What is everyone's thoughts on doing drum corps while still in high school? I auditioned for Atlanta CV and recieved a contract offer for mellophone (something I've played only once before). I talked to my high school director, and he recommends that I not sign it because I still have a year left of school.
What do you all think about it?

I have no experience personally, but we had an 8th grader who made Jersey Surf guard last summer, and in addition to coming back with the actual skills, my sister who is in guard says he's by far the best leader and teacher in the group. Also we had a trumpet player march with Skyliners in DCA, and it was okay for him to leave our away band camp for the weekend for a show there. But again I have no personal experience doing that myself so I wouldn't know for sure

Oldish post reply...

but I was 15 when I first started BDB.. drum corps made me the musician that I became. I basically really sucked at trombone and music in general until I started drum corps.. when I was 17, and still in high school I made BD.

There is absolutely no reason you can't do drum corps while in high school - a lot of directors are anti drum corps.. and a lot are pro drum corps.. Almost all open class corps are high school students, and I bet most of the under top 6 corps have mainly high school students too. There aren't many high school students in the top corps because of the talent competition, but it does happen.

There are other reasons why high school and drum corps can cause conflicts, but most if not all corps are flexible and willing to work with high school and college students with their education and schedule.

My school's band actually has a lot of band members who also march in DCI. Most of our members marched (or marched) Pacific Crest and really enjoyed it, and this next season our Brass Captain is going to be auditioning for Blue Devils. My Freshman year's Low Brass Captain is also marching Academy this year, so it is all definitely do-able. I might learn euph this year to audition for PC and Santa Clara Vanguard, and I might also audition on crash cymbals, though I hope some local corps start marching trombones as a separate section from euphs.

I would be very surprised if any local corps march trombone anytime soon.

Come on out to Columbians next year ;)

Hey Cire, I wouldn't mind marching Columbians next year. I'm only 3 hours away, and it's definitely a lot less tuition money than Cascades, lol.