SoundstageEDU™

Welcome.

 

This page isn't meant to be fancy. It's meant to be useful.

 

It is being built for drum corps students, the parents and families who support them, and the people trying to understand an experience that can be remarkably difficult to explain unless you've lived it.

 

...And this page will probably never really be finished.

 

As questions come up, conversations happen, parents tell me what they wish they had known, students tell me what they wish the adults around them understood, and we learn more from one another, I will continue adding to it.

 

You'll find articles here. Podcast episodes. Videos. Downloads. Infographics. Conversations. Maybe a few things that don't fit neatly into any category at all.

 

That's okay.

 

The goal isn't to build the prettiest resource library on the internet.

 

The goal is to build one that helps.

 

Drum corps is an extraordinary experience, but it can also be physically demanding, emotionally complicated, and difficult for families on the outside to fully understand. And when the summer ends, the experience doesn't simply disappear because everyone came home.

 

These performers may be incredibly capable young adults. They may travel the country, rehearse for twelve hours a day, perform in front of thousands of people, and accomplish things most people their age cannot imagine.

 

But they are still young people navigating something enormous. Sometimes they need support. Sometimes their parents need help understanding how to provide it... And sometimes everyone involved just needs to hear:

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"What you're experiencing makes sense."

 

So look around.

 

Start wherever you need to start. You do not have to read everything in order, and you certainly don't need to use every resource here.

 

Bookmark this page. Come back when you need it. Send it to your student. Send it to another parent. Share it with a director, instructor, or friend who might benefit from it.

 

And if you can't find something you need, tell me. That's how this gets better.

 

That's why we're here.

 

We are here to help the adults around young people become the people those young people deserve... and to make sure the young people themselves know somebody understands what this experience can carry with it.

 

Again, welcome.

 

~Mike
Founder, SoundstageEDU