Is it too late to become a drum major in college?

Question

Currently, I am in a university and I never knew anything about the marching band in my highschool years. Right now though, I am looking into either the colorgaurd or being a drum major.

Should I have started earlier?

If I start now . ..are there any special marching bands/corps I can attend?

Will it bring any advantage to my college career?

When/how do I start?

Answer 1

drum majors are commonly auditioned from the best musicians in the band, it would be highly irregular to have a non musician be drum major. The DM is expected to understand music theory, marching techniques, be able to teach marching skills, clean the show, keep everybody on pace/task,...what i am trying to say is that the DM  does more than conduct the field show & it takes huge amounts of knowledge and experience to be able to accomplish that well.

if you are a non musician (like your post implies) i would strongly suggest you look into color gaurd now! you can train and try out for the team at your college.

furthermore, if you are age 18-21 you can audition for any DCI colorgaurd and have a great experience! go to dci.org to get details and links for various corps.

if you are 21 & over you could join a senior corps and still have a great experience (google drum corps america) to find more info on senior corps .

yes, this would have been easier if you had started younger-but don't let that stop you.

Answer 2

I was the drum major for my last two years of high school, and it's TONS of work. You need to know so much about music, not only for yourself, but for the other members of the band. The drum major leads the band and in a way serves as the assistant band director, so you hold the entire band on your shoulders and help them with anything they might need. I was able to teach people many things about their instrument, no matter what it was. The experience is crucial, because knowing multiple instruments and understanding the basics is essential to assisting everyone else. If you can barely play your own instrument, how can you help someone else with theirs? No knowledge of music or music performance will make it impossible to become the drum major.

High school is hard enough, but imagine a college university. Just being a general band member is almost as much discipline as you'd get in the military. And like I said before, you'd be holding them on your shoulders, so you must be considerably stronger than them in every area.

Colorguard, though I don't know much about it, might be a better choice. The discipline could be just as intense, but it's more reasonable to go for than a drum major. Depending on what year you're in, you should consider simply being a band member. If it's your freshman year, maybe you can go for drum major your junior or senior year; but even then it'd be very difficult.

I highly suggest private lessons, music classes, and hours and hours or practice. No matter what you go for.