As someone who marched a JD Shaw hornline at SCV... the difficulty of the brass book really varied between instruments. I don't really blame the judges for thinking the way they did about us in 2017, though it would've been nice to get a little more GE credit because those soloists could absolutely shed while marching and being thrown around on moving props. JD's mellophone parts are some of the hardest to play in the activity, whereas his trumpet parts had plenty of donuts, with some unison licks sprinkled here and there (pun not intended). He'd write killer licks for the baritones and groovy walking bass lines for the contras. In order of technical difficulty imo, it was mellos, baritones, contras, trumpets (can't speak too much for low brass since it's based on what I'd hear in rehearsals). His writing has become more balanced in difficulty recently ever since he went back to PR, which I'm really happy for those who get to experience equally challenging music across sections!

Isn’t there a clip of phantom practicing firebird while just running across a field? Sure, average talent goes up, but that’s still so impressive and took so much time to remove the shakiness.

I played G key Horns then. The reason why DCI went to B flat is because it opened up a large space for more modern music. The old horns had only 2 valves. It became difficult for the writers to make it work. The G horns were certainly louder. Which is why they increased the number of corp members.

Y'all should rank every time Leonard Cohen's hallelujah has been used 😂

Funny, the Bluecoats version of that song with its groove is reminiscent of the early 1990's Crossmen grooves especially 1992. It's the way the underlying beat implies a quarternote groove with a 16th note riff in the brass, rather than a less groovy eighth note beat over 16th note riff. Wish Crossmen had thought of playing it like Coats did, they could have score higher with it I think.

I marched blueknights in 2012 I really liked the arrangement we did that year as well with Firebird. But I still have to give it to phantom regiment

Cavaliers "Not your father's Firebird" in '97 wasn't on the same level as the 1988 version. Phantom beats both.

If you guys do this again can you include Madison Scouts 1993 vs Blue Devils 1993 - Strawberry Soup

If you do this again you should do cadets and bluecoats bridge over troubled water. I don’t think it’s in their shows, but they both have their own take on it.

Whoever plays more of it wins

Great video. BTW Phantom’s horns were definitely not mic’d in 2007.

Idk if Blast counts as drum corps but they did a ton of Star of Indiana’s old arrangements like Villa Borghese, which a ton of other corps have done since Star did it.

I personally can hear quite a difference between the G bugles and Bb instruments. You're right in that the Bbs sound more round and less rough than the G bugles, but it is definitely more top-heavy whereas the G bugles sound more unified between the different voices. While Phantom's performance of the firebird had more layers that fit well with each other, the lower voices were buried underneath the trumpet melody. I can barely hear this countermelody from the baritones that if much more present would've made the performance even more fantastic. Meanwhile, the Cavalier's had a more unified sound with each individual part being just as present as one another. I can hear the tubas just as well as the sopranos. This could be due to the different horns in the G bugle family being of the same sound quality while the Bb/F horns differ from one another somewhat. Of course they're all brass instruments, but trumpets by nature are a cylindrical instrument and produce a more straightforward sound while all the other horns are conical and produce a more wider sound. This is why trumpets (in my opinion) stick out and bury the other sub-sections in modern drum corps. Of course both eras of DCI have their merits and I do love that modern sound, but I can totally understand someone when they say that G bugles have a better sound.

I'm shocked you didn't do Medea (Star 1993 vs Crown 2016).

First off, Noti gang. Second off, I love the idea! 👍🏿

Do you have the KZfaq link to the full SCV 2017 recording?

Has that SCV 2017 video been taken down? I’ve been looking for a SCV 2017 video for months.

Having marched the Firebird show for the Cavaliers in 97, the version you need to compare to phantom is 88 Cavaliers..... the 97 version was designed to be much closer to the orchestral version...where as 88 was more of a drum corps version.

You should listen to Hebron 2018 closer to hear their rendition of Fire Bird Suite

put me in the next one chief

🔥

Alumni is the plural of alumnus.

Colts minuano vs crossmen minuano

algorithm

Do Cadets vs SCV Simple Gifts in part 2. other corps mightve played it as well

First like 🙏