my first ever show i watched live was cadets and they absolutely slammed me in the face with sound since we were so close but finals just left me speechless no matter where i sat.
It's really hard to explain the full body chills that you get for the entire time they're playing. I want there to be a drum corps at the gates of heaven when I go there, or if I go there.
That was pretty much what I came here to say. I don’t care what your home sound system is or what it cost - it’s never going to come close to the experience of a live DCI show.
The snare drum heads are made in part out of Kevlar, the material used in bulletproof vests. That is how they are able to crank them with so much tension. Excellent reaction!
@TheCharlieSmithChannel The snares themselves aren't regular wires like a drum set snare. They're more like plastic cables that are fairly tight, giving them less buzz compared to metal snare wires that have more sustain and "buzz." And yes, the scoop on the bottom is for sound projection as snare drums don't inherently project as well as the tenors or bass drums due to their shape/orientation. Edit - The heads also lead to less snare response due to how heavy they are.
hey! i was one of the snare drummers in this video. thank you so much for watching and im super glad you enjoyed our show :) it was sooo much fun to perform and watching this brought back a bunch of good memories so thank you haha
We used to have a drum corps seen in the uk i was involved for 20 years from the age of 5 i will send you a link but you must watch Carolina Crown drop the hammer on youtube
The best part about this show is that this is actually their second performance of the night. They played the full show maybe two hours earlier as part of the competition, won the show, got their gold medals and now this is their encore performance. Playing their hearts out one last time just for fun.
@@kyranamichaelson3951 Yeah, and they had "Finale", which you never see any more. Hearing all the Corps playing together stretched from the 20 to the 20 was pure bliss!
When people are being critical of American culture, I've often heard some version of the phrase "America is too big to know itself". I think the reality is that America is so big and varied that people who have never lived in America cannot be bothered to explore the sheer number of unique and idiosyncratic quirks to its culture. Drum corps and the marching arts are just one of them, and the more you look past the clickbait headlines and talking points, the more of them you discover.
Absolutely!! Wonderful way of explaining it! I didn't march myself, but I married a tuba dude and raised 3 band kids, 12 years as a band booster... Some of the best years of my life and with my kids. Memories like you can't believe. It changes you. PLUS, these kids are all usually excellent students and will be leaders some day, and the Marching Arts will have well-prepared them for it!
Oh you mean the "people" who live on that S-hole island the size of Michigan? Where they arrest 8 year olds for "hurting feelings" and politicians for quoting Churchill? Screw them.
Some clarification, Blue Devils aren’t a US Marine drum and bugle corps. They are an Independent World Class drum and bugle corps. They don’t have any affiliation with the military. Also, the age out is 21 years old, but depending on when your birthday is, you can still march when you are 22. That is if you turn 22 after June 1st. In any case, the DCI shows are fantastic to watch and I get to be on the sidelines taking photos. Last year I was able to get photos of Blue Devils three times. Being that close to the show is quite amazing. Love your reaction to watching the video!
Hey I’m on staff for the blue devils (I’m actually in this video lol). I’d love to talk about drum corps and show you more of our stuff if you want. So glad you enjoyed our show
I saw the "condensed" version of this for Friends & Family night. That's the closest you'll come to indescribable heavenly purity penetrating ever fiber and cell of your being. I didn't want it to end. I was at the edge of the field when the guard did the synchronized aerials and I nearly sh*t my pants. I was in stunt (more than 20 yrs ago) and an aerial was my dream goal. When I finally got it, I was so low my hair skimmed the ground. (It was longish hair) Aerials that high and that precise are no freaking joke. I can't describe the awe and respect I have for the kids in BD and all the other corps that compete at this level. Do you agree that they usually start as "band nerds"? They should get way more respect than the jocks at the football games where most of these kids started in high school band, but schools usually put more money into sports than band. I was told something like the top 10% will try out for the high level clubs and about 2% of those make it. So these are elite athletic performers. THIS is what a Super Bowl halftime performance should be!!!
would you be willing to talk about some drum corps stuff as far as getting in and what to practice to have the best shot into making your chosen corps?
Still showing that The Blue Devils are the ones to beat, nearly 40 years after I graduated from High School and followed you all around the country. Reminds me how much I love and miss the action, energy, love, music and excitement of being part of something so GRAND!
Dude gets it. It’s about the performance quality, but so much more. The teamwork, the coordination of the music and the visual, and ultimately the emotional effect.
It’s great to see reactions from people like you who are new to the activity. Among those of us who have done it a long time, it’s easy to forget how impossible it’s supposed to be. The accumulated knowledge of the designers and instructional staff, passed on to the kids on the field, is what makes it all possible. There are little tweaks and pedagogical tools that are both fundamental to all musicians and unique to drum corps that we’ve honed over decades, making this level of excellence feel almost casual.
I like when they show the overall field so we can gain a sense of the massive scope of the performance. Band kids never have spare time and the peer group is like an extended family. It's one of the best group activities to join in my opinion. I wish that in the US we weren't cutting funding for arts programs in schools and that every child had the opportunity to participate in even a low level band.
No joke, my WGI group in high school would practice 30 hours a week. The activity completely takes over your life if you're competing at the higher levels.
Breaks my heart to see both DCI and local band programs waning due to lack of funding. Band and Drum Corps/WGI was a foundational and infinitely valuable experience for me.
@@lkajiessno doubt. And this is the result- kids these days are insanely good musicians before they're even in High School, *because* they see programs like this
Yeah. The budget cuts suck. I was alto sax for freshman and sophomore years, and then a lot of our band members graduated with very few new members, so I had to learn trombone so we had a trombone. Eventually we got more trombone players but they were so new that we had a limit of what we could play from what we already had, because they were still learning f how to read sheet music and the beginner range. We took all of the baritones from a local middle school because they cut band from their course listing. For awhile we didn’t even have a band director or teacher. Just ran by the rest of the band. These kids deserve better than that.
Charlie, as a parent of one of the members of the Blue Devils (the Drum Major - conducting here in this performance at the World Championships), I can tell you that every member of this Corp are highly talented and unique in their desire to be the best at what they are doing. These are unique young people who have exceptional talents, intelligence, and are genuinely outstanding human beings. It is organizations like Drum Corp (and the Blue Devils) that provide young people a vehicle for their talents to create art, as a group, to push excellence in the marching arts. As you mentioned in your video, I am extremely proud of my son’s dedication and accomplishments by being a member of the Blue Devils for the last 6 years.
Everyone’s eyes are almost always glued to that drum major - that’s how they can play without the muddiness. They play to the drum major and not to what they hear because light (sight) travels faster than sound. Physics are at play in a drum corp performance. 😊
4 месяца назад
Hi! I’m a 15 year drum corps mom. All 4 of my kids participated in drum corps, including 1 in this video. Finals are in Indianapolis August8-10. It is a once in a lifetime experience that will blow your mind. If there is anyway you could go, you will not regret it!! My son is 21 this year, so it is his “age-out” year.
It’s also so crazy to believe that these are basically all high school and early college kids like I don’t think people realize the sheer skill it takes to be in drum corps. Congrats on your kids tho that’s so cool
all of this is happening while they RUN around the field, memorizing over 300 "dots", or points where they land to make the visual flow of the show. Some of the drum equipment, like the multi toms, or "quads" as they are called and the instruments weight as much as 40lbs. At this level, it is extremely physical. I am a percussion instructor who has had many students march in these groups over the years. It is definitely a life changing experience
I marched for a few years. I was in the pit, so not as much running. However, I remember the heat and the frequent changes, not just of moves but also of the music. I was in the best physical shape of my life. I did have massive blisters on my fingers and a weird tan from all the tape wrapped around them.
Hey! I was a performer in the Phantom Regiment, we also were in finals, same night as these guys. BD are pretty well known as the current record holder for the most amount of championships won and by quite a lot. DCI technically is international, there is a corps from Canada. And if there was an audience for it, there could be some across the pond, but unfortunately modern drum corps is incredibly niche and even marching arts from the EU (like Swiss drum and fife corps) are a completely different beast. Modern marching snare heads (like the ones drum corps use) are made out of Kevlar, and are tuned pretty ludicrously tight, which is why they sound so high-pitched. The reason for the “snap” or “rattle” sound is a mechanism on the bottom head called the snare (hence the name snare drum). It’s a set of shaped wires. When you hit the top head, the vibrations from hitting it travel through the bottom head (sometimes called the resonant head for this reason). This in turn causes the snare mechanism to vibrate very fast, making the snap sound you’re referring to. The Ludwig branded shapes on the bottom of the snares are what we call projectors (or scoops) and they do exactly what you said, project the sound forward. They’re usually needed in environments like a football field, where your sound needs to cover quite a bit of distance to reach the audience, the trade off is now the audience (and the judges) can hear you a whole lot better. Yes this includes all the good, but could include the bad as well.
Toronto Optimist, Etobicoke Crusaders, De La Salle/Oakland Crusaders, Alberta All-Girl Drum & Bugle Corps to name a few Canadian Corps. A few years back I found a video online with one of the DCI founding corps directors (sorry, don't remember which one.) He said they were going to name it Drum Corps National, but a Candian corps director spoke up and said, "Hey, what about us?" One of the founding directors said, "Okay, it's Drum Corp International."
I met a family from England at one of the East Coast shows who flew in just for the competition. From what they were telling me, DCI is working on starting up a DCI Europe and their daughter wanted to see what it was all about. So hopefully it's coming soon to England and the rest of Europe very soon.
The things on the bottom of the snares are called “scoops”, and yes, they are there to help project the sound out instead of straight down into the ground. The tone is so staccato, it helps balance out the line. That’s why you don’t really see them on the tenors or basses, though tenors have been seen with them in the past.to experience all this live is quite the experience.
They’re technically called “sound projectors “ …..i was marching in drum corps when the use of sound projectors started…..yes we did start calling them “scoops” but sound projector is their actual name
well tenors don't need them cause the shell is already shaped to project the sound foreword and bass drums the head is facing the audience already so only the snares need the scoops
We used North Drums in 76 but they were too heave to carry so Ludwig made us longer depth drums and Rick cut a tupperware bowl in half and taped it to a drum. then they were used by everyone.
It’s the heads, they are a carbon fiber/Kevlar hybrid weave. These heads were actually made specifically for DCI Corps snare lines back in the late 1980’s. The original heads were just Kevlar which is what I played on when I marched. They evolved in technology to the carbon fiber/Kevlar mix. The attachments are sound projectors, those have been around since the early 1990’s I think. These Corps start practicing between November of the previous year and January of that year with 1 or 2 camps a month depending on the Corp, then their whole first third of the summer they learn the remaining drill and polish the music. When I marched, the Corps I was with my age out year started in January and had 1 weekend camp a month to May. Our first third was the Corn Field Tour, we learned the remaining drill for 3 weeks ending with our first competition. We came home rested for three days then went on our Regional Tour (DCM aka Drum Corps Midwest) which ended with the DCM Championships in Dekalb, Illinois. We came home, rested for about a week then went on National Tour going from coast to coast competing, sleeping on Gymnasium floors, eating on food trucks and practicing all summer until World Finals in mid to late August.
I calculated out how much practice we had in a week for my high school marching band and it came out to 50ish hours during peak season. There is so much heart in marching bands that someone who hasnt been in them cant possibly know. When you get everything perfect the high is incredible. Hearts on fire, minds on ice!
To get the full impact of just how powerful these performers are...and the sheer volume of sound and spectacle you need to see this live. If you visit the US during the summer seek out a DCI sanctioned event! In the summer of 1980 my high school marching band visited (and lived with) a school in Rainham as an exchange program (they came to America in the spring of 1982 visiting and living with us). When we performed on football pitches and marched in parades the responses that we received were overwhelming. The cheers and attention made our high school band feel like were were rock stars.
There was a fairly active competitive circuit in the UK and in the Netherlands and some neighboring areas of Europe. Remember Beatrix and Jubal touring the States a few times? Not sure what the current state of the activity is over there since the pandemic and all. Though it must be said that they were never on the same level as the top-tier US corps. Several students from overseas have marched in North American corps over the years.
I’m a British drum corps fan myself and you my friend. Have found yourself in a drum corps wormhole. Here a performances I recommend you to react to on your channel: 1) Academy 2016 - Drum Corpse Bride 2) Bluecoats 2019 - The Bluecoats 3) Bluecoats 2018 - Session 44 4) Bluecoats 2017 - Jagged Line 5) Bluecoats 2016 - Downside Up 6) Bluecoats 2015 - Kinetic Noise 7) Bluecoats 2014 - TILT 8) Bluecoats 2013 - ...To Look for America 9) Bluecoats 2012 - Unmasqued 10) Bluecoats 2011 - Brave New World 11) Bluecoats 2010 - Metropolis: The Future is Now 12) Blue Devils 2022 - Tempus Blue 13) Blue Devils 2019 - Ghostlight 14) Blue Devils 2017 - Metamorph 15) Blue Devils 2015 - Ink 16) Blue Devils 2014 - Felliniesque 17) Blue Devils 2011 - The Beat My Heart Skipped 18) Blue Devils 2010 - Through a Glass Darkly 19) Blue Knights 2019 - ...I Remember Everything 20) Blue Knight 2018 - The Fall and Rise 21) Blue Knights 2017 - i 22) Blue Knights 2016 - The Great Event 23) Blue Knights 2015 - Because... 24) Blue Knights 2014 - That One Second 25) Carolina Crown 2023 - The Round Table: Echoes of Camelot 26) Carolina Crown 2019 - Beneath the Surface 27) Carolina Crown 2018 - Beast 28) Carolina Crown 2017 - It Is 29) Carolina Crown 2016 - Relentless 30) Carolina Crown 2015 - Inferno 31) Carolina Crown 2014 - Out of This World 32) Carolina Crown 2013 - E=MC2 33) Carolina Crown 2012 - For The Common Good 34) Carolina Crown 2011 - Rach Star 35) Carolina Crown 2010 - A Sec2nd Chance 36) Carolina Crown 2009 - The Grass is Always Greener 37) Carolina Crown 2008 - Finis 38) Cadets 2015 - The Power of 10 39) Cadets 2012 - 12.25 40) Cadets 2011 - Between Angels 41) Cavaliers 2000 - Niagara Falls 42) Cavaliers 2001 - Four Corners 43) Cavaliers 2002 - Frameworks 44) Cavaliers 2004 - 007 45) Cavaliers 2006 - Machine 46) Phantom Regiment 2003 - Harmonic Journey 47) Phantom Regiment 2008 - Spartacus 48) Phantom Regiment 2010 - Into the Light 49) Santa Clara Vanguard 1989 - Phantom of the Opera 50) Santa Clara Vanguard 1999 - Inventions for a New Millennium 51) Santa Clara Vanguard 2006 - Moto Perpetuo 52) Santa Clara Vanguard 2007 - ! (Eureka) 53) Santa Clara Vanguard 2009 - Ballet for Martha 54) Santa Clara Vanguard 2013 - Les Misérables 55) Santa Clara Vanguard 2014 - Scheherazade: Words 2 Live By 56) Santa Clara Vanguard 2015 - The Spark of Invention 57) Santa Clara Vanguard 2016 - Force of Nature 58) Santa Clara Vanguard 2017 - Ouroboros 59) Santa Clara Vanguard 2018 - Babylon 60) Santa Clara Vanguard 2019 - Vox Eversio 61) Troopers 2021 - Unleashed 62) Troopers 2022 - VorAcious 63) Troopers 2023 - To Lasso The Sun This is a lot but all of these shows show how amazing this activity is. You can message me if you need links for any shows or have any questions about being a British drum corps fan lol.
I grew up in the 60s and 70s with drum and bugle court. The way it is involved over the years is amazing to me. Field performances back in the day started at one end zone of a football field and ended at the other end with a concert at the middle of the performance….. today it’s like a major NY. City, Broadway production. Add the musicians professional caliber which is off the charts. And this is what you get in today’s performances. If you can ever go to one of these shows live, you must. You absolutely must. Playback sound is nothing compared to being there and feeling it. it’s incredible. Is the only way you can describe it.
I marched '71 and '72 with the Cleveland Cabs. Films are rare from that time and here we have these records! Yes, start at one end, color guard had to progress to the far end of the field... so regimented but watching Santa Clara, Madison Scouts, the Blue Devils. It was my second year when it hit me what it took to do what they did. Whether in drum corps, in a 320-piece band or with a symphonic orchestra in a music hall, it shapes what makes you know what teamwork and quality performance means to the participant. emotions can still run high when you see and recognize excellence.
What will blow your mind is the fact that you picked up on maybe a fourth of what happened. The snares were spinning sticks in the middle of high-speed runs, lines were straight, players were changing direction and speed, passing between other people backwards and blind all while playing complicated music. Watching it live, you feel the music in your chest. Awesome!
Thanks for watching drum corps. I love how you noticed the work, discipline, and coordination that go into the performances. I also loved that it brought out some emotion for you. That’s what it’s all about! ❤ Five year performer, married a drum corps guy, our kid marched, we volunteer. It definitely shaped my life.
Most of these kids came out of high school marching bands. It teaches you so much about hard work and discipline! These kids work their butts off to get this good! Good for them! And yes, so much better in person!!
I was in a drum corps 20 years ago. The amount of work put into each show is incredible. It starts at the end of the season with the staff planning the next show. Then months of try outs and practice to get the production off the ground. A lot of times the show change from when it is first performed in June to the championship in August.
Marching band is pretty huge in the US. I was in competitive marching band in highschool, just for reference, we had two weeks of 12 hour practices before school started, and then 3.5 months of 3 hour practices every day after school and 8 hours on Saturdays. A couple of people from our band did DCI, they compared it to a military bootcamp lol Here's our finals performance my sophomore year that we won the competition with if you're interested to see what a highschool level looks like. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--_Y2dsVFl5Y.htmlsi=59UFx3DRANvkSdsv
It was funny how you mentioned the discipline. While the activity did start in the military, it became what it is today because churches and Boy Scout troops started forming these groups to compete during the summer specifically as a way to keep young boys off the streets and out of trouble in the summer months! Now there is only one all male drum corps left - The Cavaliers.
"We have nothing like this in the UK"... Sadly correct, but only recently so. Up until the pandemic, there was in fact a relatively thriving drum corps activity in the UK and Europe. Was it to this level? No, but it was still really good and entertaining. Guessing by your accent you are based south of the Watford Gap... down there you has The Senators from Eastleigh who had literally dozens of UK and European championships. Venture a bit further up the M1 and M6 you had The Company who boasted several European championships. In Birmingham you had last years Eurpopean champions a group called Beeches and up in Staffs you had the corps that I (an American living in the UK) marched in called The Kidsgrove Scouts who won the European championships 4 times, most recently in 2019. Both Kidsgrove and Company also performed in America as qwwell. THroughout the eighties and nineties there were literally dozens of drum corps in the UK. The main difference however being that in the UK there was no age limit and we were weekend warriors as opposed to 70-80 days straight of 12 hour rehearsals. Still, good drum corps nonetheless. Unfortunately, the pandemic killed off the activity in Europe. Anyways, Here's a link to kidsgrove 2017... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SQmkMu-t1vw.html&ab_channel=CliveVassell
The Corps you are watching has won more “World” Championships in the history of DCI than any other corps by far. The kids audition for the Corps each year in the fall. By January, they are learning the music. By April the drill/dance is generally learned. Then it’s hours and hours and hours of rehearsals to clean up the performance down to the most minute details.
It actually is international! Corps from Europe, Asia, Latin America, and anywhere other than the US and Canada are grouped into the International Class. Corps from all classes compete together but are ranked separately!
The snare heads in particular are made of a fiber weave (hence why it looks like carbon fiber) and are tuned SUPER tight. They're the only ones done that way, and is what's responsible for that sound. (source: i was in drumline in school and seriously considered trying out for a DCI corps) Would highly recommend checking out a snare solo or two to see the amount of different sounds you can pull out of the drums.
They call it world championships because people come from all over the world to audition and march dci. theres also nothing stopping a foreign country from starting a drum corps 🤷🏻♂️
Japan, Canada, UK, and the Netherlands have or continue to compete in DCI activities. So yes, International/World. Also, this is not the US Marine Drum & Bugle Corps. (Though, they are definitely a drum corps.) Judging by your title, though, it seems you realized that after the fact. Come see them live! It’s even more impressive. There are tons of DCUK shows nearby that you could even see live! ❤
Oh yeah I'm aware they exsist in other parts of the world. Are other nations actually competing in this championship though? Yes I realised after haha. The person that made the request wrote US marine drum and bugle corps.
@@TheCharlieSmithChannelThey try but with rising costs it becomes increasingly hard to have 100+ people travel every year. Even DCI here in the US has been struggling with inflation while also still trying to keep the costs down for the kids. It’s tough. This a very expensive activity to run. The other countries have leaned more into their local organizations: DCE (Europe), DCJ (Japan), and DCUK (UK) probably due to costs. The Blue Devils used to send a group (Blue Devils International) out to the various Tattoos in Europe every summer. But again, rising costs. 😢 You should check out The Company Performance Ensemble based out of Barnsley. They’re great! They’ve competed in DCE and won multiple times.
So the piece that is under the snare is called a scoop, and yes it’s to help push the sound up. As a former DCI drummer, you sleep, eat and breathe your show. Practicing every day and night for hours. Greatest time of my life.
I think one thing that should be kept in mind for people who aren't Americans is the fact that these kids did this all throughout high school as every school has a marching band that performs at (American) football games. These people have also been playing for an average of 7 years prior to joining dci.
This actually isn’t school marching band. This is not school affiliated, it’s nights and weekends and summers on top of school. I started in middle school, they can start young with what they call “feeder” corps. What we watched is the culmination of tears for most of them.
DCI (Drum Corps International) does have some international corps perform (obviously, cost to travel over the ocean gets prohibitive). There is Drum Corps United Kingdom on your side of the pond! Drum Corps is also in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Tiawan, South Africa, Japan.... lots of kids coming together to do the -ations at incredibly high levels of achievement. I marched DCI in the 00s, and taught the 00s and early 10s. I can't encourage you enough to check out more drum corps, and check out different 'eras' of drum corps (the first years of electronics being used, when mics were first allowed, the pre-mic era, the era when the bugles were in the key of G instead of Bb, when the bugles only had two valves, etc). It's a very rich history of an extremely niche musical activity.
Finally!!! Someone new reacting to Drum Corps!!! This was an amazing reaction, and I promise you won’t be disappointed with all of these shows! Please react to Phantom Regiment 2008 - Spartacus
The bass drums coming into the stadium is what made me want to be a drummer as a kid. It shakes your soul. The bottom piece on the snare is called a scoop. And yes it throws the sound right at the crowd. Makes a huge difference in how clean the drums sound together. A kick ass performance is the best feeling in the world!!!!!!
I could be prejudice but THE PHANTOM REGIMENT is the best drum and bugle corps....grew up ib Rockford IL....these are kids who've been doing this for YEARS....
In the not too distant past there was a UK corps (cannot remember the name for the life of me, I'm old and forgetful) that participated along with Beatrix from the Netherlands. Drum Corp Japan split off as a separate entity in the mid nineties and has several competing corps in a slightly scaled down (performance area) version. There are still several Canadian corps that compete (Division II & through DCA all age corps) so it is still truly international. Unfortunately it is an insanely expensive endeavor to field a competitive drum corps. Also realize that this particular video was their victory run, this was the last time that these kids were performing this show for this season so it was just for fun and a little bit more laid back; if you get the chance search and watch their actual competition run. These kids also pay tuition (upwards of $5,000 American) to belong to these groups once accepted. The auditions for the Division 1 corps begin in November (US Thanksgiving weekend) of the previous year with camps and weekend intensives until May when they report for the full summer. They will work on this show from May until finals in mid August. Great video!
If you enjoyed this show, you should totally check out Phantom Regiment's 2008 production "Spartacus." It is widely viewed as the greatest DCI show of all time, and for good reason!
The UK had, at one point, a drum corps circuit. The Kidsgrove Scouts were a standout in the early 2010s Historically corps from Europe, Canada, Japan, and China have also come to the US to compete; however they usually end up competing in a separate class from the US corps due to the age restrictions and other rules that differ; typically corps from outside the United States don't have an age restrictions. Otherwise they competed in Drum Corps Associates, the all age circuit in the US (that itself had merged with DCI as the All-Age Class). With DCA international corps were able to compete head-to-head with the US corps.
IF you like DCI, college age kids, watch BOA, Bands of America championships, which is high school kids, and includes woodwinds. In particular, watch Broken Arrow High School 2021 show, Edge of Eternity, which set the record for the highest score ever, 98.25 out of 100 possible points. I'm from Broken Arrow, and we love our band!
You should also know - this is the SECOND time that night that they performed this program. For their sins, the winner gets the aftershow encore and thus gets to do their whole show *TWICE.*
Tbh I think theres many better shows you could watch, I don't personally like blue devils' 2023 show that much.\ As a high school dci fan i reccomend: Babylon - Santa Clara Vangaurd's 2018 show Metamorph - Blue Devils' 2017 show Down side up - Blue coats 2016 show These are my three favorites :)
As a band nerd, I ❤ seeing non-Americans react to marching bands. I marched in HS then for DCI in a div 2 corpse out of Florida many moons ago. Believe it or not, there are totally different styles of marching. Check out the differences between Jackson State (an HBCU) and TAMU (former military college) to really see the spectrum!
The Snare sound is because of the snares on the bottom. They are some sort of fiberglass or (synthetic gut or nylon) rather than the steel coil snares on a rock drum kit. They sound like breaking glass. Very tight. The Drum Corps get judged on both Entertainment value and Execution. With gut snares, it exposes when the snare line are not playing together. But when they ARE playing together it is an awesome display of human synchronization. Phantom Regiment - Rockford, IL 1983-84
It's a TON of work. Countless hours of practice. I was in the flag Corp and drum line in high-school. Our teacher was a former Blue Devil. She modeled us after them. We were state champions. Phantom of the Regiment is another amazing Drum Corp Marching Band.
I'm sure it's already been pointed out below, but this is not "The US Marines Drum and Bugle Corpse". You are watching the 2023 Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps (the "P" is silent). They are the best of about 40 junior (under 21 participants only) drum corps that compete around the USA every year. But the sport (and it IS a sport, with marchers expending Olympic athlete level energy) is larger than that. Those dancers also compete in the winter months in something called Winterguard and the drumlines have their own version called Indoor Drumline. As the poster points out, their are many American competitions that are called "The World Championships", yet don't feature foreign competitors. This is because THERE ARE NO FOREIGN COMPETITORS, at least none that are good enough to have a chance against the American teams/corps. This is similar in other American "World" sports. The poster admits this soon after by saying there's nothing like what he is seeing in his country. Well, no sh*t, mate. All you have is Top Secret, that uses 20 year old DCI visuals and US high school level cadences and has nobody to compete against.
Hello, Drum line member Here from the Seminole high school Warhawk marching band. The snare drum "heads" are made of Kevlar (Aka: bulletproof vests). Kevlar can withstand a lot of tension so they can tune the drum to get that "Snappy" sound, the drum is tuned between a C and D. (C# is the choice for many higher-level groups such as the blue devils). Bass drums and tenor drums (Aka: the ones with 5 or 6 drums on it) use Mylar, Mylar is also used to make space blanket material, emergency blanket material. The tenor heads are the same as the Bass Drum heads, but they are tuned to different notes depending on what drum they are playing. Hope this helped!!😊
If you think that it's crazy for these college age kids to have this discipline, you should watch a high school marching band compete, I'd personally recommend Hebron H.S. and their show Penstriped
fun fact: outside of DCI there is just normal marching band. we also do this sort of performance and the ages can vary from junor high all the way through college so about 13-14 to 21.
DCI needs to lose the electronics. I've played in many rock bands since the 70s, and one of the attractive parts of Drum Corp was that they were NOT amplified. I haven't been to a show since they started plugging in.
This competition truely is World Championship. There are bands frim Mylasia, Japan, Mexico and a few other countries competing. It just so happends that the American groups are better and dominate the finals.
The World Championship...whatever... are competitions open invite to the world to compete. But when you do something like this so uniquely us there is no competition or other Countries ofthe world don't care so much. Like you said there is nothing like this in the UK, right? Enjoy my friend. Besides the students do come from all over the world.
PLEASE react to Bluecoats 2022 dci is my whole life, about to be my job as a front ensemble coordinator. the more eyes we can get on this sport the better also, just to address the "international in america means only america" thing, very true but dci does actually bring in a lot of international talent. at auditions for a corps called The Academy I got picked up from the airport along with a kid from Tokyo and i heard someone from dublin was trying out too. keep in mind that international attraction was for a corps that usually doesn't even make it to finals
And they all audition for these positions. And they sacrifice whole summers to compete in these championships run by DCI. Quite brutal actually, and these yound people make it look so easy
Highly recommend to watch pulse percussion 2017!! They are a top WGI group, essentially the same type of group as the blue devils, but only percussion during the winter inside arenas. It's an incredible show!
oh my... this is not the drum and bugle corp of the past. I cant even see the the the players marching because of all the props on the field. The marching was not highlighted, so disappointing. Not to take anything away from the hard work of the kids, but for me it was just not that enjoyable to watch like it was in the past. Much talent, but it was hard to see it.
Being in a marching band has always been an unfulfilled dream, as the school i went to in my home country didn't have one, so i enjoy so much watching these performances. I frankly don't know how they don't run out of air while playing and marching/running all over the field. Hats off!!
The drums are a high tension snare drum. The heads used to be made of kevlar, the material in bulletproof vests, but it destroyed the players hands to much. Now they are made of multiple layers of different materials. As far as the drum itself, the heads are so tight that there is essentially no vibration, causing the sound to be incredibly short and not giving much vibration to make she snares last long either. There are specific high tension drum keys for this reason.
i was asked to be in a DCI corp when i was in high school, you are going to get only serious participants because its more than an audition to get it you have to pay your way of thousands of dollars to participate so everyone is serious of doing a good job. the money goes for uniform rental, food and housing. the season last for months and they tour across the country in many citys and regional compititions before the finals. it's an investment for the honor to perform
Don't know if others have said it, but this was NOT the competitive run....this is the encore run of the show...one last time for the audience (and members), which is why you see medals on the kids...they aren't there for the actual competitive run. There also isn't a camera on the field with them in competition...this was shot by the corps itself, either by a staffer or via go-pro footage. I marched Blue Devils in 84....LONG before these kids were born. Some of these members are children of people I marched against. This program, "The Cut-Outs," is based on the works of French artist Henri Matisse, hence the strange patterns on the uniform and drum shells. The final drill form recreates one of his late works "The Snail." And yes, you DO have something like this in the UK Drum Corps United Kingdom has been around since the early 1980s (I performed with the Dagenham Crusaders in 1986...I might be the first American to win the UK title as a performing member). The UK education system doesn't churn out marching musicians like the US one does, which might ac count for the lack of visibility....not the same as the parade bands you have, which has a long history. US corps get members from all over the world...this has been the case for decades.
Marching band goes HARD. You're running all up and down the field while blowing every last bit of air you can into your instrument (for the winds), carrying heavy equipment (some of the winds and the drums), OR making sure to get your choreography correct and land your catches/jumps/other POI (color guard)..... It's so much blood sweat and tears, but it's SO REWARDING!
Also, each show is usually separated into 3-5 'movements' usually 4 in my experience. Going based on that, the 'third movement' that you got emotional at? That's usually referred to as the 'ballad' portion of the show and is 100% intended to evoke emotions.
