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Hey everyone! I'm not, strictly speaking new here, but it's been a couple of years so I'll say hi all over again.

My name is Rachel, I live in Sydney and am currently at university. I've played the french horn for some 6 years now, but never marched. And I'd dearly love to. So much so that I've looked into going on exchange to the states and hopping on the bandwagon as a mello. The plan is.. July 2010, exchange to UC Berkeley, join the Cal band, bootleg myself into SCV or BD. Am I mad? Absolutely.. dear god help me!

One more thing.. I'm actually freakishly short. Just under 5ft. Would that affect my chances of making it into a corps?

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Hi Rachel, I'm Will. It's great to see that there are some Drum Corps fans as far away as you. As to being short, there's nothing wrong with that. Some Corps have a height standard, but I've never heard about anyone being denied from a Corps on height alone. If I were you, I'd try to get my hands on a mellophone (if that's what you want to march with) sometime before you come over here, just for some practice, and go for it.

As well as SCV and BD, California also has a lot of other Corps.

In California you've got:

DCI World:

BD http://www.bluedevils.org

SCV http://www.scvanguard.org/

Mandarins http://www.mandarins.org

Pacific Crest http://www.pacific-crest.org

DCI Open:

SCVC

BDB

Impulse http://www.impulseyoutharts.org

Gold http://www.golddrumcorps.org/

Incognito http://www.themusiclife.org

Mystikal http://www.mystikalyoutharts.org

Velvet Knights http://www.vkyao.org

DCA Open:

Renegades http://www.renegades.org/blog/index.php

DCA Class A:

SoCal Dream http://content.socaldream.org/

Hope to see you posting more around here!

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Thanks for the suggestions Will! It's pretty crazy trying to source a mello in Australia, but I will look into it. Australia's not much of a band country :( To be honest, I almost got the band geek sucked out of me when I graduated from high school, so I have gone a period of half a year without practising.. eek.

Anyway, I've noticed various corps retiring their instruments. Do you think they would be game to sell one to me and ship it to Australia?

I'm really worried about not making it into a corps.. My birthday is Jan 1, 1990, so I'd only have one shot at making a dci corps, which is really what I want to do. It looks like open class corps are out of the question, because of my age, and I'd really rather march with people around my age. It's the intensity and challenge of putting together such a demanding show and doing that with a bunch of like-minded people that really appeals to me. And then the fact that it just looks so awesome. I sort of feel I wouldn't get that at quite the same level with a senior corps. Do correct me I've got that all wrong, I'd rather find out now than later!

So on second thoughts, I would be open to joining other corps around the country. Really, I'd have to be a genius to get an exchange place to berkeley, and I don't think I am quite that... My exchange options are limited to:

Case Western Reserve, OH

Louisiana State

Purdue, IN

Arizona ("very competitive")

California ("very competitive")

Georgia

Miami

North Carolina

Pennsylvania

Austin, Texas ("very competitive")

Washington

Wisconsin-Madison

I'd really like to find a university with a drum corps nearby and a marching band where I can work on my skills. If anyone knows anything about these universities, please help me!

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Case Western Reserve is a very good school...my oldest sister attended there, and I almost went there myself until I got a scholarship to Ohio State. With the location of CWRU, you are relatively close to the Glassmen (Toledo, OH--about 2 hours drive) and to the Bluecoats (Canton, OH--about an hour drive). I'm personally more of a Bluecoats fan myself...if you're looking to march with a corps that is more likely to make finals, I would go with them personally. :tongue:

Louisiana State has some very good programs as well. I think your closest World Class corps to there would be the Crossmen, or maybe Spirit.

Purdue is a great Engineering school I know, but not sure how well rated their other programmes are. There are a bunch of corps relatively close to there. Probably the closest are Glassmen (Toledo, OH), Phantom Regiment (Rockford, IL) and also Pioneer (Milwaukee, WI). Phantom is obviously the most successful of the three groups. Glassmen usually make top 12, but sometimes have an off-year. And Pioneer is usually near the bottom of the World-Class standings. If you have no marching experience, I would recommend maybe starting off with Pioneer to get a feel for the activity.

Wisconsin-Madison has a bunch of Corps in the general area. Pioneer, as I discussed before. Also the Blue Stars in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. They have made great strides the last several years, breaking back into the top 12. Also the Colts from Dubuque, Iowa. They have had trouble making the top 12 the last several years, but they're still a pretty decent group.

Also, there are a lot of smaller corps in Open class that you might want to consider.

http://www.dci.org/corps/list.cfm?class_id=2

There is a listing of Open Class corps.

I hope this information is helpful.

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Boston Crusaders have camps in Florida, so if you transferred to a Florida school, you may be able to march there. Austin is close to Crossmen, LSU is close to Spirit. Wisconsin will be close to Blue Stars and Madison Scouts.

From that list, you have a lot of options.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you so much guys! Sorry, uni's dragged me away from my little obsession for a bit. I was under the impression that the cavaliers were an all-male corps, but I just rang my horn teacher who used to live in the states and she's told me they're not. Purdue and Wisconsin are looking pretty good at the moment. Case Western would be an option, were it not for the fact that their marching band appears to be close to non-existent. :(

Actually, marching bands seem to be courses you need to take at university. Like another subject? Can someone please clarify that for me?

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Actually, marching bands seem to be courses you need to take at university. Like another subject? Can someone please clarify that for me?

Colleges that I am aware of (and it's been a while :laugh: ) have MB as an extra activity like a sports team. So you just take your regular course load and then perform/practice in what ever spare time you have. You just have to be a student to be a band member (just like a sports team). I'd say being in a MB would help being in a corps but the marching part would be over at the end of football season. There might be other groups you can try out for but don't know of any maraching except for football games.

Ok, OK, that's American football with that funny looking ball. :laugh::worthy:

Good luck from a guy who's 5'6" and still plays Bari

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..... I was under the impression that the cavaliers were an all-male corps, but I just rang my horn teacher who used to live in the states and she's told me they're not.....

Your horn instructor is mistaken. The Cavaliers are all-male as are the Madison Scouts.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh bummer (to marching being over after football). Mmm, I actually emailed the Penn State band director to find out what the go was and he said they usually preferred band be done as a general ed unit because the program was partially funded by the Arts faculty. Of course, it turned out Penn state does not equal UPenn :thumbup: I should have seen that coming.

Indeed, I did some further reserve on the Cavaliers and apparently they ONCE had a female in the colorguard. Or maybe my horn tutor is jsut confused about her friend's gender :P

Another burning question now (I'm still preferencing universities): Do you have to be black to attend an HCBU?? I'm looking at UNC A&T, but have noticed that it's an HCBU. I want to apply for UNCS, but we have to preference three universities within the UNC system to be allowed to apply there, so I'd rather go somewhere with a band (and engineering).

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Oh bummer (to marching being over after football). Mmm, I actually emailed the Penn State band director to find out what the go was and he said they usually preferred band be done as a general ed unit because the program was partially funded by the Arts faculty. Of course, it turned out Penn state does not equal UPenn :thumbup: I should have seen that coming.

Yeah, we're confusing like that... :thumbup:

Penn State = middle of nowhere and HUGE

UPenn - near big city of Philadelphia and still big

And about 200 miles away (I'm halfway in between).

Then we have a bunch of state funded colleges that are totally seperate from the others.

Another burning question now (I'm still preferencing universities): Do you have to be black to attend an HCBU?? I'm looking at UNC A&T, but have noticed that it's an HCBU. I want to apply for UNCS, but we have to preference three universities within the UNC system to be allowed to apply there, so I'd rather go somewhere with a band (and engineering).

Don't think you have to be black as I remember reading about a white football player at Grambling. But (for me anyway) being a minority on campus would be another big change to deal with along with living away from home and living in another country. Wonder what the UNC A&T advisor feels about that issue. Guess go with the engineering and go with any music program you can find.

Good luck...

Edited by JimF-3rdBari
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