Where did you start...

[laurasop]

For some reason my sister begged my parents to go see the senior drum corps show in Johnstown, NY in 1977 (I can't remember why she wanted to go) The following year we joined our first B class corps.

[kingsman1]

I actually started out playing violin in grade school. My father told me that if I would play an instrument provided by the school for one year he would let me play any instrument that I wanted . I played for the year then the next year I said that I wanted to play a trumpet but my father said that I was doing so well with the violin that I should continue. He just didn"t want to spend the money to get me a trumpet I reminded him of our agreement so he bought me a old beat up horn that I had to tape with scotch tape so it wouldn't leak air. We didn"t have the money for lessions so I taught myself to play and the rest is history. My dad was so impressed with me that he bought me a brand new trumpet my senior year in high sghool. my first organization I played with was a drum and bugle corps sponsered by the erepa groto. We played on g bugles with no valves. Each horn was voiced in a different medium such as soporano, tenor french bari. I was 10 years old

[CabsMelloGirl]

Both my sister and myself started in our high school program. She was a clarinet player who was moved to brass her sophmore to help fill holes, and a friend of my dad's that he worked with (several actually) are current members of Cabs (Alumni now) encouraged Dad to bring her to rehearsal one night. She was hooked, and marched from 95-03, including her age out with Bluecoats in 00. I joined the equipment staff in 97, and first put on a uniform in 98...originally to be part of a non-existent cymbal line (I'm a flute player by trade) and then was moved to mallets. The following season I was in latin section and then learned to play Mello to march on the field. I marched 98-03 (03 was spent in the "A" section due to time restraints with work) and this was my first season back since then.

[stuh]

Started in Drum Corps as a tenor horn player with the Black Knights or PeeWees as we were called from St. Peter area, most of us were from 7-13 years old playing single piston horns and hand me down drums from the Govenaires. I moved to baritone for a year or two and in the early 60's got one of those new Contra Bass Bugles and played it for the next 30+ years. I guess it could be called the Baby Boomer Corps now, cause as we aged the St. Peter Crusaders were formed for the now 14-21 year olds. Most of us moved on to the Govenaires after we got out of high school.

The really great thing about the program was the musical director for all three corps and Govenaires Drum Major was the high school band director Earl Erickson. The only marching band that existed was for the football season, the rest of the year everyone was in one corps or the other. If you marched corps you were expected to be in the high school concert band and pep bands for winter sports. He would rearrange the music for band so a lot of what you played was the same stuff you were going to play the next summer in corps. As I look back at it now the only bad thing was we had some really great female musicians in band that didn't get an opportunity to march corps other than guard. It wasn't politically correct as the time to allow them on the field with instruments.

The great thing about what started in the 50's & 60's is that it still goes on today, ya the two jr corps are long gone, the high school band director isn't in the corps or really work with it other than to facilitate rehearsal space and the like, but his son marched Phantom last year and has been with Chops (the alter Mayer ego corps) for many years. There have been dozens of kids over the past decades that have marched Madison, Phantom, Star, Bluecoats, Blue Devils, Vanguard, Colts, Sky Ryders, VK and others.

We have been fortunate here to have good people in the school programs that recognize it really doesn't/didn't make a difference what key you were in, as long as you were learning and making music that is all that mattered.

[Roger Ellis]

Donny said something interesting...he bet that the results of this poll would be completely different here than the WC thread. So...how many of you started in MB and how many in DC?

For clarification, if necessary, I said Marching Band...I meant school band. Since, I was in band for three years before doing marching band.

I started playing trumpet in the school band in the fifth grade, and played in school bands (concert bands, not marching) through ninth grade. My high school (grades 10-12) did not have a music program. Two of my buddies joined a drum corps and it took them a year to drag me in. I finally said yes - the rest is history. The band experience provided a great foundation for drum corps - I could read music well, had experience performing, and was an accomplished trumpet player who had taken private lessons for several years.

[hurcmello16]

I started playing trumpet in the 5th grade and really enjoyed it... I used to bring my horn to family functions and play for my family ( they ALWAYS acted like they liked it, but I'm convinced it was horrible coming from a 9 year old) Began marching in HS we had a corps style since our asst. Band Director was an ex-insructor for the Cadets (still named Garfield back in the late 70's/early 80's). I got a taste of the Drum Corps scene during my time in H.S. but was unable to join... for some reason my parents would not allow me . I waited until I got out of H.S. and found a Senior Corps to march with. Joined SKY in '85, marched there until I met my wife in '88... moved to Ct and joined the Hurricanes and had a blast since... retired in '03 and was called back to the corps for this past season with the aspirations of success and what a season for the Hurcs.... you all know how it unfolded

[LegalEagle50]

nice 1st post Steve!

[Jimbalaya]

I wuz gonna ignore this thread, but found it impossible.

I saw my first drum corps show in 1949. VFW nationals in Philly. I come from a drum corps family and grew up watching and hanging with corps from then onward. Played my father's G/D soprano (from the '30's) as a kid. If you remember a section of the History of Drum & Bugle Corps in which a certain writer stated that everyone played on straight G bugles (valveless) until the late '50's.........WRONG.....you then can imagine her historical ignorance of the activity. SORRY OT

I would sit in with various corps during my high school years and actually did one contest with Liberty Bell. During this time my focus was on studying trumpet, music and the genre's best suited to the instrument.

In '62 I decided to make a commitment and joined Archie........and never looked back.......AFO/OFA

J

Edited September 12, 2008 by Jimbalaya

[MrKlark]

Like Jimbayala, I was gonna ignore this but . . .

I actually attended my first drum corps show in the late 1950's when I was 9 or 10 years old - it was a Doremus show in Hackensack - with my mom and dad. My dad had been a member of a brass and drum marching unit while he was growing up in Cape May NJ before joining the Navy (I still have his old, silver Conn trumpet) and he had always talked about drumcorps. Anyway - I can't tell you anything about the show other than the fact that Holy Name was there - and the moment they came to the line - it was a night show under the lights - those uniforms were the most captivating thing I had ever seen....oh my god - I HAD to wear that uniform.

I played trombone in elementary school, then moved over to trumpet in Middle School (I didn't feel like carrying that big trombone case) where I was apparently not-so-hot because the director 'volunteered' me and another trumpet player to be the new Tuba players - so much for carrying a big case. Well this was actually pretty cool, 'cause we were the only ones and I didn't have to take it home! So I continued to play tuba up into High School, all the while attending local drumcorps shows but unable to join because I had no way to get to anyone's rehearsal sites at the time.

In my sophomore year, one of my classmates was showing some photos of herself and some friends in a colorguard uniform, and she mentioned drumcorps. I asked how she was involved and who she was with and by the next week, I was tagging along with her and her then boyfriend - and now husband who I still am friends with - to a little local drumcorps called the CW Townsmen from Wood Ridge NJ. Bill Camerer was the horn instructor and since there were no more Contras, believe it or not, he put me on French Horn. I played French Horn one year, and the following year moved over to 2nd soprano. But I didn't care - I got to go to shows as an actual playing member! And I got to rub elbows with and see some of the finest drum corps ever! We went to the alot of shows, but the Dream (as spectators) was the pinnacle - and I got to see Skyliners, Cabs, Hurricanes, St. Lucys, Chicago Cavaliers, and HOLY COW!! the Garfield Cadets.............

Well, the late 60s saw the breakup of many small corps, and the Townsmen were one of them. So many of us went off in different directions - many to the army, but some of us not yet old enough went to the Muchachos, some to Sac, and a few of us even went to Garfield. One late spring evening, a few of us went to a rehearsal in Garfield just to watch and get information about MAYBE joining, but after I was introduced to the director (Hugh Mahon) as a tuba player (by now I was in college as a music major, Tuba was my major instrument), I was almost immediately ushered over to the equipment truck and given a baby Getzen contrabass, then shown to a place in line with the rest of the Contra line. I was a CADET!!!!! A GARFIELD CADET!!!! With that totally awesome uniform!!!!! Words cannot express how honored I feel to have been in some way associated with the legendary names who were among my instructors and sometimes friends during those years: Jimmy D'Amico, Art Mura, Don Angelica, Dennis DeLucia, Bobby Hoffman, Pete and Jody Emmons, Huey Mahon, Ray Capicele, Larry Schillings, Frank Dorrite, Fred Sanford, John Sasso - does it get any better????

So of course as time marches on, and your time in Jr corps edges closer to that magical age of 'no more', I looked to the NY Skyliners as the next logical jump - however it was not to be - yet. I stayed with Garfield until I aged out and unfortunately for many years, alot of other 'real-life' things got in the way of my drumcorps life, but I left Garfield with a lifetime of memories, friends, and values which I still count today as the best times of my life.

So time marched on even if I did not, until in early 2002 a good friend (Bill Moore - who I had known through a number of other musical organizations) twisted my arm to come and play with Sky Alumni and a mini-corps that was forming under Jimmy D'Amico. And yet another aspiration came to pass - I became a part of the NY Skyliner family - how awesome.........to be able to play some of the most incredible music ever written and arranged alongside some of the finest talents that I had admired as I watched from the wings in Jr Corps - John 'Grass' Urspruch, Ruben Ariola, Wes Myers, Tommy 'Bucky' Swan, Carl Ruocco, Andy 'I used to be in Drum Corps?' Lisko.....the list goes on.

And the rest...as they say...is history. Today I am proud to be able to contribute in whatever small way I can to make certain that this activity continues, and can call all of the above mentioned gentlemen friends and mentors.

So - to whoever started this thread....I apologize for being so lengthy, but once I get started................well, you kinda get the idea..........

--Rich

Edited September 13, 2008 by MrKlark

[hurcmello16]

nice 1st post Steve!

boy you know me TOO WELL..... thanks Liz