Thursday, January 22, 2009

THIS is drum corps

This is the Madison Scouts in 1988, playing Malaguena.

There are some differences between this and what I'll be doing.  Madison Scouts is a DCI (Drum Corps International) corps, which means that their members are 21 and under (or 22 if they turn 22 after June 1st of the marching year), while Frontier is a DCA (Drum Corps Associates) aka all-age corps.  And, Madison Scouts is an all male corps whereas Frontier is co-ed.  

In 1988, a corps could march 128 people, which the Scouts have in this clip.  This year, Frontier is going to march around 60+.  The other big difference is that DCI corps practice all day long in the summer and go on an extended tour of 30-40+ cities and shows.  Since many of us in DCA are adults and have careers, we rehearse a couple Saturdays a month, maybe a couple of hornline rehearsals a month, a few weekends in the summer, and travel to 5 or 6 different cities for shows.

All that being said, you can just watch and listen and see how exhilirating it is to be a performer or an audience member.  

There is absolutely nothing in the world like the high you get when the crowd cheers.  I was reading something earlier today that I think is rather true.....The purpose of drum corps is to make the audience stand and scream.

My God how great that feels!

3 comments:

Bert Bananas said...

Hey, it was only a little over 5 minutes... It's not like marching in the 7.2 mile Rose Parade!

I wonder if some people are so refined that they lose the ability to be stirred by the sturm und drang of wild music?

CatBoy said...

I know someone who marched in the Rose Parade this year- never did see him.

Anyway, that is impressive. Very impressive.

Jenny Robin said...

Bert, that is only their closer. The show is 12 minutes long.