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The drum corps’ color guard warms up.
Photo by Brian Wells
Members of the drum corps begin their day with a meal served out of a truck.
Photo by Brian Wells
Equipment is unloaded from a semi.
Photo by Brian Wells
NOVI — Tuesday afternoon, a group of people dressed like they were about to work out stood in a block on the football field at Novi High School, dancing and cheering in unison to music playing through a boombox.
Before dancing, they ate a meal served out of the side of a semi-truck. Shortly, they would don brass instruments and begin playing.
The group comprised the members of the Phantom Regiment drum corps, from Rockford, Illinois. Novi High School was hosting the group for practice hours before they were to premiere their 2022 show, “No Walk Too Far,” at the Drum Corps International Tour Premiere at Ford Field in Detroit.
The show was scheduled to bring six drum corps from around the Midwest together to debut their 2022 programs.
As the band continued to warm up, a group of community members and Novi students began to pepper the stands.
“First and foremost, it’s an educational opportunity … to tell the kids the professional version of what we do,” said Novi High School Band Director Matthew Diroff.
Diroff said he hoped his students would see the corps’ process and be able to bring it back to the high school band.
“I think a lot of people would say, ‘Deliver the product,’” Diroff said. “But for me, it’s the process. I even looked at right now. What are they doing right now? They’re interacting with each other. There’s a teamwork component happening right now.”
When he talks with his students about how the corps is performing, he wants them to see what they had to put in to get to that point.
“What are they doing process-wise that we can also do?” he said.
This year, Diroff said, the Novi High School marching band had more than 170 members.
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