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Fan since 1985. What I love about drum corps...


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What I love about drum corps...

I love hearing the early season announcements of what corps will be playing!

I love when the season schedule comes out and I start looking for the shows that will be near me!

I love finding which shows are near my family and friends, then putting together an email informing them when, where, which corps will be there, and a quick description of this year's show and how phenomenal it will be!

I love when family or friends go with me to a show and really love it!

I love when family or friends go with me to a show, even if they're more entertained just seeing my reactions!

I love parking and walking to the stadium with the sound of percussion thundering in the distance!

I love getting a peek at a corps that is filing to or from their show practice area!

I love that feeling of belonging when you are at the Championships along side 30,000 fellow drum corps fanatics that love drum corps as much or more than I do!

I love seeing out of the corner of my eye the next corps gathering across field!

I love a really good pre-show warmup!

I love hearing the words "Drum Major <name>, is your corps ready?", the Drum Major salute, followed by "<corps name> you may take the field for competition!"

I love the opening build up to the first huge blast that blows my face off!

I love the first huge blast that blows my face off!

I love a good percussion feature!

I love a sweet guard move or huge rifle catch!

I love when a corps makes an awesome company front!

I love seeing mind-blowing drills from high up in the stands!

I love hearing the pit and the loudness of the corps when I sit way down in front!

I love when something awesome creates a standing ovation!

I love standing up to stretch in the stands from the time one corps finishes and the next corps begins!

I love beaming with joy when a corps' show is over, and just wanting to see it again!

I love when a corps' show almost tugs at your heart strings!

I love when everyone in the stands stand up and claps for the corps!

I love it when everyone then turns to excitedly discuss what they loved in the show!

I love when a corps exits the field with a good percussion cadence!

I love when all the corps come in for the scores, each lining up in their 10-yard slots!

I love watching the little silent things the corps do while waiting for scores!

I love the excitement of seeing all the fans huddled around the souvenir booths after the show!

I love playing drum corps CDs in the car on the way back home!

I love blaring drum corps music way louder than anyone else can handle!

I love thinking about the next show I can attend and which corps I will get to see!

I am sad when the season is over. But then I love anticipating the next season!

I also love...

telling a new person about drum corps, about the personalities of different corps, the shows they've done, and anything else I can get in before their eyes glaze over from too much information!

I love listening to a drum corps season I haven't listened to in a while and being reminded how great that season's music was!

I love hearing a random corps' music and being able to name the corps, the season, their placement, and their show theme- from only hearing the first few notes!

I love being able to visualize what was happening with the drill while listening to the music!

I love that I get goosebumps just thinking about all these things!

I LOVE DRUM CORPS!

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Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I have been a drum corps addict since 1998. Will be till my dying day.

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Really well said...

Been a marching member or arranger/instructor/judge/dad and mostly fan since 1960 (I was 10) and couldn't have said it better, or probably add anything.

I left the activity for almost a year in 1991. Two of my kids joined Boston in 1992 - they were really young - one of them marched for 11 years.

Right now my youngest (3 years in 7th, 1 in Crossmen, studied in France this Summer, so no drum corps) longs to age out with Boston in 2015. That would make me happy.

We were in Barneveldt WI for Finals week. It was a small school in a small town. The football field was very literally carved out of a corn field. The school was up on top of a hill, looking down on the field.

I walked out of the school, at this point in my life I sas 40, with 4 kids, one in Crossmen, 2 in Boston, one was too young to play yet (he ended up doing 9 years in Boston and now teaches 7th Regiment).

It was that time just before sunset when the mid-August light filters sideways through the trees, very soft and incandescent, warm, the air smelling of farms, and summer, sun-screen, and mid-west life.

I stood on the end of the hill, looking down on the corps, which I had just become a staff-member of after trying to retire, and I was overwhelmed with the realization that there was literally nowhere else in the world I would rather be, and nothing I would rather be doing.

We didn't make finals, athough the corps gave a very good showing of itself. I stayed for 5 years.

It's a magical activity. I think it is literally magic.

Thanks for your poem - to me it's poetry.

Edited by rayfallon
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rayfallon wrote: "It was that time just before sunset when the mid-August light filters sideways through the trees, very soft and incandescent, warm, the air smelling of farms, and summer, sun-screen, and mid-west life.

I stood on the end of the hill, looking down on the corps, which I had just become a staff-member of after trying to retire, and I was overwhelmed with the realization that there was literally nowhere else in the world I would rather be, and nothing I would rather be doing.
"

Couldn't agree more!

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  • 1 month later...

Been a fan since the early seventies and I can identify with just about everything on that list. If I may add one thing; hearing drums in my head as I lay in bed, in a motel near a highway with tar strips.

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  • 1 month later...

Thank you! I'm new recently converted this year to watching drum corps and I'm also in love with it. It has also helped me with my anxiety. Watching a drum corps video is the one thing that can help me quickly calm down if I'm panicking. Nothing ever has helped me in that way, that's why I'm grateful to everyone that participates and and supports drum corps. Thank you all! :)

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Thank you! I'm new recently converted this year to watching drum corps and I'm also in love with it. It has also helped me with my anxiety. Watching a drum corps video is the one thing that can help me quickly calm down if I'm panicking. Nothing ever has helped me in that way, that's why I'm grateful to everyone that participates and and supports drum corps. Thank you all! :)

If you want to keep that anxiety in check, never sign on to work with a DCI corps.

It's fun... it's a great way to spend a summer, but come mid-tour - almost no matter what place your team is in, the staff feels the anxiety of either wanting to move up, or wanting to hold on as everyone else tries to move up.

Not exactly a Zen experience.

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  • 7 months later...

It's been so long since I've beeen immersed in the DC universe, and I didn't realize how much I missed it until I read this. Thank you for your words. It reminded me of all the reasons I feel it is such a special thing. It brings joy not only to those marching on the field, but a whole culture of people off of it that, too, understand the magic that happens when people come together to march and play. It changed my life when I was younger, and continues to change and enrich others. Beautiful thing.

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