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Woodwind's question for DCI (Not about woodwinds being allowed ;)


xas

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Hello everyone,

I'm currently a Freshmen in high school playing Sax and was wondering if would it be reasonable to try to learn a brass instrument and march in one of the World class corps or at least a Open Class Corps in DCI during the time I'm in high school.

~xas

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Hello everyone,

I'm currently a Freshmen in high school playing Sax and was wondering if would it be reasonable to try to learn a brass instrument and march in one of the World class corps or at least a Open Class Corps in DCI during the time I'm in high school.

~xas

Yes..........march, no matter what category of corps that's reasonably available; just do it!

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Hello everyone,

I'm currently a Freshmen in high school playing Sax and was wondering if would it be reasonable to try to learn a brass instrument and march in one of the World class corps or at least a Open Class Corps in DCI during the time I'm in high school.

~xas

You're a freshman, so you've got tons of time. I played a woodwind instrument all through high school joined the drumline my junior year. I marched quads for a DCI World Class finalist.

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Totally reasonable. In fact, in the hornline I marched in this year, ten of our 24 baritone players (including myself) started as woodwind or string players. In fact, only one was a baritone by trade, and even she started as a woodwind. The others came from a trombone or tuba background.

Outright skill and experience on an instrument is always second to the ability to apply information quickly in this activity.

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For those that have done this - can you give any insight as to how to go about it? My daughter is a violin player, but has expressed some interest in drum corps. As a brass player myself I think Baritone is the easiest to get decent enough on due to the larger mouthpiece making it easier to "get going quickly" on. But did you rent/borrow a baritone? Did you use an upright or a bell-front? Did you teach yourself or take lessons? I could probably teach her, but just looking for advice from those that have done it.

Another question - are the baritone parts in corps written in bass or treble clef?

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Baritone is a good suggestion, and even in some cases if you go in saying "I want to play rack in the front ensemble," you could have a shot there, assuming you have the requisite skills to play the rack instruments.

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Thank you so much for all the feedback,

I have the same question as frachel,

did the people who did this, did you teach yourselves or lessons.

Also for baritone would you recommend doing a certain workout so that the extra hardcore practice part of DCI is less taxing?

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For those that have done this - can you give any insight as to how to go about it? My daughter is a violin player, but has expressed some interest in drum corps. As a brass player myself I think Baritone is the easiest to get decent enough on due to the larger mouthpiece making it easier to "get going quickly" on. But did you rent/borrow a baritone? Did you use an upright or a bell-front? Did you teach yourself or take lessons? I could probably teach her, but just looking for advice from those that have done it.

Another question - are the baritone parts in corps written in bass or treble clef?

I played saxophone through HS and college, and have a music minor, but my professional career is unrelated to music. I borrowed an extra baritone from my HS band to practice on. Then I got a marching baritone for my HS graduation gift! lol. In college, I took a half hour lesson each week.

The parts are in bass clef, in my experience. And I will say this as someone that came from treble clef as a saxophone player: just start on bass clef and you will pick it up quickly. I made a huge deal about it, and honestly, it was stupid for me to do that. I transposed music into treble clef and then had to write in fingerings when we got new music at camps... just start with bass clef and you will have it down in no time.

Also for baritone would you recommend doing a certain workout so that the extra hardcore practice part of DCI is less taxing?

as far as the "certain workout" question... I recommend you get a marching baritone and hold the thing with good posture. Seriously. Just hold it. I held it during tv commercials, and then tried to hold it during the show and rest during the commercials as I progressed. If you can't hold up the instrument you can't play it. And it gets heavy.

In general, you should be in shape and capable of doing a bunch of pushups and running a couple miles.

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