cabalumsw Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 Believe it or not, the Recreation department of the town I lived, Old Bridge NJ, started an activity that was simply called color guard and evolved into drum and bugle corps. Kids were taught the basics of marching and were later given a choice to march in color guard and carry flags, rifles or sabres or learn to play drums or bugles. Walter Kelly was drum instructor and Sonny Cataneo was horn instructor. Leo Ahern, a former member of St. Vinnies, and Larry Goerke were directors. The kids became proficient enough to play and began marching in parades and the name of the corps became the Emerald Lancers. It was a great concept and if not for that program, I probably would never have been exposed to drum corps and march eventually with St. Lucy's and the Caballeros. The Emerald Lancers formed in 1964 and lasted until the early 1970s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Argul Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 Well, my first instrument was the clarinet which I played in the 4th grade. I then joined the St. Andrew's Kidets in 1973 as a baritone player (cause they had enough drummers, and I was 'too big' to play the soprano) Ah, the look on my parents faces when I walked in the door with that beautiful Olds piston rotor horn, with no case! My grandmother actually sewed me a case out of a pillow case and some elastic! Believe it or not! The rest is history! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow_7 Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 School band of course. Knew about that in 4th grade, wasn't allowed to do it until 6th grade. Didn't hear about drum corps until 10th grade. Was in a marching band that didn't use trombones, so I played baritone in 9th grade. First marched parades in Jr. High 7th grade. Learned to read treble clef in 8th grade, as my younger brother tried to take up trumpet. For about six weeks. Had the horn, had the book. Also had a neighbor who played organ in church, so I had access to tons of treble clef notated music via the neighbor. All BEFORE drum corps. Marched in a DCI corps five years, with a 6th year on cooking staff. Dropped out of college, joined the army band. Needed a job, wanted to get far away from California. Mainly because in Cali, $5 buys a whopper Jr. (only), in places like Georgia, at that time $5 got you a steak dinner. And army pay kind of sucked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomPeashey Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 drum corps first... started grade school trumpet lessons to learn to sight read and improve my chops... switched to French Horn... upon entry into High School... I joined the VERY bad HS band... and as soon as the jerk found out I was in drum corps was TOLD you will quit drum corps now... He's still trying to figure out what I meant when I told him he could uncurl my French horn and put it where it properly belongs... I was friends with his daughter - she got it right away.. I spent the rest of high school emphasizing voice and music and left brass for drum corps... When the jerk finally retired, he was replaced by Ed Lisk - a REAL band director... and the Oswego High School band became one of the elite bands in NY and remains that way today... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martybucs Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 I started in 1964 playing G/D soprano with piston/slide setup. I got pretty good. By the time I left Catholic School, (which didn't have a music program), to go to a public high school, (Penncrest, the site of Archie's show this weekend), I was looking forward to taking instrumental music in 9th grade. School started and I looked forward to the class. I was warming up and hitting some high notes and showing off when the band director came into the first class and called the class to order. I had never had any music lessons and I had taught myself the notes on the staff and values and how to read simple music. I wasn't ready for the fact that most of these kids had been reading music for several years and I got smoked. The band director asked me after class why I wasn't playing much and I told him I couldn't read so well. He told me I played pretty well, "where did I learn that?" I told him that I was in a drum and bugle corps. Then he told me that by the 9th grade students were expected to be able to read music at a certain level and if I was just going to sit there and hold the horn, it wasn't doing any good. I told him that I never really had a reason to read music before and that I would get better fast. He asked if I was going to take trumpet lessons to learn how to read and I told him we couldn't afford lessons. He sat there quiet for a few moments and pulled a gold colored card from his desk. He wrote me a transfer out of his class and told me that when I could prove to him that I could read music at the level they were at I could rejoin the class. I took the card in disbelief and stood there. He asked if I had a question and I asked, "I thought I was going to learn that stuff in this class. That you would teach it." He told me his class was beyond that point and I would be holding the class back if he had to stop to explain stuff to me. I told him I could pick it up and he wouldn't have to stop the class. He told me to stop arguing with him and to take the card to the office and they would assign me to another type of class. Mr. Holland...he wasn't. Really, really soured me on the whole band thing. Then I had to explain to all the other kids why I wasn't in the class anymore. I pretty much told them that the director didn't want to teach me. Some numb nuts told the director that and I got called into the vice principal's office where I was accused of lying about a teacher and got a week of detention. Never got to tell my side of the story to the vice principal. However, everyone in the school thought he was great - a wonderful teacher. The fact that he wouldn't teach me colored my opinion of him and the whole school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonHill Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 Jr. High Marching Band, which I only joined at the time because a free trip to Disneyland sounded nifty-keen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnZ Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 Since I posted in the wrong thread - I started out in our school band program in elementary school (trumpet), but did not make the cut for the marching band the year I started HS - had to be in the marching band in order to be in the music program at the time, so I was out of the music scene. I took up drum corps right after that to fill the void and improved my playing skills on soprano. Two years later I was asked to come back to the marching band. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigscontrachik05 Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 Drum Corps. School Bands don't exist in Quebec, not around my time anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolf1 Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 High School Marching Band. It helped that my first year we played: Overture to New Era Egyptian Danza (drum solo) Russian Sailors Dance (concert) Jupiter from The Planets Early 80's band trying to be a late 70's drum and bugle corps. Awesome! It also helped that our band director sent a few kids to 27th Lancers in the late 70's.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairbear Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 i spent one day in the 7th grade band,with a tuba.it was not fun.then i discovered drumcorps.it WAS fun. one day with a tuba should not count. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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