A phrase or interaction, what is a fundamental experience in DCI or WGI that influences who you are today? Mainly looking for positive, but negative ones are always fine as well.

I notice a lot of non-affiliated recordings are titled as "NOT Bluecoats 2026", "NOT Santa Clara" etc. Why is that? Is there any good reason?

I'm always trying to make arrangments of stuff and am curious what songs people think would work well or would want to hear.

In terms of artists who haven't shown up in DCI, I'd like to hear Mort Garson (Mother Earth's Plantasia), Himiko Kikuchi (Flying Beagle) or Sungazer (ik Bluecoats have done some but more!)

Re:Rite of Spring is easily a top 3 Blue Devils show. It's a shame it has been largely overshadowed by e=mc². I genuinely believe that as a full package it deserved the win. It was ahead of its time.

If you haven't seen it or it's been a while, I really encourage you to give it a watch and/or another chance. It's one of the most difficult shows ever fielded and yet it's still ridiculously clean. It oozes with that late 2000s/early 2010s BD weirdness and funkiness more than any other show of the era.

I understand why it's so polarizing, but that's kinda the point! The OG Rite of Spring is probably the most infamously criticized contemporary piece of music ever written. One of my favorite shows ever.

Edit: Wow, I thought this was going to be more of a hot take! I'm pleasantly surprised to see that so many people look back on Re:Rite so fondly.

does the solo have to be played on (marimba,xylophone,vibe) or does it include rack and drum kit as well? I am planning on auditioning on drum set but because of music college being very busy in Boston I am unable to make it to the in-person auditions in November. I’ve been practicing the drum-set parts for packet but for the video auditions it says all that is required is a solo and doesn’t list drum-set so I was confused. Can anyone help?

Very beautiful ballad with a euphonium tone to die for. The show overall was imo a huge step up from the past two years. I can’t wait to see what the staff cook for next year.

This is mostly geared towards those who marched in the post-Covid era, when prices have skyrocketted. How did you afford it?? And how could you guarantee that you'd have enough money to begin paying off your loans once you graduated???

my music education includes going on 8 years of playing b♭ clarinet, and i am determined to march drum corps before it is no longer possible. and since i have so much time now, as im 17, i want to try.

initially i wanted to go in as drum major because doing it my senior year so far has been so much fun and id love to continue doing it for drum corps, but i know its not that easy, so im thinking i should march first.

would it be too crazy to think that i could audition on clarinet or something, and then learn, say, trumpet, during the season? i know there have been so many people who have switched before, but i want to hear from those who have been through or know about this specific kind of path. should i just go straight for drum major if that’s what my plan is anyways? or should i audition to march, and if so, how should i go about doing that given my current experience?

I've heard about this shirt that was apparently sold by the Bluecoats of all corps in the early 2000's when electronics were first starting to come onto the scene. Electronic use in drum corps was seen as illegitimate, cheating and "not drum corps", so the bluecoats put out a shirt that read "No Electronics - Not Now, Not Ever" to stand against the new rule. Their rebellious stance against electronics obviously did not last very long. I want to ask, does anyone have a picture of this shirt? I cannot find it anywhere and would like to see it because it's very funny.

I just saw that Academy is $6,700 for the summer, plus audition costs. Could you have swung it back in the day? I definitely couldn't. My dad grumbled about the $800 for my first year of Capital Regiment and another year of $2000+ (plus flights) for Cadets meant that even if I had wanted to march my age out, I couldn't have. And I was lucky--I had financial support from parents.

Hey y’all, I’ve been seriously considering auditioning for blue knights, and wanted to know if it was completely a long shot given my experience, given the commitment of buying flights to Denver and the audition camp. I am very willing to push myself as this is my age out year, but I still want to be realistic.
For context, I have marched one year in open class (Columbians) on euphonium, but I am mainly a flute/piccolo player. In terms of technical skills, breath control, articulation, double tonguing, tuning, and general musicianship, I feel very prepared. However, I am still relatively new to brass, so my tone, and especially range, I still struggle with. Like seriously, I can barely hit an Eb.
For visuals, I think that I am a strong marcher, I’ve done it for ~4 years now between highschool and college, plus the one year of drum corps, and am experienced with straight leg technique, that to my knowledge BK uses.
I would love any insights or advice before I drop several hundred dollars on something I have no shot at.
Thanks :)

When you submit a video audition, is there any advantage for submitting it way before the deadline? Or if you submit the video like 3 days before the deadline will you still be considered the same as the person who submitted theirs 2 weeks after the materials were posted.

I’m trying to gauge how much time I have to work on my audition before it’s too late to have a good chance. The materials for the corps I’m looking at came out pretty recently so.

I’ve been trying to think back and figure out what my favorite 3rd place show is and I can’t decide between these two

Bluecoats 2015 Kinetic Noise

And

Carolina Crown 2016 Relentless

What do you think about these shows?

Rank these 2020s 3rd place shows 1-4 in your opinion

Carolina Crown 2023 The Roundtable: Echoes of Camelot

Blue Devils 2024 The Romantics

Santa Clara Vanguard 2025 the aVANt GUARD

Carolina Crown 2026 The Doors of Perception

🤔

hi!! for some background, i am a senior who does color guard. i march all equipment. i would say i'm okay. i typically do open level at clinics, doing okay but falling a bit behind in the world sections at clinics.

i am having so much trouble deciding where to audition. i was full on focused on the idea of music city but i am not sure i have the experience level yet. and i do not have much time to spend to work on the audition packet and get where i need to be. i also think it would spread me a little thin money wise.

so i started thinking about memphis blues. it is more in my money region. i still really want the touring experience. it sounds stupid but i want to be exhausted from sleeping on busses and gym floors. i wanted to make sure i would still get this experience from an open class corps before committing myself to auditioning anywhere.

if anyone can give me any advice, it would be very appreciated!!

What are your thoughts on SCV 2026? I loved it at first, then I thought it was decent, and now after listening to it a bunch, I love the brass book so much

So I'm in freshman year of college and I didn't do drum corps this summer even though I really was considering it and wanted to but ultimately didn't just due to this being the last summer with a lot of friends before college. I'm not saying I regret not doing drum corps but I also do kind of beat myself up about it, especially after my band director highly recommended it for me.

So is it possible to do it next summer? I haven't marched in a year but I seriously do think if I just get back to practicing the Mello and dancing and moving, I'll be fine. But to be honest I don't know if people do this at all and if it's too late.

Hello, as you can see I’m a larger guy. I’m at around 300 lbs at the moment and actively losing weight (40 lbs down :D) trying to train to be physically ready to even survive DCI. In the video I’m trying the SCV 2026 opening visual, clearly you can see I kinda can’t control my descent very well. Now this was right after a marching competition so may just be fatigued, but I’m worried when marching in drum corps we may have similar visuals and I won’t be physical prepared to execute them controlled. Any advice? Don’t worry to much about my not so great tone here, lips were super dead and my non controlled decent definitely contributed to my shakiness lol

DISCLAIMER: MY PERSONAL OPINION/ENJOYMENT

I posted this ranking on Tiktok yesterday, and that post has over 10K views with 600+ likes and 50+ comments, and a whole slew of people saying I have the worst opinion of all time and some people agreeing with me, and respectfully disagreeing with me. So here I am, asking the least opinionated online platform (jk) about my takes on the finalists. this is my enjoyment having seen every show live in person at both nights of Allentown

12: Troopers
11: Phantom
10: SCV
9: Bluecoats
8: Cavaliers
7: Blue Knights
6: Blue Stars
5: Colts
4: Boston Crusaders
3: BD
2: Crown
1: Spirit of Atlanta

We always hear about the best world class shows, but as a two-time open class performer, I wonder what the standard is for open class. What is considered to be the best open class show of all time? What open class show displays the golden standard for open class?

Rank these 2020s silver medal shows 1-6 in your personal opinion

Bluecoats 2022 Riffs and Revelations

Boston Crusaders 2022 Paradise Lost

Bluecoats 2023 Garden of Love

Boston Crusaders 2024 Glitch

Bluecoats 2025 The Observer Effect

Blue Devils 2026 ZEI