Drum Corps United Kingdom

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"DCUK" redirects here. For the college of the University of York, see Derwent College.

Drum Corps United Kingdom

Activity	Drum and Bugle Corps
Founded	1980
No. of corps	27
Country	United Kingdom
Current champions	{{{champion}}}
Official website	DCUK.org.uk

Drum Corps United Kingdom (DCUK) is a governing organization for drum and bugle corps in the United Kingdom. DCUK operates the British drum corps circuit which holds drum and bugle corps competitions for corps across the country.

Competitive corps participate in competitions between the months of July & October, traditionally finals occurs on either the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd of October. Competitions occur various different surfaces and arenas and are judged by a panel of volunteers on general effect, visual performance, and musical performance. Every year, each drum corps prepares a single new show, approximately 8–15 minutes in length, and carefully refines this throughout the entire summer year. This focus on a singular show takes advantge of the large amount of time needed to honing and refining a modern drum corps program, with a momentum that continues to build up to the last performance of the season.

[edit] Musical composition and instruments

A typical Dcuk show revolves around one central theme, for instance Frank Sinatra or Jazz, with songs fitting for the style.

Many Drum Corps performances begin with a Prologue which is usually linked into one of the main tunes that the corps is playing in the show.

The most typical Corps consists of:

Bugles

Soprano Bugles (High Pitched)
Mellophone Bugles (Medium Pitched)

Baritone Bugles (Mid-Low pitch)

ContraBass Bugle (Bass Pitch)

Marching Percussion

Bass Drum

High Tension Snare Drum

Tenor Drums

Static Percussion

Arrangement of Static Orchestral Percussion instruments for instance:

Marimba

Xylophone

Tubular bells

Visual Members

The visual section of a drum corps is referred to as the Colour Guard, these marching members are there purley for visual decoration. Using flags,Wooden Sabres and Rifles as a norm, however on rare occasions a drum corps show can revolve around the colour guard performance with the use of props.