Max Plays Music Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 At my university there is a bad rap about drum corps, and the marching band which is one of the best college marching bands in the state. I was a music ed major, and one time I was asked about why i was looking at my old drum corps site on my labtop last year, and I answered, well cause its my life, and the responce i got back was well you better change your major. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Do not listen to the opinions of someone who has not done the activity. Experience is the greatest reliablity when asked for an opinion. Of Bands, Orchestras, Wind Ensembles, Choirs, Drum Corps, etc.. Well...not sure I agree with that... If you are, say, a trumpet major...and have a private teacher you respect and admire...who did not march corps....and after a summer of marching he tells you your tone sounds lousy...it's not because he naver marched that is the issue...it's the way you sound. That is all the teacher is evaluating. That being said...and esp for music ed majors...I think getting corps experience will pay off when you get a band job down the road...more so than the pain of having to refocus your sound to please your teacher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piper Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 The thing I don't understand is why some band directors are very supportive of drum corps and others seem hostile toward it. It's almost as if they were born on different planets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 The thing I don't understand is why some band directors are very supportive of drum corps and others seem hostile toward it. It's almost as if they were born on different planets. I think as in anything you will find a wide range of attitudes. Just human nature. There are some who hate MB but love concert band...others dislike jazz band but may enjoy pit orchestra...etc... I also think that with private teachers their attitudes are more likely to be grounded in "serious" music and training. Note in this thread that at the same SCHOOL there are band directors who like corps...while private teachers hate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApocalypseTissue Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Well...not sure I agree with that...If you are, say, a trumpet major...and have a private teacher you respect and admire...who did not march corps....and after a summer of marching he tells you your tone sounds lousy...it's not because he naver marched that is the issue...it's the way you sound. That is all the teacher is evaluating. That being said...and esp for music ed majors...I think getting corps experience will pay off when you get a band job down the road...more so than the pain of having to refocus your sound to please your teacher. Them telling you that you have a lousy tone, and telling you not to do drum corps are two different things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnyboy Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Oh man, you stoled my line :P Why does it seem like brass players are the only ones who have to deal with this kind of anti-drum corps nonsense. Makes me thankful I was a drummer. :) My first year in the university band, the school's percussion instructor HATED drum corps. My first year was the first year we had any drumcorps drummers. Two Crossmen and a Cadet. At the audition he asked me "where did you learn to do that?", when I said drumcorps he was flabbergassed. Needless to say that was his last year teaching the battery, because the students were now better than the teacher (at rudimental corps style drumming at least). As a matter of fact, we made it our mission to get him canned as the battery guy. A few years later the school wised up and scored a top notch assistant percussion professor with TONS of corps experience. The moral of the story? Many profs and high school band teachers don't like corps for what it used to be (in their minds) twenty years ago. I also believe many of them never marched, and don't know that corps is about life first and music education second. Some were cut from corps, couldn't hack it, never knew about it, saw a parade band and thought it was corps etc. My advice? Tell your prof he is a tool then laugh like you were joking -or- don't tell him you are marching -or- march and come back next year in great shape, with great chops and blow his mind. When he asks you where you learned to do that you can say "In drum corps." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Them telling you that you have a lousy tone, and telling you not to do drum corps are two different things. Unless your tone was fine before a summer of touring...and then it goes all to pot during the summer...from the teacher's perspective. I was just speaking with a gal on Monday who had that very thing happen to her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ambassadorhorn Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 ...The moral of the story? Many profs and high school band teachers don't like corps for what it used to be (in their minds) twenty years ago. I resemble that remark. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodigal bari Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 i don't really get how marching multiple years can hurt your playing more than one year.I don't really understand how it can hurt your playing at all really. I mean, yea if the staff sucks and teach you bad technique than if can be hindering, but why are you paying thousands of dollars to learn from bad teachers? I hear all the time, especially at music camps, how drum corps/marching band gives you all sorts of bad habits; while I have yet to march a corps, the only "bad habit" i've gotten from marching band is a tendency to be a bit heavy-handed with my articulations, which I can fix in about two minutes of concentration when I play my concert horn. Some of these statements about 'bad habits' come from people who are not up on the current state of the art of the activity. Thirty+ years ago you could argue with validity that a lot of shortcuts were taken in a lot of corps...the level of pedagogy, talent, and expectation was different; and the activity has over time developed into one that demands top calibre approaches. The corps I watched rehearse this past summer (and I will use Crown as an example) use techniques that would rival those from the top studios in the nation. You have to approach it that way in order to perform the incredibly demanding books that corps are expected to perform. Also, most universities require majors to perform in the major performing ensemble of their instrument (in the case of brass and percussion, marching band). I do not see the problem...a quality player will know how to adjust; and if they don't, then they need to reconsider their choice of vocation. I do think some of these attitudes are changing, but you know how slow the ivory tower is sometimes! I do have a story..I marched in a top-12 corps in the late 70's-early 80's...there was a rehearsal where at the end the brass warmed down only briefly; then the instructor asked everyone to refrain from playing any further upon the end of the rehearsal. My chops were still stiff, and there was no reason for me to not do so; so upon dismissal I went to a corner of the field and continued with low tones. This guy got up in my face and starts screaming at me to stop; upon which I put my horn down and said (I was a upcoming college junior music major at the time) "You will get out of my face now and allow me to continue warming down before I pack my bags and leave...after shoving this horn up your nether regions...and speaking with your boss!!! (This is paraphrased... :sshh: ) He backed down. And allowed for additional warm-down time. Sometimes you have to take charge of yourself, regardless of consequence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CloudHype Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Or do what I did... "Well if I was going to be a performence major, I wouldn't be going to school here". He shut up real quick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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