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Best Drill Moves of All Time


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Cavaliers

"Snake-in-a-Blender" ( used in 1990 during the percussion feature)

It was basically a bunch of 4 count moves where we started in a line, made Xs, boxes, rotated, etc and then went into the "Dragon" (used in 1985 and 1986, 1987). Really fun to march!

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I'm not nearly Drum Corps seasoned enough, but I do believe there's many more drill moves that have been shielded from our eyes due to multi-cam. There's no way to catch everything and nothing at the same time.

in Cadets '05 during the quad section solo the hornline is doing some wicked stuff in the background. Check it out

The only reason I know about this is 'cause I marched it. it may have also made a quarters or semis dvd cut.

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1985 Garfield Cadets:

Inverting infinity symbol at the end of the opener

Rotating script "W" at the end of the show during the accelerando

1986 Madison Scouts

Opening move where circle unspirals (dirty as hell, but still very cool)

1987 Garfield Cadets

Disappearing/Reappearing Company front

1989 Phantom Regiment

Box into the company front at the end of the opener

Box pass throughs at the end of the opener and closer

The collapsing wedges at the end of the introduction and closer

1990 Star of Indiana

Ending sequence of the opener where the members completely switch sides of the field while the lines flips, twists, and wiggles around

Scatter to filled in star to outlined star to asterik to chalice to cross to boxes to company front at end of show (my favorite sequence of drill of ALL TIME!!!)

1990 Cavaliers

The snake in a blender during the drum solo

1991 Star

The rotating box from hell that breaks apart then slams into the company front at the end of the opener

End of the Pines of Rome running follow the leaders (stops on last note)

Cross to Cross at the end of the show

1991 Cavaliers

Introduction of the giant pink flags at the end of the opener

Oval that dissolves then reforms into the giant interlocking X's that cover the entire field at the end of the ballad (hits on last note)

Rotating boxes/triangles into flag exchange at the end of the show

1991 Blue Knights

Horn arc that winds completely through the drum circle during the drum solo (This is another outstanding Zingali drill)

1993 Phantom

Crab stepping wedge followed by the snap 360 turn

The wedge push at the end of the balled

1994 Santa Clara Vanguard

Very tight box work towards the end of the opener (this show had lots of cool drill)

1994 Blue Knights

This drill was one pass through/mesh after another. Very cool drill

1995 Cavaliers

The rotating boxes/circles at the end of Mars

The waving boxes at the end of Venus

The DNA helix in Mercury

The final drill sequence at the end of Jupiter

1995 Phantom Regiment

Pinwheeling lines into the mass form during the isolated attacks at the end of the closer (with the guard layerd on top of it all)

1996 Cavaliers

The undulating interlocking circles in the opener (looked sort of like the atomic symbol)

1997 Cadets

Drill sequence at the end of the opener

Drill sequence at the end of the closer

1997 Santa Clara Vanguard

The drill to the entire opener is amazing

1998 Santa Clara Vanguard

Drum solo in the opener where the percussion elements run around the brass clusters

Ending moves of the opener and closer (which I think were the same idea)

1998 Crossmen

The collapsing form with the guard inside during the decrescendo in "Birdland"

1999 Santa Clara Vanguard

Ending moves of the opener and closer (which again, are the same idea)

1999 Cavaliers

The Daimond Cutter

2000 Cavaliers

All the undulating forms throughout the show

The diamond cutter sequence into rotating boxes that split apart at the end of the show

2000 Cadets

The box pass throughs at the end of the show

2002 Cavaliers

Company front that dissolves then reforms into the box midway through the opener

Follow the leader into the Fight Club sequence

2002 Blue Devils

Opening spiral move

2003 Blue Devils

The small box that travels the length of the entire corps arc at the beginning of the show

2003 Cavaliers

Opening and closing moves

The deli slicer in the opener (Horn circle that slices the conveyor belt apart)

Pinwheels at the end of the ballad where the brass sit at the conclusion

Drums moving throught the very tight box while the brass sprial up out of the ground

2003 Phantom Regiment

Rotating wedge with the horns switching sides at a doubletime in closing section

2003 Santa Clara Vanguard

All the cool follow the leader moves

2004 Cavaliers

Floating circle of percussion through the brass box (I think they are doing it again this year - 2008)

scatter into "007" at the end of the ballad

Tight box drill with rotating inner elements just before the drum solo/gunfight

2005 Phantom Regiment

follow the leader move that moves, flips, moves, flips, etc... every 4 counts

ending sequence with the Eiffle Tower surprise

2006 Cavaliers

Elastic boxes at the start of the 2nd section

Contra circle that slices off the muted trumpets

Elastic boxes into "X" at the beginning of the closer

2006 Blue Devils

Cross that turns into the dagger

2007 Blue Devils

drumline snaking through the long brass diagonal during the space chords

Building the angled box towards the ending of the show (Vanguard also does a very similar move)

2007 Santa Clara Vanguard

Opening sequence with the rotating cymbals

Building the box just before the ballad

And many others of Crown, Boston, etc... that I have forgotten at the moment

I find it interesting that most of my all time favorites are from the late 80's/early 90's (Zingali and Brubaker) that were done while the brass were running and playing the most difficult portions of their shows. (This was brought up in another thread last week)

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I just had a thought...and for an old senile dinosaur that's not too often. Looking at most of the responses it seems to me to be clear that drum corps has transitioned from a "musical" oriented medium to a "visual" one. It started with Troopers and now is still shown with Cavies this year. I know we used to park and blow but the horn and drumlines put out some excellent sound back then. Corps still do but it seems the focus is on the visual package more than anything else now. After watching all the corps on FanNetwork that seems to make the point. The brass and percussion are taking back seat to marching (visual) scores. Corps are taking all summer just to get the visual just right more than the music ensemble. Just my 2 cents worth. Go ahead and flame away. But you know we marched our butts off back in the day too...it was just a little different focus then.

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I just had a thought...and for an old senile dinosaur that's not too often. Looking at most of the responses it seems to me to be clear that drum corps has transitioned from a "musical" oriented medium to a "visual" one. It started with Troopers and now is still shown with Cavies this year. I know we used to park and blow but the horn and drumlines put out some excellent sound back then. Corps still do but it seems the focus is on the visual package more than anything else now. After watching all the corps on FanNetwork that seems to make the point. The brass and percussion are taking back seat to marching (visual) scores. Corps are taking all summer just to get the visual just right more than the music ensemble. Just my 2 cents worth. Go ahead and flame away. But you know we marched our butts off back in the day too...it was just a little different focus then.

From what I've seen, this has been talked about quite often, actually.

I wonder...

Does anyone have a list of the current visual judges in the activity? Of those guys and girls, how many have roots in color guard, and how many have roots in music? I dont know too many of the current visual judges, but I did know one who complained that he was often the only one who knew music on the visual panel. Could this have something to do with the rise of visual importance in DCI? Or is it just a product of a more visual socity in general?

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A few from the "old skool"

Troopers Starburst

SCV Bottle Dance

The Rockford File

BD Gates in Chase the Clouds Away

Cavaliers Step-Over in Softly

Madison Rotating FDL in Numero Uno

27th Diagonal Front in Danny Boy

Madison Giant Hornline Wheel

Bridgemen All Fall Down

Madison 88 Wedge at end of Malaguena

Madison 99 Cross to Star

Madison Hat Bow

Madison Yogi Turn

Madison 83 shearing parallelograms at end of show

Edited by vferrera
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I feel extra religious saying my two favorites:

Star 91 - Cross to Cross

Madison 99 - Cross to Star

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I just had a thought...and for an old senile dinosaur that's not too often. Looking at most of the responses it seems to me to be clear that drum corps has transitioned from a "musical" oriented medium to a "visual" one. It started with Troopers and now is still shown with Cavies this year. I know we used to park and blow but the horn and drumlines put out some excellent sound back then. Corps still do but it seems the focus is on the visual package more than anything else now. After watching all the corps on FanNetwork that seems to make the point. The brass and percussion are taking back seat to marching (visual) scores. Corps are taking all summer just to get the visual just right more than the music ensemble. Just my 2 cents worth. Go ahead and flame away. But you know we marched our butts off back in the day too...it was just a little different focus then.

The problem is that today you're not going to get any ackowledgement about the music part you're talking about. It seems that the current generation thinks you guys played crap, easy music, and it was too loud and not musically worthy. This is NOT my opinion. I think complete musical thoughts were played MORE uniformly across the board in the past. The things I've read on here make me believe it is the opinion of many current marchers that the music of the past was "easy" and not as good as today.

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The problem is that today you're not going to get any ackowledgement about the music part you're talking about. It seems that the current generation thinks you guys played crap, easy music, and it was too loud and not musically worthy. This is NOT my opinion. I think complete musical thoughts were played MORE uniformly across the board in the past. The things I've read on here make me believe it is the opinion of many current marchers that the music of the past was "easy" and not as good as today.

The problem to me is not that corps ARE not playing better or more difficult stuff but that the focus seems to be on the visual alot more. Heck Crown, BD and Phantom are playing stuff today which blow me away. We could not even think about playing that back in the day unitl SCV came along in 71 and just blew us and Troopers away at Dallas. My point being that the crowd sees and hears a show and says WOW great sound and then the corps places lower than another for the most part because of the visual score. I'm not saying that's not fair just slanted it seems. As far as playing hard stuff all we old timers have to say is Argonne 73 or 71 or St. Kevins' 64 when everyone else was playing whole notes. Nuff said. :tongue:

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