Jeff Ream Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 Because one tech is not going to be a financial burden on the corps, but when you get into the 20-25 tech range then you are talking about some serious money spent, the I feel can be spent on other aspects of running the corps. The number of corps has dwindled down from litterly thousands to only a hand full, I know that it doesn't all stem from how many tech or instructors the corps had. But most of the downfalls have been because of money problems. There is no question that it takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to field a corps, cutting costs in some small areas might ensure that we don't lose any more. i have an idea. why dont you contact some techs and some corps and see what they make. i know the last year i taught a corps, i got a hotel room for free at finals and a few free meals Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slow Adam Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 At the corps I'm teaching now, after transportation to and from rehearsals, I am hanging on to a little over $2/hr (Canadian, $1.60/hr American) And that's in the winter. The ratio gets much worse in the summer, less than $1/hr. At the last corps I taught I was losing money by teaching. It was great to go on tour because I was being fed 3 times a day and I was losing less $$ per hour :P NOBODY does drum corps for the money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornlineDiva Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 Most techs that are still in college don't get paid at all. I know this isn't the case for the Top-6-Super-Corps, but that's the norm everywhere else. If they do get paid, it's maybe $500 a summer, which levels out to about 7 bucks a day. I could move to a third-world country and weave blankets for that kind of money. Staff is not a good place to start cutting costs. Period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayfallon Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 I must agree with my esteemed colleague, Ray Fallon.Nobody (and I do mean "nobody") is getting rich teaching a drum corps. Even the highest paid instructors make less than their contemporaries in other industries. Virtually all have some other supplemental work, be it school teaching, working with marching bands or other related (or unrelated) activity. Back in the '70s at a DCI congress, there was once a management session called "Instructors and other Rip-offs". I wanted to punch someone's lights out when I saw that. Most of us weren't even making gas money in those days. the beauty, too, Frank (and I have a feeling that a lot of these folks are too young to remember this) but in those days the DCI executive committee had their winter meetings in such places as Tahiti (I kid you not), where they discussed how to cut back on the costs of instructors (e.g. don't feed them). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elphaba01 Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 "Enough is Enough": My pretties: Way back in dark old days of "G" valve/roto bugles, when istructors were still called "Instructors" rather than "Designers", "Visual" was "Marching & Manuvering", the "Auxillary" was know as the "Color Guard" (And wore the SAME UNIFORM as the rest of the unit) and 'Drumming' was called DRUMMING (And actually played on drum heads rather than kelvar)....... SOMEHOW drum corps such as Blessed Sacrament, the Chicago Cavaliers and St Kevins Emerald Knights managed to win multiple National Championships in the American Legion, VFW and National Dream with "Staffs" that consisted of three or four instructors. Chicago had the team of Fararra, MaCormick and Litteau, Blessed Sacrament had Jim Day, Frank Kubinack and Bobby Thompson while St Kevins had Frank "Buddy" Bergdoll and Cliff Fisher. Mr Fisher taught drums as well as the DRILL. Boston's Crusaders, multiple champions of the CYO had the Dennon, Shellmaer/Palange "troika". Times sure have chenged eh? Elphaba WWW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madscout96 Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 "Enough is Enough":My pretties: Way back in dark old days of "G" valve/roto bugles, when istructors were still called "Instructors" rather than "Designers", "Visual" was "Marching & Manuvering", the "Auxillary" was know as the "Color Guard" (And wore the SAME UNIFORM as the rest of the unit) and 'Drumming' was called DRUMMING (And actually played on drum heads rather than kelvar)....... SOMEHOW drum corps such as Blessed Sacrament, the Chicago Cavaliers and St Kevins Emerald Knights managed to win multiple National Championships in the American Legion, VFW and National Dream with "Staffs" that consisted of three or four instructors. Chicago had the team of Fararra, MaCormick and Litteau, Blessed Sacrament had Jim Day, Frank Kubinack and Bobby Thompson while St Kevins had Frank "Buddy" Bergdoll and Cliff Fisher. Mr Fisher taught drums as well as the DRILL. Boston's Crusaders, multiple champions of the CYO had the Dennon, Shellmaer/Palange "troika". Times sure have chenged eh? Elphaba WWW What's your point? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slow Adam Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 "Enough is Enough":My pretties: Way back in dark old days of "G" valve/roto bugles, when istructors were still called "Instructors" rather than "Designers", "Visual" was "Marching & Manuvering", the "Auxillary" was know as the "Color Guard" (And wore the SAME UNIFORM as the rest of the unit) and 'Drumming' was called DRUMMING (And actually played on drum heads rather than kelvar)....... SOMEHOW drum corps such as Blessed Sacrament, the Chicago Cavaliers and St Kevins Emerald Knights managed to win multiple National Championships in the American Legion, VFW and National Dream with "Staffs" that consisted of three or four instructors. Chicago had the team of Fararra, MaCormick and Litteau, Blessed Sacrament had Jim Day, Frank Kubinack and Bobby Thompson while St Kevins had Frank "Buddy" Bergdoll and Cliff Fisher. Mr Fisher taught drums as well as the DRILL. Boston's Crusaders, multiple champions of the CYO had the Dennon, Shellmaer/Palange "troika". Times sure have chenged eh? Elphaba WWW They sure have. Corps are marching faster with greater pace size than they did back then. Take the percussion section for example. Drummers now run sideways, bass drums today play the most challenging split parts the activity has ever seen, and tenor technique has evolved from the old days of tris strung up to the players armpits to the point where a snare tech can't effectively teach tenor players. Mallet percussion isn't a second thought any more, so throw in atleast one pit instructor/writer for a small corps. The increasing size of corps staffs is not superfluous IMO, it is completely necessary. Just because it's kevlar doesn't mean it's not a drum head. Kevlar exposes a lot more dirt than mylar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayfallon Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 "Enough is Enough":My pretties: Way back in dark old days of "G" valve/roto bugles, when istructors were still called "Instructors" rather than "Designers", "Visual" was "Marching & Manuvering", the "Auxillary" was know as the "Color Guard" (And wore the SAME UNIFORM as the rest of the unit) and 'Drumming' was called DRUMMING (And actually played on drum heads rather than kelvar)....... SOMEHOW drum corps such as Blessed Sacrament, the Chicago Cavaliers and St Kevins Emerald Knights managed to win multiple National Championships in the American Legion, VFW and National Dream with "Staffs" that consisted of three or four instructors. Chicago had the team of Fararra, MaCormick and Litteau, Blessed Sacrament had Jim Day, Frank Kubinack and Bobby Thompson while St Kevins had Frank "Buddy" Bergdoll and Cliff Fisher. Mr Fisher taught drums as well as the DRILL. Boston's Crusaders, multiple champions of the CYO had the Dennon, Shellmaer/Palange "troika". Times sure have chenged eh? Elphaba I had the occassion to play some of my favorite old '60s shows for my wife, a non drum corps chick with her MMus in theory and composition. She looked at me with her copywrited mixture of amusement and concern and said, "was that good?" Trust me... it has changed a bunch. Only our hearts have remained faithful to the '60s and even the '70s. The instruments were plumbing, the tuning unfathomable, many of the arrangements indecipherable. I'm not ragging on anybody, that was my time too. In the words of Billy Joel, "The good old days weren't always good." Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have missed it for the world, but listen to the VFW Nationals from any year in the '60s and tell me these 128 kid corps could get by with the same intruction! (waiting for the flames to begin). WWW :sshh: :sshh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drumlinetchr Posted October 2, 2005 Author Share Posted October 2, 2005 "Enough is Enough":My pretties: Way back in dark old days of "G" valve/roto bugles, when istructors were still called "Instructors" rather than "Designers", "Visual" was "Marching & Manuvering", the "Auxillary" was know as the "Color Guard" (And wore the SAME UNIFORM as the rest of the unit) and 'Drumming' was called DRUMMING (And actually played on drum heads rather than kelvar)....... SOMEHOW drum corps such as Blessed Sacrament, the Chicago Cavaliers and St Kevins Emerald Knights managed to win multiple National Championships in the American Legion, VFW and National Dream with "Staffs" that consisted of three or four instructors. Chicago had the team of Fararra, MaCormick and Litteau, Blessed Sacrament had Jim Day, Frank Kubinack and Bobby Thompson while St Kevins had Frank "Buddy" Bergdoll and Cliff Fisher. Mr Fisher taught drums as well as the DRILL. Boston's Crusaders, multiple champions of the CYO had the Dennon, Shellmaer/Palange "troika". Times sure have chenged eh? Elphaba WWW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drumlinetchr Posted October 2, 2005 Author Share Posted October 2, 2005 Just because it's kevlar doesn't mean it's not a drum head. Kevlar exposes a lot more dirt than mylar. And it shows, look how dirty even the top lines are today. :sshh: :sshh: <**> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.