JimF-LowBari

Growing too fast to read it all. If age is the concern has anyone mentioned All Age or Alumni corps? Edit: After re-reading it appears you will only accept being with a top corps as only Boston and Cadets are mentioned. Care to explain if this is true and if so why.

Heh and I was being a bit of a stinker <$1 to Bugs Bunny> when I asked. I've just seen too many posts where people claim corps is the experience and never give credit to the unique brass/percussion sound. DrumcorpsFan27 and dbc03s posts about this pretty much match what has been discussed. Only difference is they had a civil discussion. For the record, to me DC is a combo of the unique sound and experience. But then again I played piston/rotor so part of my experience was people asking "What the #### is that?" at parades and other non-DC settings. So the instrument I was playing made me different from the MB world.

Never did Mike, just getting opinions on which one is harder. s/ Some guy who is very uncreative unless he's writing computer programs or scripts.

Good many of the proposed rule changes over the last few years have to do with designing the show. For example adding instrumentation was justified because the designers were "stifiled"(sp) in what they could do. And going to 150 members will open up drill and music design possibilities. So two related questions: Is show design one of the major reasons for the changes to DCI in the last few years? Should show design drive major changes to DCI? As for the "Harder to Design" question. Is it more creative to design a show when you have a broad selection of things to work with (amps, vocals, electronics). Or is it more creative to design within a stricter set of rules (no amps, etc). Heard discussion both ways so will open the floor here.

Any idea if that was the one at the NY Worlds Fair in 1964-65? If I remember right it was Uniroyals contribution to the Fair. Might have a pic of it somewhere. #### I'm old, I was at that Fair when I was in elementary school. :( Also first time I saw grits was when the corps went to New Orleans in 1978 and grits were on the breakfast buffet. Following as I remember it. Contra in front of me: What are those? Guy behind counter: Those are grits. (pronounced greeets) Corps member behind me (muttering): What the <Hades> are greeets?

Misread post - thought John was saying start a new organization with new corps. Problem is how many corps would be left in each organiztion and would there be enough to do what is needed? Let's remember DCI broke off from AL/VFW when there were a few hundred corps. Now there is only a few dozen.

Note: This isn't directed to dbc03, the post is just a good starting post. More important question, if corps don't really use bugles then does adding instruments other than brass and percussion really matter? Good question for the people making the decisions. PS - I'm back playing and following corps because I love the unique brass and percussion combination. And if the Mummers or bagpipe bands don't see the need to add new types of instruments then why DCI?

Westshoremen Alumni use whatever the players have or can borrow. It's a mix of Bb and Gs but I don't know the percentages. Then again it's 60+ horns inside the Forum and you can't tell true tone when your ears are bleeding. ^0^

There are a few people I know personally who skip a few years or can never make it anymore. Reasons are mainly family responsibilities like playing U-Haul taking kids to school or long distance family get togethers. I'm sure it's a small percentage of the people who do show up. And when I posted about students I was thinking about corps members. When I was in college I had to skip corp practice the week before DCA to attend MB camp. Luckily two other corps members were in the band and one had a car to drive back and forth. Welcome to the All Age/Sr side of DCP.... :)

Ooops, forgot to mention three things. Guess my fingers were tired from the typing. First practice of the year is next Sunday the 14th at AL Post #14 from 2-5. If you want to see what the corps looks like check out www.netrax.net/~myersk/pic_week.htm. The green uniforms are the standard unis and the black t-shirts and pants are the summer unis. If you are undecided and want to check out the corps first, practices are open.

OK Tom that was me speaking out of not knowing any better and I apologize. And I never thought it would be an easy process to look. The car show I mentioned looked for a new spot years ago and came back so disgusted it was never tried it again. Good to hear that DCA is proactive in finding sites. Lot of my concern comes from DCA being a three day instead of a Sunday only event like it used to be.

Or, if the sound isn't loud enough just turn a knob instead of getting the player(s) to gut it out to play louder. IOW, control taken away from the players and given to techie staff.

The Hanover Lancers started in 1920 at American Legion Post #14. Now 87, yes 87, years later the Lancers are getting ready to start another season of parades and exhibitions. The corps has an age range of teenage to 70+ and does not require previous Drum Corps experience. The corps is not large but is very proud of it's history and is looking for anyone who is willing to put in the time and effort needed to continue the tradition of being "Hanovers Musical Ambassadors". And if you haven't played for a while but thinking of returning, it's not a problem. More than one member joined after not playing for many years. In my case I hadn't touched any horn in 15+ years and will be starting my 4th season with the corps. 2007 Rehearsal Schedule (All rehearsals 2-5 PM at AL Post #14 Hanover, PA) Jan 14, 28 Jun 10, 24 Feb 11, 25 Aug 12, 26 Mar 11, 25 Sep 9, 23 Apr 15, 29 Oct 21 May 20 Performances Mar 10 - Harrisburg, PA St Pats Parade Mar 17 - York, PA St Pats Parade May 5 - Winchester, VA Apple Blossom Festival (concert and parade) May 28 - Hanover/Gettysburg, PA Memorial Day parades Jun 2 - Lancaster, PA Firemans Conv parade Jun 16 - Gettysburg, PA Brass Band Festival (concert) Jun 30 - Havre de Grace, MD 4th of July parade Jul 4 - Dundalk/Towson, MD 4th of July parades Oct 6 - Millersville, PA parade Oct 25 - Hanover Halloween parade Plus two tentative (at the present) concert performances As you can tell the corps has a good many performances and is always looking for people to help the corps do it's best. If any questions feel free to PM or email me. If emailing please put "Lancers" somewhere in the subject line so I don't delete by accident.

Adam to explain my first comment: The MB activity, especially in my area, has seen a marked growth in interest over the last 10-20 years. (10-20 years as a starting point pulled out of my ### so to speak). Local papers cover the Championships for multiple days with many pictures. Can't compare number of competing bands or their sizes over the years as I have no idea. Compare that growth to what has gone on in DCI over the same period. If I remember right DCI almost went broke during that period. Just get the idea some DCI heads came up with "We need to change if we need to survive" and picked MBs as something that works to copy ideas from. Not sayin I agree with it, just an idea that sounds plausible to me. Agree with what you posted, especially the financial end. Unfortunately I don't think some of the people running DCI see it the same way. However I can see the 150 member proposal as a way to bring in more dues money.

Nah Drum Corps died in 1971, didn't you read the t-shirts Mike. Seriously I gave Drum Corps about 5-10 more years back in the 1990s. Most of that thankfully bad prediction was because DCA had 13 corps show up for prelims and costs were getting out of hand. To show you how bad my crystal ball is, the last two years were the biggest for DCA Prelims ever.

Have to agree with this even if it's not entirely for reasons I like. More I read and think about it I believe DCI is going for a target group (marchers and audience) of Junior age people and their families. After these people hit 22, if they want to keep following DCI it's OK. But if they decide to quit following then DCI really doesn't care as they have a new group of people coming up. Reason for thinking this has a lot to do with DCI getting closer to MB format with the last few years of rule changes. PS - Manedible, if you get a chance check out any B.P. (before pit :P) show which is early 80s. It will help you realize how much things have changed over the years. If it ain't to your liking, no problem. Just consider it a history lesson.

Have the arthritic toes and one big toe joint replacement to prove it. :(

Oh I love the title of that book. :P Can just image walking up to some teenager at Barnes & Noble and asking for it. They'd probably send me to "Excitement Video" (local porn store). :P

Ever try to "put yourself in the other persons head"? I try to do it when the new rule proposals come out each year. Came up with a few things while trying to play DCI BoD member. When amp proposal went up few years ago (should be buried in my old posts): "Number of people involed in Drum Corps is going down, while Marching Band number is going up. MB must be doing it right and DC is not. Soooo, we have to do it the same way MB does it". When reading current proposals: "We need to get more young people interested in trying out for Drum Corps. Way to do it is for Drum Corps to look like Marching Bands which they are used to." "Target audience in the stands is people age eligible for Jr corps and their families. This audience is only there for a few years as after they hit 22 they don't come back to play or watch. Soooo, the target audience doesn't have time to get used to something "different" like DC used to be. Answer is get DC looking more like MB." And something for years I thought/think too many DCI directors have believed/still believe: "Drum Corps is just another musical activity for young folks. There isn't any "real" difference between DC and MB so it doesn't matter wha the #### we change."

Oh crap, I did read that somewhere.... Best guess is Picks-burgh got the H out from the 40s to 60s. Reason was some stupid tailed "rule" (can't remember from who) that only cities with a certain sized population could have the "H" in the name. Either Pitssburgh grew enough to earn their "H" or got a waiver from ???????. But what do I really know. My old college (Indiana, PA) got put on the NCAA Death List because of it's non-PC name Big Indians. Last I heard they finally picked "Crimson Falcons" but some guy has a semi-porn site with a character by that name (or something). We might be the "Jumping Jimmys" (for Jimmy Stewart) yet. ^0^

And the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team was named because they used to "pirate" (aka steal) players from other teams back around 1900 or so. Tidbit I picked up when I went to a game many moons ago......

Missed Finals and broke up for the next 20 or so years.....

Heh, and the original intent of grounding the tymps in a pit was to free up three drummers to play other (marching) percussion. Interesting how things develop over time.

OK thanks, reread the O.P. and think I understand now. There was a thread a while back about why corps don't move up and somehow thought this was a repeat. Good topic as corps I was with went from last place at DCA Prelims (inactive year before) to 5th place at Finals in a 7 season span. Reason for improvement was mainly long term planning by corps BoD. Also #### good luck when a close by corps folded and lot of talented people joined us and greatly improved a weak part of the corps.

If by develop you mean move up a Division how do we know if a corps wants to move up? When I marched there were a lot of smaller Sr corps that wanted to stay small. These corps chose long term survival instead of taking a chance of getting big and breaking their budget. If you look at DCA today it appears to be going the same way again.