What Happened?

[Martybucs]

moral of the story ~ what one person finds attractive, fun or worth while, someone else might not. not everyone is cut out for corps, junior, all-age, or alumni. but whatever you are doing ~ if you're not happy doing it ~ find something else. find what makes YOU happy. life's too short.

I agree.

The added stress of the drum corps environment today, I think, leads to a quicker burn out. Either in Junior or All Age corps.

DCI divisionI definitely raised the bar and keeps doing so. There comes a point where few will tolerate what needs to be done in order to accomplish the desires of the staff or even the audience. Most performers will bear the cost, physical and monetary as long as there is adequate payoff. Either in terms of approval or self satisfaction. I think the payoff is being put farther and farther away and harder to attain for a lot of people.

This thins the ranks.

I'm just trying to say that if there was a way to create and perform worthwhile shows, without beating up the membership so much, more people would probably march. That is a challenge that very few staffs are willing to accept.

For some reason it seems easier to force members to perform ever increasingly difficult shows, than to masterfully and artistically put together a show that is beautiful in it's simplicity, but overpowering in it's performance. (In my opinion and my opinion only, I think the late 70s and almost all of the 80s was the pinnacle of this type of show).

Now, that said, I'm not demeaning the shows that are done today. They are incredible and fantastic. A true testament to the thought and effort that goes into them. Nothing done previous, surpasses the corps of today. However, the cost is astounding, in terms of money, injuries, time, (I personally wish I had spent a little more time with my family when I was marching on the field), and burnout. You used to see many more people in their 40s, 50s, and even 60s marching 30 years ago. What a wealth of talent and experience was on the field back then in senior corps.

It's a matter of balance. If not for the strong, hearty, and talented people willing to do corps today - it would disappear.

Those people are becoming fewer and fewer, in part, because of the demands put upon them.

Perhaps the balance needs to be pushed back over to the designer side of the program. Where they don't write such extravaganzas that are increasingly difficult to perfect and perform, to where they write shows that are accessible, showcase the genius of simplicity, and at the same time allow the performers to present the audience a rich and powerful drum and bugle corps experience.

Easy to say, perhaps, but I think it may be what's necessary to fill the ranks of the corps and the seats in the stands.

i dated someone years ago that had no experience in the activity and he thought it was absolutely crazy that i spent all this money *dues, travel costs, food, etc.* so i could "stand in the hot sun and get yelled at". how good or even great the finished product was didn't matter to him. he thought it was a complete waste. :(

Believe it or not, I heard the same story many times 30-40 years ago. Everything old is new again sort of thing.

I think with any activity, be it biking the mountains, cross country skiing, running a marathon...whatever, anyone not directly involved may not be able to comprehend why some one would put themselves through all the work, pain and suffering for no monetary gain.

Those are the..."cold and timid souls that know neither victory or defeat..." I wouldn't want to be one.

Edited June 2, 2007 by Martybucs

[Senagod]

i dated someone years ago that had no experience in the activity and he thought it was absolutely crazy that i spent all this money *dues, travel costs, food, etc.* so i could "stand in the hot sun and get yelled at". how good or even great the finished product was didn't matter to him. he thought it was a complete waste. :(

moral of the story ~ what one person finds attractive, fun or worth while, someone else might not. not everyone is cut out for corps, junior, all-age, or alumni. but whatever you are doing ~ if you're not happy doing it ~ find something else. find what makes YOU happy. life's too short.

B)

I know exactly where you're coming from. My husband doesn't have any experience in this activity, and he could never understand why I marched. He expressed amazement that I would come home from a weekend of drum corps, complain about everything, and want to do it all over again and pay for the privilege. He prefers what I do now greatly because I get paid for it and he understands money.

Oddly enough, my mother never had a problem with drum corps, but thought indoor guard was a complete waste of time. Still don't understand why.

[Ognib]

I can't march do to money issues!

[Pyrite]

This topic got me thinking about a high school band director who told a group of us about one student's experience with a Junior Drum Corps...

The director received an phone call from a student touring with a junior corps last summer. The student was an out going type, easy to make friends with. When the band director asked if the student was making a lot of friends, the student was hushed...she finally responded that she only had 1 really good friend. This being incredibly unusual for the student, the band director asked more specific questions about what was going on...Was the staff a problem? No. Was the show / work too hard? Challenging, but no. Were the kids cruel? Um...no.

After finally narrowing it down, the band director learned from the student that there were activities going on during the bus rides that were embarrassing/degrading/appaling to the student. As described by the student, she and her 1 good friend would hide their faces while other members participated in "orgies". Now - what kids may consider orgies may be different that what the Romans did, but still...

That weekend, the band director flew out to meet with the junior corps and with the permission of her ailing mother, brought the student home. That director who always encourged the students to try out for this junior corps (and many did well over the years) vowed to the director of that Corps that not another student from that school would tryout for that corps...in addition, that band director would tell other band directors in the district what had been going on.

Tough to imagine this is going on...but it was at least 1 season ago.

Skill level of Finalist DCA corps has increased exponentially over the past 20 years. Membership dues are a fraction of what DCI Corps require. If they don't want to join DCA corps because they party too much, or are rude drunkards, then that decision is being influenced by other sources. Who is asking these kids why they would want to join the corps with the reputation of doing cocaine lines before a show...or the corps that had a wicked case of VD going around because there were orgies on the busses? If anything, these kids should be beating down a path to their closest All-age corps.

DCA corps are encouraging their younger members to try for DCI with the with the invitation and hope that they will one day return to that DCA organization (some kids do once the DCI season is completed).

It is my hope DCI Corps make the experience of Drum Corps something each member would undoubtedly WANT to continue AFTER their age-out. If a younger member does not make a junior corps - I hope they would be encouraged by that DCI corps to join a DCA corps to enrich their skills. I would hope DCI corps would be encouraging their age-outs to continue the activity they have enjoyed so much with a DCA corps. Would doing so tap into the wallets of their now alumni - those requested to help fund the new uniforms, etc?

These remarks regarding DCI corps are pretty generalized...I am SURE there are DCI corps out their that will support the DCA activity...I just wish there were more.

[Fran Haring]

i dated someone years ago that had no experience in the activity and he thought it was absolutely crazy that i spent all this money *dues, travel costs, food, etc.* so i could "stand in the hot sun and get yelled at".

Heh..... 1985 or so.... a few of us Sunriser alums would go out golfing when we could on summer weekends. One Saturday, we had a very early tee time...something like 6:30 AM or so.

We were like "WTF are we doing, getting up so early for this???" Then one of us said something like, "yeah.... but at least we don't have a drill instructor yelling at us today!!!!" :P

Fran

[Galen]

Real life happens, maybe?

[mello916]

Family and career obligations were enough to keep me from senior corps. I tend to work odd hours, including some weekends, and there's a young son at home who needs plenty of attention. But beyond that, I've been just fine with the notion that marching drum corps didn't have to entail my entire life. I never felt like I needed to march until I literally dropped on the field from exhaustion or a Metamucil overdose. My years as a marching musician were some of the best times of my young life, but I was personally OK with hanging up my white bucks and my mouthpiece. No disrespect at all to those marching senior corps - go and do your thing! - but for me there were just other things in life I wanted to focus on. I'm sure others out there can relate.

[Martybucs]

Family and career obligations were enough to keep me from senior corps. I tend to work odd hours, including some weekends, and there's a young son at home who needs plenty of attention. But beyond that, I've been just fine with the notion that marching drum corps didn't have to entail my entire life. I never felt like I needed to march until I literally dropped on the field from exhaustion or a Metamucil overdose. My years as a marching musician were some of the best times of my young life, but I was personally OK with hanging up my white bucks and my mouthpiece. No disrespect at all to those marching senior corps - go and do your thing! - but for me there were just other things in life I wanted to focus on. I'm sure others out there can relate.

and yet - you're here.

[JimF-LowBari]

Family and career obligations were enough to keep me from senior corps. I tend to work odd hours, including some weekends, and there's a young son at home who needs plenty of attention. But beyond that, I've been just fine with the notion that marching drum corps didn't have to entail my entire life. I never felt like I needed to march until I literally dropped on the field from exhaustion or a Metamucil overdose. My years as a marching musician were some of the best times of my young life, but I was personally OK with hanging up my white bucks and my mouthpiece. No disrespect at all to those marching senior corps - go and do your thing! - but for me there were just other things in life I wanted to focus on. I'm sure others out there can relate.

Understand completely. Ending college and starting a career (aka New phase in my life) at age 22 were the reasons why I stopped doing corps. Working all three shifts in a 28 day period for 2 1/2 years killed a lot of things for me. Only difference was I marched in a Sr corps from age 16-22. Many HS and College age people I marched with also left corps after school for the same reason. (Westshore was about 40-50% under age 22 during this time.)

And Marty, didn't know Buccs did camp at the Gap. So was Westshore and Belvederes (or was it Black Watch Regiment) in the late 70s. Around 1979 we switched to one weekend a month for 2-3 months at Shippensburg U but went home Sat evening.

Also understand Buccs having a camp this weekend. And for a "break" from camp they did the Lancaster Co Firemans parade at Neffsville. Only got to see them march by the staging area as I was "busy" with my group.

Edited June 3, 2007 by JimF-3rdBari

[mello916]

and yet - you're here.

Just because I haven't marched in 20 years - and am more than OK with that - doesn't mean I can't be a fan of the activity