What is it about drum corps...

[kauliflower]

First of all, apologies for opening the biggest can of worms ever. But let me explain myself. I'm from Australia, hence any contact with drum corps is purely over the internet and a horn tutor who has friends who've been in drum corps. As I've explained in the new members section, I'm planning to come to the US on university exchange in the July 2010 and audition for the 2011 season for a rook-out place on mello. I know what I (think) I want to be part of drum corps, but I've never been in one, so over to you :)

[BozzlyB]

Wow, there's a thousand ways to answer this question. It's impossible to pinpoint one specific thing. It's the people, the performing, the challenge, the compettition, the team effort, the education, the accomplishments, etc... One could go on forever. One thing that definitely does NOT bring one back to drum corps (usually) is the food.

[KarmicCloud]

One thing that definitely does NOT bring one back to drum corps (usually) is the food.

*DISAGREE*

[Fran Haring]

It's impossible to pinpoint one specific thing. It's the people, the performing, the challenge, the compettition, the team effort, the education, the accomplishments, etc... One could go on forever.

Good answer!!!!!

I've said it before......despite all the changes in the activity over the years, the "core experience" of drum corps has remained the same for me: Performers giving it their all in rehearsal and in competition, drum corps members bonding and forging friendships... including some lifelong friendships... and fans coming out to cheer on their favorite corps or performer(s).

Bottom line..... I'm just happy drum corps is still around.

Fran

[MDBaritone]

The pushups, the heat, the bugs, waking up early, sleeping on buses.

[OdeToArsenal47]

The thing that gets me so interested about not only drum corps but all of the marching arts is the competition and the entertainment.

The competition aspect is one of my main motivators. I love to win. I didn't play any sports growing up because they all were expensive. I started band in elementary school because I really really wanted to and my dad found a saxophone in the pawn shop. When I got to high school, marching band gave me the chance to vent all of my competition built up for years and years. In the area where my band is from, competition gets really fierce and the top bands around here are all very intense and very historic. I always hear about the fierce rivalries, like BD and Phantom in 08, or the Crusaders from the 80s, or any of those hard fought rivalries. Maybe I'm just a competitive beast, but I love nothing more than destroying another band and showing them that I'm better than them. Well, except for entertainment.

Entertainment is one of the biggest reasons why I love drum corps and love all of the marching arts and also one of the biggest reasons I wanted to become drum major of my school's marching band. Expressing yourself in front of so many people is an awesome feeling and it's multiplied by 10000000000000 when they cheer and stand. I promise you, every bit of hard work you had ever put in will be redeemed when you look up in the crowd after your run and you see the people screaming and standing and clapping. My favorite part of every run I do is the bow and the end. Don't even get me started on how much I love to entertain.

I once wrote this in this long speech I had to give about marching band and I think that a lot of this applies to corps, so I'll pass it along.

For those 8 minutes on the field, performing the show to the best of your abilities, nothing else matters. All of your fears, worries, nerves, they're all evaporated underneath the bright stadium lights. All that remains is the hard work and perseverence you had put into your band and the judges would determine if it would be enough to go home a winner or take that long bus ride home empty handed. Every Saturday night in the fall became a night of highs, lows and most certainly emotion and drama. It's a cycle that, in the eyes of anyone who had ever competed in a marching band knows, you never want to end. Those 8 minutes turn into minutes of nirvana, where your season lives and dies by the conductor's hands and the paradiddles from the snare drum, and the flurry of rhythm exuding from the bass drums, and the stunning precision and technicality of the tenors. The chords from the brass, and the flying melodies from the woodwinds, the whirlwind of music produced by the pit and the tosses from the color guard. I know no greater euphoria than that of a marching band performance in front of thousands that understand everything you've worked for.

[CrownStarr]

For those 8 minutes on the field, performing the show to the best of your abilities, nothing else matters.....

There are so many wonderful aspects (and not so wonderful...) to drum corps, but this is an important one that I've heard from quite a few people, applied to marching band/WGI/DCI/etc. Having such a single purpose driving that 11 minute show, or that 3 hour rehearsal block, or that 2 month tour is actually very refreshing. In everyday life, there are all kinds of things to be distracted by; no matter what you're ostensibly doing, you can always be worrying about your bills, or planning the events of the next weekend, and so on. However, if you're doing drum corps right, a practice block is the only thing that matters. You can focus on literally nothing else besides playing/marching/spinning your ### off. Of course, realistically, the outside world doesn't go away and there'll probably be stuff you need to do/think about, but you can leave it until the night and just focus during the day.

Besides that?

Performing - earning the approval of your audience is one of the best feelings in the world.

Becoming a better musician - duh.

Fellowship - you're spending about three months total with the same 150 odd people (plus the staff). By the end of the summer, you'll feel a mixture of loving all of them and wanting to murder every single one of them, and it's great (trust me).

Finals night - really, I couldn't care less about all the arguing about scores here and elsewhere. You know what? We got second, we didn't beat BD, who cares? We could have gotten third, we could have gotten 12th, the judges could have come up to me personally and told me we were a pile of crap, and you know what? I would have laughed at them. Seeing those tens of thousand of people on their feet cheering, rolling off the field and circling up as a pit for the last time with everyone bawling their eyes out knowing that that show was the summation of the last three months of our lives, and enjoying the my last moments with those 150 people was hands down the greatest experience of my life. No matter how hellish July is, finals is worth it and then some.

And hey, who doesn't like getting in shape + tan? Despite the complaining about food, I definitely had a much more balanced diet over the summer than I do at school.

I could go on and on, but I hope this gives you an idea of what it's like. I'm sure any vet could go on forever about what drum corps has done for them, but I'll share one more thing. A fellow pit member shared this with us when circling up before one of our last shows (I think it might have been finals):

"Whenever you're performing, think of this: there could be someone in your audience seeing live music for the first time in their lives, and there could be someone seeing live music for the last time in their lives. Perform to those people."

[kauliflower]

It's almost scary how consistent the feedback is on drum corps. Hard work, commitment to rise to the challenge as a team, the performance and the lessons and friends you make out of it. That's pretty much what's drawn me to drum corps. Just working so hard for this one show that when you perform it, you're pretty #### proud of what you've achieved and the people who made it happen.

Ode, I reckon that's awesome that you feel that way about marching. I really began playing sport in high school, but it was an academic high school so we never really won much. Pretty boring really. But we did have an awesome concert band when I first arrived in year 7. It used to place first in the open division (all age) band comp. in the state. Everyone in the music program wanted to be in it. I was only in the symphony orchestra on a, dare I say it, violin back then but the thrill of competitions was still incredible. The symphony toured with the concert band to Europe at the end of my first year at high school and we would just always watch them play and be gobsmacked, moved, whatever. The concert band standard was falling though and by the time I'd progressed enough on the french horn to be in it, it barely registered.. So now I've still got an itch for what I could have been able to experience, had I been born 5 years earlier. And now drum corps is that concert band all over again. Haha, whadya think?

[TerriTroop]

One of the things I love about being an alum is knowing that anyone at all who has marched drum corps will share the same feelings of competitive drive, commitment, fraternity and excellence. There's this bond between people who have marched - doesn't matter where - and you can have a meaningful conversation in just seconds simply because of that common bond.

If I see someone in any kind of corps apparel I will almost always at least say hi, comment on the apparel and see where the conversation goes from there. Sometimes it's a former marching member, sometimes it's someone who is a parent or fan, and on rare occasions it's just someone who found the shirt at a second-hand clothing store. But it is always an opportunity to discuss something that is rare and meaningful - the drum corps experience.

"Civilized" societies have slowly eliminated critical social and cultural rituals, those crucible moments that forge strong human beings - rites of passage for those on the brink of adulthood. Sure, we have graduations, a few religious ceremonies, things of that nature. But none of those put you to a real test of fortitude, endurance, accountability and maturity. Drum corps is a crucible moment, and the beauty of it is you can go back and do it again and again.

[84skyrydr]

Wait till the first day you actually put that cherished uniform on and you will get why the emotions of marching are like none other. I played the sports and did all the band things. Nothing compares to a drum corps experience, NOTHING. True tale, I even played the first half of a basketball game , then during the break would run up to the band in my bball uni and play the drums for the intermission show, then head back down to the court for the second half. I would have quit bball if I wasn't allowed to do that. You will experience highs and lows you never thought possible. Good luck my friend and welcome to the states.