The Other Mike Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 my HS band director REALLY hated drum corps. "It's a waste of time" and "it's not REAL music" were his biggest complaints. 1 day in the band room, I played 88 Blue Devils on the stereo for some classmates. "Wow, who is that" asks my band director? "A bunch of people wasting their time, not playing real music" was my answer.... Yeah, I'm a smart ###. From one smart ### to another: Job well done. My freshman year of high school I sucked big time and sat last chair. After 2 years in corps I learned to pull my head out of my ### as well as to play fairly well. By my senior year I was writing shows and basically had my run of the band room as well as getting out of any class to go "work on something" in the band room. Heck, way back in 72 my band director would say " Man, I'd love to have a line of those bugles in the band". Most of the band directors in New Orleans were very open to corps members being in band because of the pride and spirit they brought with them. My senior year of high school we had at least 16 kids in a 90 piece all guys band that marched corps and several different corps at that. Ther was no end to the practial jokes and taunting of each other that we brought into the band but it was all in good fun. I think what many band directors are afraid of is the fact that in the past, once a kid marched corps it was hard to keep them interested in band. Band directors who have never marched or taught corps don't always realize the advantage corps members can bring to the band program and often are afraid of being embarassed by the corps members knowledge about many things but mostly marching. If they learn to take advantage of it, it works for the best but all too often they don't. Personally, I give any kid who marches corps an officers position and put their experience to use. If they march a top 12 corps I treat them as a student teacher. It's all about using every possible means to better each student AND the program as a whole. Sometimes we as band directors need to remember that we are also responsible for teaching future teachers HOW to teach. Had my band directors and horn instructors not given me the chance to run a practice or write arrangements and learn some things first hand, I doubt I would have become as sucessful as I have. THATS why I say I learned more about teaching in corps than I did in college. The long nights on tour listening to the staff and picking their minds was a wealth of knowledge not gained anywhere else. AND, for that Music Lit. professon, The "Happy Farmer" from "Scenes from a Childhood" IS in fact what they used as a basis for Toto's them in the wizard of Oz. Flunk me ? Fluck YOU Dr. Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madd227 Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 My director is glad I'm marching when I'm not around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zackiedude Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 So I have a secret.. I like to play loud. I had a percussion focus in college, and during band the band director would always scold me for playing too loud. He scolded me, telling me that drum corps just teaches you how to play loud and not how to refine techinque and blend well. I tried to explain to him that I did guard at drum corps, but he didn't allow me to finish what I was saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-Swiss Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 My director marched 75 Scouts, and my asst. director marched 00 southwind, i think it was, and was on staff at SCV. They both had nothing but encouragement for me when i told them i wanted to march corps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToferVis Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 AND, for that Music Lit. professon, The "Happy Farmer" from "Scenes from a Childhood" IS in fact what they used as a basis for Toto's them in the wizard of Oz.Flunk me ? Fluck YOU Dr. Martin Past aggression coming out, eh? lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piper Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 (edited) One time I had to pick up my niece at high school. My wife and I had gotten there early and the band was still practicing on the field, so we parked ourselves in the bleachers to watch the rehersal and they were pretty decent. Afterwards I asked one of the kids what corps she was in. She was astonished and said "How did you know I was in a corps?", and I said "Because when everyone was told to return to their set, you were the only one who ran". BULLSEYE...SCORE...YES !!!! I smiled all the way home. Edited May 21, 2008 by Piper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowtown Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 After a quick purse… I’m still left wondering why DCI is so band focused when many of the top bands are anti-d/c…and what DCI is doing to change the mind of these band directors Never had a teach rub me for d/c, did have one that gave me a free pass in shop class after seeing me march, it was almost like he was my groupie after that, very strange could give a toss about what my band teach thought Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mingusmonk Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 How's this for a twist? My band director was corps-saavy. He personally took me to my first show in 1986 (and many there-after). His son had marched Phantom with a handfull of his classmates. But he never let anybody do drum corps while hey were a member of his band program. He wasn't about to run 2 sets of rules for different sets of kids. I couldn't miss my final concert band performance on a Friday or I (and another friend I was marching with) would have been failed. The problem was, The Bluecoats were having their drill camp in Baltimore that weekend. We did the concert, and then drove straight through the night from Indiana to B'more to arrive late. We had notified our caption head. But we were late enough that we were threatened with being kicked off the corps. Looking back, that was a fairly insane idea and I'm shocked that my parents let me do it. But they did. Anyhow, he taught through most of the 90's as well and never did have a student do drum corps while in his band. And he certainly had the talent. Of his students, I know of 3 that marched PR, 8 that marched Star (1 IE winner), and 8 that marched Bluecoats. This was a school that had about 80 kids in the band at any given time. So it's not always and elite, anti-drum corps thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cellopitmello Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 The guy that was my band director my freshman year was actually one of the guys that introduced me to DC, when the old-coot who had previously left to be an administrator returned my sophomore year he didn't really have a choice in influencing my participation as i had already started marching. He couldn't complain cause i was the best percussionist he had, and i was really a cellist that joined the band to broaden my horizons before being a music major. Luckily for me, my studio prof. is very supportive of doing ANYTHING musical outside of the University and has several students march high-end drumlines. However, i have a number of friends that are WW majors and play brass instruments in corps and keep it a secret as their profs claim it will "ruin their embesure" (spelling don't kount). But i guess a plus is that i go to a university that claims to have a "drum corps style" marching band and pushes out more band directors than any other type of teacher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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