Prairie Sound

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Prairie Sound is a senior or "all age" drum & bugle Corps based in Olathe, Kansas.

[edit] History

The Beginning:

Prairie Sound Drum & Bugle Corps is a Senior/All Age Corps that was started in the Summer of 2004 in Olathe, KS (Suburb of Kansas City). Fifteen (15) people showed up at the 1st meeting at the YMCA in Olathe. Founder/Director Jeff Dancinger was sent to Iraq, two months after starting the corps, with his Kansas Army National Guard unit until Nov. 2005. Corps progress stopped while Jeff was away.

Take II: The Corps was restarted with Kansas Non-Profit Incorporation January 2006 and meetings were held once a month for the entire year with no more than 5 people at any one meeting. Membership grew slightly in the beginning of 2007 and fell off after March.

Regroup: The Corps took a break for the Spring and Summer of 2007 regrouping in August. Membership grew from 4 to 9 from August 2007 to December 2007. Prairie Sound made it's first public appearance playing Christmas Music for the Salvation Army Kettle Drive in November. Six Brass Players and 1 Snare Drummer participated in the 2 hour gig.

The 1st Performance: Prairie Sound membership hovered around 9 for the 1st part of 2008. the Corps performed at the yearly fundraising show for the Performaing Arts Association in Augusta, KS. Prairie Sound performed with 6 Brass (1 Soprano/Flugal, 1 Contra Bass, 4 Baritones, one Snare, one Bass Drum and a Conductor. The musical pieces included The "National Anthem" and "Home on the Range:".

Expanding and Retracting Before our 1st DCA Appearance: By Mid-Spring of 2008 Prairie sound grew to 15 members. As the deadline for Brass Hysteria, DCA show grew near, some members dropped out before the Corps 1st DCA event. Participation dropped from 15 to 8. the Corps traveled to Denton, TX with 7 Brass and one Drum Major (1 Soprano, 2 Mellophone, 1 Contra and 3 Baritones). The show for 2008 was entitled, "Tent Meeting Revival", and consisted of Spirituals, Hymns and Gospel music. The members who participated in the adventure found the experience fun and interesting. The exhibition performance did not go as well as desired, however, overall it was worth the effort and let people know we were serious about building a Drum Corps. Note: The group we took to Denton represented our 3rd Brass Line incarnation in 6 months with one member joining up the weekend of the performance.

After the Brass Hysteria Exhibition, Prairie Sound was invited to march in the Johnson County Fair Parade in Gardner, KS on August 9th 2008. Fresh from the excitement of a DCA event the Corps rallied and fielded 12 Members (3 Sopranos, 2 Mellophone, 2 Baritones, 2 Contra, 2 Snares Drummers and One Bass Drum. Membership participation for the event set a Corps record and propelled membership recruitment through August. Prairie Sound was invited back to March the parade for 2009. RSVPs for the September 27th rehearsal are 24 at this time. The Corps is currently poised to reach 35 by January 2008.

Prairie Sound currently draws it's members from the KC Metropolitan area, Wichita, KS, Emporia, KS Lincoln, NE and Warrensberg, MO and St. Louis, MO.

Prairie Sound Drum & Bugle Corps Inc. is equiped with two and three valve G Bugles and a 9 Drum Battery of Matching Dynasty Drums. (More equipment is in the works for expansion) Staff for the Corps includes Jeff Dancinger as Director, Larry Hols as Arranger, Rob Logbeck as Horn Line Section Leader and John McCoy as Drum Line Section Leader. The Board for 2008/2009 consists of Jeff Dancigner, Vernon Slechta, Larry Hols, Rob Logbeck and John McCoy.

Influx of Equipment: In October 2008, Prairie Sound took ownership of some new to us equipment from a folded Corps. New Brass: 3 Dynasty 3 valve Sopranos, 9 Dynasty 3 valve Mellophones, 6 Dynasty 3 valve Baritones, 1 Willson 3 valve Euphonium, 1 Dynasty 2 valve Contra Bass, 1 King 2 valve Contra Bass and 1 dynasty 3 valve Contra Bass. New Drums: 5 Remo Legato Snare Drums, 2 Pearl Quad sets and 2 Remo Bass Drums. Other Equipment: 21 Music Stands This moves us toward fielding a full line of 3 valve G bugles.

Performances 2008: We performed "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Home on the Range" in Augusta Kansas on February 2nd for the Performing Art Association Winter Guard Fundraising Show. June 2008 we took 7 Brass and a Drum Major and performed in exhibition at the Brass Hysteria Show, a DCA sanctioned event hosted by Frontier Drum & Bugle Corps in Denton, TX. Our show was entitled "Tent Meeting Revival" and incorporated several Hymns and Spirituals. We marched in the Johnson County, KS Fair Parade and played Home on the Range with secection from our 2008 show.

Salvation Army Kettle Drive 2008: Prairie Sound performed at the Salvation Army Kettle on Saturday November 15th at the Hy-Vee Grocery Store on 119th and Ridgeview in Olathe, KS from 10am to Noon. We had 2 Soprano Players, 3 Mellophone Players 2 Baritone Players and one Contra Player for a total of 8 Brass Players at this event. All players were members of Prairie Sound Drum & Bugle Corps. We raised a little over $35.00 dollars with sparce shopper traffic.

We finished our 2008 Salvation Army Kettle Drive in Dec 2nd and raised an additional $36.00 Dollars as the 1st Ringers/Brass Ensemble of the Day. We hope to make our 2009 Appearance Bigger and Better.

Note: Current Membership for the entire Corps is up to 25 total. We have 13 Brass, 5 Drummers, 6 Color guard and One Drum Major. We are shooting for 35+ members for 2009 and will make a bid to join Drum Corps Associates as an Associate Member Corps.

Prairie Sound Accepts performers ages 18 and older and performers younger than 18 with parental sponsorship. Dues: Member Dues are currently $50.00 per Adult Member for the year.

2009: We relocated from New Life Church to the National Guard Armory on 56 hwy in Olathe, KS. This is a pretty good facility as it has a drill floor and a Band Room. Prairie Sound Started 2009 pretty strong with 13 people at the January Rehearsal and 18 at the February Rehearsal.

We had to Cancel our appearance at the Performing Arts Association Color Guard Show in Wichita due to it being held on St. Valentines Day. The women in the Corps refused to give up their favorite Holiday.

We had to move rehearsals once again in April to the back parking lot of Olathe South High School due to wedding receptions scheduled at the Armory on the days we needed.

The Decline: We experienced a gradual decrease in member attendance at the March, April and May Rehearsals. By May only the Director and Drum Major/Arranger showed up to rehearsal. The firey interest and participation while we were meeting at Life Church cooled and ground to a halt by May.

As of May 2009, we lost all our members from the Wichita area due to mostly economic reasons. Wichita seems to be getting hit harder than Kansas City by the less than economy. We also figured the cancellation of the DCA Brass Hysteria show in Dallas, Ft. Worth, TX due to problems with Frontier Drum & Bugle Corps and the cancellation of our Junes SDCA show to replace Brass Hysteria played a part in the loss of confidence of the membership. They reserved the time off from work and the events evaporated.

We are down to 7 Brass, 1 Drummer 4 Color Guard and 1 Drum Major on the rolls. We hope to be able to pull together and make appearances at 1 Small Drum Corps Association Show in McHenry Illinois and a 2 show DCA weekend in Minnesota.

Prairie Sound Performed at Edgerton, KS for Frontier Days on Saturday June 20th. We were supposed to play from Noon to 2pm. We found out there was a Magician show scheduled in our area just before us which changed our start time to Noon:30. We played our show entitled, "Kansas City a Suite in Blue", until 1:30PM at which time we were asked to stop playing as the Gunfighter exhibition was starting. We stopped playing and packed up for the Day.

We determined from this performance, we would have to cancel our Scheduled SDCA appearance in McHenry Illinois in July and our DCA appearance in St. Peter and St. Paul Minnesota for August.

Parade Season: We start the 2009 Parade Season on July 25th with a rehearsal to learn our Parade Tunes of "Home on the Range" and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". The Drummers will have two cadences to learn and the Guard will put together their Parade routine.

We Have 5 Local Parades and Stand Stills scheduled and will finish the Year with our Salvation Army Kettle Ensemble.

What Actually Happened for Parade Season: We did rehearse the parade piece "When Johnney comes Marching Home" for 4 Hours on July 25th at the newly Renovated Oregon Trail Park in Olathe, KS. We had 2 Soprano Players, 3 Mellophones, 3 Baritones, 1 Contra Bass 1 Bass Drummer 3 Color Guard and 1 Drum Major for a total of 14 members. Note: This was the same size unit we had march the parade the previous year. The Crowd was Large, Friendly and Appreciative

We marched our second Parade on October 17th at the Maple Leaf Parade in Baldwin City Kansas. Prairie Sound once again fielded a 12 member parade block fielding 1 Soprano, 2 Mellophones, 3 Baritones, 1 Drum Major and 5 Color Guard. Note: Yes, we marched sans Drums and we once again had 12 marching members participate. The Crowd was Large, Friendly and Appreciative.

Tulsa Veterans Day Parade with The Commanders Drum & Bugle Corps: 2 members of Prairie Sound traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma on November 10th for an 8pm rehearsal with the Commanders Drum & Bugle Corps of Tulsa, OK. We met the next morning for a little more rehearsal time and then the parade line up at 11am.

Salvation Army 2009: We were able to field a 6 piece Brass ensemble for our Salvation Army Kettle Appearance at the Hy-Vee Grocery Store on 119th and Ridgeview in Olathe, KS. This appearance was our best Kettle performance due to experienced players and improved music arrangements. We were thanked by Major Mark Martsoff Corps Officer/Pastor and several shoppers expressed their appreciation by stopping for a moment, listening to the music and throwing some much needed coinage and greenbacks into the kettle. We are planning to do more for the Salvation Army in 2010.

2010: Our 1st Brass Sectional is Scheduled for Saturday January 2nd from 11am to 4pm. This is the 2nd rehearsal of our improved music from '09 which we never really got a chance to perform so we decided to try again for 2010.

Our 1st Full Corps Rehearsal for 2010 is Saturday January 23rd from 11am to 5pm. This is were we will put our presentation together for the Performing Arts foundation Show in Rose Hill Kansas close to Wichita.

More details to follow soon.