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Did drum and bugle corps help improve your playing?


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jmock
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:09 am    Post subject: Did drum and bugle corps help improve your playing? Reply with quote

Hello--

I have a friend, a local lead player, who unfortunately possesses a rather negative attititude toward anything related to marching band or especially drum and bugle corps. He went so far to say, the other day, in front of my 14 year old son, who the high school marching band really really wants in their trumpet section, that "nobody any good ever played in drum and bugle corps"! Then he told me to name even ONE professional who did.

I immediately mentioned BLAST, which apparently he has absolutely no clue about--and I am pretty sure there are some veterans on here from BLAST, perhaps even one who also made it to the broadway pit orchestras.

Also, I forgot but should have mentioned John Arietano, a soloist and horn arranger for many years involved with Senior Drum and Bugle Corps that also released commercial recordings.

Then there's also Jimmy Centerino...from the Rhode Island Matadors and other corps.

Perhaps you can help me prove this guy wrong?

I marched with a local senior corps, Milton Keystoners, from 1985 to 1988 that is long gone. Drum Corps World said at the time it is better to stick with your local corps, as it "means more" when you finally make it, but of course we never did. I also marched with Millersville University during one year I attended there, and I had friends who marched Garfield Cadets, Canton Bluecoats, and Harrisburg Westshoremen.

Respectfully submitted--

John
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Jerry
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

According to Wikipedia: Chris Martin was a member of the Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps in 1993.

Can't get much better or more successful than Chris Martin.
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silverhorn
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Chris Martin played with Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps

From Wikipedia:

After high school, Martin attended the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Barbara Butler and Charles Geyer. [2] He was a member of the Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps in 1993.

Christopher Martin is an American trumpet player who was named the principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic in May 2016 and began his tenure there in September 2016.[1] He has also served as Principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (2005-2017) and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (2000-2005), and as Associate Principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra (1997-2000).[2] He has also performed with High Bridge Brass, an American conical brass quintet, since its founding in June 2018.[3] During his time in Chicago, Martin gave the world premieres of several trumpet concerti, notably Christopher Rouse's Heimdall's Trumpet in 2012.[4]
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JayKosta
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The important thing for your son to learn is that high school and college marching bands can be a great way to socialize, and to learn how to work with, and have a leadership role with other people.
And yes, some musical and trumpet playing ability can be improved along the way.

For some people, a downside of formal band participation is the regimented demands that they have to accept - time schedules, attitude, responsibility, following orders, etc.
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nickwees
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Peter Bond of the Met Opera comes to mind too!
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jmock
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, some of the skills obtained from playing in drum and bugle corps have greatly helped me in life and even now in my current job: being able to adjust to change or circumstances not being what was promised, being able to work well as part of a team (also learned through sports), the importance of getting goals accomplished on time and meeting deadlines, etc.

Please keep the info. coming. I'd love to go back to this guy with a list of current pros who marched drum and bugle corps.

Was John Mohan one? Or a member of BLAST, at one time?

Also for me, the time spent on the field working to improve the group's performance whether in my high school band (which was good and placed well at championships) or in drum and bugle corps or even college marching band--that was the happiest time of my life, well maybe next to my wedding...

Thank you all--

John
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Jerry
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

nickwees wrote:
Peter Bond of the Met Opera comes to mind too!

Yup. According to the Bob Reeves website: Mr. Bond spent summers on the road with a drum and bugle corps and the rest of his time focused on big band jazz.

Gee, I didn't realize that he recently retired from the Met.
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kalijah
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just a few:

Adam Rapa - East Coast Jazz

Cameron Crotts - Blue Devils

Chris Martin, Michael Martin and others - Spirit of Atlanta

Jeff Kievet - Muchachos

Al Chez - Garfield Cadets

The late Bill Chase

Wayne Bergeron - Diplomats


I am sure there are many more, many you never heard of who are tremendous players.

Just For fun: Jamey Johnson (country music artist) - Southwind
https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/entertainment/2017/09/26/jamey-johnson-coming-home-concert-cause/361920001/
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cheiden
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have no doubt that a number of great players have been with drum corp. Were they already great and did drum corp make them better, I have no idea.
But I also have reason to suspect that it's not always good for trumpet players. I've met one player who marched a few years but when I played with him briefly he sounded not good at all. And I know a top teacher who talks about all the drum corp players he's had to fix at the end of the marching season.

FWIW my wife is a huge drum corp fan. I've seen some and like it fine. The two of us were big fans of Blast! and saw the full show twice and the mini Disneyland version several times.
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ignorance
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blbaumgarn
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:03 pm    Post subject: did drum and bugle corps help improve your playing? Reply with quote

When you are young it is just another opportunity to play and play with other people. Travel some, and perhaps compete at Drum and Bugle Corp level. Nothing wrong with that. Any of those experiences can help or hurt if you get to slamming one horn into another or bumping into someone. That happens in marching bands all the time and we don't hear much criticism of marching bands. I would think that learning hard work and rehearsal values with a drum and bugle corps could be valuable on its own.
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jmock
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ha ha--

The "kamikaze suicide block drill".

My high school band did it to emphasize the importance of listening to the drum major and following commands.

Nobody got hurt and no instruments were damaged in the suicide drill; we were good.

One time a bunch of trumpets were lined up on a table during break. A majorette sat on the other end of the table, flipping my tricolor Olds Special trumpet into the air. Fortunately I saw it and made a diving catch before it hit the ground!

In all the groups I marched with, I do not recall any serious damage on the field. The real hazards were in the stands where instruments did get kicked off to the ground and destroyed.

John
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Robert P
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 11:27 pm    Post subject: Re: Did drum and bugle corps help improve your playing? Reply with quote

jmock wrote:


I have a friend, a local lead player, who unfortunately possesses a rather negative attititude toward anything related to marching band or especially drum and bugle corps. He went so far to say, the other day, in front of my 14 year old son, who the high school marching band really really wants in their trumpet section, that "nobody any good ever played in drum and bugle corps"! Then he told me to name even ONE professional who did.

There used to be a couple of mini D&B corps groups that performed at Epcot in Disney - all of them had a background in D&B and they were all real solid players.

I think if you've already got solid chops it can help build them, if you've got chops problems it probably isn't the right place for you.

Here's a couple of samples of FutureCorps - you tell me if you think your friend's statement holds water. They played these shows several times a day often in *brutal* Florida heat and humidity.


Link



Link

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Bflatman
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 11:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In life I have regretted things I chose not to do.

If your son wants to join marching band and marching band wants him then that is what he should do.

I was told a few days ago by a mother with a baby that I must not play my trumpet any where near her or I will wake her sleeping baby.

There are plenty of people who are happy to tell us what to do based on their own prejudices and those prejudices are not healthy.

I played right next to that lady and her baby and the baby slept soundly and was not disturbed, I changed her mind because I proved her wrong by proving a trumpet can be played delicately and softly.

Your son can prove that guy wrong but that is not why he should do it he should do it because he is a trumpet player and he is a good trumpet player and he will be a great player one day and it does not matter a damn what your friend says even if he is a lead player, he is still wrong.

But spending time trying to justify our choices can consume our lives, instead we should live our lives and be the best we can be at what we choose to do.

Your son can be the best marching band trumpet player and then he can have a career as a great trumpet player but he wont achieve these things if he is constantly fighting stupid opinions. Just ignore them and do what you believe is right.

When anyone tells me "you cant do xxxx, or nobody any good does xxxx", that is like a red rag to me and I set to proving them wrong and I usually manage to do that.

This is a challenge to your son and he can prove this guy wrong by the only really effective way. And that is by being a good trumpet player in marching band.

If someone said to me what your friend said, I would join marching band just to prove him wrong.

In life we make good choices but we are talked out of them by well meaning fools.

This is the right choice to join marching band or your son would not have made that choice and ignoring the naysayers is a test of his commitment to his beliefs.

And your coming here and asking for assistance shows that you support him in his choice and that is the right thing to do.

If your son does not join band it will knaw at him and he will regret not giving it a chance and that leads to unhappiness, for his happiness and well being he should join marching band, and your friend can shove his opinions where the sun dont shine.

Respect to you and respect to your son.
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jmock
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 23, 2021 2:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you all--

Yes my wife and I both told Johnny that marching band and drum and bugle corps was the funnest thing we each ever did. I just want to prove my "friend" wrong and shut him up. He can be very arrogant and though very talented himself is a horrible teacher. I was ticked that he trashed marching music to my son. Maybe he will change his tune when I tell him that Wayne marched...Wayne has said that playing for Disney in the animal suit was good training...

Bflatman--

Thanks for your interesting post. My oldest son had a total idiot baseball coach who literally spent a half hour of practice verbally berating the 11 and 12 year old kids for everything they did wrong in the loss the day before. You had to be a big shot in the local Lions Club to coach, but no experience necessary. That team won 1 game and lost 31 in two seasons. I of course volunteered to coach but was rejected because I'm not a member of the Lions Club. He gave my son a backhanded compliment that crushed him, about his work ethic in front of all the other kids, but said he would "never play major league baseball". Half of that team won a league championship at age 13, with another coach. Anyway, the idiot coach my son despises...it fueled my son. People told my son he would never make the high school team and when he did they said he'd never start...which he did as a pitcher...but my son worked his rear end off, took lessons from good pros and played travel baseball (at a cost of over $10,000 for all that), and is one of the 7% of American high school players to make it to college baseball, despite only playing 7 innings of varsity baseball because of Covid and the people in our area are all idiots. He is pitching in college, NCAA division 3, for a team that is young and rebuilding, as a freshman. He sat the bench more than the other 9 players in his class during high school but is the only one that actually made it to college (because of the travel baseball and lessons). He wants to play pro ball someday but has a long way to go.

Johnny, the youngest, has been told by a former MLB 3rd baseman that he has great ability and can be very good at baseball, but he also has great ability on trumpet if he decides to pursue it...has lost a year of development with crazy Covid school lockdown of music which has hurt his interest and motivation.
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Bflatman
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 23, 2021 2:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jmock

Thank you for sharing that wonderful anecdote.

I am smiling inside to think of your oldest son a real fighter who would not be held down and fought for and achieved success by sheer determination and refusal to quit against all odds.

They say when the going gets tough the tough get going.

That is a truly inspiring story.

I dont need to tell any of you guys about the rewards of stoicism and hard work and refusal to quit.

We get out of life what we put in, and this is true in all things and I have succeeded in many areas myself but the one thing that has given me the most pleasure and the greatest returns in spades has been trumpet playing.

We are the children of our own destiny and we can shape our destiny ourselves if we can just shake off the fools who erect barriers to us.

They say you cant keep a good man down, I believe we are all good men we just have to believe it and have faith in ourselves and put in the effort in order to rise.

The failures in life are not those who lack talent they are those who lack the determination to put in the hard work.

Good luck to you and your youngest son but I have a feeling he does not need luck he is making his own luck just like your eldest did.

And there is nothing more that is needed for any man to be considered a man.

You have done a good job.
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 23, 2021 7:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

How about Clifford Brown?

https://preview.redd.it/42andskv1bb31.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=3cf6c7e7afe9b4a721539e4779d9c2b5911737cc
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jmock
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 23, 2021 8:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bflatman--

lol. Thank you.

I think the worst thing is to look back and say "Gee, if only I had (fill in the blank)".

I'm not rich at all, have passed up engineering project management because I don't need the crazy stress level, which means I'm just a senior project engineer at 29 years of experience. I do ok, but my direct supervisor makes about 50% more than me for all that strees (he can have it). My wife and I have made sacrifices so that our kids won't ever be able to say "what if I had only tried?" If they want lessons, they get the lessons. I don't need to drive a nice or fancy car. The monthly lessons would actually buy a nice car, believe me, but they will be better off for the lessons than I'd ever be with the car.

I might have stayed in music education were it not for a magazine article that frankly stated the average musician will never get more than minimum wage for all the hours they put in, once lesson and instrument costs, etc. are properly accounted for. Besides, I did not think I could pass the Millersville University piano proficiency exam required to graduate. It was seriously hard (harmonize by ear some folk song melodies and correctly play said folk songs on piano, on the spot, in the key that they give you to play in--without printed music). I gave up clarinet and switched to trumpet (because I had so much more fun marching on trumpet/soprano bugle than I ever had playing clarinet). Also, during the 1980's, if a guy played clarinet, everywhere you went in high school in Pennsylvania, people told you how gay you were.

That all made the switch to trumpet easy, lol.

John
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mafields627
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 23, 2021 8:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think the pedagogy in drum corps is better than it ever has been -- it's certainly more than I got in college marching band, or trumpet lessons for that matter.

Many of the caption heads have performance degrees - some have doctorates - and the technique programs are extensive and balanced. We're not talking about Larry the WWII vet from the VFW anymore.

There is also a much more balanced approach to the physical training, nutrition, and mental health of the members now.
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Jaw04
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I didnt do drum corps, I was always "too cool" I thought it was silly to be marching around. I was wrong. All my friends who did drum corps built lifelong relationships/networks in the music world and got a lot of awesome experiences from it. Some of the strongest players I know were super into drum corps and it shows.
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