JimF-LowBari Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 (edited) There are 10X as many competitive bands as there were competitive corps...therefore more kids have access to competitive marching/music than ever did. There are kids now who do not have that access...but there were more in my day who did not. Is it exactly the same population? No. There were many urban corps through the 50's and 60's...few made it as far as the DCI era, and those that did failed through the 70's. Not many left by the mid 80's. But...with only 440 around 1970...that meant there were huge areas that had no corps around the country...the geographic coverage was just not there as compared to 4000 competitive bands. Personally I'd say that more kids have access to doing CMB than DC back in the day. Plus if there is elementary music instruction there is more access to better instruction than what more corps were able to provide. But as for MB replaced local DC... eh, apples and oranges IMO. Also don't think there would be more corps if we didn't have as many CMB. I'd guess we'd have less and not guessing there would be less if the elementary music instruction did not exist. s/ Guy who did local Senior corps in HS and college.... no competing HS MB. Edited December 14, 2012 by JimF-LowBari Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mello Dude Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 But, isn't it the point that drum corps is so close to marching band as it is today that POSSIBLY some parents and players aren't willing to spend that kind of time and money for "marching band"? This goes back to what I have always said. If you don't have a product that can stand out as something unique and different you really have nothing. Drum corps used to be quite a bit different, granted it was and always has been a type of marching band, but you could hear and see the differences. Quite frankly, I don't see how DCI can continue to really have nothing to market that is marketable other than a marching band on steroids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiodb Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 There are kids now who do not have that access...but there were more in my day who did not. Is it exactly the same population? No. There were many urban corps through the 50's and 60's...few made it as far as the DCI era, and those that did failed through the 70's. Not many left by the mid 80's. But...with only 440 around 1970...that meant there were huge areas that had no corps around the country...the geographic coverage was just not there as compared to 4000 competitive bands. But HS marching band's "geographic coverage" is only a net that over 80% of school districts slip through. You simply do not have access to a competitive marching band program if you live in one of those 80%-plus districts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 (edited) But, isn't it the point that drum corps is so close to marching band as it is today that POSSIBLY some parents and players aren't willing to spend that kind of time and money for "marching band"? This goes back to what I have always said. If you don't have a product that can stand out as something unique and different you really have nothing. Drum corps used to be quite a bit different, granted it was and always has been a type of marching band, but you could hear and see the differences. Quite frankly, I don't see how DCI can continue to really have nothing to market that is marketable other than a marching band on steroids. Agree... And in this case you have to stand out as different to people who never did corps or only knowledge comes from watching a show. I can picture my folks saying "So what's so #### different besides being out of the house for a few weeks on tour. And for HOW much?". Thank goodness my reason for joining was so I could keep playing horn after HS (no MB in community College). When I hear "DC is different because of the level of excellence", I think "Oh ####". :doh:/> Edited December 14, 2012 by JimF-LowBari Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mello Dude Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 Agree... And in this case you have to stand out as different to people who never did corps or only knowledge comes from watching a show. I can picture my folks saying "So what's so #### different besides being out of the house for a few weeks on tour. And for HOW much?". Thank goodness my reason for joining was so I could keep playing horn after HS (no MB in community College). When I hear "DC is different because of the level of excellence", I think "Oh ####". :doh:/>/> Some marching band programs out there are #### excellent and teach real world music practice to performers. Drum corps is NOT real world. In the real world you do NOT get to practice 100's of hours on 8 minutes of music. You do not get to hand pick people (in most marching bands), you actually have to teach from the ground up. Quite frankly, I would be amazed if Drum Corps were NOT at a level of excellence with the hours put into the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnZ Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 Morning all. think we can steer this one back on topic - "If you had the ability to change one rule in DCI what would it be?" if not, we'll close it and discuss in the other thread. thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schickmeister Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 Bring back the starting gun...because its cool! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 not disagreeing with you. I just said that HS marching band isn't close to the same experience as marching in a drum corps, even on the DCA level And, really, let's be clear about what the REAL experience is of marching in a drum corps vs marching in a HS band. It's not JUST the great staff, higher learning & achieving: it's also a lesson of growing up. Of learning how to be on your own for months at a time, without mom and dad to bail you out. Of learning how to make the right decisions on free times, how to set a goal and how to go about working to achieve that goal. A lesson on how to live in a small confined area without killing your bus partner and others around you. Of how to completely give up the vanity of making sure you look picture-perfect 90% of the time. A lesson on how to deal with people you might not get along with but can't ignore and have to work with constantly: people you HAVE to rely on, and vice versa, to get the job done. A lesson on how to take care of your own stuff while traveling, and not having mom or dad around to check to make sure you packed everything, washed all your clothes, etc. There are so many aspects of the drum corps experience that go FAR beyond performing for 15 minutes, or rehearsing all day. I teach HS band, and I'm proud of what we accomplish and of our success. In the 8 years I've been at my current school we've traveled to Europe twice, won pretty much every award we could in our area (highest festival ratings, local circuit champions, etc) and we've been named a Grammy signature school multiple times. We have great kids who work hard and are often able to achieve great things. But they don't get much of the other part of the drum corps experience. Heck, on top of the instructional and performance benefit I got marching drum corps I met my wife via drum corps, learned how to do laundry via drum corps, learned how to budget money via drum corps (between paying for corps tour + college & other expenses and also budget spending money on tour), I learned so many other things I've likely taken for granted over the years (one bad thing I learned: wearing nothing but boxers all day = OK & acceptable ). While I agree that local scholastic marching bands have brought aspects of the small local drum corps experience to many high school kids (which, however, says nothing to the older than HS-aged kids who marched in local corps that don't have as many opportunities now), even the best BOA schools don't offer the full DCI summer experience. By a lot, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 Bring back the starting gun...because its cool! :w00t:/> YES!! I love listening to the older shows and hearing those gun shots go off!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 (edited) Morning all. think we can steer this one back on topic - "If you had the ability to change one rule in DCI what would it be?" if not, we'll close it and discuss in the other thread. thanks! Change a rule that makes DC differences from MB more apparent to the specators.... No not a hint to go back to piston/rotor even thou that was the biggest seeable difference in my day. "So what band are you wit..... wow WHAT are you playing?" - heard many times at parades. Not arguing that DC is "most excellent" <$1 to Ted and Bill(?)> to those of us that know it. But problem is no way to vastly increase the fan base if the selling point is "We're so much better than band." Edited December 14, 2012 by JimF-LowBari Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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