SACMellos2010

Dont make a life decision like this one at 16 based on your girlfriend!!!

It is great to see the enthusiasm and interest you have in marching Drum Corps as it is an activity that has had a great impact on so many people throughout the years. I do think you need to write down your goals and then create a plan of action to achieve them. I would place it where you read it daily and it allow it to become part of your being if marching drum corps is truly your dream. From this side of the fence it appears you have a dream of marching in the Madison Scouts. What are the 3 primary goals you must accomplish to achieve your goal??? 1. Become a good enough Tuba player to make it through the audition process. To do this you must improve all aspects of your playing abilities and make sure you are doing your best to adopt the Madison Scout brass approach. 2. Get yourself in strong enough physical shape to make it through auditions as well as minimize the risk of injury during a season. To do this I would recommend starting your day with a workout and then doing a longer workout after school or in the evening. 3. To raise the funds not only for the tuition cost but also for spending money throughout the summer while on the road. To do this you need to figure out what fits into your schedule around school and the above 2 preparation goals that gets you to the needed amount of money. I am sure you have other things in mind but in my opinion if you fully commit to the 3 above you can achieve your ultimate goal. But you cannot have any excuses and must simply find a way to get all 3 of them done.

If Scouts are where you want to be then work your butt off and go march Scouts. I know that staff well and if you work hard and show you are fully bought in then you will have a very high likelihood of earning a spot in their hornline. Do not be afraid to fail but instead commit fully and you will have a much better chance of success!!

First was making finals in 1985 and the way we were told we made it in Finals. But the most memorable has to be last August performing as the Alumni corps to a stadium of fans that went crazy!

You cannot compare the Phillies or any other sports team to a drum corps season because in baseball it is not up to a group of human judges with individual preferences or the possibility of being influenced.

Sam- Did some more checking and not a legit story. May keep that knowledge to yourself if it would be a detriment to business but wanted to pass along the information.

I aged out in 1992 and was around in 1993 and that was news to me so I sent a text to a longtime hornline vet and a percussion instructor and they did not remember it either. As they both said that was a longtime ago but thought they would definitely remember if 5 people were to leave during season. Contrary to most people's beliefs we tended to have a difficult time with having a full corps so to lose 5 would be very hard to fill at that point. IN 1992 we didn't march a full corps until Preview of Champions in Nashville. Maybe she is for real but just sharing what was shared with me.

I believe the answer and a real life example was displayed last year with the Madison Scouts. 15th place corps brings in a Hall of Fame staff and you see where they placed. And yes age and experience of the members has a lot to do with the programming that can be designed as well as time in the program.

I am sure their brass staff will get the Bluestar sounds out of the Jupiter line. I will say I did enjoy playing the Yamaha mello with a Hammond 5mpv mouthpiece. And as I whole I thought everyone in our line and in front of our line was happy with the playability and quality of sound of each of the Yamaha instruments. JMO

InspaDave- not during full ensemble. Hornline was always watch the drum major and play with their hands.

There was a drum corps out of Bloomington Indiana that seemed to play well together and never used a Dr Beat at rehearsal in our drum corps years. We did try it a little this year and we were a complete ensemble bag until we turned it off and went back to "Watch the drum major and play with the hands". The whole Dut thing I know has been used by drumlines but seems to have gotten a little louder than needed. Seems that it used to be just for the snareline to key off of and was subtle yet now it seems some center snares are hoping the ensemble judge at the top of the stadium awards some effect points for projection:) HAHA JK

Mellophonium- No BD didn't win outright in '91. We had 4 Jim Otts hanging in corps hall until just a couple of years ago when a new corps came to make it their home.

Thanks guys! I am going to look them up!

I wish them luck and hope this works out to add another drum corps to DCI. I did have questions as I went through the website but do hope this is legitimate and successful. The two biggest things that jumped out to me was the audition fee must be in CASH??? And the other was at the end of the first weekend they are going to announce who is in the corps for the summer. I do hope they get a lot of potential members to audition so they can at least keep 200 after the first weekend with a target of 150 marching members. I think it is very fair to say that they could lose that many from the first weekend up until they leave for tour. It is great to dream big and I hope they achieve what they want as about 25 years ago there was a dream in Bloomington, IN that worked out great for me and many others. I will say that even with all the experience we had on our initial staff we were hard pressed to find 128 by the time we left for tour. If that is how this begins in December I hope those in the leadership positions will stay committed to making it happen. Good luck!!!

These were two students of my dad's and taught drum corps for many years. If my memory serves me correctly Mike Turner was a guard instructor with the Scouts and Mike Back was a percussion instructor with the old Spirit of Atlanta. Does anyone know where either of them currently resides or if they are still involved in drum corps. I know Turner is not with Scouts.

I know I will probably leave one or two people off this list..... Josh Talbott, Brian Soules, Ben Harloff, and Matt Harloff (one as DM) all won four Jim Ott's... 90-93... sorry if I left anyone out of the list.

As has been covered we used the same line of King G bugles from 1985-1993 of the drum corps years. I thought they played great and loved my King G two valve Mellophone!!!!! I will also add that I did enjoy playing the 204 Yamaha F Mellophone with the combination of a Hammond 5 MPV mouthpiece:)

Ditto to what was just said above in the 1992 response was not nearly as much about happy for the Cadets as it was happy that Star of Indiana was not going to win. As for Cadets applause...... 1983 "East, East...." 1984 during Z-pulll... and 1987 as has been said prior in the thread. I am happy to have experienced all of them and was part of the crowd that was screaming and throwing babies:)

Just because someone auditions for a corps and is not asked to come back doesn't mean they are any less talented or "not good enough" to be in the line. There have been many good players be cut from one corps and end up at another because of either a style or personality fit. I know of a few fantastic players that we did not ask back over the years for different reasons that had nothing to do with their playing ability. And we also had players that were not fantastic that were incredible members and did their job perfectly. It is like assembling any type of team. You have your stars and then you surround them with role players to mold into a fantastic team. You are not going to take 32 lead trumpet players and jell them together when only 12-15 are going to get to play lead. Add to that many great players can only play standing or sitting and there is no way they will be as good on the move. Lastly, I am not going to argue who won or who should've won in any year in DCI history but there are many instances where it is very debatable and I have not seen enough drum corps in the past decade to fairly argue the results. I will leave that up to the rest of you but congrats to the Blue Devils on 2 consecutive championships!!

When I think of drum corps I think of PB&J during snack with grape koolaid!!!

I guess it cannot be "officially" called a merger but in reality our success in making finals in 1985 came from a merger of 3 entitities. The newly formed Star of Indiana, Pride of Cincinnati, and a large contengent from the Bridgemen!!! That gave a huge boost and allowed us to field a full corps for 1985 and then the organization grew from there. I think it is sad to see any drum corps have to become inactive or fold and wish DCI was adding corps versus the major shrinking that has impacted the activity.

This is very close over that entire period but I will give the nod to Crown although the bulk of that for me comes from the 2008-2010 period with BD being a very close second. Splitting hairs obviously but Crown is more what I enjoy from an approach and sound standpoint but you can never argue with how the devils brass play.

Hrothgar15- If that is you with the arrow pointed to you let me say that seeing your reaction the first time I watched the video of our performance made it all worth it to me!!! Thank you and for all the fans that gave us the welcome we received coming onto the field and then the reaction throughout our performance. It still makes the hair on my arms stand up! Thank you!!

What atlvalet said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"And this years Kenny G award for high woodwinds goes to ________________" Ahhh I hope that isn't the case:)