<p>A few questions for my daughter about being a music major and involved in drum corps if anyone here has any experience with it. She's a rising senior and currently on tour with a world class corps, so she'd love to keep doing it. I know people say it can ruin the embouchure, but she's never had any problems.</p>
<p>First, is it possible to participate during the senior year of high school with auditions and all?
Is it possible to do drum corps as a music major time wise in college?</p>
<p>In terms of her senior year, with auditions and such, I would be hesitant to say yes (and this is just my opinion). Not only will she be facing auditions in the winter season (let’s say jan-march) and if corps has rehearsal during that timeframe it could interfere (she might have to miss some rehearsals and the corps leaders may not like it if she does), there is also the fact that she is going to need to practice a lot for her auditions, and the time spent on corps might conflict with that. If she is at a place where she could audition tomorrow and feel confident getting in and practicing from now until then (~5 months or so) she would just have to maintain her focus and level,maybe…but given the competitive nature of music school admissions for performance, most kids usually spend that time going into hyper drive practicing to polish up their audition pieces…</p>
<p>And from what I hear in performance programs, kids are pretty well booked, between practicing, homework for classes like theory and such, and ensemble performances, it is a pretty heavy duty day, and weekends are no exception, I have been around some conservatories on a saturday night at 10 and seen kids trying to find an open practice room…</p>
<p>It might help people on here more if they know more specifics. What instrument does your daughter play? And what schools is she thinking of applying to? Also, how does her teacher (and her)rate where she is, in terms of being ready with repertoire? All tlhis would help frame a better answer I think:)</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. That’s pretty much what I was expecting to hear.</p>
<p>D plays trombone (marches euphonium) and she’s looking mostly into Northwestern and Indiana as well as Eastman and some state schools. She worked on excerpts and etudes for auditions a lot before spring training started, and her teacher thinks that as long as she picks them up again fairly quickly when she gets home, she should be fine.</p>
<p>Lots of kids do Drum Corps in college till they age out and some Corps do not really kick into high gear until after collge audition season so a lot would depend I suspect on how close the Corps base is to your home. Northwestern and Indiana have strong Marching Bands so all would not be lost there (except the competition element). Know a lot of the trombone music majors at Indiana play marching band in the fall. Again once in college a lot would depend on how close to the college the Drum Corp is for those winter practices and how forgiving they are if your band recital clashes with a practice. In the end it can be done but requires someone with great time management.</p>
<p>S was planning on auditioning for the Phantom last fall during his senior year of high school (paid the fee and got the materials) but in the end just didn’t have time to prepare for it. He is a percussionist. He was working on All State and college audition material. Now he will be studying percussion performance and will get the vibes as to whether or not that’s going to work out when he gets to school. Interestingly, his advisor was not too thrilled that he is going to be in the school’s marching band stating “you will not have time as a performance major”. That was a “wow” moment for him</p>
<p>Experienced that when DS2 was speaking to the TBone prof. at a highly respected program. When asked about possible marching was told that they understand that many performance majors want to do that and if so they encourage you to do it freshman year to “get it out of your system.” The time spent on the field is time he feels could be better spent practicing.</p>
<p>Relative closeness to Phantom Regiment is actually the main reason why she’s looking so closely at Indiana and Northwestern. She’s already got great time management skills because of drum corps, so I’m hoping they’ll translate well to the college level of academic work.</p>
<p>A lot of her music teachers and various instructors have given her the lecture about marching band and concert band balancing in college as well as the effects on the embouchure. Honestly, I think she would drop concert band before she dropped marching band. She loves it whether with her high school or in drum corps.</p>
<p>@TromboneMother-Is She in the Phantom now? The Cavaliers practice out of Rosemont so they would be closer to those schools. S will be at Northern Illinois so he could logistically do either one (if he decides to even do it). I know the Phantom up until this year had a lot of UNT drumline members so if they could make it to Rockford from Texas for practice then I think anybody can! Audition calendars should be out soon for the colleges so you can plan it in advance. We auditioned at 4 schools and that was hard enough getting scheduled so plan early!</p>
<p>@Hawkrn- Yes, she is in Phantom now. She can’t march with the Cavies (all male). She is open to marching with other corps (well, actually she named three other corps she’s be willing to march for and none are any closer). We will make sure to plan early for auditions. Wow, UNT to Rockford must be a haul! Did they fly or drive?</p>
<p>I did not realize that the Cavaliers were male only! What poops! Your daughter must be one of the young ones in the Phantom! One of UNT’s percussion professors was the Phantom’s drumline “coach” (probably why the Phantom drumline was voted the best last year) so I am sure that’s why there were UNT drumline kids there. He moved on to Santa Clara this year so I am not sure about the drumline. If she can handle drum corps that young, she will probably be fine handling the stress of college auditions, etc. You on the other hand???</p>
<p>Me? I will be stressed out like crazy! She’ll be relaxed hopefully. After the number of people she’s played for before, she doesn’t have much audition anxiety.</p>
<p>That makes sense about the UNT students then.</p>
<p>Just a follow-up question- would the marching band/drum corps route be alright if she wanted to be a music ed major? It’s something she’s talked about as well because she’s torn between whether she wants to perform or teach someday.</p>
<p>I think in most universities, marching band is a requirement for music ed majors for 2 years</p>
<p>Nephew played mellophone for 3 years with Blue Devils. He elected not to attend school full time those years … then went back to school for a performance degree and is now in his second year at San Francisco conservatory.</p>
<p>I hope to be in the same situation too, so I’m curious as well.</p>
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<p>Absolutely. </p>
<p>Some colleges may require 3 or 4 years of marching band for a music ed major. It’s not that bad a deal, you get college course credit for something you like to do, you get paid or a scholarship for it, it takes less time than high school marching band or drumcorp, and you don’t have to pay bandfees like in highschool. You get an instant peer group, you get into football games for free, many college marching band programs feed you for gameday meals, and you get experiance performing in front of live audiances.</p>
<p>I don’t know why, as a performance major, you wouldn’t want to spend the time working on the instrument you intend on performing on. I know Mick Mulcahy at NU isn’t a fan of his students marching, and I can’t imagine Pete Ellefson (who also teaches at IU) or Randy Hawes are going to be in favor of it either. That isn’t to say it can’t be done, but I wouldn’t have the guts to tell my applied professor, “No, sorry, I’ll be playing a different instrument all summer.” As an ed major, this would probably be less of an issue.</p>
<p>tuba269, I understand exactly what you are saying, but sometimes skills with more than one instrument may come in handy. </p>
<p>I’m not a musician, all I know is what I see with my own eyes and I frequently see professional musicians play multiple instruments. Outside of the symphony or orchestra, it would seem to me that someone who is good on more than one instrument would have a competitive advantage in the marketplace. But maybe this should be the topic of a new thread.</p>
<p>I think tuba269 makes a really good point, and one we hadn’t considered before. My S is beginning his senior year in HS, and wants to be a trombone performance major in a jazz studies program. He also very much wants to be in a drum corps, and would do so on tuba since trombone is not an option in a drum corps. We have discouraged him from considering it for the summer after senior year since he needs to spend the upcoming school year concentrating on college auditions. Therefore, his plan is to try to do drum corps after his first year of college. However, I can see how spending a summer on an entirely different instrument may not be received well. Drum corps is also frowned upon in the jazz world, so that’s another consideration to deal with as well.</p>
<p>My S is a sophomore this coming school year, trombone performance major at NU. He marched Crown in 07 and 08 seasons. As much as he enjoyed it when he did it in early high school, he needed other summer music experiences and the time to prepare for auditions, competitions and solo and ensemble playing, and now practicing and training with the demands of the music school program. That is one of the reasons we agreed to let him do it early, but once he decided on brass performance as his major, all of his energies went into that preparation. I traveled the full seasons both years as a volunteer (AMAZING corps organization) but I cannot imagine how kids do it the summer before freshman year of college with the intense time demands of the season and the major. Feel free to pm me and we can chat by phone if you like. There are some concerns related to playing issues to think about depending on the player and goals.</p>