Lower level corps need horn players too

[2000Cadet]

Michael Jordan was cut by his High School basketball Coach in his Junior year of High School Basketball tryouts.

Doug Flutie in his senior year of high school was told by every single Div. 1 college football Coach that they thought he was too small to play Div. 1 college Football. Except for one Coach. And that College Coach only gave Flutie a scholarship because that College Coach felt it would give te Coach an inroad into another recruit at that school that was a Sophmore that the College Coach coveted.

The world is filled with success stories of highly successful people at their craft who were once told told they did not measure up for one reason or another.

More motivation that leads to ultimate success comes from rejection and failure than some people realize.

My point exactly.

[ContraRich77]

This thread has reached the point where, against all logic and reason, I just wanna drop the topic and fart.

[Bruckner8]

From ContraRich77's sig:

<<

1988 Santa Clara Vanguard

1989-1990 Concord Blue Devils

>>

Someday, I'll have to get the whole story on how a contra player from 1988 SCV (practically the EPITOME of low brass) would say to himself "gee, I think I'll go march BD next year."

[CSGreen]

Thanks Stu for the slam on Forte

It costs a lot more than what ANY corps charges for a member to march for the summer. Resources such as donations, grants, funding, show hosting, extra large auditionees (upping the camp fee/registration), sponsors, free equipment (uniforms, horns, drums), donated facilities vs rented, dicsounted/financed equipment, etc, etc.. changing how much of the percentage of each member dues can be floated by the corps.

Everyone out there does the best they can at providing a quality experience.

Forte had an amazing first year, made OC Finals our first year, nearly quadrupled the number of recruits we had this time last year, and have already had veterans from last year receive call backs to Blue Devils and Bluecoats. I guess we are doing something right. We also have a great number of veterans who enjoyed the experience so much they've signed up for round 2.

To think a corps that is non-top 6 should provide the same experience and bear a larger percentage of the actual cost of the member to march is an unfair statement.

I would love to provide an even longer tour (we did add several shows this year and are working to add more local OC shows to our area to help all the TX corps and those wishing to join us) at a cheaper price, but we need to be financially responsible and ensure that the members get up and down the road well, fed well, and are taught by some amazing educators with a show they'll love and the audiences love as well.

Now back to your regular slamming.

[Stu]

Thanks Stu for the slam on Forte

It costs a lot more than what ANY corps charges for a member to march for the summer. Resources such as donations, grants, funding, show hosting, extra large auditionees (upping the camp fee/registration), sponsors, free equipment (uniforms, horns, drums), donated facilities vs rented, dicsounted/financed equipment, etc, etc.. changing how much of the percentage of each member dues can be floated by the corps.

Everyone out there does the best they can at providing a quality experience.

Forte had an amazing first year, made OC Finals our first year, nearly quadrupled the number of recruits we had this time last year, and have already had veterans from last year receive call backs to Blue Devils and Bluecoats. I guess we are doing something right. We also have a great number of veterans who enjoyed the experience so much they've signed up for round 2.

To think a corps that is non-top 6 should provide the same experience and bear a larger percentage of the actual cost of the member to march is an unfair statement.

I would love to provide an even longer tour (we did add several shows this year and are working to add more local OC shows to our area to help all the TX corps and those wishing to join us) at a cheaper price, but we need to be financially responsible and ensure that the members get up and down the road well, fed well, and are taught by some amazing educators with a show they'll love and the audiences love as well.

Now back to your regular slamming.

Mr. Green,

It was "not" a slam at Forte; your organization provides a good service, good instruction, and good performance in the realm of Open Class! It "was", however, a slam at how much drum corps dues have outrageously risen even for an Open Class Corps. My point of "why WC cuts generally do not go to OC corps'" was that if tuition costs the same to go to a State Community College as it does to go to Harvard or Yale it is no wonder that those who do not make it into Ivy League schools would not want to enroll the State Community College. So, please understand that it was a slam at the costs to march Open Class, not your particular corps.

[BRASSO]

As a very recent participant in drum corps I would have to strongly disagree with you. I find it agitating reading this post because you claim to understand why anyone wants to do drum corps and you don't. You just don't get it. You aren't going to explain to ME why I did something. And unless you actually marched drum corps then I would hope you would understand how meaningless competition really is. It fun, and exciting, but its meaningless....

It was never about beating another corps. It was all about the audience, the feeling of getting recognized not by some stupid judge with a peice of paper (the reason why you think people fight tooth and nail to be the best) but by the fans. I wanted nothing more than to get the fans up on their feet screaming their head off. What pushed all of us in the corps was to get people talking, to people turning their heads towards us and people absolutely going insane for us.

I pushed to be perfect so people can see how perfect we are. I pushed to perform the best so people can see just how excited I am. As corps we wanted to WOW the audience.

We didn't win that season, and never won. But it was NEVER about winning. It was just about me know that I did my best. That I put my heart and soul on the field along with 150 of my friends and we just threw it down...

But with your limited view on the world, you wouldn't understand that.

I don't pretend to speak for YOU..... and you can't pretend to speak for ME. You expressed why YOU did Drum Corps. That's valid, because you took the time, made the sacrifices, paid the dues ( literally and figuratively ) and these were YOUR reasons.

But they were not MY reasons. And neither of us speak for anyone else as to why THEY did Drum Corps. I knew people whose principal reason to do Drum Corps ran the gamut from escaping from a bad household in the summer... to strengthening their musical abilities on a musical instrument.... to wanting to help their Corps kick the sheet out of a rival Corps..... to lose weight, tone muscles..... to develop self confidence..... to receive needed structure and discipline in their lives..... to becoming better members of their band they also marched with..... to learn skills that would help them in their future teaching career.... to 50 other reasons. I never attributed one principal reason as better than another. It was not my place. And frankly it's not yours either. My point was to make the case why competition is an integral component of the driving motivator for participation in DCI Corps. If your reasons are other than this, than that's fine too. I do " get it ". If you don't understand however, that what motivates you may not be what motivates others, then frankly it is you that doesn't " get it ".

Edited November 23, 2010 by BRASSO

[perc2100]

I know this topic has been beat to death but it still irks me that a lot of kids who get cut would rather not march anywhere than join a corps from the non-finalist ranks.

Blue Stars reported 170 horns. Will the 90 that get cut (or leave on their own) fill in somewhere else? WHY NOT? If you love drum corps enough to want to do it in the first place, why not spend a year or two with a lower corps to get the experience to make the corps of your dreams?

This happens every audition season.

Edited for intent.

Probably for one or more of the following reasons:

1) expenses of marching ANY corps are high. It's one thing for someone to make the financial sacrifices needed to march in the corps of their dreams, but if it's another corps it might be hard to justify for someone to do what's needed financially. For example, if I saved up enough for a Ferrari and the dealer tells me I don't have a good enough driving record to buy one yet, but he could sell me a Toyota for the same price, I will balk and wait for my driving to get better and buy the car I want.

2) similar to above, only time commitment. I can give up a summer of working/class, weekends for camps, and all of the mental rigors involved with marching the corps of my dreams. For another corps, maybe not

3) there is glamor with marching in a Top 5 corps, or even a Finalist corps with a long history, top notch staff, and a crowd favorite. To be blunt, there isn't much glamor marching a non-finalist corps, or an OC corps. Some of the less competitive corps have command more respect, and are more popular, than others little/nothing compared to the Top corps.

There are probably other reasons I'm leaving out, but those are probably the bulk of the reasons. I'll finish with this thought: if someone doesn't really want to be marching in a corps, and is only hanging around for a year waiting to jump to a "better" corps, do you really want them around? I've seen people kind of half-azs their way through a season of a lower-placing corps, often talking about how much happier they'll be with a Top corps and how much the look forward playing with high caliber musicians and for a higher caliber staff. While that might be the exception and not the rule, based on your OP the member wouldn't really want to be marching, and might be more of a headache than they would be worth.

[j.zhivago]

I cant speak for everyone but I do know of a lot of kids in the past 7 to 8 years whom were either cut from a top 12 corps or couldn't afford to march with said corps.They would rather not march at all than be part of a smaller corps. Most of them just wanted the spotlight and to say,"oh yeah, I marched Phantom". I didn't get the impression that they wanted to increase their skills,learn teamwork,etc. One kid even told me he didn't want to march a small corps because that would be embarrassing and he wanted to be seen on the top 12 finals dvd.

[Lance]

Isn't is possible that there has always been a wide range of motivations for marching dci?

Or is that just whacky?

[MikeD]

You're not going to change the mentality of all the kids everywhere that are trying out. Its really the corps responsibility to both create a program that's worth joining and get recruiting information out there.

However, a simple suggestion that's feasible and might help: when corps send out their letters cutting kids, include information encouraging them to apply at other corps, along with contact info for all other DCI world and open class corps. There are so few now that you can fit this on a single sheet of paper. DCI could even make up a standard sheet and provide it to all of the corps, they'd just need to put one copy in each envelope they send out with the bad news that you didn't make their line.

I wish that the Open class corps could make a general presentation at a WC audition weekend...at the START of the weekend. Maybe the closest Open class admin to a particular WC audition site could make a 30 minute presentation about Open class corps in general...and the absolute marvelous time they provide. Telling a person just cut that "plan B" is available when they have just been given bad news is not the best time, IMO.