Teal Sound

## History

In 1983 ago approximately 250 kids turned out in a Jacksonville, Florida park in hopes of forming a community based drum and bugle corps. The event was entirely orchestrated by three high school students with a burning desire to bring drum corps to their city. With fliers in hand the teenage corps founders took to the streets and put the word out. It took off like wildfire and on audition day over 200 young corps hopefuls filled a city park with band instruments, as they did not have bugles. After a couple of rehearsals the three students realized they lacked the needed funds and experience to make their dream a reality. They tucked their dream away, but it did not die.

In 1998, two of the original three, Michael Butler and Danny Clark, came back to pick up where they left off in 1983.
The ball started rolling for the North Florida corps, now known as the Teal Sound, in March of 1998. Support for Teal Sound was gained through the Jacksonville Housing Authority. Nations Bank was gracious in awarding Teal Sound with its very first grant, which resulted in enough funding for the corps to purchase percussion equipment for the battery along with some Contra Bass and Soprano horns. The Jacksonville Cultural Council and Jacksonville Community Foundation also came through with financial support. Jacksonville's own NFL franchise agreed to allow the Teal Sound to perform during halftime in the 1999 season and also offered financial assistance through the Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation. The 21st Century Drum and Bugle Corps Foundation pulled through for Teal Sound by donating uniforms and by helping to supply the corps with bugles for its inaugural season. Even many of the area Band Directors jumped in to lend their support.

In late 1998 and early 1999, Michael Butler and Danny Clark gave presentations to high school students across North Florida and Southeast Georgia. These presentations served two purposes: to educate students about the activity in general and to recruit prospective members. A drum corps representative had never visited most of these schools and the visit alone made the dream of participation more realistic. Teal Sound received an enormous response from interested participants. When open auditions were held on January 23, 1999 over 120 participants attended. Initially Teal Sound did not even expect to tour in 1999, but intended only to go out for exhibition as a division III corps. Because things shined brightly for the new organization it was decided that a limited tour as a division II corps would be financially feasible and would be beneficial for its members. The corps embarked on a two week tour up the east coast, into Canada, and finally to Madison WI, where the corps placed 9th out of 12 units. An unbelievable feat for a first year corps that originally was not even planning to tour.

In 2001, the corps placed in finals at every focus show they attended, and after only three short years in existence, Teal Sound broke into finals at the DCI Division III World Championships with a 7th place finals finish.

In the 2004 DCI season the corps acheived new prominence by finishing 3rd in Division III and 12th overall at Division II/III Grand Finals, punctuated by winning High Percussion in Division III.

## Mission

Teal Sound has dubbed itself "Florida's premier youth arts organization", with a mission to educate and entertain.

The corps has moved from Division III to Division II for the 2005 season, and has aspirations of reaching Division I in the near future.

## Traditions

"Noting Else Matters", by Metallica, is the corps' song. The corps sings it as a group before performances.

### **Nothing Else Matters**

So close no matter how far/
Couldn’t be much more from the heart/
Forever trusting who we are/
And nothing else matters/

Never opened myself this way/
Life is ours, we live it our way/
All these words I don’t just say/
And nothing else matters/

Trust I seek and I find in you/
Every day for us something new/
Open mind for a different view/
And nothing else matters/

Never cared for what they do/
Never cared for what they know/
But I know/

So close no matter how far/
Couldn’t be much more from the heart/
Forever trusting who we are/
And nothing else matters/

Never cared for what they do/
Never cared for what they know/
But I know/

Never opened myself this way/
Life is ours, we live it our way/
All these words I don’t just say/
And nothing else matters/

Trust I seek and I find in you/
Every day for us something new/
Open mind for a different view/
And nothing else matters/

Never cared for what they say/
Never cared for games they play/
Never cared for what they do/
Never cared for what they know/
And I know/

So close no matter how far/
Couldn’t be much more from the heart/
Forever trusting who we are/
No nothing else matters

## External Links

http://www.tealsound.org - The Official website of Teal Sound Drum & Bugle Corps