Have any alums visited the websites for DCI corps to see what kids have to do to "audition" for DCI corps? Look at the websites for the Cavaliers, Cadets, Blue Devils, Phantom Regiment, etc.

You have to come in for a full weekend and audition .. to be selected from a group of 300 or more people who want to join the corps!

Wow! Drum corps is WAY DIFFERENT now!

What did you do in the Corps? drummer

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-1963

I'm curious as to what the Cavaliers do when a young woman wants to audition for the corps. Has that happened?

What did you do in the Corps? Baritone

What years were you a Corps member? 1959-66 (Cadets 59-61 Imperials 62-66)

I know some kids that have auditioned for a variety of midwest DCI corps recently. It has become quite a process to get into these corps. These corps' global appeal has made recruiting, as we knew it, a thing of the past for these corps. Think about how many of the people with which we marched would have never had the drum corps experience they had if it was this situation back then. It has really made the activity unaccessible for many.

Jim is right, drum corps (at the Division I level) is really inaccessible to many kids. But, those corps are really designed for OLDER youth ... 19-20 year old people with significant experience. (And the time and money to travel all summer).

Drum corps is way different now.

What did you do in the Corps? drummer

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-1963

"Audition"? Wow, I didn't do that to join the Imperials. Well, they DID ask me what I had done and what I could do. I DID talk with Frank Arsenault, the drum instructor.

But, I basically just JOINED the corps and let the instructors guide my progress. I suspect that this is true for most Imperials alums.

What did you do in the Corps? drummer

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-1963

It was the same in the seventies with both Norwood and the Cavaliers - the only "audition" was to see exactly what you would play, not whether you would be in the corps. I was awakened to something very different in Spirit in 1980, however, when 300 kids auditioned to be in Jim Ott's horn line. And we started the winter with about 25 snares before cutting it down to our eventual 11. And people were coming from all over the country to try out and march. That may have been one of the first corps to experience that on a large scale, because there was really little history for drum corps in the South prior to Spirit. I always thought of it as more of an All-Star Marching Band, because they just appeared rather than building as corps had to do prior to that time.

What did you do in the Corps? Snare, Drum Major, Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

300 people trying out for 60 or so positions. That is what happens now too. So, what do all the "rejects" do? Do they try out with other corps until they get one to accept them?

What a strange world.

What did you do in the Corps? drummer

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-1963

often they do. We had a guy with Spirit who started in the snare line, dropped to tenor, to bass, to cymbals, then quit. He landed in Santa Clara's SNARE LINE! Not a good year for Fred Sanford in 80...

What did you do in the Corps? Snare, Drum Major, Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73, 78-79

Quite different from when I joined in 1980. I was asked what I wanted to play. I told them drums. Then I was taught the various ways to count to 4 as a cymbal player. Jean Sterna taught me how to read music.

What did you do in the Corps? Cymbals, Bass Drum, Tenor

What years were you a Corps member? 1980-1983

I went to the Bridgemen in '84 and we had to come in for a weekend camp Thanksgiving weekend to audition. There were probably 200 kids for the hornline that year. The following year was very different you had to audition only for what part you would be playing.

After I moved up to the 'A'Corps,the new members
that I seen come in after me that didn't have any
experience what so ever,and I mean they didn't know
their left foot from their right.As long as they
had the desire to learn and make the effort,be at
practice,they were welcomed with open arms.

Now its a matter of who's better than who.

What did you do in the Corps? French Horn

What years were you a Corps member? 1957 thru 1963

How strange drum corps has become. There are HUNDREDS of young people doing auditions for the DCI corps .. but the "smaller" corps go begging. Just think how many good corps could operate with all the DCI "rejects".

But, this level of corps no longer "fits" the needs of the members. Life continues to change!

What did you do in the Corps? drummer

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-63

There could be a lot of good corps created with
those kids that don't make it through these so
called auditions.

I've always feel sorry for the local kids,probably
most of them don't even know about the corps as well
as the auditions that take place,a lot probably
can't afford the airfare to travel to the locations
they have these.

And another change that has taken place to is that
they don't teach kids how to play a horn,drum,or
instruct them how to march,and why should they
when they can choose kids that already know how to
do these things.

"The times are a changin"as the lyrics go!

What did you do in the Corps? French Horn

What years were you a Corps member? 1957 thru 1963