Blow Your Own Trumpet

Who's heard of drum corps before? Probably a lot of people if you're in the U.S., but if you're in the U.K., you're likely scratching your head. In short, a drum corps (aka. drum and bugle corps) is a marching band on steroids. They march a particular themed show for 10 minutes in competition against other corps. After my heart-breaking separation with Poly, I joined Beeches performance ensemble - a drum and bugle corps, to take my mind away from things.

And that's where I've been the past three months or so - with a drum corps.

We rehearsed outside a tiny Mexican place, who then insisted we had a photo with him. We do some weird stuff, honestly.

For a bit of history, I've marched with drum corps before. I did have a history page about it on this website at one point, but in short, I've marched on and off with various corps since I was 9 years old. Encore, Distant Thunder and Nexus have all seen some action by myself over the years, but I've been out of marching since my last year in 2013. Long story short, I stopped enjoying it as the staff were a bit... shouty by the end, whereas the corps members were a bit... passive aggessive, I thought. It's also a huge time sink and it took away all my weekends from being with Poly, so it made sense I left. Now that I'm no longer with Poly, it made sense to return. Although, that being said, Nexus had since disbanded and the remaining staff and marching members had merged with Beeches. In fact, I was contacted to join just around the time I was looking to contact them, so it was fortunate timing.

I marched for a band called Nexus, being terrible on the trumpet.

Although I wanted a trumpet spot, as I've always marched trumpet, I ended up on a mellophonium - a mid-voiced trumpet which has a big bell. And is a bit fat. So I joined the corps midway through their year and season for a show called 'Swing, Swing' Swing'. I'm sure you're all geniuses and have figured out the show is based on swing music. Jazzy, stylish and a lot of fun, it's exactly up my alley.

80s rehearsal day was a bit weird, but I channelled it.

A lot of rehearsal and quick learning of the show paid off. Competing in the UK circuit for Drum Corps United Kingdom (DCUK), we edged into an exciting second place at the final show in September. With nary a few days break, we then darted off to Holland to march in the European circuit - Drum Corps Europe (DCE).

DCE was a crazy week. Following some rainy rehearsals and a bizarre 80's dress day, the adrenaline pumped our preliminary and finals shows into third place in Europe! We were beaten by Jubal and Kidsgrove Scouts. Kidsgrove also came first in the UK with their strange spacey show 'Into the Unknown'.

Finally, just last week, we competed in the other UK circuit - British Youth Band Association (BYBA). That one was more a last minute decision and we perhaps delivered our worst show, but we still came away with a gold medal. Well, mostly because no one else competed in our class. Yay. Still, it was a nice way to send off the show, if not strangely anti-climactic.

Retreat is always exciting, where all the corps return to the field and await the results.

So, this weekend saw our end-of-year awards night to wrap up the year in one neat bow. Awards were given out to particular members who may have stood out in marching, music or most improved, etc. There was also a lot of drunk dancing (not my thing), but most importantly, it marked some announcements to what the corps will be doing next year. That, it turns out, is marching as part of Drum Corps International (DCI) in America with the show theme 'Anyway the Wind Blows'. Yes, my friends, that's the British band, Queen.

So, of course, I'll be marching next year. This time, I'll make sure to march a trumpet!