Winds of Change
Oct 13, 2006
Indoor percussion and drum corps camp attendance policies.
By Michael Reed
In 1993, WGI added indoor percussion competition at WGI World Championships. That inaugural year of competition, all of the participants were high school drum lines. The second year of WGI - sanctioned percussion shows saw the addition of the Independent class. Now fifteen years later, the indoor percussion activity is having a big impact on the drum and bugle corps activity. It is the exponential growth of the number of indoor percussion ensembles(from 8 lines in one class in 1993 to 170 lines in eight classes in 2006) that is both benefiting today's drum corps, and at the same time is causing these groups to rethink winter camp attendance policies that have been in place for years.
Nowadays, a significant percentage of DCI Division 1 corps drumline members also compete in competitive indoor ensembles. Since almost every weekend between January and April is spent either rehearsing or performing the indoor show, the corps have had to become more flexible to accommodate both members and staff who march or instruct indoor percussion ensembles during the winter months.
Every drum corps director, however, will admit that some of the most important moments during the season occur at the winter weekend camps that most corps have once a month, long before the first early June contest. It is at these critical times that auditions are held, the corps marching style is taught, and the music for the upcoming summer's competition show is rehearsed.
In the past, most drum corps required all their members to attend most if not all camps. For color guard members and staff, corps have adapted these policies due to the overwhelmingly large percentage of their corps guard members who also participate in winter guards.
The two drum and bugle corps that have won the most DCI World Championships - the Blue Devils (11 titles) and The Cadets (9 titles) do not have color guard members at some of their camps during the winter months. George Hopkins, Director of the Cadets notes "the guard does not attend rehearsals from January-April." Likewise, David Gibbs, Blue Devils Director advised, "guard is not asked to be at camps until after WGI." The Cadets and Blue Devils are not alone. Greg Orwoll, Director of The Colts, mentioned "the policy we have with winter guards is that we need to see them for one of the first two camps, and then not again until the end of April." However, due to limited winter guard participation in the Iowa area, he further clarified "we do include color guard in our winter camps for kids who are not in winter guard."
Orwall explained, "Last winter was the first time we had significant numbers of [percussion] members who did both [winter and summer] activities, and it did create challenges for our preparation for summer... Would a drum corps allow members to miss July rehearsals in the height of our season for a marching band camp? Of course not. We can't expect members to attend our camps at the height of their winter season, either. The weekends these kids do not have performances, they have critical rehearsals, just like we do in summer... There are no clean weekends for drum corps camps for these kids like there were just a couple of years ago."
The growth of the winter percussion activity has even factored into when some corps schedule their camps. Alan Cox, director of Esperanza (who, along with Phantom Regiment, is one of only two current Division I corps who have had WGI Independent World Class finalists in both guard (2003 and 2004) and percussion (2004)), explained, "we try to schedule camps around the winter percussion schedule. Most of my percussion staff works with winter percussion groups so I have to take that into account."
However, there is another side to the issue as well. The corps have to be able to conduct auditions and plan for the upcoming summer. Caption heads need to assess the abilities of their ensembles, and arrangers cannot wait until late April to begin writing the drum book for the upcoming summer. From a survey of Division I corps directors and caption heads, there appears to be a developing consensus of a reasonable middle ground between the extremes of allowing no indoor drumline participation whatsoever, and not seeing the percussion members until the end of April.
The middle ground lies in recognizing the benefits of having the drummers play year-round and get additional performance experience, while at the same time demanding accountability to the corps. The majority of respondents to our survey indicated that attendance at camps was expected, but exceptions due to indoor line participation may be made on a case-by-case basis. Most of the directors or caption heads voiced an understanding that a drummer who marches with an indoor line may have a major performance on the same weekend as a corps camp that will cause an absence. That being said, there is an expectation that the member will be able to handle the responsibilities of being in the corps. After all, the caption head's primary duty is to develop the talent in the corps that he/she is hired to lead, and it does the prospective corps member no good if the demands of both a corps and an indoor line are too much for their particular situation.
Mike Jackson is a name familiar to WGI fans. His Mission Viejo line was a PSW World Champion in 2001 and consistently finishes in the top 5 at the WGI World Championships. In addition, he has worked with many other successful indoor lines over the years. As Percussion Caption Head for Santa Clara Vanguard, though he understands as well as anyone the positives of the indoor activity, he also understands his primary area of accountability is to the Vanguard. In explaining that camps are mandatory and exceptions are case-by-case, "I don't want to alienate the talent that's been nurtured by the indoor activity. At the same time, I don't want SCV to be second to any other organization. Some kids can handle the dual responsibility... The trick is making sure you choose the right kids that can handle both."
A look at the rosters of staff and members of the top Division I corps will reveal many names familiar to WGI fans. For example, Tom Aungst, caption head for the Cadets, is also the director at perennial PSW medalist Dartmouth High School. 2006 DCI Individual and Ensemble Multi-Tenor winner Tim Jackson of the Blue Devils was also a featured soloist in Rhythm X's 2006 WGI PIW silver medalist production. The list could go on for pages, and the numbers of people marching in both drum corps and indoor drumline (or being a staff member of both) is only going to increase.
What does the future hold for percussionists who want to experience both indoor drumline and drum corps? As mentioned above, the developing trend seems to be a willingness to allow both with the expectation that the member make the majority of camps and also be able to handle the demands of being in a DCI Division I drumline.
Cox sums up where the relationship between indoor lines and drum corps has come from and where it's headed. "I think winter percussion is in the same place (now) that winter guard was during the late 80's. Many corps in those days made you choose between the two. Drum corps are starting to realize that you cannot ignore the popularity of winter percussion."
For a complete listing of all DCI member corps, check out the Drum Corps International website at dci.org. The quotes in this article reflect the responses of the corps directors or caption heads who generously gave their time to respond to our survey, but do not speak for the corps themselves. For an individual corps policy regarding camp attendance, please contact the corps via their website or telephone number.
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