Sigma Alpha Iota

Winter 2020 8 PAN PIPES CORPS continued from page 7 results of progress, you don't go through what you already excel at in your music; you find the problem sections and you focus on what about that section isn't working, and repeat that section until it feels good. It's said in band rooms all over the country every year to "practice until you can't get it wrong," but because of time constraints, it almost never happens in a public-school setting. Drum corps takes away those time constraints so you can actually live this mindset of "practice until you can't get it wrong," thus making every part of your day about making something better than it was the day before. Drum corps are also constantly changing aspects of their show throughout tour as they get judges' feedback at performances. e members' reality of this is that one day your show could be one thing, and the next day you'll learn and have to perform a completely new chunk of the show at the same level of everything you've had entire weeks to perfect. In a normal, everyday setting, this idea of getting something completely new and having to perform it at a high level without tons of prep time would be viewed as insane and would cause the normal person extreme amounts of anxiety. is idea, funnily enough, is also enacted within private lessons at university schools of music almost weekly with the prescription of etudes or scales or exercises pertaining to what the student is working on in their musicality at the time. Because of this, drum corps has taught me how to approach a completely new piece of music or experience in general with my wits about myself. e reason for the changes themselves AND the prescribed exercises are always done to make you better, not to tear you down. is positive mindset towards challenges in your path has not always been a part of me, and I definitely did not learn it in a practice room; it was something I learned while sweating on a turf football field in the middle of July in Texas. Drum corps also made my heroes human in my perceptions of them. Not in that they couldn't live up to my expectations, but that even the people I had watched and looked up to for over five years had things they needed to work on and perfect. Even my heroes, who I thought could do no wrong, had days where they couldn't match their performance from the day before for one reason or another. Drum corps also taught me that not being on your A-game 100% of the time is totally ok. You can bring your B-game and still have a good performance under the lights. No one is perfect, and it's ok to lean on those around you to help you get back up; it's those people who become your best friends, and subsequently your bridesmaids later in life. Drum corps taught me that you can even have a bad performance. And as long as you learn from your mistakes and work to not let them happen again, you're allowed to be human. You're allowed to make mistakes and still be the person you idolized as a kid. So for those of you who are reading this and have never marched in DCI, I hope you can now understand why we alumni continue to go to shows and give back. Why we spent SO much money to sleep on tour buses and air mattresses, just to get some sort of shoelace around our necks. Why we continue to talk about our experiences and tell our drum corps stories as if they happened yesterday. Because to us, these lessons we learned aren't things that go away. ey apply to our careers on a daily basis, so we're reminded of them constantly. So, yeah. I'll continue to advocate for drum corps and the marching arts, and tell my color guard AND my bassoon students to go march when they feel ready. Because drum corps made me a better bassoonist. Brittany Giles is a doctoral student in bassoon performance and a graduate teaching assistant at Michigan State University. An initiate of Gamma Upsilon Chapter, she is currently affiliated with the Lansing-East Lansing Alumnae Chapter, where she serves as Editor. Thirteen organizations formed Drum Corps International (DCI) in 1971 to organize and unite leadership for competitive drum corps events throughout North America. Today, there are dozens of groups worldwide, including the Blue Devils, Carolina Crown, and Pacific Crest, that offer competitive drum corps experiences for youth, ages 13-22. The mission of Drum Corps International is: to bring the life- enriching benefits and enjoyment of marching music performing arts to more people worldwide. They do this by creating a stage for participating organizations to engage in education, competition, entertainment, and the promotion of individual growth. To read more about DCI, find an ensemble near you, and view the performance schedule , visit: www.dci.org DRUM CORPS

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