From: rwberry@hubcap.clemson.edu (Robert W Berry)
Subject: Re: My comments on Finals and PBS broadcast
Organization: Clemson University
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 02:49:36 GMT

halk@solbourne.com (Hal Koshak) writes:

>In article <1992Sep9.165930.1@vax1.umkc.edu> cputnam@vax1.umkc.edu writes:
>>
>>LONG LIVE THE BUILD UP SYSTEM!!
>>
>>IRC nick-BlueDevil

>The top how many corps at finals scored in the 90's?  The build up system
>needs some tweeking.  Since I'm somewhat of a fossil, I revert to older,
>more sensible times when everthing was build-up except for the noting
>of mistakes.  The field judges had to work a bit harder, but then, I
>never was in the position of wanting to make things too easy for judges!

Well, it's been "tweeked" about three times now.  The delineated system
has made the largest impact, IMHO.  That's a lot of the reason the
winning score goes up and down from year to year.  I don't really think
we'll ever have another 98.8.  You would just about have to top out every 
sub-caption.  

The problem with the tick system is that a mistake made while playing
"Mary Had a Little Lamb" costs as much as a mistake made while playing
"Pines of Rome".  The two mistakes are obviously not the same when it
comes to representing the ability of the performer.  And this is what
execution is all about.  Maybe we could try half-ticks for little
mistakes and mega-ticks for big mistakes, etc. but I really think that
would be confusing things beyond belief.

Now even during the days of the tick system, there were build up
captions that recognized difficulty.  But that still doesn't address the
issue of the quality of the performance by the individual (or ensemble
for that matter.)

There has been a lot of support for tick-based execution scores (in the
field) balanced with build-up ensemble scores.  Personally I feel that
the tick system didn't do enough to reward difficulty.  And even more
important, it heavily favored larger organizations.  It just about
impossible to get away with a mistake in a 10-person hornline.  A lot of
filth can get hidden in numbers.

Personally, I think we would end up with a 90's version of block drills
if we were to re-instate the tick system.  The parallelogram that
Garfield did this year is just about *impossible* to execute cleanly.
(Actually, I'm a little surprised that move made it to finals.)  Ask any
drill technician, and they'll tell you what kind of nightmare blind
covers can be.  Imagine most of the corps doing them.  Ouch.  You would
*never* see that kind of move under the tick system. 

I don't think you can even *begin* to compare today's drills with those
of the past.  Heck even 6 or 7 years ago drill wasn't nearly as hard as
today.  That's what I like about drum corps, things get better and
better.  (Although I don't really think I need to here, some people
might think that last statement needs an IMHO.)

Later,
Bob

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