mbandguy

Some comments to close this thing out, since I wrote the original post: First, its in percussion because the "bad" staff was a perc staff...no one else in the corps had it this bad; Second, yes I went to rehearsals and yes it was way over the line... I felt like "oldtimedrummer" was right there, because everything was the same, like the poor behavior, drinking, skipping rehearsals to sleep off hangovers, etc. I don't care how many people find the abuse to be an acceptable part of the activity, I'm going to stick with the guy who says its just bad teaching. Bottom line is, it does not get results to be abusive...not positive results anyway. My band director was known to the world as Satan...we were good in spite of him, but lacking true leadership, we never made it as far as we could have. I don't think anyone should feel comfortable arguing with the poster who spent 4 years in the US Marine Corps D and B corps...absolute perfection! To the band director who responded, thank you for stating your case so well....Amen! To the Canos Chick...I'm a little surprised at your response....this happened in your corps!

I just got back home from Denver, so am just catching up on replies to my original post. I did want to answer one question...has anybody actually seen it? YES...and to blend the response with other posts, the obscenity was constant, and the physical punishment was constant, and certainly would not be construed as "conditioning." However, the corps director did take care of it, and is cleaning house on a portion of the staff. As a music director, I can not afford to recommend an activity to parents of my students that will lead to bad situations, so I will do my part in my own small way, to see to it that corporal punishment is not a part of the activity anywhere!

While I am a life long band person, and have been watching Drum Corps for years, I have just recently becoming more involved in the activity. I have a child in a corps and the experience has done a lot for them personally. I was just wondering if it was a normal part of the activity for a tech to constantly scream obscenities about mistakes and issue physical punishments such as push ups or running line sprints or laps, regardless of the weather. Is this just something my child needs to learn to accept if continuing in drum corps is desired?