Have you looked at what kind of schedule these corps members ( I can't call them kids ... since most are college age music majors) endure? Go to the DCI website and click on any corps to see their daily schedules. Yikes!

- After a performance, they get on busses and travel to the next
town .. often hundreds of miles away. Sleep (?) on bus
- arrive at housing (gym) in early am; sleep a while
- eat breakfast, clean up, practice till noon
- lunch, relax a while
- afternoon practice
- dinner, suit up for evening show. Perform .. usually not even seeing the other corps. Sometimes, leave before final scores.

Repeat. On days with no contests, they can do laundry.

They do this for 8 weeks ... most of them (usually) not coming home for a visit.

Gosh, this isn't something most of us could do. Summer jobs, school, family, other life? Nope.

The Open Class corps do a bit better .. with much less travel and weekday interruption. There are even some corps starting "weekend only" units now too. Maybe that will work for some.

What experiences have you had/ comments?

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What did you do in the Corps? drummer; quartermaster 1964-66, ass't drum instructor 1964-70

What years were you a Corps member? 1958 -1963

I think Steve Kas said it perfectly - it's really an internship for music and dance majors. But the touring can be a blast at times. It certainly makes for a long summer. But if they can afford what they pay to get into these corps, they probably weren't worried about summer jobs anyway.

As for sleeping on the bus, I could never get used to it, which really makes the days tough.

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

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

I was getting tired just reading what these kid's
have to do now.Its like night and day compared to
what we did when we had a contest to go to.

No wonder these kids only stay with Corps,a year or
two.

What did you do in the Corps? French Horn

What years were you a Corps member? 1957 thru 1963

Initially it sounds like fun--travel with other kids, compete, etc. But 24/7 for eight weeks could get tiresome. In reality sounds more like basic training in the Army.

For most of my years, we did it the "old way" - local shows on the weekends, practice one or two nights during the week, then some type of "tour" at the end for nationals.

In 1980, with Spirit of Atlanta, it was touring for everything, because there weren't many corps in the South (kind of what the Troopers must have gone through for years). But even then, it was two weeks, then a week and a half off (some break and some practice), then three weeks at the end leading to Nationals.

But there's really no reason for corps today to take a "break" in the middle of the season, since there's not really one city they all go back to anyway!

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

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

Bob said it right: "But there's really no reason for corps today to take a "break" in the middle of the season, since there's not really one city they all go back to anyway!"
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Most of the members of World Class DCI corps seem to come from "everywhere" .... the corps aren't really "from" the cities they claim as hometown. They usually don't even appear there. All they do is keep their office there.

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What did you do in the Corps? drummer; quartermaster 1964-66, ass't drum instructor 1964-70

What years were you a Corps member? 1958 -1963

Wow, Bob reminded me of the "old days" ....

For most of my years, we did it the "old way" - local shows on the weekends, practice one or two nights during the week, then some type of "tour" at the end for nationals.

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We actually had a real life. Yes, practice twice a week and shows on the weekend (but NOT every weekend). We could have summer jobs, do summer school (if we "wanted" to) and had the chance at summer DATES, BEACH TIME, BASEBALL GAMES, FUN WITH LOCAL FRIENDS, etc.

Gosh, is drum corps really that important to these new members? Ooops, I forget .. these aren't "kids" anymore (in the World Class corps) ... they are now 20-21 year old music and dance majors now looking for experience to add to their resumes!

Well, at least there is some hope for the members of the "Open Class" corps....

In my humble opinion, the new DCI World Class operation is NOT drum corps. Not sure WHAT it is tho.

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What did you do in the Corps? drummer; quartermaster 1964-66, ass't drum instructor 1964-70

What years were you a Corps member? 1958 -1963

The Blue Devils I saw do a concert prior to Stanford were in the junior in high school to sophmore in college category-17 to 20. I asked one of the assistant managers. Also about a third of them were in their B corps. But they do have kids from other parts of the country and about a dozen who marched with Santa Clara last year.

Everything is competitive now days and if your goal is to win, then you make the effort. Of course one has to like what they are doing if they are going to put in the effort.

It's become competitive like sports. If your kid is going to compete at the varsity level in college, today they are going to be spending their summers on various traveling teams.

I don't ever remember a weekend without a show, from the end of May through the first weekend of September. And most of us would have gladly done more. But most of the members did work during the summer.

I think the raised performance expectations, along with a fewer number of corps, made it possible for the corps to have older, more mature members, and therefore able to tour all summer. Think of some of the people we all marched with, and imagine them being on the road all summer - that's a scary thought! I was only 12 my first year in the Imperials 'A' corps, and my brother was 11 when he came up.

And I'm trying to imagine Jim Fiduccia having to watch us on the road for two or three months...besides, the White Elephant couldn't take it!

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

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