californian marching bands?

[tommyfromhowardst]

Can you do UC Santa Cruz? Nice place.

[kauliflower]

Hi Sop, thanks for your help again. Do these area drum corps run programs during the fall-winter period as well? I'm really just looking for a means of getting into the thick of the summer 2011 DCI season.

I did come across RCC. I'm not really familiar with the system of completing lower division courses at community colleges, then later transferring into larger (more prestigious?) universities. Given these colleges look like they're just to fill in gen ed and early prerequisites, maybe I could enrol in just the marching band course. Any ideas?

I'd still be interested to see if anyone else has some local marching bands they're aware of.

Edit: Santa Cruz doesn't offer the mechanical and biomedical engineering subjects I need to be eligible. While I'm at it, Berkeley and LA were full, SF is a grad med school, merced didn't have any bands I found

Edited January 20, 2010 by kauliflower

[VanguardMiracle]

San Jose State has an excellent marching band directed by Scott Pierson who has a long history with drum corps: SJSU Marching Band

*whoops, sorry - I see that you are looking for bands in SoCal instead of the Bay Area. I tried to delete my post, but couldn't figure out how.

Edited January 20, 2010 by VanguardMiracle

[rootofthechord]

Coming from a NorCal guy...

Davis has really good life sciences, a Band-Uh!, and three drum and bugle corps within an hour and a half. (And, based on my experience and your forum posts, I'm pretty confident that the Mandarins would be happy to offer you a spot.)

Hope this helps. Welcome to California!

[kauliflower]

San Jose State has an excellent marching band directed by Scott Pierson who has a long history with drum corps: SJSU Marching Band

*whoops, sorry - I see that you are looking for bands in SoCal instead of the Bay Area. I tried to delete my post, but couldn't figure out how.

No problem, thanks for giving it a shot. I just want to clarify that I am attending UC, that much is set.

With regards to Davis, I'm wondering whether I should preference San Diego first, or Davis. The reason being that I'm a biomedical engineering major, and SD has a really good rep in the field, and that there's SDSU's band, 16.6 miles from campus which I could join (says the website). If it were completely me, I'd just choose Davis, but my mum is very disapproving of my primary reason for exchange being drum corps. The other thing is I'm kind of worried about hazing within the aggie band which showed when I googled Davis. I'm not sure whether to regard this as blown up tension between the director and the students, or whether there is really an unhealthy culture within the band.

Edited January 20, 2010 by kauliflower

[Captncontra]

You do not need to be a full time student to march in Riverside Community College's marching tiger band. Many 'students' only take the one marching band class and either attend other schools or, in many cases, are professionals working during the day and marching with the band at night. Rehearsals are Tues through Thurs 6 to 9pm and 6 to 10 pm on Wednesdays. Their staff is primarily DCI instructors (Wayne Downey among others), giving you an 'in' if you decide to go that route in the future. Their winterguard and winter drumline programs have won many WGI titles over the years as well.

More info here: http://www.rccband.org/

There are MANY UC schools within driving/commute distance of Riverside's campus, and a lot of times you can set up carpools with people that make the drive nightly.

Edited January 20, 2010 by Captncontra

[LoveKathyG]

I'd choose UCSB #1 in a heart beat. There's no marching band close by, but it's a really beautiful campus and fun town.

Other than that, RCC really is your best choice. You could concurrently enroll at both UCR and RCC. The only small bummer for you is that you'll have to pay a $181 non-resident base fee to register for the band class (or whatever it's called) plus $26/unit. Probably cost you around $260 total. That said, UCR is one of the least desirable UC campuses. Apologies to any UCR students or alum, but the truth is that UCR and Merced are the ugly step-sisters in the UC system. Kind of remote, undesirable locations. Not as prestigious as the other UC's. UCR's stock has risen over the last 10 to 15 years, but it's still kind of an also-ran. Pretty universally, the UC's are seen as...

Top Tier: Berkeley and UCLA

Excellent but don't have the reputation and luster of the top tier: San Diego, Irvine, maybe Davis

Strong: Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz

Coming up in the world but probably won't ever get to mid-pack because of location: Riverside

Also ran: Merced...mostly because they're just too new...and location. Very undesirable location. Virtually no campus life since they're still in their infancy.

So, if you're making your choice based on academic credentials, you'd want to go San Diego. Maaaaaybe Davis. If you want to mix fun, sun, beautiful location with solid academics, I'd choose UCSB. If you want to factor in the marching band thing, Riverside is fine. But Riverside will never get an "ooooooooo" from employers or med schools who know the system. And to be honest, I'd scratch Merced off the list.

[kauliflower]

Thanks captncontra and kath, your input was really, really helpful.

I'm now really torn between Riverside and Irvine. Irvine for being close to all the LA drum corps and Riverside for having a nearby college marching band. Lucky they're only playing off for my 3rd preference. Can someone please confirm that drum corps don't provide any instruction of activity during fall? I've found the Santa Ana Youth Winds which would be helpful in learning to march, but I don't think I would do anything more in terms of teaching drill technique. Ideas? Also, thanks to everyone who's contributed, you're giving me some legs to stand on while making this decision.

[Eddie]

UC Riverside students have been members of the Riverside City College Marching Tigers to my knowledge, you just have to be a registered student at RCC to participate.

Also I believe in nearby Moreno Valley there is a community marching band there as well.

UCLA has a decent marching band too (I like them!)

[Captncontra]

Thanks captncontra and kath, your input was really, really helpful.

I'm now really torn between Riverside and Irvine. Irvine for being close to all the LA drum corps and Riverside for having a nearby college marching band. Lucky they're only playing off for my 3rd preference. Can someone please confirm that drum corps don't provide any instruction of activity during fall? I've found the Santa Ana Youth Winds which would be helpful in learning to march, but I don't think I would do anything more in terms of teaching drill technique. Ideas? Also, thanks to everyone who's contributed, you're giving me some legs to stand on while making this decision.

Irvine probably has better academics. Lucky for you its still a close enough drive that you could march RCC and attend Irvine, it being about an hour and half commute between the two, less if theres no traffic. Many students commute from around that area that it shouldn't be that difficult finding a ride. As far as learning marching technique, the staff at RCC is always willing to help those that need it. If you don't go that route, you can always contact one of the local high schools that has a decent sized marching band and ask for references to whomever their instructors are. It shouldn't be hard to find someone that can lend a hand. Really all you need to get your foot in the door for a drum corps is some marching basics and some decent fundamentals on whichever instrument you play. There are plenty of Open class drum corps in southern Cali that would love to help you and in return get a new member! If you're setting your sights higher, the Blue Devils and Pacific Crest both have camps nearby, and many RCC players wind up marching with Vanguard, Devils, and PC.