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How do we save Drum Corps


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Correct.

Well then by all means Dan, continue to support only the best of the best and subscribe to the narrow "we have the most so we want the most" entitlement syndrome. To hell with anyone else, they're not important, right?

For my part I will hope that the current mythology of "it's for the kids" becomes a reality again, and I have volunteered any assistance I can render to the rebuilding of ODCA with that goal in mind.

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Marching band has replaced the local drum corps circuits for better or worse. Personally, I like it better.

-You're building school pride in the kids.

-More intimate instruction setting, as they're your band director and you spend all year with them.

-"Create your own Tour", you can choose to go to USSBA/BoA or you can stay at home and compete only at competitions within an hour of you. Or not compete at all.

-Stronger recruiting tool for the marching arts as a whole (more people at the football games than at a drum corps show)

In my perspective as an 18 year old auditionee, the allure to marching in DCI is making the "Primetime". It's playing in the NFL for a band geek. Getting to travel the country playing in front of huge crowds every night and practicing all day.

That's why I think that DCI will succeed for a long time in its current capacity. It's the top of the mountain for so many kids marching in high schools. I think DCI will sustain pretty well with this same number of corps, and a few extra may pop up as the demand for one in areas without a DCI corps piques.

My $.02 anyways.

My only issue with this point is that there are literally thousands of schools in this country and Canada that do not have marching band programs. If you are a kid who happens to live there and wants to do something in the marching arts, what is there for you? Very few families can and will move just to find a good school with a marching band. This is where drum corps came in during the 70's and 80's and where it can again. Even with the crappy attitudes of people like danielray toward something below the standards of DCI WC.

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Band is certainly a great program, I wish we had it here in Canada, but for the most part, we don't. I understand many regions in the USA are in the same boat as funding continues to be cut back. We all know it's the arts that get axed first.

For that reason alone, drum corps at the lower levels is vital.

Totally agreed. Sometimes DCI can be it's own worst enemy. Just look at their own set of rules. If you're a start up corps you have to spend at least one year (probably two) in OC before you can even apply for WC. Alright, that's all well and fine, but if they don't nurture OC then where are they going to get more WC corps from? They just don't pop out of the woodwork.

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If you're a start up corps you have to spend at least one year (probably two) in OC before you can even apply for WC. Alright, that's all well and fine, but if they don't nurture OC then where are they going to get more WC corps from? They just don't pop out of the woodwork.

Star did exactly that.

I guarantee you there will be corps in finals over the next 10-15 years that don't even exist now.

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Star did exactly that.

I guarantee you there will be corps in finals over the next 10-15 years that don't even exist now.

I believe the rules changed when Magic won Div 2 and made finals in Div 1 in the same year.

I hope your prediction is correct but I see no evidence that it is anything more than a prediction.

Edited by Grandpa
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Marching band has replaced the local drum corps circuits for better or worse. Personally, I like it better.

-You're building school pride in the kids.

-More intimate instruction setting, as they're your band director and you spend all year with them.

-"Create your own Tour", you can choose to go to USSBA/BoA or you can stay at home and compete only at competitions within an hour of you. Or not compete at all.

-Stronger recruiting tool for the marching arts as a whole (more people at the football games than at a drum corps show)

In my perspective as an 18 year old auditionee, the allure to marching in DCI is making the "Primetime". It's playing in the NFL for a band geek. Getting to travel the country playing in front of huge crowds every night and practicing all day.

That's why I think that DCI will succeed for a long time in its current capacity. It's the top of the mountain for so many kids marching in high schools. I think DCI will sustain pretty well with this same number of corps, and a few extra may pop up as the demand for one in areas without a DCI corps piques.

My $.02 anyways.

I'm curious about your perspective, and this is not a challenge to your comments. I'm sincerely interested in why, exactly, you consider the allure to marching in DCI is making the "Primetime"? What, specifically, makes you consider it to the be SuperBowl? Is it just travelling, big crowds, and all-day practice? Or is there more to it that makes it the "Primetime" you describe?

Really interested in your response.

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My only issue with this point is that there are literally thousands of schools in this country and Canada that do not have marching band programs.

I don't know about Canada, but I don't think you can back up your statement with facts concerning the United States. Even with budget cuts, there are still a limited number of schools that have actually eliminated their marching bands. The cuts are usually focused on other aspects of the band/music program.

Ohio alone has over 1,000 high school marching bands. There are over 20,000 high school marching bands in the United States. There are also several hundred college marching bands to add to the mix.

DCI audition camps, thanks to these marching bansd, have thousands of kids turning out every year for both World and Open class.

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Why should the fact that they are not able to raise much money be seen as a something honorable? The activity is competitive... the first round of the competition is raising cash.

There is a competitive aspect to the activity, but DCI is a collective, formed by and run by the member organizations. If the top corps really feel they are being harmed by the smaller corps, they are free to leave.

I agree that corps need to become stronger financially, but I think that's a big part of DCI's responsibility. If corps are falling short and at risk of failing, they should be given help in becoming self-sustaining, not just left to survive or perish on their own.

You seem to be of the opinion that every failure is a good thing, and that a corps that can't weather a particular run of bad luck or which lacks the expertise or connections to build a funding stream fast enough to capture whatever momentum there is behind their growth deserves to fail. That's a sure way to see the activity go away entirely, and I think it's a poisonous way to look at the world in general.

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Band is certainly a great program, I wish we had it here in Canada, but for the most part, we don't. I understand many regions in the USA are in the same boat as funding continues to be cut back. We all know it's the arts that get axed first.

For that reason alone, drum corps at the lower levels is vital.

Are there activities in Canada that drum corps could latch on to like pipe bands, brass bands, etc.? That might be a good place to start.

Edited by BDUFLS
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