Why are some corps so much better than others?

[Henson]

So we've got a few things here:

1. Money

2. Staff chemistry/consistency

3. Design (which falls under the other two)

4. Older/more experienced members

It seems that if you want to build a corps to the top level, you need a leader with the foresight and vision to organize the business and build a loyal and competent staff - and then go the extra step of ensuring that your veterans return instead of "trading up." Take a young corps and a new staff that works well together and build the group over a number of seasons by steadily improving the business model and the design. In other words, what corps really need is brand loyalty from members and staff.

It's not rocket science, but our community can at times be too short-sighted to make it happen.

[Tom Brace]

I also think that some corps have embraced the idea of reinvention to get better....

examples from the top of my head include Troopers and Blue Stars. They could have been stuck in their mid-late 90s mode....but they chose NOT TO. They both dug in and reinvented themselves and have gotten back to a very high competitive status as a result.

So, it's never over for a corps. It doesn't have to be. Corps can reinvent themselves and choose to be better than they were.

I think most of all it involves challenging the entire organization just like each corps challenges a rookie during the winter through all days. When an organization takes on the challenge for improvement...for getting lean...for trying things new, different, innovative, the path for success can open wider.

That's the thinking taught to each new potential corps member...to get better, to learn new things, to accept challenges, to work harder than you think you can, to strive for perfection, to learn from and avoid remaking the same mistakes. If more organizations looked at themselves in this light, I think we'd have more solid drum corps organizations out there.

The model is there.

[Plan9]

Yes, money is a factor, but these two schools where both from very similar areas and circumstances financially. Money was very similar between the two.

I appreciate the feedback from the marching band perspective, but what about from the drum corps perspective? You mentioned that instruction is absolutely critical and inferred it is the most important thing, do you think that BD's staff is THAT much better than Madisons???

Money is, of course, always an important component, but for H.S. it's just as important to have parent organization support. I good parent organization and supporting student body, will transport a good marching music program into an excellent one. Also, there is a very special kind of H.S. music director that builds successful marching band programs. He/she is both well organized, musically exceptional and has marching music chops (understanding what excellent is). That's alot to ask, but it's critical for a successful H.S. program. Then....this success follows into the drum corps level.

[MikeD]

As the title suggests, why are some corps/bands just mind blowingly better than other groups?

'Cause.

[Heath]

Yeah. I agree with the staff and the money. I had a band with a historical track record of being crazy. My sophomore year we got a new director, and the band dipped in both skill and size - my junior year the band was almost half its size my freshman year. The new director was good and the band was still good, but he wasn't the 50 year old man my old director was.

But being at my school is going to be so good for my new director. Very many people as young as him (I think he was 24 when he started) get the opportunity to direct a band like us (we were one of the best bands in the state of North Carolina). The result will be this: when he becomes that 50 year old man, he'll be one of those great directors.

[jjeffeory]

And I dont want this to include just Drum Corps either, as marching band season is underway and having many siblings and family members in marching bands, I would like to include both of these forms of competitive marching music.

As the title suggests, why are some corps/bands just mind blowingly better than other groups? There are a LOT of (relatively) constants in marching music. I would argue (even moreso in marching band than DCI) that time spent working on a show, the talent pool of the marching members, the staff teaching the ensemble, and the support given from outside sources are all VERY similar (unless im just blind...) in the top 12 drum corps. And yet we see a rather substantial disparity in performance from a 12th place corps on a given year and a 1st place corps.

Why do groups suffer and others succeed so much? Do you truly believe that the best corps and marching bands just have so much more talent in their members? Do they spend more time on the field practicing? Is the staff just THAT much better? I just have a hard time believing that Blue Devils spend more time on their show than say Madison did this year. And yet BD beat Madison by roughly 10 points. Now im not going off and crying foul saying that madison was as good as BD, because they obviously werent, but with so many constants, why are some groups so much better than others?

I was sitting down at a marching band competition this last Saturday and a band entered the field with 150 members. Roughly the size of a drum corps, and they just tanked... Their performance was just almost painful to watch it was so dirty and the performance level was just lightyears behind the groups in front of them. I was shocked to see just how little they were achieving on the field. So I went to their band internet page when I got home and looked up their Calendar and compared it with the group that took first place. The two calendars were almost identical. Four, four hour rehearsals a week with individual 2 hour sectionals once a week and one, twelve hour cleaning Saturday once a month... I was awestruck. The 150 member band scored 250 points (for some reason Marching band is judged on a 1000 point scale out here...) lower than the first place group, and yet they had almost the same amount of staff, only 30 kids less, and they practice the same amount of time...

Whats the deal here??

This is where the off season preparation really has an impact on the season. As far as high schools go, I think that private lessons for individual students is key. Also, the design staffs really need to spend a LOT of time thinking about all aspects of their shows. This isn't easy to do. Finally, some music teachers are good at teaching the music side of things, but not the visual side.

[jjeffeory]

^ I just have a hard time believing that the staff of the upper echelon corps are that much superior... The staff at blue knights have the same music degree's, previous DCI experience, talent pool, and a healthy budget that Carolina crown has... And yet blue knights have never cracked the top 6. They just arent up to snuff and put in so much time and dedication with an extremely talented staff and yet their programs just arent as innovative and as clean as the corps above them.

It just doesnt make much sense to me that the staff is THAT much better in the top 6 than in the less successful corps.

Heh,

Not all music degrees are the same, and really they don't directly have that much to do with show design and knowledge in cleaning a drum corps show. We put too much stock into degrees today and not enough into real world experience. Oh, and Blue Knights HAVE cracked top 6, though I enjoyed 1999 more, they did it in 2000.

Blue Knights

2000692.000Colors of Brass and Percussion - Montage Mvt 1 * Montage Mvt 3 * The Essence of Time – A Time for Love * The Essence of Time – A Time for Hate * The Essence of Time – A Time for Peace * Original

[AlexL]

The success of a drum corps boils down into several factors, many of which may reinforce\bleed over between areas.

Money

Instructors, consistency in the areas of staff that are doing well, and a unified philosophy between captions (visual on the same page with what brass is trying to do, etc)

Member talent- Age (maturity), level of proficiency in their area, and years of drum corps experience (preferably years under the current staff to increase those that have 'bought in' to the staff's philosophy.

Quality management behind the scenes.

The top groups have all of these. Look at cavaliers or BD. Theyve got money, theyve got high level staff that have maintained a level of consistency (especially BD), they have a high average age and a high average talent level, and more than other groups have more members that have marched at other corps before coming to their auditions, and they also have successful management of everything behind the scenes needed to keep things rolling both on the road and from a business perspective back home.

[SFZFAN]

George Hopkins

[shaners]

1. Design Team.

2. Instructional Staff.

3. Age/Experience of Members.

4. Quality of Administration.

5. Money (but $ comes from being at the top... so what came first?)

Edited October 11, 2011 by shaners