Growth of a Corps
Mr. Mitch "The Biscuit" Nelson
Contents.
1. Welcome and introduction
2. Financial growth
3. Membership
4. Programmatic
5. Meat and potatoes
6. "...Walk blindly into the night..."
1. Welcome and introduction.
Good evening everyone. I want to first start by thanking everyone for taking the time to
read this article. I also want to thank Stuart Rice for his work in organizing the project and
allowing me to be a part of it. I've been involved in the activity for seven seasons, and seen
shows from every season going back to `82. God knows this doesn't make me an expert at
anything but stupidity, but I felt it was important to maybe look into one of the ailments of this
activity. I've been involved with three groups (two in the Midwest, one in the East) and have
met people from at least 40 of the 50 States, at least 3 provinces, England, Holland, Germany,
and Japan. This doesn't make me an expert either, but at least I've been able to listen to what
they had to say.
Let's face it, every year every corps has a goal of some type. Those goals could be a
placement, it could be a score, it could be a number of members, and it could be a number of
shows. In all instances, those goals 99.99% of the time will lead to the growth of the corps. It's
the inbred wish of success that's in all of us. It's who we are, it's what we do. For a corps to
grow they need many, many things. Sometimes, they don't get it.
In this paper, I will discuss attitudes that people of the activity and around it have to say
about corps on the move in financial, membership, and especially programmatic issues.
Hopefully, it will become apparent that what may be the most limiting factor in their growth has
nothing to do with judges, DCI administration, or even the corps themselves. If it doesn't, well, I
guess I should stick to playing quarters at the bar.
I'll be forward with you. The whole reason I am writing this article is to show that many
times a group will get put down for what the corps is doing. In other words: `who you are' is
attacked for `what you do'. We as the audience cannot change how some things are done. We
can complain, write about it and boo, but for the most part we just shut ourselves off to that
corps. This article will discuss examples of different problems with parts of the drum corps
activity and will try to discuss about a change of mind for the viewers -- scratch that, it will be a
plea for a change of heart from you the reader. Please take the time to consider what I am
saying, that's all I ask.
2. Financial growth.
In the late 80's, there was much talk about a quickly growing corps that we've all grown
to know called Star of Indiana. They came into being mostly on the back of a financial grant
from our friend Bill Cook. I'm not exactly positive about the story (last time I talked about
something in drum corps legend on RAMD I got called a racist), but from what I understood it
was a one shot deal, where the money was invested into what is now the Star of Indiana Bus
Line. Since then, the corps has been able to change their uniform completely three times, and
has made some type of change to them yearly. Tons of guard props and backdrops as well as
new drums yearly and well kept horns were used. Financially speaking, that corps was the best
there was. In fact, that's the level that every corps wanted to be, financially.
How was that level appreciated? With disdain. After 1991 - the year they won - the
comments were, "they bought the title", "they had to win, DCI needed the money", or even "you
have to please the rich old uncle". Let's face it, if there were any wrong doing, we would have
know about it by now. Everything that we might have thought that was wrong about the
financial growth of that corps was in our heads. In fact, this rare financial success should be
cheered, not jeered.
I know what you would say, they should have earned their money like the rest of us.
They did. They got it from corporate/ individual sponsorship, and what corps hasn't gotten
money that way. Did we put down the growth of this corps because they made lots of money?
Not really. The financial growth of this corps was attacked because they did too good of a job at
it.
We seem to have so much time to spend on looking at a group like Star for all the
negative reasons and not enough time to spend praising a group like Glassmen, which in less
than ten years went from fiscal ruin to a top twelve corps, or Bluecoats for their great climb from
financial mediocrity.
If drum corps do, in fact, exist to build on one another's achievements, why don't we look
how we do so, and then build onto, rather than criticize, what others have learned.
3. Membership.
In the 60's and 70's, when you needed to fill a hole during the season, it was simple to fill
it: recruit from the other corps and "steal" members. Things have changed. There are rules
against stealing members, and shows have become almost too complex to learn on the fly. As
well, corps are finding it more and more difficult to select a number to write the show around
until late. Corps are finding a need to lock the membership in as early as February or March of a
year. Vets are also finding it hard to do many seasons in a row because of financial constraints.
Long standing members are few and far between. Member turnover is climbing. This means
that a majority of corps must look more to the marching band circuits for recruits.
Other corps' members find out about this and begin attacking them: "They're a bunch of
band geeks". Members feel that they need to ignore or shun other corps because they have such
a large amount of rookies (band geeks). WHAM -- drum corps gets a bad rap from bands and
band directors.
Remember we were all rookies once too. Heck, we were all band geeks.
4. Programmatic.
If there is anything that can draw this activity apart, it's the programs. The activity was
shocked to a point when in 1980 SCV marched asymmetrical drill. Since then drill has become
swollen with high tempos, fast pass thoughts, whiplash forms, crab walks, cross-overs, props,
dances, masks, and even people dressed as elephants and purple dinosaurs. Show designers and
programmers have taken on a new aggressive attitude towards pushing the boundaries of the
activity. For the most part, all of these changes were welcome up until 1990.
The main reason why all these changes happened quickly and so readily was the switch
over of the judging system from the old tick system to the achievement system used now. Credit
grew for not only how you do something, but what you do as well. Since corps found that if they
do more with the creative aspect they earn more points, programmers decided to see how deep
they could swim.
In 1991, the water got too deep, along with the shows. Many of the shows that year were
much less approachable to the audience. Tunes with little or no melodic structure were used and
performed cleanly with little emotional contrast. The shows tried to become more mature, while
the fans tried to guess when to clap. The reaction to this was kind of dramatic in the activity.
Booing shows that we didn't like became more prevalent. Corps staff's contracts became shorter,
with the corps management looking over their shoulders more and more often. That year formed
two ways of thinking: excitement is still important, and you can be esoteric and still develop
your theme. These are two extremes that still find themselves pulling farther and farther apart.
The main stream audience members (families taking their kids to see the "bands" at the
high school, and wonder why they boo that corps from Canton, OH every year) knew what they
liked. They wanted to get blown away. They want to see the pretty flags and dancing. They
expect this from the corps that deliver annually (your Madisons, your Colts, your sometimes
Cadets, your most of the time SCVs, and occasionally your Blue Devils). Of course, the more
weather worn fan (that's us guys) loved them just as much as your parents. However, things
become different when you discuss those corps that are trying things that are distinctly different
than other corps. Things like having the whole corps dance (i.e. Star in 1993 or Glassmen since
1993), or groups with themes that don't give good first impressions by name (Songs for the Earth
shows, New Age music, or any show that any other corps has ever done).
You see those main stream audience people don't see what is obvious to us. They don't
know that the Genesseo Knights did a great rendition of Jesus Christ Superstar that no one will
probably ever match. They don't know that drummers shouldn't dance. They don't know the
difference between east coast, midwest, or west coast marching technique. What they know is
what they like, and if a corps moves them to cheer, they cheer.
You see, we don't do that much. We don't really look at corps and make opinions about
what we like about their show. We miss it because something else about their program distracts
us. How many times have you caught yourself counting ticks during a show? I do it all the time,
and I hate it. I end up caring more about what a group doesn't do before caring about what they
do do.
I have never fancied myself as a guard expert (I don't even fancy myself as guard
knowledgeable at all). During this summer, I pushed myself to learn more about what is good
and what isn't. I am still lost when it comes to techniques and corrections for what goes wrong,
but it's coming along. I decided to watch the guard I&E in Buffalo trying to help myself become
better acquainted with what is "good" and what isn't. When I was done, I liked a lot what I saw
but still didn't know the difference to correct technique/writing and incorrect. I talked to the
guard caption head at Northern Aurora Jason McIntosh about one specific example in the
auxiliary caption. His advice -- the best advice I ever received -- came as a question. He said,
"Did you like it?" "Well, yes," I answered. He replied, quite simply, "Then that's all that
matters, isn't it."
It may have not been the answered that I expected, but it was the answer that I needed.
I'll tell you what else I liked. I liked a show that included the theme from Mr. Roger's
Neighborhood, I liked music I never heard of before from famous American composers, I liked
religious music that sounded much like but wasn't Christmas music, I liked Medea, and I liked
the 1995 Madison Scouts. Should I have?
5. Meat and potatoes.
So what is the point of this whole thing? So many times the growth of a corps and
growth of the members is limited not by what they do, but because of the opinions of their peers.
Let's face it, this activity isn't made up of "Sam Mitchell"s (or was after checking the posts
today) or corps directors. Nor is it made up of educators or adjudicators. It isn't made up of fans
that buy the tickets or the guys who give money to pay the bills. It's made up of thousands of
students from age 6 - 70 who go out there every summer and bust their butts in the smallest of
the small feeder corps to the oldest of the old senior corps. Those are the people who make up
this activity. They -- we -- will be the ones who continue on the activity after every one else has
gone on to drum corps heaven (which I heard was in Bristol, RI). Our own Jay Wise once said,
"...drum corps has little to do with innovation of art as it does with the greatest proving ground
for successful individuals."
It's the individuals that matter the most to this activity. They will be the ones who join
corps for the glory, or to play a certain tune, or to work with some instructor. They are the one
we should place high on a pedestal and worship. They are the ones who deserve the credit for
what happens.
Many times though, they are attacked, not because they did something wrong, but
because their corps is funded by an insurance group, or because there are a bunch of rookies in
the corps, or because they play Moody Blues, or they have a ring. Many people find they need to
place a person in a given place in their life because "They marched at ______". Others are even
looked upon with disdain because they marched somewhere. Here on RAMD in some cases,
people think it becomes important to find out where someone marched to think of them as
having opinions of value.
Discrimination gives bad names and bad feelings which are directed at the corps either
on an individual basis or as a whole. These bad feelings can stunt the growth of the corps easily.
Weather worn crowds can turn hostile seemingly for no apparent reason, souvenir sales drop,
incoming recruitment numbers start dropping, and corps begin looking for new ways of growth.
One thing that becomes apparent quickly is that it is much easier to get a bad reputation in this
activity than it is to loose a good one. The corps begins to panic. They begin getting whatever
they can for staff and support, most of the time getting taken advantage of. They try to gain
support from alumni and in return find that well run dry. Soon the corps folds. This is a worse
case scenario, but the trend is obvious. Rejection can hurt more than a corps, it hurts the
individuals that are in it. If the individuals are getting hurt, the activity gets hurt. In fact, instead
of biting the had that feeds us, we are biting our own.
So you say: "well you obviously got a bug up you hinder, what are you gonna do about
it?" That is where I begin typing on my knees.
6. "...Walk blindly into the night...".
Drum corps is like a big fraternity. Everyone who has been a part of it in some way,
shape, or form has all experienced the same thing in different ways. Although we can never feel
the way about this activity exactly like anyone else, we can at least try. When we shut out
another corps for any reason, we limit ourselves to a lower experience than we can get from
corps, while hurting those corps we shut out. All I am asking for is that from time to time the
members of the viewing community of this activity to turn their head.
I'm not asking to look the other way for a long time, just eleven and a half minutes
ONCE. Watch one corps that you haven't liked in the past for any reason. Before they start their
show close your eyes, take a deep breath, and think that anything can happen. To make it easier,
here is something you can say to yourself that I wrote. Just put your hand over your heart or tuck
it in your favorite t-shirt and repeat after me:
I believe in the individual.
I believe in the activity.
I believe that a corps can march over 208 bpm.
I believe that guards can make 6 costume changes in a show.
I believe that I can travel the solar system on the backs of a green machine.
I believe that a Bluecoat gave his life in WWII.
I believe that you can march in red All Star Converse.
I believe that I haven't heard this version of this show.
I believe that what ever they want to do, they can do.
and most importantly
I believe in drum corps, I believe in drum corps, I believe in drum corps.
This activity has been called an art form. If it isn't, it sure is good enough to be one.
We're a part of a great thing that is slowly slipping out of our hands. Let's grab it before it's
totally gone, and embrace it, and LOVE WHAT IT IS. Do that and we may all enjoy what we
have forever and ever.