Experience With DCI

[pipperz]

Hello again forums!

I wanted to ask this question because I truly am curious: Who here has marched DCI and how was your experience with it?

DCI has always been something I’ve wanted to do and it’s something I will be pursuing in the very near feature. I’m planning on going to an audition camp for an open class corps (BDB if anyone was wondering) and also trying to find a marching euphonium to practice/prepare. But I’ve always wanted to hear other people’s stories of when they marched a corps. My band director marched SCV back in 2016 and so his stories of when he marched is the only experience I’ve heard of when it comes to marching DCI (in fact he was the one who inspired me to try out for drum corps anyway).

So to anyone on the forum who’s marched, what was it like? Did it make you a better musician? What was the process like of switching to euph/bari (I assume since thats what most trombones switch to when they march)? What advice would you give to people who are interested in marching?

Quite literally anything you have to say about the activity would be really cool, I’d love to hear it!

[Burgerbob]

In short, I marched 5 years, taught for 3. Overall it was a positive thing for me, but I missed out on some "real world" music opportunities as well.

In long, I didn't want to march drum corps. My parents made me audition for the summer after my senior year of high school. Much to their chagrin, I marched at that corps for 4 total years. For someone from a very out-of-the-way place, it was an eye opening experience to the rest of the music world- even through the small opening that drum corps offers. Without it I'm not sure I would have made anything like the network that I have now. I learned more about brass pedagogy than I had in all my previous experience, and also rather more than I did at my undergrad. I learned how to move, how to understand my body in a way that most people never do. Due to some staff we had, I got into a great grad school and now work in that city making a living playing trombone.

I also didn't play trombone for 5 entire summers. I had a good 3 week adjustment period of coming back every year, which wasn't a huge problem but also meant that I wasn't really improving for huge stretches. I didn't do any festivals, any summer programs... none of the things that players that go to conservatories and win auditions do. I don't have those kind of networks that can matter a lot later in a career. I have had to catch up on a lot of fundamental work that normal performance majors would have taken care of much earlier in their careers, at least the successful ones.

My takeaway? I'd march a year or two. It's a blast and there is no experience like it on earth. But if you are serious about music, I'd try to limit your exposure at some point. Your body will also thank you.

I'd appreciate those who didn't march not chiming in, if possible.

[harrisonreed]

I marched, not DCI, but college marching band for four years. We did half time shows, etc, a lot like DCI does.

I met a lot of great friends and had a lot of fun.

It didn't do any favors for my embouchure or intonation while I was doing it. What it did help me with, when I came out of the formation to play in the group up front, was to expose me to what it's like playing horn lines (a la Earth Wind and Fire).

You can learn from every experience. I'd just recommend being aware of any bad habits you get in your playing while you are marching.

[GabrielRice]

I never did DCI, but I have several friends who marched and then taught, and I've had a few students who marched. Aidan's advice seems 100% on point to me. If your ambition is to be a teacher more than a performer, maybe go longer and then teach for a corps.

[MBurner]

Never did DCI. Taught 5 students that have, one this past year who had a prominent trombone solo for the 2nd place team.
Pros:
Friends! Second family! Enormous marketability if you wish to pursue Music Ed as a career. (Try getting a big job in any state without it, particularly TX.) Chops will be strong for the F and FF. Trombone is more accepted in sections today, which will only help a trombonist. Learning valves at the DCI level will only help you if you ever want to seriously double on Euph, tenor tuba, bass trumpet, or Tuba. You will be in fantastic physical shape!
Cons:
Do you have to pay to play? If so, may as well do a summer festival and get better in your abilities (IMO). You won’t develop many musical skills, but you will rep something into the ground. Not every corps marches trombone. Even if you bring a horn, you will have to fight to play it each day to keep your face up. It will take 3 months unless you’re a beast like Aidan to get your face back (again, in my experience, for all I know you’re the next JA).
Verdict-
Your life. I hated DCI styled shows, but college marching band offered me a Bachelors degree. I can dominate a group with the strength marching band gave me (pro and con?) and nothing can replace those memories and heartbreak (LSU is my bottom 5 places on earth).
If you want to do it, scratch the itch. Better players than all of us, Chris Martin, Denson Paul Pollard, Mike Roylance, half the DC band players, did DCI, and they crush music. If you have a choice of Aspen or Tanglewood? I’d point you in that direction, personally. If you want to? As I’ve told my students, go have a great memory and a fabulous time! Use sunscreen. Listen to great music on the bus. Practice like mad when you get back.

[mbarbier]

I'd appreciate those who didn't march not chiming in, if possible.

Sorry Aidan, I also didn't do DCI, just a ton of marching band and am chimming in.

However I work very regularly with a few colleagues who did it very seriously (mostly brass players and percussionists, but also euphonium player turned conductor) and they're all excellent musicians and professionals who owe a ton to their DCI experience. They all just have an incredibly solid base for make a really comfortable, easy, and reliable sound and a strong rhythmic foundation. Also the practice techniques and patience to really clean things up in personal practice and rehearsal is, to me, really enviable. The obvious cavet, like the other thread on majoring in music, is that it's people who did DCI and went on to be professional players, so it's a particular cross section of them.

I've had a number of college students who struggle to make a full and healthy sound consistently go and do DCI for a summer and come back with the foundations of that really put together. It seems immensely beneficial. If i could go back I would've done it.