What if...there was no size limit?

[kckempf]

My son marches with a very large college band (Jax State "Marching Southerners"). They put 300+ on the field. My son says there's not much that can be done in the way of drill as there are too many bodies on the field.

But that's OK--we don't really come to watch drill, but to get our faces peeled off!

Seriously, the expense of food and transportation would be probably too much. And the educational value would be diluted unless you could hire enough top-notch staff to give each kid as much individual attention as they get in a 150 member Corps.

I marched in the University of Tennessee's Pride of the Southland Marching Band, which has anywhere from 270 to 340 members, depending on how well the football team is doing (since the band has no stipends and honestly not many scholarships, demand for membership is highest when the team is doing its best). The drill and execution is difficult for a college band, though not really as challenging as drum corps at all and in a wildly different style. There's still plenty of room for drill with 270, which is the self-imposed limit on the more difficult shows, which are repeated every year, with few changes -- Pregame and Circle Drill. It's an interesting way of doing somewhat challenging drill with only 6 hours of rehearsal time each week, considering that each home game requires different halftime shows (plenty of them are just basic intros for guest stars, considering the difficulty of putting new drill on the field each week).

So you can actually do drill with that many people on the field with room left to spare. Apologies for the quality of performance and recording, college marching band is a different world from drum corps:

[Rifuarian]

Honestly, it would only affect the current handful of corps that are actually marching 150. My hunch is you'd see maybe 3-5 corps take advantage of it.

Mike

And even those corps sometimes have trouble scrounging up enough brass players who meet their standards. Because of that I doubt that even the top corps would get that much bigger. Now, if a corps wanted a 30-man snare line that would be a different story.

[calileadsop]

Would there be any positive remifications? Negative ones?

It's not like a corps will have 400 and have a huge advantage, they'd have a TON to clean. But it'd be loud and get a huge group of kids involved.

Your thoughts?

It seems to me it is difficult for even the top WC corps to be able to field the current limit of 150 members. To go beyond that, in my estimation, would not be a viable option. 150 marching members seems to work just fine. Just my two cents worth.

[Jeff Ream]

I would like to know the exact figures as to the percentages of kids that don't march after they try out for ANY group and not make it.

well, not that long ago, DCI touted 7000 kids tried out.

let's say all 23 world class corps had 140 members: that's 3220...and that's generous.

let's say the what...22 OC corps have 100? thats 2200.

so a best case scenario is 5400 kids march...which is 77% of those auditionees. But thats assuming corps have that much membership in reality, and we had accurate auditionee numbers. I am doubting I am close to right on either.

[stevedci]

we just finished the 2012 Project Persona survey for DCI... it's reasonable to assume that there are slightly more than 3200 performers in 22 world class corps.

[Piper]

I marched in the University of Tennessee's Pride of the Southland Marching Band, which has anywhere from 270 to 340 members, depending on how well the football team is doing (since the band has no stipends and honestly not many scholarships, demand for membership is highest when the team is doing its best). The drill and execution is difficult for a college band, though not really as challenging as drum corps at all and in a wildly different style. There's still plenty of room for drill with 270, which is the self-imposed limit on the more difficult shows, which are repeated every year, with few changes -- Pregame and Circle Drill. It's an interesting way of doing somewhat challenging drill with only 6 hours of rehearsal time each week, considering that each home game requires different halftime shows (plenty of them are just basic intros for guest stars, considering the difficulty of putting new drill on the field each week).

So you can actually do drill with that many people on the field with room left to spare. Apologies for the quality of performance and recording, college marching band is a different world from drum corps:

They looked pretty good. Part of their drill reminded me of the Troopers sunburst formation. I don't know if Drum Corps can handle that many bodies and still stay efficient though. It seemed kind of crowded out there.

[bluecoats88]

I'm overweight, too. (Well, 28 pounds less over-weight since I started a low-carb diet and seeing a specialist in January.) Anyhow, getting my panties wadded up would be something I'd pay good money for. (Okay, I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I'm beginning to scare myself. I know, I know...I've been scaring many of you for years.)

You wear panties?

[Jeff Ream]

we just finished the 2012 Project Persona survey for DCI... it's reasonable to assume that there are slightly more than 3200 performers in 22 world class corps.

do we know how many auditioned?

[And in first place~]

Hop could have all the woodwinds he wanted then. Maybe even a banjo.

[And in first place~]

I marched in the University of Tennessee's Pride of the Southland Marching Band, which has anywhere from 270 to 340 members, depending on how well the football team is doing (since the band has no stipends and honestly not many scholarships, demand for membership is highest when the team is doing its best). The drill and execution is difficult for a college band, though not really as challenging as drum corps at all and in a wildly different style. There's still plenty of room for drill with 270, which is the self-imposed limit on the more difficult shows, which are repeated every year, with few changes -- Pregame and Circle Drill. It's an interesting way of doing somewhat challenging drill with only 6 hours of rehearsal time each week, considering that each home game requires different halftime shows (plenty of them are just basic intros for guest stars, considering the difficulty of putting new drill on the field each week).

So you can actually do drill with that many people on the field with room left to spare. Apologies for the quality of performance and recording, college marching band is a different world from drum corps:

Rocky Top....I love when they play that.