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Disturbing DCI rumors


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4 hours ago, Tim K said:

How do we make it possible for those who cannot afford to march to do so? 

Bring back the regional touring model such as DCM and stop doing things that drive away the countless small corps that provided great opportunities in those regions like they have done in the last 20 years.

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5 hours ago, Tim K said:

Full disclosure: I was once a kid in the 7th grade who played the clarinet.

Kids choose to play different sports all the time. They understand that if they want to play soccer, it may mean they cannot play football or run track. 

It is not discrimination to say only brass and percussion instruments are used in drum corps than it is to say hockey sticks cannot be used in football. 

If we are interested in offering the opportunity for drum corps to as wide a group as possible, the place to begin is with economics. How do we make it possible for those who cannot afford to march to do so? 

Tim, I know you know this math as I do.  It's not possible.  Million dollar spectacles placed on the back of how many kids' member dues?   If the winningest corps in the activity spends annually upwards of $1.5mm to field their WC corps, that means to just attract attention a corps has to raise $750m annually or there-abouts.  Divided by 150 kids, it's $XX.xx per kid.  But divided by 200 kids, or 250 kids on the field it's even less per kid.  You'd need 500 kids marching to make the math work.  Sponsors' return on dollars invested declines with each additional member they have to outfit with their gear under this "special [insert corps name] deal".  No matter what, all in, the cost per MM can't be greater than the dollars raised towards their costs.  It's been upside down for decades and has only gotten worse.  The BEST corps in the activity only fund 50% - 60% of their expenses from MM tour fees.  The rest comes from...

The math is simple: either increase the number of MMs, reduce the dollars spent on shows, or some combination of both.  And it is never as easy as <---that sounds.  

 

Edited by garfield
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38 minutes ago, gbass598 said:

Bring back the regional touring model such as DCM and stop doing things that drive away the countless small corps that provided great opportunities in those regions like they have done in the last 20 years.

Not knowing DCI corps as well as DCA have a question. How many corps would be in each region? To use DCM as an example, who is left in the non top corps?

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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6 hours ago, MikeD said:

Just about every member who marches today is a bando. 

How many are bandos who want to get away from the band vibe by doing drum corps?

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On 12/24/2019 at 10:12 AM, Glenn426 said:

Imagine being a kid in 7th grade beginning band not knowing anything about DCI or any of its offshoots. and choosing to play Alto Saxophone because you like the sound and your dad always played Coltrane and Charlie Parker on Sunday mornings growing up. Your best friends choose Trombone and Trumpet. You go all through Middle School and you are killing it on Alto, All-state First Chair etc.., Highly decorated. Your friends are holding their own but they don't practice as much and while talented, do not earn the accolades that you do.

 

Then you go to HS and you are introduced to Marching band, and by osmosis DCI. You and your friends love the Blue Devils and are their biggest fans. You go to see BD live at a local show and you fall in love, Your friends immediately decide they want to be a Blue Devil one day. And your friends start working on their skills. you on the other hand (the better musician of the three and most decorated musician in your school) also want to march BD but you have to learn a brand new instrument to try and make BD because WW's aren't allowed. The three of you go to auditions and your friends both make it, but while you can march just as good as they can, you don't have a great tone quality, your range is limited and your articulation is not as pristine as a natural brass player. You are Cut. and cant march BD with your friends. Even though you are the most dedicated musician of the three, the most talented, the one who would likely pursue music performance as a profession because you already have a scholarship to prestigious music school for Alto performance. 

Being in those shoes it would be hard not to think that DCI is discriminating against your kind of musician, One that is just as qualified, one that would make a great member, and contribute more to the organization through your musicianship and professionalism.

 

Having taught Marching band in South Florida for 15 years, I not only saw this once or twice but numerous times across my teaching career. Often times my best marcher in the program was a Woodwind player that could never enjoy DCI like their Brass counterparts simply because of a choice they made when they where 11 years old not knowing how that would impact their teenage years.

And all because DCI never had WW's in its history and tradition so there is no room for growth and understanding how that impacts the Youth of today.

You wonder why DCI gets a bad rap from certain directors and certain school districts and I'd bet that it has roots in this type of thinking towards a young Woodwind player with dreams of marching DCI but never being accepted in the DCI community as the most evil thing that has ever occured.

It does not match DCI's mission statement and its core values from the shoes of a WW player in HS looking to enjoy everything that DCI has to offer.

Mission Statement

The mission of Drum Corps International is to bring the life-enriching benefits and enjoyment of marching music performing arts to more people worldwide. We do this by creating a stage for participating organizations to engage in education, competition, entertainment, and the promotion of individual growth.

Vision Statement

A world in which the positive life-transforming personal and societal benefits of marching music performing arts are widely recognized and enjoyed.

Core Values

Pursuing Excellence: DCI strives to consistently demonstrate excellence in its operations and results and remain the preeminent leader in its field.

Teamwork and Collaboration: DCI promotes effective teamwork, productive relationships, and cooperation to achieve superior results.

Visionary Leadership: DCI leads in moving the marching music performing arts toward a preferred future that inspires others to share the vision and engage.

Commitment and Dedication: DCI works diligently and tirelessly in its devotion to advancing marching music performing arts.

Creativity and Innovation: DCI demonstrates imagination and ingenuity to develop new and effective ways to accomplish its mission.

Mutual Care and Respect: DCI treats all with dignity, courtesy, attention, and appreciation; and seeks these traits in others with whom it engages

 

The tools currently exist to make WW's a viable option in DCI. Its time for change, so that everyone can enjoy what we all have enjoyed.

It amazes me how selective your presentation (bastardizing DCI with WW) and rationalizing it by quoting aspects of DCI's Mission Statement while overlooking a key component of those same descriptions and ignoring it. But then again ideologues are like that.

That is, the term "marching" musical, etc.  DCI is currently failing its own mission statement by removing the importance of drill because Gaines, Chandler and the judges have gotten bored, may have to work at it to keep the dynamics alive, and struggle to be creative rather than repeating what they've done during MARCHING band and winter group seasons. 
 

 

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1 hour ago, gbass598 said:

Bring back the regional touring model such as DCM and stop doing things that drive away the countless small corps that provided great opportunities in those regions like they have done in the last 20 years.

You still have to house, feed and transport the members. Plus, are there sufficient shows in each 'region'...however you define them...to provide a full season of shows for the members? How about housing and rehearsal sites for the entire summer within all of the regions?

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7 hours ago, gbass598 said:

Bring back the regional touring model such as DCM and stop doing things that drive away the countless small corps that provided great opportunities in those regions like they have done in the last 20 years.

YES 100%. Go regional and reduce the crazy touring model.

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10 hours ago, MikeD said:

You still have to house, feed and transport the members. Plus, are there sufficient shows in each 'region'...however you define them...to provide a full season of shows for the members? How about housing and rehearsal sites for the entire summer within all of the regions?

...and not just able, but WILLING to schedule a show that doesn't have 7 WC corps in it while, at the same time, trying to increase the competitive quality of shows by making the club more exclusive by requiring minimum MM's and minimum placement for a minimum number of years.  

Most corps perform in 25 to 30 shows per season now.  Could there be 30 shows per time zone in the US for all corps in that region to participate?  That's 120 shows, or thereabouts, for the whole year or just 20 more than now.  Or, produce 20 shows per time zone and cut the season to 80 shows in the region plus 4 regionals and one finals week.  (I'm only looking at the number of shows and the potential participants per region, not the logistic nor the lineups of those shows).

 

Edited by garfield
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5 hours ago, FlamMan said:

YES 100%. Go regional and reduce the crazy touring model.

Can each region sell enough seats to be profitable even without a WC participant?  What of regions that have none?  I'm simple - I think of "regional" as being time zones because those lines are fixed and not gerrymandered to benefit the few.

Is the activity ready to concede membership to the big club if the successful regional touring, plus DCI "Regionals" in their area, and the trip to "Finals" with 100 members is the minimum requirement for a minimum time?

 

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21 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

Yes.  I will.

Another 50 horns in a pre-existing corps is at best an incremental benefit.  I would rather see another corps.  I would rather see Crown follow the lead of Academy, whose second program offering (Phenom) is planning to join open-class in 2020.  Blue Devils, Vanguard and Colts already figured out that you can serve more kids in this manner.

This is, has been, and will be my sole disagreement with allowing WW to boost revenue by attracting new participants and their fan-family.  If drum corps, the activity, wants new revenue then they'd vote to allow woodwinds but not increase the MM limit.  Horns cut to allow the palette of woodwinds in one corps, when added to a group of other, new participant woodwinds, in fact makes a new corps in numbers even as it requires a like-minded group of visionaries to create and run it.

But, existing corps directors looking to increase only their own revenues see the obvious answer is to increase the MM limit AND allow any-instrument.  A 200-piece top-5 drum corps with 50 woodwinds will still blow as loud as a 150-member corps that stays all brass, and the bigger corps has the extra palette of sounds with which to dazzle the bored judges (plus a whole new crew of able-bodied prop-movers).

I'm not confident that "creating new corps" as a new activity revenue source is on the radars of individual corps leadership (i.e. DCI member corps) even while I'm positive that generating new revenue for their corps most certainly is.

 

Edited by garfield
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