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2 hours ago, BigW said:

Wow. Is it because of the increase of the Indoor scene? Didn't think it could get that bad, John.

Post by garfield from two years back, attending a DCI corps' try-outs with his son: Why so DANG MANY drummers?

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4 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Post by garfield from two years back, attending a DCI corps' try-outs with his son: Why so DANG MANY drummers?

indoor's explosive growth. one of the underlying reasons why I think Winds was formed

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5 hours ago, MikeN said:

With admittedly no numbers to back it up, it just feels like DCA The Circuit (as opposed to the individual orgs) is on a long decline.  So many of the big groups are now gone, and it's getting more and more difficult for corps to field.   :41_pensive:

Mike

It is sad and baffling at the same time.  Marching in a DCA corps is far more affordable and less demanding of your time than a DCI touring corps.  You can work a job, sleep in your own bed...  like the old days in juniors.   Maybe there are just too many other interests now to sustain two drum corps circuits.  

Edited by Terri Schehr
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In my part of the world, you can do indoor percussion for about the same cost and time commitment as DCA. Most of your 4 or 5 shows will be within 3 hours drive, and you actually have competition to compete against that is close to your level with WGI's different classes. The DCA corps though no fault of theirs. get 3 or 4 shows a year and all of them are very long bus rides.  And if you don't show up with  at least 45 horns at DCA  no matter how good your guard and drums are you will be non competitive in open class.  I have a tough time telling kids and parents why they should try DCA. I don't think DCA has a judging bias for non NE corps but geography plays a huge part in being able to get to shows spending half a day on a bus heading to a show while the other corps are practicing makes a big difference, it may mean adding another practice day somewhere in an already busy summer just to keep up with the others.  I hate to see this happening but MBI is dealing with the same thing.

 

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I just read on the kiltie Senior Facebook page that they are not again fielding this season. 

Edited by Jim Schehr
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Wow... this news about MBI doesn't just suck... it mega-sucks.

One of my favorite corps, on any level, for years now.

Not a good day here.

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5 hours ago, totaleefree said:

In my part of the world, you can do indoor percussion for about the same cost and time commitment as DCA. Most of your 4 or 5 shows will be within 3 hours drive, and you actually have competition to compete against that is close to your level with WGI's different classes. The DCA corps though no fault of theirs. get 3 or 4 shows a year and all of them are very long bus rides.  And if you don't show up with  at least 45 horns at DCA  no matter how good your guard and drums are you will be non competitive in open class.  I have a tough time telling kids and parents why they should try DCA. I don't think DCA has a judging bias for non NE corps but geography plays a huge part in being able to get to shows spending half a day on a bus heading to a show while the other corps are practicing makes a big difference, it may mean adding another practice day somewhere in an already busy summer just to keep up with the others.  I hate to see this happening but MBI is dealing with the same thing.

 

DCA sends judges around the circuit. Just last summer a few worked in Reading PA Saturday, then worked in Georgia the next day. Seemed to work out ok for CV

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18 hours ago, BigW said:

Good to see you around!

 

I can tell you the MBI vets were pretty strong musicians- delving back into the early 90's, they knew how to play, and play very well- it was more programming/design holding them back. Once they got the design straightened out, the rest is history. My guess is a lot of it with the vets was..... just getting older. I might be playing as well as I ever have right now, marching? Hah! :satisfied:

Thanks for the props, Dubya..  I'm still sitting here trying to wrap my head around this..For the 'centuries' I've been around MBI - I guess I'm trying to sort out my instinctive feelings and my emotional feelings about this.   My head slapper is how a group as sound and stable with it's incredible longevity of excellence (and YOU know as well as anybody that the brass caption was what the identity of the group until the late 90's) can have the anemic recruiting draw that is what is causing MBI to go inactive.  I think your idea of the vets 'just getting older' is a big part of it...or there may be other  things causing the discord of interest.   It looks as though my return to DCA may be unfortunately sidetracked for this Labor Day.

I'm looking forward to making more inquiries to the group of alums and vets to see if an unbiased idea or remedy can be found.  

 

Pat

  

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Some of this conversation happened last year, after everyone watching the DCI Minneapolis webcast was shocked (starting here) at how small MBI was. They managed to beef up a bit later in the season and easily made Finals, but after the Minneapolis show, there was some good discussion about their recruiting problems here:

Discussion of Minnesota Brass challenges in 2017

One key point made was that MBI was overly dependent upon a pool of long-time talented members who (coincidentally?) all had conflicts last year that prevented their participation--and when that happened, MBI didn't have a solid recruiting plan to fill the many gaps. I hope MBI can find a new model moving forward. If they can get a strong but small group of players to participate in DCI's SoundSport, as they are considering, that might be a good recruiting tool.

That would probably be a good topic for discussion here: how can all-age corps in general attract more members? There definitely seem to be more people trying out for DCI than end up participating in drum corps each summer. I don't think anyone could watch a top-six DCA performance from the past few years and not recognize that as great drum corps. And more participants would mean more strong corps.

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19 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

more people live in the region you mention that in MN. 

True, but still  literally three times as many corps. Yes, I get it, it's tough out there. Just sayin' that some people may think it's MUCH easier in the NYC to Philly area, but that's not necessarily the case.

 

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