I just posted a comment about being a judge .. then realised that JUDGES were a BIG part of our common corps experience.

Let's hear some comments about that!

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What did you do in the Corps? drummer

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-63

Some great judges .. Bob Currie, drum judge in the 1960s. Fair and very insightful. Cliff Colnot, Dave Richards and Truman Crawford on brass. Earl Joyce on marching.

Others?

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What did you do in the Corps? drummer

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-63

Jim Campbell was a good judge before he became an instructor - very fair, and his tapes and comments were always useful, not just critical. Gus Barbaro probably did the most animated GE tapes ever, and watching him run around the field was always good for a laugh (he was a big guy). Joe Colla was funny too - he would joke with you on the starting line.

Rodney Goodheart was probably one of the fairest, most consistent judges during my time in DCI. And of course our own Hank Grana was easy to spot with his unique way of holding the clipboard!

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Bob, I remember Rodney Goodheart and absolutely agree - fair and consistent. It was interesting though how each judge had his own tolerance. For instance, if Jim Middleton judged, scores were lower than say Sam Geatty (spelling?) or Bob Curie. Sam's the highest, Bob in the middle and Jim low. Dave, correct me if I am wrong, but I also recall that the difficulty scores were impacted by a judges abilty as an individual drummer and/or his musical training. Rudimental or/physical difficulty was more appreciated (more credit) by a judge with no real musical training than timing difficutly - which seem to be better identified, understood and credited by those with schooling.

What did you do in the Corps? Drum

What years were you a Corps member? 60-69

Rod Goodheart was a fine judge, as was Gus Barbaro. Jim Middleton and Jim Campbell were also memorable as good judges and great to work with too. Bob Currie was the best drum judge in the 1960s and early 70s, and Dick Brown was right there too.

John, that is an interesting point about evaluating "difficulty". There could be some truth to that. However, the "difficulty" subcaption was undergoing change too ... and eventually became "exposure to error". A judges education and background ALWAYS influenced his perception and evaluation. That is why so much effort was made in judge training to deal with education, evaluation and tolerance. The goal was to arrive at a more uniform tolerance level among the judges.

But, as a practical matter, you KNEW that drum scores would be lower when Jim Middleton was judging and higher with Sam Geati or George Heinrich.

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What did you do in the Corps? drummer

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-63

I think John raises a great point, that was very important in the 70s as drum lines became more "musical." I think because judges tended to be older, former marching members, many of them didn't change as quickly as the activity did, and it caused some problems with consistency. And you have to remember that when most of them marched, there weren't even timpani, yet alone mallets on the field.

More than anything, many of them had very little "official" musical training when they were in drum corps, often learning parts by rote, so all of their training came from the judging associations. While some of those were very good (CSJA, DCI), others left much to be desired.

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

That's why I finally gave up judging. I felt that I was out of my league and that the activity had passed me by. Unless you had musical training, the best way to contribute would be as a cleaning technician.

What did you do in the Corps? Drum

What years were you a Corps member? 60-69

It's also partially why I got out of band directing. I just didn't enjoy the types of shows I had to do to stay current.

I always wanted to do a show whose theme was "It's just a marching band show."

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79