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36 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Back to original question. If you are a music major in whatever area (teaching, performance, whatever) maybe check with corps if they would be a good fit with your major.

hey I took IT back when it was called Computer Science so clueless with music majors. But though just occurred to me.

They finally admitted the truth; that Computer-Science is an Oxymoron. Oops, scratch that; the field of Computers is a Science. The real Oxymoron connection which is still out there is Social-Science. Carry on.

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18 minutes ago, Stu said:

They finally admitted the truth; that Computer-Science is an Oxymoron. Oops, scratch that; the field of Computers is a Science. The real Oxymoron connection which is still out there is Social-Science. Carry on.

In community college it was called Data Processing lol.... brings up images of a wonderful career of messing with punched cards and big printouts.... which we had both at the time.... think the manufacturer was in Bedrock....

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1 hour ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Few years ago asked about why people went to top corps instead of lower. Good many responses was they could only afford in time and money to do corps one season. Might be part of the answer here

I was a rook-out my first season because of geography. New home town, new corps. It just happened that way. But I got a great education with every corps I marched with in DCI and in DCA years later. It is an excellent question though. As I got older, I really and truly understood that it was about far more than playing music and with that mindset, came a much greater sense of loyalty. Some people, like myself, have to develop into the kind of person we want to be. Others have a better head on their shoulders from the beginning.

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1 hour ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Few years ago asked about why people went to top corps instead of lower. Good many responses was they could only afford in time and money to do corps one season. Might be part of the answer here. 

For my own edification, nothing formal to publish but just for curiosity, a few years back I did a cost annalysis comparison decade by decade from the eighties to now. I only put the findings on scratch paper, and likely threw them away, so take this for what it is: informal results born out of my curiosity.

Factoring in cost of living and dollar buying power, the costs to perfom in DCI, along with travel costs, food costs, ect have pretty much stayed level along with the rest of the commerce. So something else must have changed culturally within the cultural values not the economic values. I have a guess based on talking to many if my students each decade, but I want to see other replies first.

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38 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

In community college it was called Data Processing lol.... brings up images of a wonderful career of messing with punched cards and big printouts.... which we had both at the time.... think the manufacturer was in Bedrock....

Reel to reel tape, IBM 360, RPG 2, Cobol, etc.

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2 hours ago, Ghost said:

Reel to reel tape, IBM 360, RPG 2, Cobol, etc.

In order... handling same was part of my first job, community colleges hardware, took it in CommColl, last thing I learned in college that I used in my career.... just hit 39 years working IT and 1 to go.....

my favorit joke in Futurama cartoon is the Olde FORTRAN beer as I really get it...

Back in topic, without giving away personal info does the original poster have a corps nearby in case he(?) wants to get the feet wet. 

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On 2/22/2019 at 2:06 PM, Stu said:

There was a time where even an excellent player decided to stay loyal to their corps (ie Chad Sexton and River City Railmen), and the younger performers stood with honor and commitment until age-out as they helped a lower placing corps grow into a competitive top caliber corps. While there still might be a few today who commit to those characteristics, I wonder culturally speaking whatever happened to that mind-set?

I think in today's "drum corps landscape" that the emergence of the profiles, videos, etc. of different corps on social media and YouTube have played a role. Also, the fact that students can audition via YouTube (easier than old school mailing a VHS or Beta tape), and that many corps have camps all across the country, allow students to be able to audition much closer to home, rather than drive 600+ miles, or have to fly, to make an audition camp. Think even more about the costs for these initial camps, and having to possibly travel across the region, or even country, to go to a camp? I know when I marched, one dude in the bass line came into the first audition camp and showed the staff the dates and times of flights he would be taking to make each subsequent camp should he make the bassline. Needless to say, this impressed the staff, and though he did make it on his own ability, his organization with travel ahead of time, impressed the staff, and gave him a leg up form the jump. I on the other hand, was willing to travel the 600+ miles by car to get to camp, and also felt quite confident that I had a strong chance to make it, but not all feel as confident.

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1 hour ago, ibexpercussion said:

I think in today's "drum corps landscape" that the emergence of the profiles, videos, etc. of different corps on social media and YouTube have played a role. Also, the fact that students can audition via YouTube (easier than old school mailing a VHS or Beta tape), and that many corps have camps all across the country, allow students to be able to audition much closer to home, rather than drive 600+ miles, or have to fly, to make an audition camp. Think even more about the costs for these initial camps, and having to possibly travel across the region, or even country, to go to a camp? I know when I marched, one dude in the bass line came into the first audition camp and showed the staff the dates and times of flights he would be taking to make each subsequent camp should he make the bassline. Needless to say, this impressed the staff, and though he did make it on his own ability, his organization with travel ahead of time, impressed the staff, and gave him a leg up form the jump. I on the other hand, was willing to travel the 600+ miles by car to get to camp, and also felt quite confident that I had a strong chance to make it, but not all feel as confident.

I was more talking along the lines of love and loyalty. While there always has been some who jump ship to another ship, it was very rare 30 years ago. A youth would audition for a corps because they loved the corps, stayed with that corps out of loyality, helped that corps climb; loyality and love. Now it is audition for a lower corps, perform one year, audition for a middle corps, perform two years, then audition and age-out with one of the current top eliete. And even then there may be some jump from one eliete to another prior to age-out. Just curious as to what happened to both love and loyality to just one corps.

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That might make an interesting DCP poll. How many have corps hopped. I did it. A lot of kids did it back in "the day". Probably a fairly small % overall, but it wasn't that uncommon at all, especially in the midwest and east where the choices of where to go then were plentiful. Probably like today,  there were many factors - economics being one. Unlike today where the choices are limited. I don't know if that speaks in either era to loyalty to a given corps or loyalty to the activity itself and wanting to excel. 

Edited by OldSnareDrummer
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40 minutes ago, OldSnareDrummer said:

That might make an interesting DCP poll. How many have corps hopped. I did it. A lot of kids did it back in "the day". Probably a fairly small % overall, but it wasn't that uncommon at all, especially in the midwest and east where the choices of where to go then were plentiful. Probably like today,  there were many factors - economics being one. Unlike today where the choices are limited. I don't know if that speaks in either era to loyalty to a given corps or loyalty to the activity itself and wanting to excel. 

Unless there are a large number of DCP readers and responders from the various decades, to me a poll would yield very skewed results.

As for the hopping. In the world of percussion, for example, performers followed Tom Float from Spirit to BD, or followed Dennis Delucia from Bridgemen to Star. Not because they wanted more prestige with another higher-placing corps, but because they were loyal to, and liked the teaching/writing of, those instructors. And that still happens today (see Paul Rennick). But while to some extent corps hopping happened with 'individuals' like you, it was rare for any performer, perc, brass, or guard to corps-hop in pursuit of prestige or a ring; even with the plethora of available corps.

I am not waxing nostalgic; nor am I looking at the past through rose colored glasses. There was a general philosophy back in the eighties of a performer's love and loyality for the corps they were involved with which has gone away in modern times.

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