I was able to attend the afternoon portion of DCI at TCF today. We sat in the horseshoe for the majority of the show due to the weather. I could here everything fine, all groups were much smaller than our band. Do we need to find a director with outdoor experience? I know they consist of all brass and percussion, I don't think that's an excuse because I'm thinking we have a lot more in our band.
Band Question/Stadium Sound DCI
- Thread starter nemosgold
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Comparing the groups in DCI shows to our band is like comparing NFL teams to our football team. Yes, there are a lot more members in our band, but every single member in a DCI corp can play louder and better than almost every member in our band. Those groups have some of the best musicians in the world in them. By this point in time they've been rehearsing those shows for almost two months - 8-12 hours a day. Of course they're going to sound better than our band.
Zales04
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Towards the end of my tenure in the band there was a greater emphasis on the "quality" of sound versus volume. The quality really improved, but I remember how every year talk about playing loud slowly went away. There was a plan to emphasize brass about 10 years ago, but that never really materialized. It's a lot harder to get people to join than you would think. I remember when we struggled to get enough tubas, but were never at a lack for flutes and clarinets.
gopherdudepart2
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Saw some of the DCI show in the bank
The sound and acoustics in the stadium are not as bad as I thought after last fall at least coming from the field. Like the other poster said, comparing DCI corps to a college marching bands sound is not really fair. All brass and percussion with amplification, synthesizers, and electric and bass guitars these days, professional arrangements and choreography amongst all of the large pit instruments.The DCI show's are more comparable to a professional broadway show then a college marching band playing at a football game. These groups work on physical training, to be able to move that fast, breathing techniques and producing loud quality of sound before they even hit the field. The guy's and gals in the DCI groups, train like athletes to do what they do. Not only that the talent that are in the corps are some of the best college age and advance high school age musicians from across the country.They audition and even get turned down a lot to make the groups. The reason I know this stuff is I had three brothers march world class corps, Madison, Phantom, and Colts. I though couldn't play an instrument a lick, kind of some of why I played football, and I liked to hit people.
Just a side note there were even a few members from the Minnesota band in some of the groups that performed yesterday.
One thing these groups did show is if you play really loud, that does matter to the quality of the sound the crowd can hear. Not only that but the type of music you play can make a real difference as to the performance the kids give. The Gopher director has a fondness for a few songs that sound pretty lame by today's music arrangements. Music arrangements cost money and licensing fees though so you are pretty limited to what you have paid for to use. The sound of Minnesota the Gopher band they have to recruit and really try and beg to get kids to join that group, especially brass.There are really always a lot of freshman and new kids that join that group. Keeping vets takes some work because they put in a ton of time. That group is a whole lot of work with not a great deal of reward beyond a few college credits and the experience. Besides all of the time they put in there really isn't much of a reward to playing in that group unless you have a bowl game to look forward to or some of the social events. They don't get to travel like other Big10 groups so you lose that incentive for kids to join. The Gopher band doesn't sound that bad outside of the stadium they sound pretty good, for some reason we lose the sound inside.
That scoreboard the fans on it to cool it, make a ton of noise though, that thing is really loud the sound of the fans is almost drowning, it is really loud and kind of distracting even during Gopher games.
The sound and acoustics in the stadium are not as bad as I thought after last fall at least coming from the field. Like the other poster said, comparing DCI corps to a college marching bands sound is not really fair. All brass and percussion with amplification, synthesizers, and electric and bass guitars these days, professional arrangements and choreography amongst all of the large pit instruments.The DCI show's are more comparable to a professional broadway show then a college marching band playing at a football game. These groups work on physical training, to be able to move that fast, breathing techniques and producing loud quality of sound before they even hit the field. The guy's and gals in the DCI groups, train like athletes to do what they do. Not only that the talent that are in the corps are some of the best college age and advance high school age musicians from across the country.They audition and even get turned down a lot to make the groups. The reason I know this stuff is I had three brothers march world class corps, Madison, Phantom, and Colts. I though couldn't play an instrument a lick, kind of some of why I played football, and I liked to hit people.
Just a side note there were even a few members from the Minnesota band in some of the groups that performed yesterday.
One thing these groups did show is if you play really loud, that does matter to the quality of the sound the crowd can hear. Not only that but the type of music you play can make a real difference as to the performance the kids give. The Gopher director has a fondness for a few songs that sound pretty lame by today's music arrangements. Music arrangements cost money and licensing fees though so you are pretty limited to what you have paid for to use. The sound of Minnesota the Gopher band they have to recruit and really try and beg to get kids to join that group, especially brass.There are really always a lot of freshman and new kids that join that group. Keeping vets takes some work because they put in a ton of time. That group is a whole lot of work with not a great deal of reward beyond a few college credits and the experience. Besides all of the time they put in there really isn't much of a reward to playing in that group unless you have a bowl game to look forward to or some of the social events. They don't get to travel like other Big10 groups so you lose that incentive for kids to join. The Gopher band doesn't sound that bad outside of the stadium they sound pretty good, for some reason we lose the sound inside.
That scoreboard the fans on it to cool it, make a ton of noise though, that thing is really loud the sound of the fans is almost drowning, it is really loud and kind of distracting even during Gopher games.
awag777
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FWIW, a partially (mostly) empty stadium makes some difference in terms of the sound at DCI vs. a relatively full house on a gameday.
Also...66-68 trumpets this year, so brass (at least trumpets--not sure about other sections) will be dialed up this year.
Also...66-68 trumpets this year, so brass (at least trumpets--not sure about other sections) will be dialed up this year.
go4rob
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I was there Saturday as well. A couple of observations: to fully appreciate the sound of the U band, go to one of their Indoor Concerts sometime. It's a whole different and wonderful experience. I was in the band from 67 to 71 and I still go back and forth on the volume thing. I DO feel the band is light in the area of middle brass (t-bones, euphoniums, melophones). When I was in the bankd we had 220 players and in 68 or so, we had some 55 trombones. It wasn't just about the volume, we always had to be musical with the arrangements that Dr. Ben and John Zdechlik were doing, but the sheer number of low and middle brass we had in the band gave us a very powerful sound as well, which was wonderful for a marching band playing outside. You do hear that when you go listen to the OSU Band which is all brass and percussion. They are very musical as well but because it's all brass, the volume is really something. When coupled with musicality, it makes the hair on your neck stand up....just like the DCI groups did on Saturday. You CAN actually have both.