New Membership

New Membership Information

United Alumni Senior Drum and Bugle Corps is always looking for new members. We rehearse once a week every other Monday and every opposite Sunday (see our schedule page for dates). On Mondays we rehearse from 7 pm to 9 pm and Sundays from 1 pm to 4 pm. The majority of our rehearsals take place at the Norfolk County Fair Grounds in the Jr. Farmer's Building on South Dr., in Simcoe Ontario. In order to accommodate our out of town members, we rehearse at the St. John's Drum and Bugle Corps hall at 61 Usher St. in Brantford on the first Sunday Rehearsal of each month.

United Alumni Senior Drum and Bugle Corps has no membership fees and provide our members with their equipment and uniform. If you are not musically inclined you are more than welcome to join our Colour Guard. This section honours our Nation's Colours and the Colours of our Corps. Many of our members are husband and wife teams. One performs on either the horn or drum line while the other marches with our Colour Guard.

During the 2007 season United Alumni Senior Drum and Bugle Corps performed at 18 parades and shows starting in March at the Montreal St. Patrick's Day Parade and ending with the Paris, Ontario Santa Clause Parade the first weekend in December. During the months of July and August we only rehearse on Monday evenings. We are solely funded through our parades and some fund raising actives. Our prime objective is to entertain our audiences and have fun.

Don't let the word "Senior" in our name fool you. Drum and Bugle Corps is divided into two main classes:

Junior: Corps with marching members 21 years of age and younger.
Senior: Corps with marching members over the age of 21 years.

We accept any anyone 19 years of age or older. Those under the age of 19 wishing to join may do so with a parent or guardian.

For information on becoming a member please feel free to contact our Corps Director, Ed Pow at 519-720-9290 or send a note through our Contact Us page.

Our Corps consists of 3 main sections: Horn Line Drum Line Colour Guard

Horn Line

United Alumni Senior Drum and Bugle Corps only play G Bugles horns. This means that the horns are pitched in the Key of G, not B flat or F like marching or concert style bands. Most junior corps (membership under the age of 21) now use B flat and F instruments, along with some all-age corps. Most Alumni Corps like United Alumni are staying true to our Drum & Bugle Corps roots and have no plans to switch to B flat and F horns.

Our G Bugles also have a larger percentage of conical tubing as opposed to cylindrical tubing. This allows the horns to be played much louder without sounding strained. In other words, our Bugles are designed to be played outdoors and project in a way that most brass instruments can not match.

Most of the horns owned by United Alumni are fully chromatic with 3 valves. Although, we do still have a couple of 2 valve and valve rotor Contrabass horns currently in use.

Click to view more information about our bugles.

Bugle Fingering Chart