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Personal Narrative: Drum Corps Army

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In my Junior year of high school in the middle of competitive band season, the Winged Regiment was doing great. We just passed our rivals Somerset Academy, and were in the running to be state champions in the class 2A. I wasn’t thinking about any of that though, because I had my mind set on marching DCI. As a little precursor, DCI is basically the NFL of competitive marching bands; the teams are made up of drum corps, which consist of 150 people ranging from the age of 15 to 21. These drum corps compete in a circuit called DCI, or Drum Corps International, and march at different shows across the nation while being judged, receiving scores on their performance. After watching videos of these corps, and following DCI for two years, I was …show more content…

I had until November 28th to prepare, which consisted of learning to play the mellophone, and being physically fit enough to run a 5k race. I practiced my audition pieces every day, and started a workout routine to make sure I was ready for my audition. The day is November 28th and the audition camp in Orlando, was packed with auditionees. To give some perspective, the Boston Crusaders march 80 members in its hornline, 16 of those playing mellophone. On that day, in competition for 16 mellophone spots there were 60 people; and of the 80 spots in the hornline, there were 300 auditionees. I try not to let this affect me, and after I get checked in I begin mentally prepare for my first corps audition. The hornline is scheduled for music block first. After the first downbeat of warm-up, my instincts took over; four years of marching band, and three months of intense training led me to what had been my best audition, and one of the top auditions for the camp. At the end of the camp everyone was huddled in the gymnasium, and the corps staff called names, the names of everybody that got cut. Needless to say my name wasn’t called, and I was just thinking to myself that I made it. The corps director congratulates everybody on making it through the first camp, and that he can’t wait to see what everyone brings to the round 2 auditions next month. After that announcement, I was a

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