spiniki Posted April 2, 2006 Share Posted April 2, 2006 Show your Mom how much you want to join. Get a job and save some money (keep those grades up). Take your Mom to an all expenses paid trip to see a local drumcorps show this summer. Hopefully it won't be to far away, but pay for gas, tickets and diner. After the show take her to a pre-arranged meeting with your favorite corps staff/director (email them ahead of time, I am sure someone would help out...maybe even someone's parent who is on tour). My guess is that your initiative combined with her experience that night will get you a ride to next years auditions. Oh yea, throw in an "I love you Mom" along the way. You are one sly fella there jonnyboy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dciguy1999 Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 can someone give me advice to convice my mom to let me do a drum corps?please i really want to join one... Well if you are still in High School I would not reccoment that you march one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashofthunder Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 Bah, if he really wants to march one while in high school he should be able to. My mom was a little worried(I'm only a lowly 15 year old sophomore in high school), but I called the corps and got the director to speak to her. You would be surprised how much she eased up when she talked to the director there. He alleviated MANY of her concerns, and a huge part of it was just being able to talk to the person in charge. Of course, show your mother you are serious about marching. My parents thought it may have been just a phase, but then they realized that I was spending 1-3 hours a day learning a brass instrument and refinging my technique, and that marching a corps is something I really want to do. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dciguy1999 Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 Bah, if he really wants to march one while in high school he should be able to. My mom was a little worried(I'm only a lowly 15 year old sophomore in high school), but I called the corps and got the director to speak to her. You would be surprised how much she eased up when she talked to the director there. He alleviated MANY of her concerns, and a huge part of it was just being able to talk to the person in charge. Of course, show your mother you are serious about marching. My parents thought it may have been just a phase, but then they realized that I was spending 1-3 hours a day learning a brass instrument and refinging my technique, and that marching a corps is something I really want to do. Good luck! I am a little bit older and more experienced in this topic...Drum corps is not an activity for children. I was a rookie at 19 (which by the way was 10 years ago) and I could not have imagined being around all of the things that I was around at a younger age. If it is a corps that does not go on a full extended tour like the big boy corps do than it could be ok. But a high school kid on tour and away from home without any responsible supervisors or adults to watch over them is bad news. Plain and simple and to think otherwise is foolish at best Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankA Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 (edited) But a high school kid on tour and away from home without any responsible supervisors or adults to watch over them is bad news. Plain and simple and to think otherwise is foolish at best I think that if the kid is mature enough then there wouldnt be any problems. I would encourage anyone who has the maturity and skills to march any corps to do it. Marching changes peoples life and I would like it to touch as many people as it can. But of course if the kid isnt at that level yet then maybe he/she should wait untill he/she grows. Edited April 3, 2006 by bd euph some day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dciguy1999 Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 I think that if the kid is mature enough then there wouldnt be any problems. I would encourage anyone who has the maturity and skills to march any corps to do it. Marching changes peoples life and I would like it to touch as many people as it can. But of course if the kid isnt at that level yet then maybe he should wait untill he/she grows. I just have to disagree. No child of 15 or 16 is ready for the things that happen on tour. At least not at a major corps. If it is small corps that has a limited tour maybe. I used to be a HS band director before going on to teach college and I told every student that corps is only for adults and i will stick to that statement till I die. There are simply not enough responsible role models on tour to watch after kids and the trappings of a full blown tour. When you are older you will agree with me without a doubt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiniki Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 From the experiences of my youth, the responsible role models did the best they could and really did help. I will have to say though, if a person -no matter the age- wants to do something they aren't supposed to bad enough, they will do it. If they are on tour or at home wishing they were on tour, they will have opportunities to get into trouble. Drum Corps and Marching Band not only helps build character, but discipline as well. I think that if a child is mature enough to show the kind of discipline needed to do this, knows how hard this activity is, and still wants to be a part of it, then they should be allowed to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssorrell Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 I just have to disagree. No child of 15 or 16 is ready for the things that happen on tour. At least not at a major corps. If it is small corps that has a limited tour maybe. I used to be a HS band director before going on to teach college and I told every student that corps is only for adults and i will stick to that statement till I die.There are simply not enough responsible role models on tour to watch after kids and the trappings of a full blown tour. When you are older you will agree with me without a doubt Well, I'm 42 years old...so I think I qualify as "older"...much older than you and definitely more experienced in drum corps if you are keeping score... I disagree completely with your suggestion that a child of 15 or 16 cannot handle tour. I began touring at that age and things were great. I have a few corpsmates that entered the ranks when they were 14 and they grew up just fine with no emotional scars. Most corps DO indeed have some responsible adults on tour that "oversee" things. They are not chaperones, as the members police themselves. If you experienced a corps where the members were not mature enough to make responsible decisions on tour and did not act like responsible young adults, then your experience is very uncommon in drum corps. Most every corps that I know of has a record of good behavior. I toured for 11 seasons and would not hesitate to support any kid of any age that wants to march. However, in relation to this particular thread and my first post in response...if this kid's mom doesn't want to let him go and if he is only 14 or 15, I fully support giving the parent time. They know their kids better than we do, and if they don't think they are ready to be independent to the extent that drum corps kids are, then they should be allowed to hold them back until they are indeed ready. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiniki Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 However, in relation to this particular thread and my first post in response...if this kid's mom doesn't want to let him go and if he is only 14 or 15, I fully support giving the parent time. They know their kids better than we do, and if they don't think they are ready to be independent to the extent that drum corps kids are, then they should be allowed to hold them back until they are indeed ready. I agree fully with this statement! I can however see some mothers wanting to hold on to long and the other side of the coin where the kid KNOWS s/he is "ready" and the kid really ISN'T and the parents know it. It is definately a sticky situation when we don't know both sides and what all is truely involved. It does take the teenager proving their independence RESPONSIBLY. Meaning, doing what is asked of them as (and in some cases, like chores -before) it is asked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dciguy1999 Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 Well, I'm 42 years old...so I think I qualify as "older"...much older than you and definitely more experienced in drum corps if you are keeping score...I disagree completely with your suggestion that a child of 15 or 16 cannot handle tour. I began touring at that age and things were great. I have a few corpsmates that entered the ranks when they were 14 and they grew up just fine with no emotional scars. Most corps DO indeed have some responsible adults on tour that "oversee" things. They are not chaperones, as the members police themselves. If you experienced a corps where the members were not mature enough to make responsible decisions on tour and did not act like responsible young adults, then your experience is very uncommon in drum corps. Most every corps that I know of has a record of good behavior. I toured for 11 seasons and would not hesitate to support any kid of any age that wants to march. However, in relation to this particular thread and my first post in response...if this kid's mom doesn't want to let him go and if he is only 14 or 15, I fully support giving the parent time. They know their kids better than we do, and if they don't think they are ready to be independent to the extent that drum corps kids are, then they should be allowed to hold them back until they are indeed ready. First off, you dont want to keep score with me. I think you would be suprised at how much experience I have in Drum Corps and even more importantly how much experience in music and music education. Even though I did not March for 11 years iI do know what's up. I did not need to march for that long to get what I wnted out of it and quite frankly i feel sorry for most (not all, but most) of the people that spend forever "living the dream" in and around drum corps. My perspective on corps is only from a division I standpoint. I really know very little about the smaller corps. I did state if it is a corps that goes on a limited tour that may be ok. But a big time Div I corps for a 15 year old kid is not a good thing in most cases. I dont teach drum corps at the moment but I work with a ton of students and musicians that do march. Most of them come back from tour and they can't handle life after tour. Some kids from some corps arent afftected at all, but most people that march corps at a young age have trouble fitting in to music ensembles afterwards. They struggle showing up on time to things, they think that they know more than they do becuase they took 7th last year at nationals, and they have developed all kinds of crazy habit both in and out of music. Is this to say that this happens to everyone? No, but this is my experience working with alot of people in and out of drum corps. As far as emotional scars I doubt that anyone that marches corps will have any of them later, but they can develop bad habits at a young age and that is my biggest concern for younger people. Lastly, the members really dont police themselves, at least not with any amount of regularity that would make me even remotely comfortable about putting them with other youngs men and women. Maybe they did in the good ol days but they dont now and neither does most of the people on staff. On tour there is simply a very limited amount of responsible adults that can watch over the members. Suggesting that all or even most corps are safe and worthwhile experiences for young students is in my opinion either clueless or irresponsible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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