The Recap Recap
DCI Edition
So if you’ve been around the pageantry arts as long as I have, you’ve probably been to the DCI, MFA/BOA, or WGI websites in search of scores and placements at events that you either missed or happened long ago. You might have been nerdy enough to write code that scrapes the data onto your own website to preserve it even if the PDF it’s on gets lost to the ether. But what do each of those little numbers mean?
Some may think that the people in green shirts running around in the front of the field and sitting in the best seats in the stadium are completely pulling random numbers out of thin air. Are these people wrong? Not entirely, BUT each judge has a set of criteria they evaluate every corps on.
The Breakdown
Each total score you see can be broken down into 3 major components, and under those, 8 minor components with usually one judge per component. The 3 major components of each score are General Effect, Visual, and Music. These are also known as Captions.
Visual and Music are very similar in how they’re judged (GE is a little different so we’re going to leave it to the end). Each one is broken down into three separate categories (also known as captions). For Visual the categories are Visual Proficiency, Analysis, and Color Guard. For Music, these are Brass, Analysis, and Percussion.
Each of those captions under Visual and Music is broken down into two Subcaptions. Those are Content (Cont) and Achievement (Achv). The simplest way to explain them is that Content is what you put out there, and Achievement is how well you do it. Each is graded on a scale from .1 to 10.0, with .1 being the lowest. As shows grow and progress throughout the season, both of these scores tend to grow. The Achievement generally grows because the members clean the show and perform what they have at a higher level. Content grows because as things get cleaner, you can see more of the demands placed on the performers. In addition to this, designers tend to rewrite shows throughout the season to either add more content and raise the ceiling of the show, or to simplify some of the content there so it’s easier to both read from the judge’s perspective, and easier to perform from the member’s perspective.
Content is what you put out there, and Achievement is how well you do it
(Nerd Note - if you ever hear anything about Boxes, those refer to the judging sheets and how they relate to the wording used on the sheets. That goes from “rarely” achieving the intent [aka Box 1] to “always” achieving the intent [aka Box 5].)
When you combine the Cont and Achv Scores you get the total caption score for each of those individual captions. After that, you add up the Individual Caption Scores, and then divide that number by 2 to get your total caption score. For example, at the Houston show above, the Blue Devils received an 18.1 in both Analysis - Visual and Visual Proficiency, as well as an 18.3 in Color Guard. When those are added up, they equal 54.5. Once that is divided by two, you get 27.25, their total Visual score from that show.
You might be saying at this point “That’s great and all, but what do those numbers mean?”
Well, let’s dive in.
Visual
Visual is broken down into three judged captions.
First is Visual Proficiency. This judge is traditionally down on field level, evaluating technique as well as how the performers move. There’s also a lot of emphases these days on simultaneous responsibility. What that means is whether the members can handle multiple things at once and that mostly manifests itself in moving and playing instruments at the same time (whether that’s marching or performing movement).
Next up is Visual Analysis. This is traditionally judged from the press box, and it has to do with the overall visual design. This is all about how the drill is written, what the body movement adds to the show from the audience’s perspective, and how everything you see relates to what you can hear. This is a caption that will always be judged. If a VA judge is missing, another visual judge will be pulled to cover it, and the VA score will be doubled for whatever caption they were originally supposed to judge.
Finally is Color Guard. This judge goes over everything that the section of the ensemble entirely dedicated to visual and movement is contributing. The choreography, how the guard fits into the larger picture, all of it.
All of these elements combined make up the Visual portion of the scores.
Music
Next up are the Music-related captions. There are again three judged captions.
The Brass section has the first caption, and this covers all elements of the brass playing. Technicality, tone, musicality, and all the nuts and bolts of what makes a great brass line are evaluated here.
Music Analysis is all about what happens musically. The arrangements, how the brass and percussion complement each other, and both the musical writing and performance. At major shows, this caption is doubled and each judge’s score gets averaged together to get the total. This is a caption that always will be judged. If the MA judge cannot attend the show, one of the other Music judges will take their place and the MA score will be doubled to compensate for the missing score.
The final Music caption is Percussion. This covers all non-brass instruments being played during the show. Percussion has been a widely debated caption for a long time, with the caption being one that has been doubled in the past. You used to be able to see the Percussion judge sprinting around the field during every show, hanging out in front of the drumline, and occasionally causing havoc by getting run over.
Music and Visual each make up 30 percent of the overall score, leading to 60 total. But what about the other 40?
General Effect
As a certain composer/arranger has said many times, General Effect is the Effectiveness of all the Elements. Everything you see on the field contributes to the GE score. The narration, the body, the cleanliness, all of it. It’s unique in that outside of major shows, two judges make up the caption. They each get to assign a number that will make up 20 percent of the corps’ total score. There are also two subcaptions here, and they’re similar to the ones for Music and Visual, but there are some slight differences. These subcaptions are Repertoire Effect (Rep), which is how effective what is written is, and Performers (PERF), which is how effectively what is written is getting conveyed during the show.
GE is also interesting in that both judges use the same sheet. That being said, one judge is assigned for their background in music, whether that’s due to composing, arranging, or instruction, and the other is assigned for their visual background, whether that’s as a drill designer, choreographer, or instructor. This is a fairly recent change for DCI, so If you’ve been around, you’ve seen other systems. The most recent before this is having specific Music GE and Visual GE judges, ala Bands of America, however with different weights when it comes to scoring.
**UPDATE** Here is an excellent Twitter thread posted by Bluecoats CEO Mike Scott where the performers’ contribution to the GE score was laid out.
This is another Caption that has double the judges at major events, which leaves each judge influencing over 10 percent of a corps’ score. Also at every show, there will be at least 2 judges in GE, with judges being pulled from other captions as needed, with Analysis being doubled to cover those missing scores as stated above.
There will possibly be a more detailed dive into each of these captions ahead coming out during finals week, so stay tuned! Hopefully, this gives you a stronger grasp on what those pesky little numbers that come out at the end of shows really mean, and congratulations if you read all of it, you’re now (un)officially qualified to be a judge at your local DCI competition (Editors Note: no you’re not)! All of the requirements are listed here, so good luck, and hopefully, you’ll be on a panel for next year’s DCI Finals!
Saturday Night Lights is currently GEM’s Managing Editor. He has been involved in the Pageantry Arts for over a decade, as a performer at the highest level, an instructor, and a fan. You can find him on Twitter at @SatNightLites. He currently lives in Florida with his partner and their two dogs.