Entry # 76 » My Report for Band : Drum Corps vs. High School Marching Bands

    Cody Achord

    Drum Corps and Marching Bands consist of different instruments. A Marching Band consists of a full range of brass and woodwind instruments, percussion instruments, and color guard. Drum Corps consist of a wide range of percussion instruments, and brass instruments. Drum Corps are usually stronger than Marching Bands in tone quality, proper tounging, and volume.
    High School Marching Bands usually consist of a range of ages from fourteen to eighteen. A Drum Corps has a wider range of ages, though. Drum Corps range from age thirteen all the way to twenty-two. Some players in a Drum Corps are older and some are younger, though.
    In a High School Marching Band the battery usually contains more drummers than the pit but in a Drum Corps it is the other way around. Drum Corps have more instruments in the pit than most High School Bands do. Drum Corps have xylophones, marimbas, drum sets, gongs, claves, tambourines and many more percussion instruments in the pit. Some Drum Corps also include vocals in their pit. Most high schools usually only have xylophones, tambourines, mark trees, and a few other instruments in the pit.
    Drum Corps are more serious than High School Bands when it comes to competitions. Drums Corps are in leagues such as DCI and DCA. Marching Bands go to competitions to but are not in leagues and it isn’t as serious. For example the Blue Devils just finished their second straight undefeated season and set a new DCI record with 14 World Class titles. Some Drum Corps also make promos for Drum Camps.

Sites Used for information : http://www.dci.org/, http://www.fjminc.com/index.php, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_and_bugle_corps_%28modern%29#Tour_and_competition

PS : Do check out the Ultimate Web Hunt on Last Cookie's site. It is like the ourWorld Web Hunts but it has to do with some of the awesome ourWorld Related Blogs! Ends on next Wednesday! Do participate! You might get lucky because the five quickest have already finished. I currently have 31 PMs about it. Not as many as I expected.