Alumni Corps- for has beens or just having fun ?

[Shadow_7]

As far as me, I rather like the alumni corps option. I would actually prefer in some respects to do alumni corps. But I live in Texas, there are no alumni corps here. My only two options are a) be in a competitive DCA corps, or b) MOVE. Despite the high costs(time+money) of a DCA competitve corps, it's still the cheaper option of the TWO.

As far as DCA competitive corps, I really don't like spending 10 hours marching for every 1 hour of playing. If that could be flipped to 10 hours of playing for every 1 hour of marching, I'd be a happy camper. I guess there's a third option, start my own corps, mystic alumni. But even that would most likely exceed the costs of the previous two options combined.

I feel that alumni corps is the more sustainable of the options. Low commitment, high reward.

Versus 200 hours in a field show that gets performed maybe three or four times in a season, a whopping 1 hour of spotlight time. And that's just the member time commitment, I couldn't even phathom the staffs time towards the show. There's a reason there's an off season after all.

[LegalEagle50]

Liz, some refuse to move forward.

Remember, it ain't football anymore - not since they ditched the leather helmets.

yeah Bob ~ because going by that guy's comment i've NEVER done guard the way it was supposed to be.

great analogy but you're an Iggles fan.

you and i really shouldn't talk about anything to do with football. EVAAAAAAAA!!!!! :P

^0^

[JimF-LowBari]

At Westshore, we have people who currently march in competitive field corps...DCI and DCA...jumping in. We have alumni who don't ant to do competitive corps due to time, money or desire reasons. We have people who never marched. We have it all.

My wife, who hasn't marched competitively to this date, does it so we can do corps together, and she's basically family at Shore now too.

Jami, who posts here on DCP, has been in for 3 years...while she was at Cap Regiment and is now at Bucs. She likes it cause it's fun.

and then we have Fawber, who we let in cause, well, we have to :P

Well that last guy does bring his own horn :P

As always with Westshore and other Alumni corps, one ####uva mix of different ages and personalities that work together to one common goal.

[Commander71]

One of the things I sort of like about Alumni Corps is the number of members who slide in and out of the line to take a year off and do "all-age" or DCI. There are quite a few members of MSJ who take time out to do a year or so with Cru, Statesmen or Brigs,or just take a year off for other reasons. Some just get the competitive bug once in a while, some want the opportunity to march with a son or daughter for a competetive season. Many of them come back, and those who have yet to return know there will always be a place for them.

Make no mistake...every alumni corps wants to be good. Although we are not judged, we all watch each other pretty critically and we all work to put our best product on the field or stage. I think alumni corps also offers the best choice of a wide variety of music...some corps stick to the historical repertoire of their "parent" corps; others branch out with a mix of historical and even some original music. Some corps look for musical challenges, others are content with playing the 1965 repertoire note for note. And there is nothing wrong with that!! Some do the full field show...others do a little m&m and then park and bark...some are strictly parade and standstill. And that's the beauty of alumni corps...the fastest growing segment of our drum corps world also offers the widest variety and is the least likely to be locked into an established format.

In the Canadian sense, alumni corps offers about the ONLY outlet for those who want to be in a drum corps. There is little left except for Kingston Grenadiers and some div 2/3 units scattered across the country. If you want to play at all it's the only game in town. Scout House, Toronto Optimist Alumni, Les Diplomats, Toronto Signals and Hamilton Firefighters are all havens for those who want to stay in the activity. Maybe it's not "real drum corps" but it's drum corps the way it used to be and there is a lot of value in that.

Sorry for the ramble...

Edited December 30, 2005 by Commander71

[MikeD]

Again, I think you may be wrong, it didn't end the day I hung'em up as you say, it started to end when the June Taylor Dancers took the place of a real color guard, and finished the day the they allowed Bb trumpets and tubas!!! <**> B)

You and I started marching the same year...yet we are light-years apart otherwise!

Drum corps has never died...it keeps gettig better and better....IMO.

[JoeBas]

Everything was cool, until

There's always someone who feels REAL drum corps ended the day THEY hung 'em up!! <**>

And it's incredibly INSULTING to those who are actively participating in the "NOT REAL" groups.

You're wrong I don't feel REAL drum corps ended the day I hung'em up!!! It started with the June Taylor dancers taking the place of the color guard, and finished with trumpets and tubas, the pitts didn't help either. Don't get me wrong, what is done is great, but it has evolved(to use their words) into another art form. It is no longer Drum Corps it evolved into Broadway shows with brass bands. All I and others want to do is revive, bring back, traditional (true) Drum And Bugle Corps, with drums, buGles and flags, and the only way we can do it is to do it ourselves, and give, not just the music major, but every kid on the corner a chance to experience what we did, and still are with the alumni movement. Once again I don't want to deminish what is being done today, it just isn't, for the most part, drum and bugle corps. Be proud of what you are doing just call it what it is, is all that I ask.

[JoeBas]

Liz, some refuse to move forward.

Remember, it ain't football anymore - not since they ditched the leather helmets.

The equipment in football may be better, but when they use baseball bats and gloves, then it isn't football anymore. That's what they've done to drum corps, it isn't drum corps anymore it's band.

[JoeBas]

let me ask you a question...

when you first started marching and some old vet said this to you, would you have been insulted?

cause i stopped marching competitively 10 years ago and I feel insulted. your post does nothing to help alumni corps and the alumni movement look good

no I wouldn't I'd just say it's a totaly different animal, but we did it the same way they did, only the equipment improved, not the whole thing. I'm sorry if you were insulted, but I get insulted by everybody calling it Drum and Bugle Corps when it isn't, and it doesn't make DCI or DCA movement look good to us older folk either.

[Bob Kidd]

I love the "back in MY day" crowd!! I really, really do!!

I started marching in 1976 - ####, in your neck of the woods in fact.

Now, I started on a valve/rotor - was "real" drum corps dead when they added the rotor?

I also remember when the keyboards and tympani were grounded - was "real" drum corps dead then, too?

I also remember people going crazy when corps like Bridgemen, SCV, etc. changed from high mark time and symetrical drills - was "real" drum corps dead then, too?

I also remember people going crazy when corps like 27th, etc. changed the way color guard is done - was "real" drum corps dead then, too?

I also remember people goign crazy when corps like the Cadets, etc. ran and played at the same time - was "real" drum corps dead then, too?

Things do evolve, pal. That's why you live in a house or apartment, not a mud hut or a cave. That's why you drive a car and not ride a horse to work. That's why you pick up a phone and not send smoke signals. That's why a doctor prescribes medications instead of spitting on you and throwing old chicken bones on your chest.

Let it go. Get off the superiority kick. I enjoy watching alumni corps do "their thing". It reminds me of the old days. It's like watching Cary Grant instead of Tom Hanks - undoubtedly two great actors, but from different eras. Not better or worse, not "real" acting vs. "not real" acting.

Thanks for listening, though I doubt it will do any good.

[JoeBas]

I love the "back in MY day" crowd!! I really, really do!!

I started marching in 1976 - ####, in your neck of the woods in fact.

Now, I started on a valve/rotor - was "real" drum corps dead when they added the rotor?

I also remember when the keyboards and tympani were grounded - was "real" drum corps dead then, too?

I also remember people going crazy when corps like Bridgemen, SCV, etc. changed from high mark time and symetrical drills - was "real" drum corps dead then, too?

I also remember people going crazy when corps like 27th, etc. changed the way color guard is done - was "real" drum corps dead then, too?

I also remember people goign crazy when corps like the Cadets, etc. ran and played at the same time - was "real" drum corps dead then, too?

Things do evolve, pal. That's why you live in a house or apartment, not a mud hut or a cave. That's why you drive a car and not ride a horse to work. That's why you pick up a phone and not send smoke signals. That's why a doctor prescribes medications instead of spitting on you and throwing old chicken bones on your chest.

Let it go. Get off the superiority kick. I enjoy watching alumni corps do "their thing". It reminds me of the old days. It's like watching Cary Grant instead of Tom Hanks - undoubtedly two great actors, but from different eras. Not better or worse, not "real" acting vs. "not real" acting.

Thanks for listening, though I doubt it will do any good.

No it won't do any good just as you changing your idea of what true or traditional drum corps is, and what today is. I could see all the things you were talking about back in "the day" just by going to a band compitition. If I want to see a band today that's where I'll go and have gone. I see no difference between a band compitition, and what is passed for drum corps today, why? there is no difference, except they haven't added claranets, and sax's YET. Drum corps has evolved allright right into bands. As much as you might whish to dissagree, there isn't much difference between a good colage, and a good drum and bugle corband compitition today. Drum Corps is suppost to be a different animal than Band. It isn't a superiority kick at all, if you read my whold post IT'S FANTASTIC WHAT THEY DO TODAY, but it isn't drum corps, IT'S BANDCORPS. Great Bandcorps but Bandcorps just the same. All the changes you said in your post did happen, and I could and did accept it, I may have dissagreed with some of it, but did accept it. Some of it was good for drum corps, some not so good. The final straw of it happined for me when they introduced Bb trumpets and horns. That's when they no longer should beable to call them selves drum corps but bands. I salute the corps who are sticking to their guns and keeping G bugles, and hope they keep the course. I'm not against what they are doing. An art form is dieing, and the only way to keep it alive is to go back to it's roots. You can't compare oranges and apples, huts to houses, and what has happined to drum corps. They are two different animals.