5.13 How to join a drum corps
Description
This article is from the Drum corps FAQ, by Cathy Doser cathyd@halcyon.com with numerous contributions by others.
5.13 How to join a drum corps
Donald Chinn
My experience with drum corps has been basically as a spectator.
However, I did march in high school marching band (so I have *some*
appreciation for how hard the stuff that drum corps do really is :-).
Anyway, here's the extent of my knowledge on how to get involved.
Junior corps (Blue Devils, Phantom Regiment, etc.) march people who
are 21 or younger. A person "ages out" of corps when they become 22. You
can legally march at the DCI Championships if you do not turn 22
until after June 1st of a given compeitive season.
If you are 22 or older, then you can still play in a Senior
drum corps. Senior drum corps are governed by DCA (Drum Corps Associates).
If you are still under 22, then the typical way to get involved in
drum corps is to contact a drum corps directly. So the big decision
is: "Which drum corps should I join?" It depends. If you want to
have a reasonable chance at winning the championships, then joining
the Blue Devils, Santa Clara Vanguard, Cadets of Bergen County,
Phantom Regiment, Star of Indiana, the Cavaliers, or Madison Scouts is
the thing to do. If you want to be more involved in a smaller group
(or less well-known), you can try some of the 13th-26th place corps,
or even a Class A or Class A-60 corps.
It seems to me, the things to consider are location, size of the
corps, style of music, and reputation of the corps, and the chance at
winning it all. For example, if you like jazz, then the Blue Devils
is probably where you want to be. If you like classical, then Phantom
is the place to be. WARNING: Tryouts for the top corps can be very
tough, since everyone wants to be a part of a winning corps.
There are basically 4 drum corps associations related to DCI that
handle the corps in their region. These are DCE, DCM, DCS, and DCW (Drum
Corps East, Midwest, South, and West, respectively). To find out what corps
are in what association, you can contact the associations directly.
See the section on "Drum corps associations" for phone numbers.
DCI's address and phone is:
DCI
Box 548
Lombard, IL 60148
(708) 495-9866
There are also a slew of other smaller drum corps associations:
Eastern Massachusetts, Drum Corps New York, etc. You can probably ask
DCI if you want more info on them.
To join a corps, call up one of the associations and find out where
the nearest corps in your area are. Or, contact a corps directly (see
"Current active corps", part 2).
Rehearsals:
Rehearsals usually begin in the fall (this is certainly true of
the top corps). I suspect that when rehearsals begin largely depends
on how much money the corps has. During the winter, rehearsals mostly
consist of camps held on the weekends (once or twice a month in the
fall and more frequently as winter and spring roll around). However,
not everyone shows up to these camps, especially if they would have to
fly 1000 miles to go to one. This is one reason to join a corps close
to where you will be living.
The corps you join would provide you with an instrument, probably
with some safety deposit on it. Also, most corps require that you pay a
fee to join the corps. This is to compensate for uniform cleaning,
equipment, food, etc. This fee can be very cheap or very steep anywhere
from $200 to $1,000).
When summer arrives (late May, early June), then things really
pick up. Rehearsals can last up to 10 hours a day (or more), and the
sun beats down unmercifully. Tan lines on the feet are not uncommon.
Touring:
Corps travel thousands of miles each summer, and the bus rides
can be as long as 12 hours. Usually, you roll into some town at 1am and
sleep in their high school gym for 8 hours or so (you bring a sleeping
bag!). Food is usually prepared by volunteers for the corps. Then
you rehearse in the day, do a show (or do laundry), and the cycle
repeats. There are numerous parties, as well.
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