Just curious

[84BDsop]

That was my experience. The Ambassadors were my introduction to marching music. There was a high school music program at my high school in Aurora, Ontario at that time. I think there are still high school music programs in Canada but smaller school boards can't afford to have them in every school so these programs suffer. THis might be the case in the Kithener-Waterloo area where the KK were originally based. It's true that there is not as much of a tradition of marching band in Canada. I saw some old marching percussion instruments at my high school that seemd to indicate that there was a marching band there at one time, perhaps in the '50s.

Something else that hasn't been mentioned yet: in Canada there is a certain amount of distrustfulness or animosity among music teachers shown towards drum and bugle corps. This was the case when I marched in the early '80s as the local high school music teachers had no time for our corps. It didn't do to brag about being in a corps in music class. Neither the kids or the teacher had much sympathy. I don't know if this is still the case as most music teachers now would never have heard of drum corps other than DCI. It wasn't a subject I brought up when I was studying music at University of Toronto although I didn't hide my drum corps background either.

Universities in Canada don't seem to have any tradition of marching music although they all have football teams (which seems to be related to marching bands in the US as far as I can understand). There is generally a "pep" style band usually put together by the engineers but these groups are pretty informal; they produce something that can only loosely be called music and they don't do field shows.

B)

Heh...I remember you and Andy Johnson telling me there were people back home who said you two were lying when you said you both made BD!

[ROO]

I would guess most Canadian corps had members who had never done any marching/music thing before drum corps. I know when I marched Kiwanis Kavaliers in 97 and 98 there were a TON of local kids in the corps who had never done anything before marching drum corps. The reason being there are no high school music programs, let alone marching bands. I got the impression that it was similar with Canadian colleges, and there were no marching bands for them either. A lot of Canadian kids saw drum corps as their 'introduction' to music, and I know several people who went to music colleges from Kiwanis who had never had music before drum corps.

Some of what you're saying is true, some a little inacurate. Yes most of us Canadians have/had little to no music experience before joining Drum Corps. Certainly no Marching Band programs. as for Band programs in the schools, they were there in every high school in KW then, and still are. Music is elective, and many of the folks we marched with probably woundn't have taken it. Especially the drummers, as the music is boring and you learn nothing with regards to technique.

Drum corps is a hard sell without Marching Band programs in Ontario. How do you gain the interest from kids who have no idea what-so-ever what drum corps is? Most of our kids at Dutch Boy have no marching experience prior to joining, and little music. It's tough to stay active up here. From what I'm hearing there very well may be only 2 competing corps from Ontario this year. Both in Div III.

[sopchick_01]

I think its rare to have someone that has ZERO music exposure some way or another that joins a drum corps nowadays. Even if a person never played brass, they at least know how to read music. So here's my question: Anyone ever know someone that knew nothing and learned from scratch how to play for a corps in the last couple of years?

[tommytimp]

I had plenty of musical training and performance experience before I joined the Knights, but never had marched in a band. Of course, I was in the Knights for 6 years and never marched a drill, but so what?

[Geneva]

My first instrumental ensemble experience came in drum corps. Although my interest in playing an instrument started with watching my high school concert band and I first started taking lessons on the cornet in junior high, I joined a drum corps after seeing a couple shows. My first opportunity to perform in an instrumental ensemble followed after that with drum corps before my first band rehearsals even though my first practicing started on cornet. Drum corps is certainly what developed my passion for brass playing and was an incredible motivator to excel.

[ambassadorhorn]

Heh...I remember you and Andy Johnson telling me there were people back home who said you two were lying when you said you both made BD!

I guess there were a few that expected to see us re-stocking the souvie trailer instead of marching. With no open class corps around in Ontario, (Seneca-Optimists had folded, Oakies were a shadow of their former selves, Dutch Boy still A-class) at the time, it was hard for some of them to picture someone they knew making it into a "big corps" although there was another former Ambassador who had gone to 27th by then.

[flashofthunder]

I think its rare to have someone that has ZERO music exposure some way or another that joins a drum corps nowadays. Even if a person never played brass, they at least know how to read music. So here's my question: Anyone ever know someone that knew nothing and learned from scratch how to play for a corps in the last couple of years?

A guy I marched with last summer had never been in any kind of music class, and began learning to play euphonium about 3 months before he auditioned for the corps. He marched in '05, and in '06 was a strong player and marcher.

[megoofys]

I originally got involved in drum corps back in the early 70s when I saw a neighbor walk thru the park, across the street from my house with a black case in her hand. I asked her what she was doing and she told me to come along to the school, two blocks away and see for myself. And the res, they say, is history! I had absolutely no prior experience. I was 10 years old! They handed me a flag, taught me how to march and eventually, I worked my way up to the drum line, and by the time my junior days were over, I had been in the color guard, a color guard captain, a snare drummer and ended as a drum major for a small corps. I never marched in high school band, although the music teacher was always after us! Never read music, because as a drummer, we were taught rudiments and memorized as we were playing. The horn line memorized their music as they were taught it, and drills were taught on the field and memorized on the spot. There was no such thing as a drill book! Many of us in the corps I was involved in, during the 70s, never had any prior experience. And we still ended up winning some smaller circuit shows and parade championships! It was the best experience a kid could ever have! It's a shame that in today's world, this opportunity isn't given to more kids!!!! Drum corps in the early days kept a lot of kids on the straight and narrow, out of jail, in school and taught them many good lessons (outside of all the mischieve we also caused....)

...Jackie

[MiamiSun76]

Being from back in the day and starting at 13, I had no high school band experience, although I played in Jr. high band.

You have to put several things into perspective. 1st, for drummers there were very few bands who played rudimentally and corps of the '60s were heavily into rudimental overkill. 2nd, many band directors had a "no corps" policy as did mine. 3rd, I was as turned off to the high-stepping, horn-swinging, mace-throwing mediocrity of the band as the director was to the military decorum of drum corps.

I did get my "legitimate" music fix by both singing and being student conductor of the Concert Choir and taking music theory classes.

[dancingsam34]

Yeah, I started the first day of all days, and I missed the second week of it for a dance competition. Some of my buddies talked me into it, I had never marched before or picked up a flag. I have danced though, the flag totally beat up my hands.. I got some pretty sweet upper body strength though... but hey, I need to start somewhere. Its amazingly addicting, I can't wait for the next camp. I never thought I'd be here, but I can't live without it now. Can't wait to (hopefully) go to div. 1 in '08!

Edited March 6, 2007 by dancingsam34