How is drum corps different from marching band, anyhow? I am not familiar with marching band very much at all. My family and friends, who have never seen a drum corps show, think that they are essentially identical. Are they? If not, what are ALL the differences. Thanks for your help with this.

The basic ideas are the same, and many of the techniques. Drum corps have older kids and MANY more hours to rehearse, therefore much higher level of performance.

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

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

What else? Instruments, etc.? What are ALL the differences? Thanks.

Bill, it isn't easy to give a full answer to all of your questions, as the differences exist on many levels.

Certainly, the instruments are different. Bands include woodwinds (which drums corps don't have .. YET )
This gives the bands a very different musical sound.

Old time drum corps marched with bugles made to play in the key of G/F, but they now mostly used B-flat instruments, which give a very different sound.

Most of the time, bands use a very similar style of marching and drumming (they OFTEN have the same instructors!)

So far, most high school and community bands have stayed away from the "theme" or "story" type of shows .. being happy to simply play music. But, as drum corps moves more to this, so will the top bands.

Beyond the field stuff, bands differ from drum corps by being community based. Most of the top bands are from high schools (usually, but NOT always, the bigger schools). There is a lot of parent involvement and community support, which you rarely see in the top DCI corps.

Of course, if the band is a high school band, the members leave when they graduate! So ... many join a drum corps as they enter college age.

BUT, there are some college marching bands which are SO good that the players decide to forgo DCI and stay ONLY with their band. Illinois is such a band, Michigan State and Ohio too. There are others.

Of course, some of the students are planning to be band directors ... so they join DCI corps for "experience" to be added to their resumes!

Maybe some other alums can add to/ correct this information?

BTW.. Bob Shreffler is right on another point. Since the "new" DCI corps spend 3 months together in intensive practice, they get to be VERY GOOD with their programs. Their level of performance is VERY high. (Of course, some of their PROGRAMS may be suspect, but their performance level is good.)

What did you do in the Corps? drummer

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-63