First experiences with drill?

[Eddie]

Advice: DO what your instructors tell you to do, even if you think they are wrong... and don't suck.

My experience... I was 14 years old with a summer youth band during the SBI era. I wasn't actually a member, but was ghosting a member. Eventually I was worked into the show marching behind the person I was ghosting, but having her there pretty much telling what and how to do it really helped a lot and I love her for putting up with me during that time.

[2000Cadet]

My first reaction, "How in God's name am I supposed to get back there in 8 counts??!!!"

[DAvery]

There are two "actions" in a show; start the performance and end the performance. Anything within those two actions are "reactions".

????????

[idontwan2know]

My first reaction, "How in God's name am I supposed to get back there in 8 counts??!!!"

Heh.

There's another thing for the OP to learn: Never complain to the vis staff about a move being too big. Especially if you just tried it for the first time/haven't even tried it yet.

You will get zero sympathy and a "Figure it out!"

[mckdan]

This story did not happen my first year in drum corps, but, my third. In 1979, we were about to march our first show somewhere (I just can't remember where) and our director, Jim Jones, decided to time the show. We were overtime by about a minute and had to eliminate our drum solo "Can of Beans" (Really!!!) about an hour before our show. Mr. Jones went into a frantic pace and changed the last 30 seconds of our openner so that we would be in position after our concert. The instructors frantically ran about the field making sure that we were in the proper spots and miraculously, the sets were in the same postitions for our closer as before. Mr. Jones told us, if there were no more questions, to go and get ready for the show. At that point about half the corps started laughing. The change in the drill had reversed the entire hornline from side to side and we needed to be taught an entirely new drill for the closer in about 5 minutes. Amazingly, we managed to learn 3 minutes of drill in about 4 minutes and the judges were none the wiser. They actually thought that the closer was our best marched part of the show!

[monoemono]

Hi Alumni, a question or two from a drum corps newbie, I just got the drill charts for this season and I can honestly say that I'm a bit scared, excited and anxious and eager all at the same time

Was it a scary experience?

Snipped a bit there, because I wanted to address this part specifically. Was it scary? For me, I would say hell, yeah. The end of the first night of drill camp my rookie year was the first and only time I ever seriously considered quitting. I came from a "corps style" marching band, but our drill was generally very easy and slow and it was nothing like my first DCI drill experience. The first time I had to try a pass-through with a line of contras blindly hauling a** backwards, yeah, I was scared. Especially at that early stage when everyone still has a less-than-finals-quality idea of interval maintenance.

I know I wasn't alone in my reaction, because other rookies were saying the same thing that night. There were only two points in the season that I remember numbers of people wanting to call home and bail out, and that was after the first night of the very first camp of the year, and then again after the first night of drill camp. If you can get over the hump of the first day, though, things seem a lot easier by the second day.

Honestly, if you can find some of the videos people have posted on-line at "that site" of them doing their drill wearing a camera, it gives you a bit of a sense of what it's going to be like. I thought it was really cool when people started doing that--it gave me a bit of a "flashback" feeling. In a good way, though, not in a PTSD kind of way!

[CrownStarr]

Learning drill was not a big deal for me, I had 3 days to learn my drill before the first performance. Honestly, Block is more scary then drill. I found drill to be fun but I'm also a vis geek that now writes drill for high school bands and indoor percussion.

Advice, here is Cloudhype's list of do's and dont's and general info!

Listen to your staff and never, EVER talk back, even if we're wrong.

Don't just memorize your music, KNOW your music inside out.

Mark your music during free time.

While at home, practice your music while marking time and take a step in the direction of your next move at the proper time.

Oh, you are given drill charts, circle your spot and draw a line towards dress responsibilities, unless you are told not to and are 100% truly dependent on dots.

Make multiple copies of dot books/ coordinate sheets. They fall apart and you might lose a couple during the summer.

Never say: "But I'm on my dot!"

Listen to your staff.

Relax.

Sunblock... Really. A burnt body is one in pain. A body in pain makes many mental errors and wonders when lunch begins.

Chubby legs love Gold Bond.

Chubby legs hate briefs but love boxer briefs.

I have chubby legs.

Listen to your staff.

Don't suck.

Know your technique so well that you can teach it.

Look up because the ants don't care and grass doesn't give you good tempo.

Don't wear a watch. You are now in drum corps and you no longer have free time. You are on my time (sorry, the instructor in me).

Never tell another member: "But I'm on my dot!"

Reset = Run

I don't know jack about marching, but a lot of this applies to good rehearsal/ensemble technique in general. I definitely discovered the one about the watch myself last summer - rehearsal blocks go by a lot faster when you're not checking the time every five minutes. Of course, I won't pretend there weren't blocks where I did, but the best mindset you can aim for is "When's lunch? Who cares?", or "the block is over when it's over".

[Beckham]

Just remember that you aren't alone. And never be afraid to ask for help. The staff can't answer your question if you don't ask it first.

[BozzlyB]

This story did not happen my first year in drum corps, but, my third. In 1979, we were about to march our first show somewhere (I just can't remember where) and our director, Jim Jones, decided to time the show. We were overtime by about a minute and had to eliminate our drum solo "Can of Beans" (Really!!!) about an hour before our show. Mr. Jones went into a frantic pace and changed the last 30 seconds of our openner so that we would be in position after our concert. The instructors frantically ran about the field making sure that we were in the proper spots and miraculously, the sets were in the same postitions for our closer as before. Mr. Jones told us, if there were no more questions, to go and get ready for the show. At that point about half the corps started laughing. The change in the drill had reversed the entire hornline from side to side and we needed to be taught an entirely new drill for the closer in about 5 minutes. Amazingly, we managed to learn 3 minutes of drill in about 4 minutes and the judges were none the wiser. They actually thought that the closer was our best marched part of the show!

If it was the first show why in God's name didn't they just have you all march the show as is and change it the next day in practice?

[BozzlyB]

If there is one piece of general rehearsal advice I can give, it is that staff love it when they feel like you're pushing them harder than they're pushing you. It works best of course if the membership as a whole adopt this attitude, but you can always do your part.