Jeff Ream Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 Drum Corps: A semi-professional music ensemble with instrumentation consisting of brass and percussion and a visual section. This ensemble performs and practices nationwide during the summer. Their ultimate goal is to provide an educational experience while perfecting a show for competition you need to be hired for PR purposes 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClutch Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 band. oh #### Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrinkinOuttaCups Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 1. Drum corps - it's like a professional marching band. 2. Drum corps - it's like a professional marching band. 3. ??? 4. DRUM CORPS - IT'S LIKE A PROFESSIONAL 5. (Also, Profit!) Ladies and gentlemen...done! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 1. Drum corps - it's like a professional marching band. 2. Drum corps - it's like a professional marching band. 3. ??? 4. DRUM CORPS - IT'S LIKE A PROFESSIONAL 5. (Also, Profit!) Ladies and gentlemen...done! It's like a professional what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glory Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 (edited) You could. But why? This aversion to the "band" term is as useful for drum corps as a sundial is for keeping time. This aversion presumes that sense of superiorty felt for drum corps will be shared by those whom we educate to the difference. Reality is something else. With rare exception, it is only those who would embrace marching band who recognize this difference we insist exists. For the rest, we're just bands. The irony is nearby there are threads disparaging the TOC shows when they are indeed the only drum corps shows outside of finals week that truly distinguish drum corps from marching band. We don't like to admit it, but we've all seen it. We sat at shows with newbies who watched a lower-placing corps go first off the line, prompting the newbie to remark how such and such band was just as good. And you know what? Nearly every state has a such and such band who really is nearly as good as the worst drum corps, maybe better. Different? Yes. More excellent? Sometimes. Still we disparage the TOC shows as if they're a disgrace to drum corps, as if this activity will crumble because we dared show our best and only our best a few times each year. There's no disgrace in being a marching band. The only disgrace is not recognizing the opportunities we have and the opportunities we don't. HH Edited December 22, 2010 by glory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4T Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 It's like a travelling circus filled with brass players, percussionists, a color guard and the ring leader we call the drum major. There are bright colors, costumes, theatrics, feats of skill and strength, and the occasional house of mirrors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrinkinOuttaCups Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 It's like a professional what? It's like a professional Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 It's like a professional Still not getting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrinkinOuttaCups Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 Still not getting it. What's not to get? It's all about the Benjamins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 You could. But why? This aversion to the "band" term is as useful for drum corps as a sundial is for keeping time. This aversion presumes that sense of superiorty felt for drum corps will be shared by those whom we educate to the difference. Reality is something else. With rare exception, it is only those who would embrace marching band who recognize this difference we insist exists. For the rest, we're just bands. The irony is nearby there are threads disparaging the TOC shows when they are indeed the only drum corps shows outside of finals week that truly distinguish drum corps from marching band. We don't like to admit it, but we've all seen it. We sat at shows with newbies who watched a lower-placing corps go first off the line, prompting the newbie to remark how such and such band was just as good. And you know what? Nearly every state has a such and such band who really is nearly as good as the worst drum corps, maybe better. Different? Yes. More excellent? Sometimes. Still we disparage the TOC shows as if they're a disgrace to drum corps, as if this activity will crumble because we dared show our best and only our best a few times each year. There's no disgrace in being a marching band. The only disgrace is not recognizing the opportunities we have and the opportunities we don't. HH Hold on there, H. Upon my first reading of your post I was impressed but bothered by your contentions, although it's apparent that you are certainly a deep thinker. There are certainly those who believe a Lexus is as practical a mode of transportation as is a Chevy ("It's just a car."), but virtually all those who drive (watch marching entertainment) will agree that the Lexus is, in even it's lowest model, a superior quality of transportation than a Chevy. It may be in fact difficult to convince someone who has never driven (an Amish person, for example) of the superiority of the Lexus, but the fact is no less true simply because the Amish person has never driven. If a newbie has never experienced a band show he may not appreciate the relative perfection of a drum corps show, but the higher level of attainment isn't diminished because of the inexperienced newbie. To the Amish a car may only be a car, but to anyone who's exposed to the experience the differences in quality are readily apparent. Given the choice for the same price, the Amish will drive a Lexus. I don't dismiss that there are some lower-level corps that could be outperformed by some marching bands, but to suggest the season's best is only presented during finals week is too far a stretch of your point. I, as I'd bet would most fans, will take a June Cavaliers, BD, or BAC over virtually any November competition band, and certainly over ANY "show" band. And the lower-placing corps don't diminish the quality of the show; as a parallel, if you put all the rusted-out, "work-in-progress" beaters at the front gate of a classic car show the Amishman attending his first event will certainly lament "What's the big deal? They're just old cars!". The challenge is to keep his interest long enough to peruse the cars at the end of the line to highlight the difference from the Chevy that passed him on the way to the show. The TOC show comments to which you refer only obliquely challenge the content of that show concept. Rather, they attack the nature of the show premise as if you can have a classic car show without referring to the humble restoration hulks from which most top-quality examples morph to become champions. To present that the most-prized show-winner was always an exemplary example is a disgrace to the "works-in-progress" and an insult to their owners. To hold a show of only "winners" pays no homage to the effort in the perfect interior restoration of a so-far unfinished project. A show of only winners diminishes the effort required to perform among those winners simply because the effort is not evident to the newbie at a show of winners. A newbie at his first show of winners may come away entertained - maybe even more-so than from a show of more balanced representation - but the depth of appreciation for the accomplishment is diminished without the understanding of what it took to get to the winner's circle in the first place. Attendees may see a drum corps show and call them bands, but "fans" appreciate the struggle of achievement as much as the final product. I contend that the challenge is to get more fans, not more attendees, and allowing the distinction between bands and drum corps to diminish makes that challenge much more difficult. The show designers and programmers have their role in that goal, and we fans have ours as well. Otherwise, we're all just a bunch of Chevy's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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