensive, and you may already have someone in your group with access to one. They’re less than $500 and band nerds like to nerd out in other ways too. Ask around and use this new technology to your advantage, it wasn’t mainstream before but now it is. ð
While I proclaimed myself to be the 40 year-old WGI virgin, I’m really not new to the whole scene. I’ve been a member of several marching organizations, both winter and summer, since 1991. I’ve also had the privilege of working on the instructional staff of a few groups. One thing a new instructor can do correctly out-of-the-gate is being prepared. Here is what is in my bag that I bring to every rehearsal. There are some extras that you can include for summer drum corps & marching band as well.
You’re going to need something to hit said gock block. I picked up a pair of marching snare sticks at a drum corps show. They’re much beefier than a normal snare stick and you can tape them with electrical tape for even more durability.
Hearing protection
Some people say they can’t hear all the detail with earplugs in. It’s probably time for an upgrade. I have a set of Earasers and they’re amazing. Yes, they’re $50 and they’re worth it. Also, if you loose one, you can buy the missing side for $25. Personally I can hear more detail with them in as it filters out a lot of the background noise and echo.
If $50 is too steep, at least get a free pair of the foam plugs offered at literally every music venue. It will save your eardrums from all that gock-blocking you’ll be doing.
3-ring binder with drill and music score
I’ve tried electronic drill books on e-readers and tablets, but a printed score and drill sheets never run out of battery. Also, they’re visible in bright light and you can easily annotate them with changes. Sometimes old school is the way to go. Even if it’s not your preferred choice, it’s a great back-up. I put my pages in sheet protectors and always print double-sided to keep the weight (and waste) to a minimum.
Pencil
For making annotations, duh. Also good to have if your members forget one – and they will.
Competition Badge
Being on staff, you probably have a badge to get into shows. They don’t give out replacements, so always put it back into your bag so you have it on contest days.
Valve Oil
This is more of a courtesy to brass players. Yes it’s their responsibility to oil their own valves. But inevitably someone will need something in the warm-up arc before a contest, when their case is a million miles away. I bring this to warm-up at the contest as extra insurance.
9v Battery
This is for Dr. Beat. Love him or hate him, the doctor is in the house, and he’s here to stay. If you are a percussionist, you probably already have a Dr. Beat – if not, get one. If you’re everyone else that relies on someone bringing a Dr. Beat, do them a solid and bring an extra 9v battery for it. That thing can go through a 9v like nobody’s business.
Pro-tip: instead of clicking “stop” on your Dr. Beat at the end of your rep, get in the habit of pressing the power button for extra battery savings.
Smartphone Apps
Here are my favorite apps:
Peterson iStrobosoft – Best, easiest to read, stand-alone tuner app. Period. Yes, it’s expensive at $10. Best $10 tuner you’ll ever buy.
TonalEnergy Tuner – Wicked awesome app. Fantastic tone generator for getting your drone on. Great for members as well – put it on a tablet and start practicing and it will tell you what is out of tune.
Notes – An app to make notes for things you’d like to fix (and how) and ideas for next rehearsal. I like Simplenote.
Engage / Drillbook Next – I prefer printed charts, but that’s me. If you’re going all-in with paperless make sure everyone is on board.
Headphones & Adapter
Bring your headphones if you want to listen to judges tapes before critique. If you’ve got an iPhone, don’t forget the 3.5mm dongle adapter in case you want to plug it into a sound system and blast to some tunes.
Bluetooth Speaker
Useful for listening to judges tapes aloud with staff or for sharing them with the members.
DCT
I’m old school. I love DCT for keeping lips working. I keep it in my winter bag because it can be very dry, even indoors. A must for summer – bonus that it has sun protection built-in.
Summer Stuff
These are things I add to my bag when summer rolls around. Most of this is for weather – in particular the sun.
Hat
Must have – keep that sun off of your face.
Sunscreen
There are some dummies out there that are still looking to work on their tan. Skin cancer is real. If you’re planning on marching or teaching for multiple summer seasons and you want to have a normal lifespan, put some damn sunscreen on, and do it on the regular. I consider SPF-50 to be the minimum, 30 if there’s absolutely nothing else available. If I can, I go for SPF 70-100 broad spectrum.
Sunglasses
While you’re at it, protect those baby blues.
Sun sleeves
These are the best inventions ever. Put on a t-shirt, then put on your sun sleeves. Columbia has these wicked Freezer Zero sleeves that have a cooling sensation when they get wet (from sweat). Fantastic, ðŊ, A+, would wear again.
Rain Poncho
This doesn’t have to be fancy, just something that will keep you dry. Ideally it can roll up and be stashed in your bag without taking too much space.
Extra socks
For when it’s rainy. Never underestimate how miserable you’ll feel with wet feet. Fresh, dry socks are the answer to a rainy day’s misery.
Anything else?
Did I forget something? A small first aid kit comes to mind, but I bet there’s more. Let me know in the comments what you consider essential.
Because of my competitive side (which is sometimes hard to suppress), I always want to just go see the best of the best. In this case it means Independent World Class. But Jessi always chided me, saying there’s more to WGI than Independent World. Indeed she was right, but let’s work backwards from IW. Continue reading →
Independent World
To be honest most of the IW class shows were either too serious, or too complex (or both) to really connect with me. However, Aimachi and Pride of Cincinnati were both equally amazing, awesome, inspiring, <add other adjectives here>. To give you an idea of Pride’s show, just look at this clip:
Whoever is in their prop department is a genius as this isn’t the first time they’ve built amazing props like this.
Then there’s Aimachi. I’m sad that their guard won’t be back to WGI in “quite a while”:
I’m also kinda irked that they don’t get credit for spinning those batons as crazily as they do, but at the same time I’m glad that they don’t let the rules box them in. Hell, they were less than 3 tenths from winning in 2017 even without getting any credit for their baton twirls.
Then there’s Fenix Independent. Turns out I marched with their one of their creative staff back in the day. I’m humbled to see peers from my generation not just staying active in color guard, but creating ground-breaking shows. Their show included a giant box (different from Pride’s cube), that was both simple and incredible:
I was so glad they were able to jump enough spots to make it into finals because it was a great way to kick off the show, and they wound up being fan favorite.
The other IW guard I thought was amazing but didn’t make it out of prelims was Invictus. They had a “tray” with water that they appeared to fill using a dishwasher on a dolly.
It was groundbreaking but the water may have done them in. They received a 2.5 point penalty in prelims for taking too long to clean up some of the water that was spilled. ð
Ultimately though many of the IW shows were just too much for me. Too abstract, too busy – especially for me seeing many for the first time.
A Class
I found a bit of solace in A class where MBI Winter Guard competed. While some of the seriousness of IW is creeping into A class, I was glad to be associated with a guard whose program was nothing but fun.
Also, the only guard that bested MBI, FIU Winterguard, had an amazing show that was still somewhat abstract, but not so much that anyone wouldn’t get it. It was like half Miami street-racing and half kick-ass color guard.
I don’t normally go into gushy personal stuff here, but since publish day lands on my wedding anniversary with Jessi, I thought it was appropriate. Also, our gift giving seems to be at a stalemate this year as neither of us really wants anything, besides “your extra time and your… KISS!
We try to keep record of what we did in an anniversary journal, at least when it comes to what we did on our anniversary date and what gifts we exchanged. Those minor details often trigger memories of what was going on in our lives at that point.
Often times we forget to actually write stuff down, so when we go fill stuff in years later, it may resemble fiction more than fact. Sometime we rack our brains on what gifts we previously exchanged – and how sadly they must not have been great if we can’t remember. But the gifts themselves (or their longevity) aren’t what I’m concerned with, it’s the memory we associate with them.
One recent memory that really resonates with me is that Jessi is a strong woman.
In 2012 (one of the years missing from our journal) I convinced her to march Minnesota Brass with me. She proved that she is still the strong woman she always has been by working hard and doing her job. She wound up being voted the colorguard “rookie of the year” which she rightfully earned.
In 2013 she gave birth to our second child, a beautiful girl. Jessi proved again during delivery she is still as strong as ever. I thought we were going to be “those people” having the baby in the car. Jessi labored so much at home, by the time we got to the hospital, labor was 90% over. No time to waste, let’s have a baby!
In 2014 we rode the St. Paul Bike Classic. I always talk Jessi into doing one of the local bike tours around our anniversary. This year she rode all the way up Ramsey Hill. I know it seems like a silly feat of strength but she actually did it. I never have, and I’m the guy that’s always talking about bikes. So I did the walk of shame once again and Jessi got to stand on top of the world as the powerful woman she is.
With the 2012 drum corps season over, let’s talk about the elephant(s) in the football stadium: Drum Corps International (DCI) & Drum Corps Associates (DCA). DCA is probably not an elephant, because there’s a chance you’ve heard of DCI and shrug when I say “DCA.” But we’re talking about sustainability of drum corps as a whole – and more importantly: survivability. Continue reading →
There are obvious resources that should be shared amongst these organizations, such as ticket sales outlets, and media production for broadcast/recorded events. I think DCI and DCA recognize these opportunities, but they’re falling short elsewhere.
The basic problem is stubbornness on the part of both parties. This ultimately gets interpreted as elitism and intolerance. But the bottom line is: the activities are the same. Does DCI need DCA? No, but they definitely can (and do) benefit from it. I’m not saying the two organizations should merge, but more cooperation would benefit both groups.
DCI may be unknowingly killing itself
Drum Corps Midwest (DCM) had the right idea where units from all classes/divisions could gather at a competition and compete – who would have thought!?! People were entertained, crowds were drawn for the variety of units. However, DCM may not be a good benchmark since it no longer exists, but I think it was a sustainable approach. It’s demise may still remain a conspiracy theory… some argue that DCI actually killed DCM by luring the top-tier corps away from DCM competitions by strategically planning and inviting corps to DCI competitions scheduled on the same day.
You’d think with a name like “Drum Corps International” all corps would be welcome to compete. Not exactly. With the demise of DCM, the non-east-coast DCA corps are effectively out on their own. I don’t think certain DCA competitions can sustain themselves where three units compete in front of a crowd that’s outnumbered by the membership of the corps.
I’d like to say that DCI is doing it’s best to promote the smaller open class junior corps, but I get the feeling that they probably feel like outsiders as well. The open class and all-age corps are still fantastic outlets: closer to home, and usually more affordable. These are the stepping stones of the activity which should be the foundation. Instead they’re being crushed under the weight of their own league(s).
DCA is getting better, but (literally) cannot compete
The Stigma of Senior Corps
Sometime during the mid-aughts, DCA changed it’s moniker of a “Senior Corps” organization to an “All-Age Corps” organization. While the distinction is small, I think it’s important. It helps remove the stigma that DCA corps are for old guys. The truth is, DCA corps are getting younger every year as many would-be Junior Corps marchers are using their local DCA corps as a stepping stone to gain experiences a traditional marching band may not provide. At Minnesota Brass, it is not uncommon at all to find someone who marched in Brass, went on to a top junior corps, and then returned to Brass after aging out.
I get the feeling that DCI still sees it as old-guy drum corps, and is missing the opportunity to engage all-age corps into what should be one big drum corps family.
Rules
I’m also not saying that DCA needs to follow DCI rules (and rule changes), however when they make sense, the changes often happen all the same. Some examples include:
Any-Key Instrumentation
This makes financial sense for all corps. When I marched in junior corps, we played the same set of G bugles purchased when 3-valves were allowed. With any-key instruments, the prospect to re-sell the instruments to virtually any band program has allowed corps to keep a new rotation of quality instruments without busting the budget.
Electronics
Drum Corps Associates doesn’t allow electronics, and I like that. It’s one aspect of the old-school attitude that doesn’t negatively impact the sustainability of the activity. It merely requires quality staging and creative arranging on behalf of the staff.
Schedule
I’m not advocating that DCA & DCI finals be combined into a single event. DCI finals is timed right because the corps have been working full-time all summer on their craft. It gives the members enough time to return home and prepare for school. DCA corps’ are weekend warriors and cannot afford the same time commitment, so keeping finals on Labor Day weekend gives them that extra few weeks to prepare. It also provides a unique opportunity for returning junior corps members – who have the process of learning music and marching fresh in their mind – to fill any vacant holes in DCA corps.
Judging
The biggest issue right now (as I see it) is the judging. DCA corps performing at local drum corps shows are the minority amongst other DCI corps. There will probably be DCI judges adjudicating the event, and when given the DCA judging sheet, confusion ensues. Look at the recap from this 2012 DCI show in Stanford, CA. The Renegades get no numbers for any captions but the judges are still able to come up with a final score of 67.15 – where does that number come from?!?:
Combining judging efforts would allow for DCA corps to get a better read early season at shows where there may be only one or two all-age corps. Given the same judging pool, there’s a chance you might even see the same judge more than once during the season. Clearly it makes much more financial sense to fly out a judge than to bus an entire corps thousands of miles just to get a read from “proper” judges.
Let’s make all the judges proper, and bring this divorced family back together again.
