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DCI 30 years ago, and the decline of Drum Corps.


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High School marching band is a MUCH different animal than it was in the 70s and 80s, just like drum corps is MUCH different than it was during that period. Things have certainly changed ... it is not clear that it is a bad thing. Are there kids that want to participate in DCI that aren't getting the opportunity? I doubt it.

I gotta say, I disagree with you here.

Looks like HS band in my school district is pretty much the same as it was when I marched.

The show designs are a little different, but the number of contests, et cetera, that my high school and the schools in the area go to are pretty much the same as when I was in school or on staff after I graduated. Actually, maybe they travel a little less now than before since we had a GN program or two in the area...

Maybe it was different before I was in HS? Maybe the area I grew up in is out of place compared to the rest of the country ( Central Ohio)

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It's too bad that this thread is so far off track now.

Drum corps has it's own unique sound in marching music, but with so few corps these days, a whole generation isn't getting to experience it. The OP got peppered with red minus signs, but he was pointing to something completely real. Ignoring it and ridiculing it by talking about TV shows will not make it go away.

This should have been a serious, mature discussion.

Agreed; We've lost that special and unique sound though...

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I agree... and that doesnt mean we are dissing the current state of affairs or the activity... it just means we are calling a spade a spade and acknowledging the facts... they dont simply cease to exist because we choose to hold our breath and look the other way.

I agree.

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Although there #### well should be

OMG, that would be a totally ###### high school with no ########! thumbup.gif

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I personally believe that DCI has a little **too** much WGI model in it right now and it's driving some people a little batty... tongue.gifmusic.gif

aint that the truth... when will drumlines stop milking the "dancing and hopping" trend that died about 5 years ago? Its like they play nothing but 16th notes and machine gun rolls (what I call a pre warmup) then they squat, come back up, twist their body facing the end zone then back to the crowd, do an Axel Rose kick and then slam about 3 to 4 quarter notes.... and the crowd goes crazy? LOL...

I give credit to SCV and Rennick for NOT doing all that ludicrous posturing... and a good many of their visuals/drum tilts, etc. were all homage to early 90's Cavaliers... great stuff... being that they were playing charts identified as "cavie" charts... oh, and they will take percussion at finals hands down... the most impressive drumline on the field this year in both product and performance... no one else is even close for the exception of Cadets.

Edited by Da_Expert_has_spoken
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It's absolutely a valid reason. Since the 80's alone, kids have exponentially more potential choices, and more kids than ever are participating across the board. I know tons of kids who would otherwise participate in drum corps if they weren't already doing five or six other things simultaneously.

All you need to do is talk to a few kids in your local school band to see just how involved in other activities they really are.

It never ceases to amaze me how true this is. I've been teaching scholastic band now for a long time, and I'm continually floored how busy my students are. I had a student who almost quit marching band this summer because she wanted to play in a travel Lacrosse team this summer. Her reasoning was that this team is supposedly scouted heavily by college recruiters, and she felt it was the most sure way to get a college scholarship. My colleagues and I were able to convince her to stay in band, but literally a few days later something similar happened with another student who did quit (this 2nd student also plays lacrosse, which is a spring sport). In order to succeed in varsity lacrosse, she was told by her coach that she she had to run cross-country in the fall to "get in shape." On top of her academics and other activities, she felt she could not stay and band and keep up with everything else (spoiler alert: she could have, as students do it all the time).

My point is, I teach in a very successful (in all aspects: athletic, arts, academic, etc), where it is cut-throat to get noticed. Students feel HUGE pressure to do a million things in order to stand out on their college applications. Between the high amount of AP classes they're pushed into taking, sports, co-curricular programs (like performing arts), and other school groups (cheerleading, class officer, ASB, peer counseling, etc), it is extremely hard for kids to squeeze other things into their schedule.

Oh, and I haven't really covered a part-time job and other at-home type obligations (taking care of younger siblings, for example).

When I was in high school, which was the early 90's (not that far back), someone could get into a reputable state college or university with a GPA of 2.5 or lower. Now-a-days, at least in my area in So Cal, a student can't even think about applying to a 4-year university if their GPA isn't in the high 3's (3.7 is boarderline too low). The more our society has pushed the "everyone must go to college" agenda (which isn't a bad thing), it's become acceptable that nearly everyone needs to go to college to have a good career. With that huge influx of college applicants, it's become harder and harder for students to stand-out on their applications, and they've had to extremely extend (over-extend for many) themselves in order to have a change at getting into a college.

Drum corps, unfortunately, is more of a fringe extra-curricular activity that has little/no bearing on a college application. Add in the enormous expense to participate, and there are FAR better things a student can do with their time over the summer. Heck, in our district a student almost has to take summer school courses in order to have room in their schedule to participate in marching band!

I think unless someone is involved with high school education, it might be difficult to truly grasp just how much stuff is expected of the modern high schooler. Even adding in the fact that education costs for college have skyrocketed in just the last 15 years, and it's easy to understand that if it's the difference between doing drum corps or working to make money for college, working is going to trump not making money + spending lots of money on fees.

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Start a corps and find out!

Yeah ... I don't think that makes very good business sense. It takes a lot of money to start a corps. If there is no demand, there is no reason to focus on starting more corps.

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I gotta say, I disagree with you here.

Looks like HS band in my school district is pretty much the same as it was when I marched.

The show designs are a little different, but the number of contests, et cetera, that my high school and the schools in the area go to are pretty much the same as when I was in school or on staff after I graduated. Actually, maybe they travel a little less now than before since we had a GN program or two in the area...

Maybe it was different before I was in HS? Maybe the area I grew up in is out of place compared to the rest of the country ( Central Ohio)

I have no idea when you marched or where, but my understanding is that where I grew up (Colorado), high school marching band really started to develop as a competitive activity in the late 70s and early 80s, right around the same time when there was a major shift in the size and approach of DCI. It would be interesting to do more research on this issue to see if my speculation is correct, and if it was a nation-wide phenomenon.

Edited by jasgre2000
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Yeah ... I don't think that makes very good business sense. It takes a lot of money to start a corps. If there is no demand, there is no reason to focus on starting more corps.

Well - I'm involved in two projects to do exactly that - one as a board member and one as percussion caption head. I'll let you know what we find out.

It's true that kids have a lot of distractions and alternatives to drum corps, but maybe as adults we've just gotten lazy about motivating them to do it.

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