Lance Posted March 3, 2007 Share Posted March 3, 2007 What's in a name? Well, let's see.The Summer Music games- Marching Music's Major League. Contras- Tubas Sopranos- Trumpets Drum Corps- Marching Band. Each of these are examples where precise word usage is important. To me, the Contra/Tuba thing was brought about for accuracy. Most corps use Tubas and trumpets now. For Drum corps, many people will fight and fight before it is ever called marching band. People can get offended if it's called the wrong thing. We all know it can be frustrating to see a picture of a drum corps in a newspaper with a big caption of "Marching Band" under it. As for the first one, I think this is closest to the case for the argument of changing to the terms faculty and student and tuition. It's the subtext, the connotation behind it. DCI felt that the title Marching Music's Major League better fit their business strategy. I would speculate this would be to further influence and get high school kids interested. Dissapointed with your high school marching band? Or perhaps want to be the very best in the marching arts? Try drum corps. That kind of thing. The more I think of it, the more I think this is a good idea. I still know that the perception high school band students have that drum corps pedagogy is less than stellar and possibly ANTI-musical is still out there. Perhaps if there was some kind of way to change this myth, and word usage helped, than by all means go ahead. I'll never understand the quibbling about all of the other stuff you mentioned, either. I've always though of soprano, alto, etc as the voice, not the instrument, especially since the concept of sopranos, bases, etc have changed so may times over the past century. "Bugle" has been generic for a very long time, and I've read all of the page and pages and pages of discussion that could be summed up in 2 brief statements. As for the "Marching Music's Major League," I also have a hard time understanding the quibbling about that. If DCI isn't Marching Music's Major League, then what is? You think the term calls forth an association with marching band, but I guarantee it doesn't do that any more than for an average person hearing about DCI coming to their town, wondering what the heck drum corps is, then going online and googling it, and finding picture of people marching around with instruments, which equals, to most people, guess what, MARCHING BAND! Even worse is googling it and finding an article in a newspaper not just associating drum corps with marching band, but explicitly calling them that, which happens all the time, as we all know. "Marching Music's Major League" is nothing but a big positive, IMO, because it calls forth, more than anything else, images of an elevated performance level over the typical image of a school marching band. But, whatever. That's the beauty (?) of a discussion board, I guess. I'd like to throw this in the hopper and see what happens. I think that a corps choice between using the terms "tuition/dues/money/green stuff" and "faculty/instructors/dudes in charge" has very little impact on who marches and where they choose to march. I'd go so far as to say that, if anyting, it would be about number 999 out of 1000 in the list of priorities for the vast majority of people who march, instruct, or simply sit back and try to enjoy the show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornlineDiva Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 I got homework in drum corps. Seriously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piper Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 I got homework in drum corps. Seriously. Welcome to the real world. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumCorpsFan27 Posted March 5, 2007 Author Share Posted March 5, 2007 I got homework in drum corps. Seriously. Me too, I had to memorize my parts. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurpleKnights Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 I had to write an essay. Heh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornlineDiva Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Me too, I had to memorize my parts. B) No, like, assignments that had to be written out and turned in. They were corrected and returned to us. We joked that we were going to fail drum corps and have to go back to real school. I'm certainly not complaining... I'll never forget placements again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Why does this have to be "generational?" Is DC now days more "educational?" Because most of the folks posting in this thread who do not like the terms "students" and "faculty" are those who marched in an earlier era. I submit that drum corps today is LESS like a school experience simply because of the lack of the "public good" component. Do the taxpayers of a municipality really relate to the local DCI corps? (all 20 of them?). There are lots of educational institutions that are not tax-payer funded ot municipality-based. Back in ye olden days... the "town" drum corps was the "town" drum corps - and more often, the "neighborhood" drum corps. In many cases the kids were all from the same school. The mayors and town boards and local politicians actually kept track of how "the corps" did at the US Open or VFW Nationals. Yet we certainly didn't consider it "school." And the travelling band of out-of-towners that make up today's junior corps certainly don't meet that criteria. You make my first point above. "Back in ye olden days..."...that's when I marched too, don't forget. The town officials had just about zero interest in us...in ANY of the corps I belonged to...even the Cadets from 70-72. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Also in "Ye Olden Day's" People who had no musical experience could " LEARN " to play a Drum or Bugle. Now they teach people that ALREADY know how to play a horn or drum, the music for this year Now I ask. Which is More of a teacher - student thing? Referring to the old days....I don't really consider it "teaching" to get a group to be able to play an 11 minute show by rote, as some corps did. Some of course, did not just do it that way. But...IMO all too many did. As to your second statement....taknig people who can play, and making them better...is indeed teaching, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumCorpsFan27 Posted March 5, 2007 Author Share Posted March 5, 2007 Referring to the old days....I don't really consider it "teaching" to get a group to be able to play an 11 minute show by rote, as some corps did. Some of course, did not just do it that way. But...IMO all too many did. As to your second statement....taknig people who can play, and making them better...is indeed teaching, IMO. They still had to learn to play the horn, didn't they? Improve their playing techniques? Learn tone qualities? That's NOT teaching?????????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 They still had to learn to play the horn, didn't they? Improve their playing techniques? Learn tone qualities? That's NOT teaching?????????? The instructors who taught as I described spent precious little time on the things you mention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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