Ohio State University

[jkmummer]

As a fan of the OSU band, it's ironic that one of the last torch bearers of traditional marching band style is on the cutting edge of the technological advances in how corps and bands will eventually be taught using the IPAD apps being developed by students in eliminating dot books and all paper. There's also real time video apps being developed with an eye toward providing video transferred to an individual musician or section in order to learn and clean drill.

[fsubone]

You act like OSUMB's practice schedule is any different than other college marching bands. It isn't.

They do practice a more than most college bands. Most only get two or three days of rehearsal a week. And don't get two weeks of 12 hour rehearsals before school starts, maybe a week at most.

[N.E. Brigand]

While we're at it, why does drum corps have to be educational? I still can't help but laugh when a corps calls its staff "faculty" and its members "students".

In part to justify themselves to potential funders. I work for a non-profit arts organization. The more we can show that our work connects to education, the more donations we get.

[N.E. Brigand]

This is so far off topic it's not funny. Can we just close this thread?

Actually, the longer it's gone on, the more this thread seems to have become relevant to a consideration of drum corps.

[N.E. Brigand]

You act like OSUMB's practice schedule is any different than other college marching bands. It isn't.

I'm sure there are a good number of other bands that practice as hard as OSU, but there are probably even more that do not.

[N.E. Brigand]

4. Again, this is a matter of opinion and your opinion places you into a tiny, irrelevant minority.

That is likely true, but we should remember that the majority is often, perhaps even usually, wrong.

I mean, how many songs in the current Top 40, which by definition are popular with the majority, are actually any good? Should drum corps really be playing Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda"?

[N.E. Brigand]

According to WP there are 442 Div. 3 schools, 315 division 2 schools, and 351 division 1 schools. That's actually a lot more of all three than I would have thought. There are a lot of colleges out there. Even if half of the division 2 schools and most of the division 3 schools are corps style, that's a lot more corps style shows on the collegiate level being done by bands than by corps. And I bet those bands are composed mostly of music majors and minors, since they don't need the huge numbers to support the big teams (and audiences). In other words, I bet those shows are pretty good. I guess that's my point.

I have no idea what a typical college band experience is like, but I attended the University of Dayton, a medium-sized (approx. 8,000 undergraduates), private school in the early 1990s. Our football team then was Div. III because the school didn't offer football scholarships. (Being such a large school for the division, we won almost all our games--typically until we had to face Mount Union in the playoffs; we did make the finals [the "Stagg Bowl"] once in my time there, losing to Ithaca. Around the time I graduated, UD was moved to a non-scholarship subdivision of Div. I.) Most members of the marching band, the "Pride of Dayton", were not majoring or minoring in either music or music education. Some players were also corps members: we had a horn player from Star and a drummer from Bluecoats, as I recall. But they saw the band as a chance to let their hair down and have fun, and I would say that generally people's motives for participating were for the same mix of reasons that might lead them to take part in any club or organization in college or after.

Our marching was corps style with some modifications, and although the then-assistant director in particular wished it were otherwise, never clean. We didn't memorize our music. The drill was simpler than it had been in my middling high school competition band. We did play new music with new drill at least every few weeks (four to five different shows over the season), and that was different from high school, where there had only been the football show and the contest show. The individual musicianship was stronger than it had been in high school, to be sure, but as an ensemble, was only infrequently of good quality. Let me be frank: we were not good. Our purpose was to entertain, and while our director took her musical responsibilities seriously, practice time was fairly limited and likewise so was participant dedication.

We traveled to one away game each year, and typically saw at most one visiting band at home, so I don't know how many other schools in our division or conference had marching bands.

And for some reason that no one was quite sure about (and I even once telephoned the former director who was thought to have been in charge when the band first performed it), we played "In the Stone" in our preshow, along with the fight song, alma mater, and national anthem, a tradition that perplexed some audience members, who knew nothing of Earth, Wind & Fire. And it was at least five years past graduation before I ever heard of the Bridgemen, who presumably influenced someone at UD years earlier.

[N.E. Brigand]

[1] There were two brand new candidates this year try out on Sousaphone that marched DCI. One did Blue Stars, the other Cavaliers. A summer of competitive marching and playing did not give them enough of an edge to make the band. Neither of those kids made it. We routinely have band members who march in DCI. Corps represented over the past few years include Cavaliers, Bluecoats, Glassmen, Madison Scouts, and Carolina Crown....

[2] Perhaps it should be the corps that begin to emulate programs like OSU. Perhaps then it wouldn't be the same few of us attending shows. The style of show that is DCI today loses the average audience member, and even loses me as a drum corps performer. Shows that require audience thought or seek to evoke some hidden emotion do nothing to the average person in the stands. OSU didn't gain attention in media outlets on six continents by playing an avant garde show featuring synths, dancers, and a pit. They gained attention by learning a show in 5 days and performing familiar drill and music to captivate the audience...

[3] Just as many of you don't see the benefits of playing "pop" charts, I don't see the benefit of playing the same 5 warmup chorales and the same 12 minutes of music everyday, for 12-16 hours a day, for nearly three months. The only thing that is being proven is that the corps members can learn and perfect a single show with a single style of performance...

Great post with lots of fascinating insight. I'd be curious to hear more people's thoughts on the three sections (the numbers are my addition) that I've excerpted above.

[1] Does it happen the other way around? Are there OSU marching band members who try out for corps and can't make the cut?

[2] Would the Ohio State audience not be entertained by Bluecoats "Tilt"? If so, does that indicate a flaw with Bloo's show or with OSU's crowd?

[3] What drum corps do in this respect is indeed very different than what most other musicians ever have to do. Orchestras, for instance, play a different 90-minute repertoire every week or so for six months or more on end. (But then again, orchestras unlike OSU frequently "require audience thought or seek to evoke some hidden emotion".) But because drum corps travel, for most of the audience, who see the show just once, the repetition isn't apparent. (Maybe the closest analogue is a theatre company on a long engagement, who attempts to put out the exact same show night after night.) But wasn't perfecting one show even the purpose of corps in the 1970s, when they were much more like OSU than they are now? And doesn't perfecting one show enable them to generate the sound that, as you note, OSU cannot?

[garfield]

While we're at it, why does drum corps have to be educational? I still can't help but laugh when a corps calls its staff "faculty" and its members "students".

While, at the same time, the director of The _kid's symphonic winds at Capital Univ calls his music staff "coaches".

I don't know whether to cry or laugh.

[garfield]

disclaimer: I'm a TBDBITL alum.

The _kid is now a HS freshman in marching band, but he's been to 13 DCI finals in his 15 years. Their band camp started the week of DCI finals (The _kid was excused from band), they've been practicing 3 or 3 1/2 hours a day, 4 days a week on their show. This past Friday was their 4th (of ten) football game, last Saturday was their first OMEA "adjudicated event" and, as of last Saturday, they had yet to complete their show. Out of four movements the directors had hoped to have the fourth movement learned in the week before their "contest" but, alas, they did not. They played 3 1/2 movements with drill and parked for the closer. I place the blame squarely on the directors, not the kids or the caption heads, and as much on OMEA themselves.

Many HS bands learn a weekly "game" show and a competition show, or some, like ours work just on their competition show all season. As a proud parent, I felt cheated sitting in the stands and I'm disappointed that they didn't have a complete show ready for the season, let alone competition. I felt the way I've felt many times as the drum corps season opens and corps' shows are not "show ready", if not a final product.

Ohio State is indeed tough work in part because they learn a new show almost every week, plus pregame, plus integration with the alumni band, plus honoring visiting bands, plus having music "audience ready" for the St. John's Arena concert before the first game.

When I compare drum corps to TBDBITL, I'll take drum corps programming any week (as will The _kid), as much as I enjoy the band's show design. But the comparison tilts solidly to the band when I see drum corps (or a HS "rating" system) come out and park and blow early season (or allow their circuit to do so). You'd NEVER see the Ohio State band do that. Every fan, every game. No exceptions.

Edited September 22, 2014 by garfield