Question...

[Eddie]

I'd honestly never heard of band directors not letting their students march until they're seniors. Seems like a stupid rule to me, and hardly enforceable. Where do they get off thinking they can restrict what a student does with their time outside of class?

direct quote from my high school band director:

"If you march drum corps, you're not marching in my band."

[XmenBlondie]

I would say that it strongly depends on the school and the director. If they themselves have a drum corps background, or if they have staff members that do (which a lot teach both anymore), then they can hardly steer you away from it. Especially when they see what kind of leaders, strong performers, and young adults that drum corps can help to develop.

I know that when I was in high school, it wasn't discouraged. In fact we had a handful of kids march Cadets and Crossmen mostly, almost every year when I was a member, and even when I graduated and came back to teach. A lot of our staff was with those corps at the time as well. If anything, it helped to encourage hard work and dedication to being excellent among the rest of the organization.

[Piper]

I find these types of topics interesting because I never marched band before. Drum Corps is all I ever knew. With that said, most band directors that I've spoken with seem to encourage their kids to pursue their talents in Drum Corps. They also expect them to return to the band more refined and set an example for the rest of the members. Am I wrong?

[IllianaLancerContra]

In the real olden days (like the 60s) it was sometimes not encouraged for brass players because some corps did not teach good brass technique. To be honest, many of the instructors back then were not professional music educators. They tought how they were taught. That is one reason SCV burst onto the scene w/ high success - Royer knew how to teach good technique.

[MagicBobert]

direct quote from my high school band director:

"If you march drum corps, you're not marching in my band."

If that's the director's attitude, it doesn't sound like a band worth marching in, to be honest.

[BigSnareline]

This could likely go on either this or the Open Class Forum, but I wanted to start here:

I know that many high school band director's do not allow their student's to consider drum corps until they are seniors (if at all).

3 Questions:

1. Is it possible that this is hurting membership numbers of many Open Class Corps?

2. If so, do you think Open Class Authorities would consider breaking away from Open Class a bit by holding an end of July Championship event, which would coincide with the beginning of many summer band camps rather than compete.

3. What would be other benefits/drawbacks of moving away from Open Class. (Try to Avoid Cpt. Obvious statements, please:-)

...

Never heard of such nonsense. Band directors don't have any say in whether their students try out for corps or not. That decision lies with the kid's parents.

[Toby]

I've run into programs where the director can kill any leadership positions the kids had before they went to corps. It really does depend on the director's background. I was just happy I had directors who pushed for the kids to go and march.

[TerriTroop]

direct quote from my high school band director:

"If you march drum corps, you're not marching in my band."

My senior year in high school my director tried to pull something like this. He told me I couldn't be drum captain if I marched corps. I told him I would gladly step aside if that's what the band needed. When I got back, I was still drum captain. Granted that was 23 years ago (yow, hurts to type that number!), so things may be very different now.

If more kids marched corps, bands would have more leaders, more talent, and more dedication to the work within the ensemble. I'd take that any day over having 100% attendance at summer band camp if I were in their shoes.

[Metheny]

I'd honestly never heard of band directors not letting their students march until they're seniors. Seems like a stupid rule to me, and hardly enforceable. Where do they get off thinking they can restrict what a student does with their time outside of class?

Believe it or not...some bands "discourage" their students marching dci...especially bands that have huge active programs. Its sad, but true.

[euphononium]

i've definitely heard of this problem before, especially in the area i'm from... we have a failing marching band circuit that is stuck in the 1980's in every way, but for some reason, the band directors are totally clueless. when i told my band director that i was auditioning for a div. 1 drum corps he said "psh, yeah right." well, i made it in, marched a few years, and i haven't spoken a word to him since. most of them frown upon drum corps so much so that they barely make note to their kids that there is a dci show in town.

it used to be a great show - cavaliers, cadets, vanguard, colts - all corps that are run very well and that you can learn SO MUCH from just watching an hour of rehearsal. attendance has been so low the last few years it scares me. it makes me angry because this area could grow so much and it's all been right in the palms of their hands for YEARS. i teach the most progressive band in the area and we suffer competitively because of the things we're trying to change.

it really does come down to the ego thing, i think. the band directors around here are so in love with their terrible programs and dwindling numbers. they think that it doesn't get any better than high school marching band a la 1984 and it can never, ever change. i'm one of the lucky ones that realized it is a waste of time. i ###### everybody off by marching dci and i'm a better person than all of them because of it.