Competition...Blessing or Curse? - Part 1 - Drum Corps (cont.)

This is the 5th installment of my series on Competition in Drum Corps - I encourage you to read the four previous installments found below...
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Educational Value

Drum Corps is an excellent educational tool for teaching a variety of things. What are some of the things that are taught? Musical excellence, Discipline, Physical excellence, and hard work are four that come to mind. So lets examine how competition affects each of these lessons. Also for consideration is the trickle down effect from having so many music educators marching in corps today.

Musical excellence -
As examined in the previous post, competition has driven corps to explore extreme musical complexities. The musicians that march today are, overall, more trained and have a better background in music than those who marched years ago. This is not a knock at the "old-timers", just an observation that it is quite difficult to obtain a spot in a highly competitive Drum Corps without having some serious training. Competition has directed the best musicians to the best corps, and left many casual musicians behind. Since the quality of musician has increased, the question is does the activity still have a musical educational value?

This influx of musical talent has actually increased the musical value of the activity. Since most of the performers are starting at higher levels, the corps can better explore musical nuances and spend time perfecting interpretation instead of fundamentals. Harder music, plus the ability to explore the music at deeper levels equals a high educational value in terms of musical excellence.

Discipline -
Here is another area that has been changed drastically from the beginnings of drum corps. The performers today are not local kids who are just looking for something to do over the summer, they are kids who choose to do this activity specifically. Everyone that marches wants to be there and generally try and help out their corps as much as possible. Discipline is not really a major issue these days. From my experience, though, I would say that all marchers learn a level of disciple they never thought possible - even the most dedicated learn something. This activity cannot be duplicated by anything else and nothing can really prepare you for the issues one has on tour. Going through the experience will, for sure, make someone more disciplined. Competition, by changing the main makeup of performers, has increased the value of learning discipline.

Physical Excellence -
This goes hand in hand with musical excellence. Competition has driven corps to perform more visually demanding shows. Performers are put through many varieties of physical training that rival many boot camps - from 2 mile running/breathing blocks, to strength training. Many performers now train in the offseason as well as maintain their physical fitness after aging out. In this respect, competition has increased the educational value of fitness.

Hard Work -
This is the one thing that I hear people marvel at the most when discussing drum corps. All drum corps do it - the long 12 hour rehearsals in the heat, the hours of dot book work, the personal practice time. Many people are unprepared for the amount of time and energy being in a competitive drum corps requires. Competition increases the drive for working harder. The thought that other drum corps are rehearsing and getting better is constantly in the back of performers' heads. As it is now, the pressure to always get better is tied to the idea of competition and being recognized as the best. Also, one gets a clear reward for hard work - if you work hard, your score goes up. If there were no competition, I feel this drive would lessen a bit and corps may become more lax in their rehearsals. The motivation would shift from extrinsic rewards (scores, placements) to more intrinsic rewards (accomplishment, self-esteem). Competition has taught many drum corps performers how to work hard and it is a valuable lesson for them as they go through life.

Competition has only increased the educational value of drum corps - whether it is indirectly, through recruitment of better musicians, or directly through ideals such as hard work and discipline.


next installment will examine the effect competition has had on the number and size of corps....
drum corps ; DCI ; marching band

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Competition...Blessing or Curse? - Part 1 - Drum Corps (cont.)

This is the 4th installment of my series examining the effect of competition on the marching activity.
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Complexity of Material

Complexity of material can be broken down into two sub categories; show design, and technical demand. Both of these are affected by Drum Corps being a competitive activity. The question first of all is how are they affected by competition, and secondly, is this effect good for the activity.

Examining show design, we find that shows today are much more complicated and involved than shows at the dawn of DCI competition. This directly correlates with the increased emphasis on General Effect scoring over the past 20 years. Under the "tic system", shows need not have any overall "general effect", and this was not a major concern for directors and designers at the time. Gradually, GE points became more important, comprising 10%, then 30%, then finally 40% of the overall score. Designers advanced these ideas of "effect" with the development of the "total show concept." This was the idea of every section of the show relating to a larger general theme. This concept remains in place today. Competitive corps who revert to the old show designs find it more difficult to compete in todays Drum Corps context (I'm thinking specifically here of Cadets '03 and Madison '04).

Now is this effect on show design good for the activity? Many people have complained recently that show designs are too complex and ask too much of the audience. While initially, competition drove the change to the "total show concept", nowadays the competitive atmosphere is more of a hindrance to show development than anything else. Designers' ever-expanding visions are being cut, spliced, and crammed into parameters that were never meant to display them. It is akin to a governing body restricting what you could use in a Broadway musical, then forcing the writers to cram it all into 11.5 minutes. Musical ideas cannot be developed fully in the time alloted forcing designers to cash in on the quick effect and leave subtlety behind. New storytelling techniques are burdened by restrictions on personnel and instruments. Show designs are stripped down to the most basic semblance of expression under the weight of competition, demanding of the audience little more than basic form and musical recognition. Freeing the show design of the shackles of competition will bring depth and true complexity to an activity that is already yearning for it. Shows can step out of the banal, and create profound performance art that can have lasting impacts on society.

The second area of complexity deals with the question of technical demand. During the "tic system's" heyday, technically complex musical and visual material was generally toned down, or "watered", to make it easier. The thought with that process was that if you aren't playing something extremely difficult, there is less chance that you will screw it up. The advent of the "build-up" system allowed designers to program in great feats of virtuosic display, because now they received credit for attempting more difficult material. This trend towards more difficulty is still in full force today, as corps keep trying to out-perform previous years.

The question now is does competition driven technicality help or hurt the activity. I am of the opinion that many of the technical demands built into shows these days are exceedingly gratuitous. The average person has trouble distinguishing the difficulty of things that are not blindingly obvious. Only the highly trained judges can sometimes understand and appreciate some of the demands a show makes on the performers. If competition were to disappear, shows would become increasingly easier , however not appear less impressive to the audience. The gratuitous difficulty would be trimmed from the shows, leaving more time for substance and musical narrative.

On both accounts, show design and technical demand, I contend that competition hurts the activity more than it helps it. Show designs would become more fan-friendly and entertaining and some of the technical filler would be trimmed away making for a much cleaner show.

The next installment I will examine the effect competition has on the educational value of Drum Corps...

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Competition...blessing or curse - Part 1 - Drum Corps (cont...)

Mainstream Visibility

The question here is how do people in mainstream culture interact with the Drum Corps activity. Do they interact? and at what level?

Aside from a few documentaries and the occasional news report, there really is no recognition of Drum Corps in the mainstream media. Last year on tour with The Cadets, there may have been half a dozen news stories done on the corps and the show. Many of these are write ups in community newspapers. As with anything, exposure depends upon the area of the country, generally the less urbanized areas seem to have a better community awareness than in the big cities.

The movie "Drumline" raised awareness about the marching activity, but that is only tangentially related to the world of Drum Corps. Other than that and a brief appearance by The Cadets at the 1996 Olympics, television and film have largely ignored the Drum Corps scene.

Drum Corps of the past was arguably a much more visible presence in society. Corps usually stayed local and participated in events and parades around the area -solidifying their ties to the community. As Corps focused more on national level competition, their role in the community diminished in kind. Today one would be hard pressed to find someone from Bergen County who had heard of the Cadets. Corps do have "home shows" and usually do parades around Memorial Day near their iconic homes, however any real connection is for the most part symbolic. These days of small local corps made up of local kids lent the activity to integration with the American Culture. As Drum Corps broke away from this, it started to become more of an isolated, niche activity.

National Competition did not destroy Drum Corps in mainstream society, it merely changed it and the people who watched. Public Broadcasts of the Championships brought in new demographics of excited high school band students who saw "Marching Music's Major League" as something to revere. Recently, Drum Corps has been promoted to the television equivalent of the National Cheerleading Competition and the National Spelling Bee due to it broadcast on ESPN2. However, it still is a long way off from matching either of these in the collective mainstream unconscious. The National Spelling Bee is discussed on numerous news shows, parodied on SNL, and I believe the winner even gets to meet the President. Cheerleading has been the subject of many movies including Bring it On!, Bring it On, Again!, and Bring it On: All or Nothing.

Nowadays, the average American is largely ignorant of the Drum Corps subculture. Nationally based competition has effectively written Corps out of mainstream Americana and banished it to a curiosity, pursued by mostly "band geeks". The quirkiness of the genre and some of its traditions and conventions still make the activity largely inaccessible for all but those who have an invested interest.

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"Competiton: How Important is it?" by Rob Stein

This post is kind of an aside from the series I am writing, however it is extremely pertinent to the topic at hand. The following paper is was written by Rob Stein, one of the Standing 'O' Marching Specialists, and examines competition from a more pragmatic angle. This should be required reading for any band director who is faced with the decision to have his or her band compete...
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Competition: How Important Is It?
By Robert Stein

Competition is a highly debated aspect which we all must deal with in this activity. The biggest problem we face as educators in our field is to figure out how important this aspect is to our organization, which ultimately stems from the question: “What is the goal of our season?” If winning is the ultimate goal, and that is what you tel your students, and that is what they focus their energy on, you could potentially be in for a very rough season in terms of morale and defining “success” for your group. Let’s start by listing some reasons why groups want to win:

1. Bragging rights.
This is probably the most obvious reason, but all students and educators would love the opportunity to say “We’re the best.”

2. School support.
Many of us face problems justifying the marching band to the administration in terms of budget and time commitment. Having a nice, big trophy to display in the trophy case at the main entrance of the school always helps to gain administrative support.

3. Material reward.
As we all work hard in this activity, it’s always nice to get some sort of material recognition, such as a plaque, metal or trophy.

There are certainly other reasons, and these are all absolutely valid; and of course, it does feel good to win, to be the best, to hear your group’s name announced last in your classification. Additionally, competition can be a great motivator for some students to get them moving and enthusiastic for rehearsal. It is important to remember, however, that if competition is your sole purpose of the season, and your students know that, they can potentially be emotionally crushed if you do not meet your goal.

I once knew a director whose band was in the position at one time to say they were the best band in the state; and technically, for that weekend, they were. This band competed at a state competition the weekend before championships and beat everyone there, including the band I was teaching at the time, and the band director made sure to tell everyone on Monday that they were in fact the best band in the state for that weekend. The students got incredibly excited and were quite confident that, since they were the best band in the state, they would surely win state championships the coming weekend. I checked some scores on the computer to find that there were numerous bands that were ranked ahead of them that had not competed that weekend, but were competing at group championships. I called him and mentioned that maybe he should remind his students of that fact, but he decided not to. The following weekend their band was beaten by the band I was currently teaching, as well as five other bands, and placed 7th. His students were crying, cursing, and felt that they had wasted an entire season because they did not win.

Now that we’ve had a brief glimpse at a possible reality, let’s review some reasons why we should not make winning a top priority:


1. You have no control over another group.
The reality of this sport is that you do, in fact, have absolutely no control over another group you compete with. You cannot control how often they practice, how hard they work, or the caliber show they perform. If they work harder and deserve to win, no one else has a right to take that away from them.

2. Judging.
This aspect could bean entire article in itself. Many times we find ourselves disagreeing with judges for many reasons, the main of which seems to be they never catch the good things in the show. As instructors in this field, many people have a hard time disconnecting themselves from their group during a performance and viewing it objectively. During rehearsal we always try to look for the mistakes to fix them, and during the performance we always try to look for the good things to make sure we get the score we deserve. Remember that judges are usually viewing your group for the first time, and they just love to find obvious mistakes to talk about.

3. Students base success of the season on winning alone.
As shown in the story written above, students will base the success of the season solely on the competitive outcome of a competition, and not on other things like hard work, team work, progress or fun.

4. Circuits.
Unfortunately, some circuits are more political than others. If you are competing in a circuit in which you normally do not, you may not be ranked as high as you would if you were well established in that particular organization.

Competition should be talked about, but in my opinion, should never be the only reason for the season. The ultimate goal for the marching arts is to maximize the potential of your group and the show they have been given. Throughout that process, students will learn things that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives, such as team work, dedication, persistence, etc. Most importantly, what should be the concentration for the season is always giving 100% every minute of every day. In this case, no mater what the outcome of the season or competition is, your students will be content that there was absolutely nothing else they could have done.

Winning is always fun, but again, in this sport there really is no defense. Your group will perform their show and have no influence what-so-ever on anyone else. The focus of the season should be the journey to the destination; working hard, making friends, making fun memories, etc. Should you be rewarded for the performance of your group, then you will have another memory to add to the season. If not, your students will still be content with the journey they have taken together and the lessons they have learned, and will not have their emotions diminished by the lack of a trophy. The question in the title of this article asks how important competition really is; to answer, it is as important as you wish to make it. This article is simply meant to provide some information to help you make your choice.

Rob Stein is the Co-founder of Standing 'o' - Marching Arts Specialists. He is an active musical arranger and consultant with marching bands across the nation, as well as an adjudicator with The Cavalcade of Bands and USSBA. He may be reached via email at stein@standingomarching.com.

This article was reprinted with the permission of the author.

The original article in PDF format can be found here

drum corps ; DCI ; marching band

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Competition...blessing or curse - Part 1 - Drum Corps

Drum Corps - Intro to Competition
*note: I focus specifically on Junior Corps in these discussions because of the types of corps, it is the most visible, popular, and has the most heated competition between units. Most of the arguments and observations made can also apply to other types of competitive corps.


The heart and soul of Drum Corps is rooted in competition, and therefore it is only appropriate to first look at the history of this competition. Both the make-up and the nature of competitive drum corps have evolved over the years. In the early days, local drum corps would compete in parades and field shows against neighboring corps. The participants were all local kids from the surrounding town, county, or neighborhood playing to a mostly local audience. Corps were evaluated based upon strict, military-like inspections focused upon appearance and uniformity. They competed in events sponsored by the VFW and American Legion - however there was nothing really close to a formal governing body for any type of standardization in the activity. In 1971, directors from several major drum corps formed Drum Corps International (DCI) to be a national governing body for the activity. They continued to use the style of judging known as the "tick" system to evaluate performances. This system, used until 1983, deducted points from a corps' score based upon "mistakes" judges would observe in the corps performance. While this has the appearance of being objective, the standards by which something is considered a mistake varied from judge to judge. Little or no creative thought was given to programs in those days because the judging was almost entirely focused on error detection.

After 1983, DCI changed the judging to a qualitative "build-up" system where corps were rewarded with points for a combination of execution and content. This opened the doors for modern drum corps to experiment with complex show designs that would have never came about in the "tick" era. Designers freely experimented with new music and visual techniques that moved the activity more towards the theater than the military. In fact, some of the most successful shows of this era were based upon theatrical productions (West Side Story, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera to name a few. Recently, questions of the subjectivity of this style of judging have come to light as show designs have almost moved past the point of any objective comparisons and are, in fact, hurting the evolution of the activity.

This, of course, leads me to the ultimate question of these posts - does competition in Drum Corps improve or hurt the activity? I will examine this question using the standards I outlined before.

Attendance/Fans

Drum Corps fans can be broken down into three categories; the hard-core fans, the casual fan, and the "bando". The hard-core fans are the fans who actively seek and support the activity in multiple aspects of their lives. These are mostly people who have marched at one time, or have thrust themselves into the activity in more ways than observing. This can include, online discussion boards, blogging, volunteering, donations, teaching, administrative work, and by many other means. These fans have a personal connection to the activity and are very defensive of their viewpoint about how it should be approached.

The casual fan is differentiated from the hard-core fan by being more passively involved with the activity. This group comprises most of those people who have not marched and who do not have a personal interest in the activity. They are generally contented to observe the activity as it is presented to them focusing mainly on personal enjoyment and entertainment. These fans encompass the spectrum from moderately interested in the activity, to those in the general public who may be seeing their first show.

The last group are the "bando" fans. These are the students enrolled in band at the high school or college level that revere the activity as the "major leagues" of marching arts. Their attitude is generally of reverence for the technical skill and creative complexity corps can achieve through their performance. Their tastes vary wildly and are often extremely pliable to others opinions. While sometimes the most naive of the fans, they are also some of the most emotional and enthusiastic supporters of the activity. These fans can directly relate to the performers and therefore have a different perspective on the modern activity than do the other types of fans.

Now that the fan categories are defined, let us examine trends in the drum corps fans support over the years in terms of competition. The hard-core fans are in it for the long haul. They have much invested in this activity and are not going to simply drift away. It also takes quite a bit to anger a hard-core fan and lose them completely. Most likely, these fans will follow the activity in some fashion under pretty much any circumstance. These people most likely got into the activity by becoming involved in the excitement of competition and therefore, competition has no bearing on their support. The"bando" fans are also not likely affected by competition because their admiration for corps are more based upon performance skill than competitive placement.

The wild-card in discussion of competition and fans lie within the last group, the casual fans. These people have a large range of motivations for observing drum corps and therefore there is no one clear causal thread for all of them. Seeing as Drum Corps evolved as a competitive enterprise, these fans are almost surely aware of this aspect of the activity. All of these fans may be aware of it, however, they may not understand it. To them it may seem a silly thing akin to attempting to judge two Broadway shows, or compare several orchestral pieces. This is one potential obstacle for the activity breaking into mainstream culture. The casual fan may be more willing to accept the activity if pretenses of competition were dropped completely and there was more a focus on entertainment.

However, there are examples of activities that combine the creative and evaluative modes successfully in mainstream culture. One needs to look no further than figure skating or ice dancing to see what I mean. While it can be argued that the competitive nature of these activities limits their appeal in the same manner as it does in drum corps, it is easy to see their fanbase is rooted more in the mainstream than that of drum corps (it is an Olympic sport, its placement on prominent broadcast TV, its international appeal).

The best than can be said of competition's effect on attendance and fan base is that it creates excitement and interest for the dedicated fans. At worst, competition has no measurable effect on this aspect of Drum Corps.

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Competition in the Marching Activity..Blessing or Curse?

Recently I have been thinking about the competition aspect of the marching activity and trying to draw on some of my ideas and experience to meditate upon whether this improves the activity or hurts it.

The first thing I recognized is that the worlds of Drum Corps and high school marching bands are two very different entities and competition could play very different roles in each community. For Drum Corps, competition is at the very heart of the activity, and has been for years. Corps, from their inception, were groups that competed on a field or in parades with other corps from around the area. High School marching bands grew in support of athletic teams at the school and mostly did not compete until recently. Given these two different histories it would be improper to generalize for the entire marching activity on the merits of competition. This is why I have broken up the discussion into two separate parts; Marching Band, and Drum Corps.

The second thing I recognized is that there should be some standard or definition to what it means to "improve" or "hurt" the activity. I brainstormed several factors that could be used to judge the effect of competition on the marching activity - attendance figures/number of fans, mainstream visibility, complexity of material, education value, number and size of marching units, and general attitude towards the activity. While some of these are vague and can only really be supported by observational and anecdotal evidence, I believe that they are still important to consider in the big picture.

The next step, is sorting out and recognizing that some of these factors may not be influenced or influenced entirely by competition. Mainstream Visibility is an example of a standard that could have causal factors other than competition. I hope to try and point out when a standard could be affected by something outside of competition as I go through them.

let me do a quick explanation of each standard, just to clarify -

Attendance/Fans - This standard answers the question "Is the activity loosing or gaining fans and why?" things such as attendance trends and activity magazines and website popularity can help in determining who the fans are and why they are interested.

Mainstream Visibility - this can include references to the activity in mainstream culture. Maybe the activity figures into a TV show or movie, or a group could be covered by a news outlet.

Complexity of Material - This standard answers the question of "Have shows improved over the years, and how have they improved over the years?" Now I recognize that there are different standards to evaluate these questions as well and I will factor these into the analysis.

Education Value - These groups teach something to their participants. What is the value of what they teach and does competition affect the instruction the participants receive?

Number and Size of Marching Units - Are there more or less groups these days than there were in the past? What caused a change in this number? Are the groups today larger or smaller than their predecessors? Is there as much interest in membership for these groups?

General Attitude - This is a little harder to get a fix on. How do fans/the public feel about the activity in general? How do the directors and participants feel about the activity in general?

Using these, I will analyze the activity and make an informed recommendation as to the effects of Competition on the marching activity.

I will start with examining Drum Corps in the next p0st...

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