Corps marching technique/style

[CuriousMe]

OK, kinda though that but.... it made too much sense..

LOL, my college band would have had it on probably the "e" of 1-e-and-ah....

Hmmmm...it's usually on the "and" of 1-e-and-ah....but y'all might have done it differently.

[Piper]

Marking time in the battery is the most mystifing. Why mark time with the heels rather than the toes? All it does is destabablize the torso, which is the last thing you want to do when carrying and playing a drum. Drummers aren't stupid - they know how to mark time when in a stationary position.

[comeonfhqwhgads]

Marking time in the battery is the most mystifing. Why mark time with the heels rather than the toes? All it does is destabablize the torso, which is the last thing you want to do when carrying and playing a drum. Drummers aren't stupid - they know how to mark time when in a stationary position.

Certainly heel marktime won't unbalance you any more than actual marching will, and since they're going to have to play on the move sooner or later they should be practicing it now. Besides, if you have any weight on your heels in today's drill you're dead in the water.

and now a lengthy bit on visual technique. apologies if some of this is just common knowledge, but JimF's question is making me second-guess how much people really do know about the state of the thing now. consider this a primer for someone who perhaps has some show band experience but no idea what to expect of a corps package.

The difference, as best I can tell, between the pure-form straight-leg Cadets style and the more often used BD/Crown/everyone "straight-leg" is the positioning of the heel throughout the stride. Cadets-style strives to keep the heel as low as humanly possible throughout the entire stride, lengthening the leg as much as you can. If you freeze a Cadet right as their front foot lands in the middle of a set, when their legs are as far apart as they're going to get, their back heel should be very close to the ground. If you freeze a Boston Crusader or a Blue Star in the same circumstances, their back heel will be off the ground. This slight difference allows the ankles to act as shock absorbers and helps eliminate the bouncy Cadet syndrome; the heel naturally wants to come off the ground to prepare for the next step, but keeping it low lengthens and straightens legs. One of the main reasons you see more bounce when corps backward march is that the ankle "shocks" can't do as much going backwards. The Cadets compensate for thirs with prodigious body carriage. Almost all forward marching technique emphasizes lifting the toes as high off the ground as humanly possible on count 1. this means that the heel is as low as possible, which in turn means the leg is as straight and long as possible, and also means that you can more easily take a large, fast step.

Speaking of backwards march- the majority of the world class groups use the standard straight-leg back march as well, lifting off of the heels and onto the "platform" (for those who aren't familiar with the lingo, this is the ball of your foot, or more specifically the triangle of ground contact created between the bone behind your big toe, the outside bone of your pinky toe, and the meaty patch between them that comes to a point between the base of your 2nd and 3rd toes.) Usually you get up on the platforms slowly, going from flat-footed to releve over 2-3 counts rather than "popping" up on your platforms before your step back or on the first step, to help reduce bounce and to avoid sudden distracting movement. Backwards marching is hard to master and everyone ALWAYS underestimates the size of the steps they are taking, no exceptions. Any vis tech worth his salt will tell you that getting to extended step sizes when going backwards relies on a solid push from the front foot rather than "reaching" with your back foot.

I might be mistaken, but I've heard it said that the green machine's technique is focused on the idea of maintaining a 90 degree angle between your feet. This probably came about as an easy way for members to check themselves, since this means that one foot has to roll up as the other comes down. They also use a squatty variation for large step sizes that makes it look like they're moving a lot faster than they are, particularly in Mr. Gaines's pinwheel-heavy segments.

The older BK technique was very ballet-based, and ballet terminology has definitely made its way into modern corps. Sometimes there's more french in basics than english. I'd say that 80-90 percent of corps members now know a sort of variation of ballet positions that has developed into a corps vernacular-

1st position is the standard attention position, heels-together-toes-apart, usually slightly narrower than the ballet standard it is borrowed from. Industry standard definitions for how far apart your toes are- "one fist-width between the big-toe knuckles" "toes pointing out at 45 degrees" "imagine an average slice of pizza between your toes" etc.

The Cadets use the George. M. Parks Bando-standard of heels and toes together whenever they halt or stand; other groups call this "first parallel" and prefer the toes-apart stance for the stability it provides, particularly when you come screaming into a halt at 200bpm.

2nd position: legs slightly wider than shoulder width, feet still "turned out" as in first position.

from there you can go on to 3rd, 4th, and 5th. these are a bit more complicated, but 4th is Regiment's "Kick Halt" position, so that should give you some idea. (maybe they call it 3rd?) The right foot goes out in front of the left for 3rd, followed by in to the arch of the left for 4th, then behind for 5th with the right arch against the left heel.

Other ballet terminology is smattered about (pardon my spelling errors)- demi- and gran-plies, ron de jons, posses, elevers, arabesques, tondues, piques, and on and on and on. Basically these dance terms become a shorthand for the vis staff to easily and quickly define body movement and give members a standard to refer to. "Okay, in this sixteen counts we want a lunge with your left foot to the 45 on 4-5-6, demi-plie 7-8, pop up into releve on 9 with the right foot in an arabesque behind you, close down on 10. try it out... ..and RESET, taking that sixteen counts."

In terms of basic visual technique, the current trend I've seen is for the majority of the weight to be on or forward of the balls of the feet; this presents an aggressive front and helps keep the chest strong, making a solid base for horn carriage and breathing. It also means that a line of marchers can step off in any direction they please without giving away where they're headed by leaning or shifting weight for a stepoff, making the drill snappier and more uniform. Elbows are wherever the vis staff feels like putting them, but the most often used reference is the clock face- 4 and 8 or 5 and 7. Occasionally someone will throw an angle out ("elbows at 120!") or try some other definition to get it to stick ("tops of elbows at the bottom of the valve cluster" "one fist between parallel to the ground and the tops of the elbows"). Extremely erect posture is always stressed, with phrases like "engage the core" and "lift up from the top" being commonly used. Ideally the chest is open and lifted, shoulders down, and neck fully extended upwards, with the distance between the top of your hips and the bottom of your ribcage maximized.

Jazz running isn't nearly as boiled down as forward or backward marching; each group seems to have their own variation on theory and execution. many are rooted in a basic ballet technique, but some groups (Cadets) try to make it resemble their regular technique as much as possible. Phantom seems to swing wildly back and forth between a brutally straight-legged and flowing half-crouched ballet run. BD is actually jazz running all of their sets and we just never noticed. The majority of jazz-run techniques will have marchers turning out their feet, rather than maintaining parallel "tracks", and using a strong push to ensure they get far enough and that the back leg extends straight out. If you're at a particularly extended step size you may be completely off the ground during the crossing count. Proper jazzrun usually involves a lot of ankle strength both to push off and catch without jarring bounces- my favorite vis tech description is "pretend you're flicking a giant lighter with your foot."

Hand positions and movements, etc. are all carefully defined and coordinated, though often on an instrument-by-instrument basis; "we will always wear our shakos at this angle." "We always have sticks at this height when we put them away." "we will always enter and exit our warm-up area in this order." "Our right thumb will always go between the first and second valve casing one inch down from the leadpipe."

Depending on how BITD we're talking here, sliding may or may not have been a large focus, so here's a rundown- essentially in curvilinear drill your legs are going to be moving all kinds of directions that aren't perpendicular to the front sideline, but your upper body should always be facing that way. A lot of high schoolers struggle with getting their shoulders around square to the front, but most corps do this without blinking. Corps often have very specific definitions about where horns should be pointed; some always aim directly at the judges, others at the middle of the audience, some are always parallel to the sideline, others are always pointed at the DM; there are also often definitions about whether to forward or backward march when moving parallel to the sidelines. A common one is that if you are moving away from the 50 you should backward march and if moving towards it, forward march. If your group always points to the center of the stadium, or points inwards once outside the 30s/40s/, you may have to slide past perpendicular. If you're looking straight down on a horn player on the 10 yard line, their hips might be facing 120 degrees away from their shoulders.

Basically, visual style in corps has a lot of specific knowledge and an enormous amount of minutia that is carefully defined and constrained. I can't personally speak to how much people know from their band programs or "BITD" corps experience, but i feel like the heavy use of ballet terms is fairly new and that the physical expectations are probably higher. The highly regimented military-style micromanagement is something that I think is probably a proud tradition and that those who got penalties for inspection tics can relate to still :p

[Piper]

Certainly heel marktime won't unbalance you any more than actual marching will, and since they're going to have to play on the move sooner or later they should be practicing it now. Besides, if you have any weight on your heels in today's drill you're dead in the water.

and now a lengthy bit on visual technique. apologies if some of this is just common knowledge, but JimF's question is making me second-guess how much people really do know about the state of the thing now. consider this a primer for someone who perhaps has some show band experience but no idea what to expect of a corps package.

The difference, as best I can tell, between the pure-form straight-leg Cadets style and the more often used BD/Crown/everyone "straight-leg" is the positioning of the heel throughout the stride. Cadets-style strives to keep the heel as low as humanly possible throughout the entire stride, lengthening the leg as much as you can. If you freeze a Cadet right as their front foot lands in the middle of a set, when their legs are as far apart as they're going to get, their back heel should be very close to the ground. If you freeze a Boston Crusader or a Blue Star in the same circumstances, their back heel will be off the ground. This slight difference allows the ankles to act as shock absorbers and helps eliminate the bouncy Cadet syndrome; the heel naturally wants to come off the ground to prepare for the next step, but keeping it low lengthens and straightens legs. One of the main reasons you see more bounce when corps backward march is that the ankle "shocks" can't do as much going backwards. The Cadets compensate for thirs with prodigious body carriage. Almost all forward marching technique emphasizes lifting the toes as high off the ground as humanly possible on count 1. this means that the heel is as low as possible, which in turn means the leg is as straight and long as possible, and also means that you can more easily take a large, fast step.

Speaking of backwards march- the majority of the world class groups use the standard straight-leg back march as well, lifting off of the heels and onto the "platform" (for those who aren't familiar with the lingo, this is the ball of your foot, or more specifically the triangle of ground contact created between the bone behind your big toe, the outside bone of your pinky toe, and the meaty patch between them that comes to a point between the base of your 2nd and 3rd toes.) Usually you get up on the platforms slowly, going from flat-footed to releve over 2-3 counts rather than "popping" up on your platforms before your step back or on the first step, to help reduce bounce and to avoid sudden distracting movement. Backwards marching is hard to master and everyone ALWAYS underestimates the size of the steps they are taking, no exceptions. Any vis tech worth his salt will tell you that getting to extended step sizes when going backwards relies on a solid push from the front foot rather than "reaching" with your back foot.

I might be mistaken, but I've heard it said that the green machine's technique is focused on the idea of maintaining a 90 degree angle between your feet. This probably came about as an easy way for members to check themselves, since this means that one foot has to roll up as the other comes down. They also use a squatty variation for large step sizes that makes it look like they're moving a lot faster than they are, particularly in Mr. Gaines's pinwheel-heavy segments.

The older BK technique was very ballet-based, and ballet terminology has definitely made its way into modern corps. Sometimes there's more french in basics than english. I'd say that 80-90 percent of corps members now know a sort of variation of ballet positions that has developed into a corps vernacular-

1st position is the standard attention position, heels-together-toes-apart, usually slightly narrower than the ballet standard it is borrowed from. Industry standard definitions for how far apart your toes are- "one fist-width between the big-toe knuckles" "toes pointing out at 45 degrees" "imagine an average slice of pizza between your toes" etc.

The Cadets use the George. M. Parks Bando-standard of heels and toes together whenever they halt or stand; other groups call this "first parallel" and prefer the toes-apart stance for the stability it provides, particularly when you come screaming into a halt at 200bpm.

2nd position: legs slightly wider than shoulder width, feet still "turned out" as in first position.

from there you can go on to 3rd, 4th, and 5th. these are a bit more complicated, but 4th is Regiment's "Kick Halt" position, so that should give you some idea. (maybe they call it 3rd?) The right foot goes out in front of the left for 3rd, followed by in to the arch of the left for 4th, then behind for 5th with the right arch against the left heel.

Other ballet terminology is smattered about (pardon my spelling errors)- demi- and gran-plies, ron de jons, posses, elevers, arabesques, tondues, piques, and on and on and on. Basically these dance terms become a shorthand for the vis staff to easily and quickly define body movement and give members a standard to refer to. "Okay, in this sixteen counts we want a lunge with your left foot to the 45 on 4-5-6, demi-plie 7-8, pop up into releve on 9 with the right foot in an arabesque behind you, close down on 10. try it out... ..and RESET, taking that sixteen counts."

In terms of basic visual technique, the current trend I've seen is for the majority of the weight to be on or forward of the balls of the feet; this presents an aggressive front and helps keep the chest strong, making a solid base for horn carriage and breathing. It also means that a line of marchers can step off in any direction they please without giving away where they're headed by leaning or shifting weight for a stepoff, making the drill snappier and more uniform. Elbows are wherever the vis staff feels like putting them, but the most often used reference is the clock face- 4 and 8 or 5 and 7. Occasionally someone will throw an angle out ("elbows at 120!") or try some other definition to get it to stick ("tops of elbows at the bottom of the valve cluster" "one fist between parallel to the ground and the tops of the elbows"). Extremely erect posture is always stressed, with phrases like "engage the core" and "lift up from the top" being commonly used. Ideally the chest is open and lifted, shoulders down, and neck fully extended upwards, with the distance between the top of your hips and the bottom of your ribcage maximized.

Jazz running isn't nearly as boiled down as forward or backward marching; each group seems to have their own variation on theory and execution. many are rooted in a basic ballet technique, but some groups (Cadets) try to make it resemble their regular technique as much as possible. Phantom seems to swing wildly back and forth between a brutally straight-legged and flowing half-crouched ballet run. BD is actually jazz running all of their sets and we just never noticed. The majority of jazz-run techniques will have marchers turning out their feet, rather than maintaining parallel "tracks", and using a strong push to ensure they get far enough and that the back leg extends straight out. If you're at a particularly extended step size you may be completely off the ground during the crossing count. Proper jazzrun usually involves a lot of ankle strength both to push off and catch without jarring bounces- my favorite vis tech description is "pretend you're flicking a giant lighter with your foot."

Hand positions and movements, etc. are all carefully defined and coordinated, though often on an instrument-by-instrument basis; "we will always wear our shakos at this angle." "We always have sticks at this height when we put them away." "we will always enter and exit our warm-up area in this order." "Our right thumb will always go between the first and second valve casing one inch down from the leadpipe."

Depending on how BITD we're talking here, sliding may or may not have been a large focus, so here's a rundown- essentially in curvilinear drill your legs are going to be moving all kinds of directions that aren't perpendicular to the front sideline, but your upper body should always be facing that way. A lot of high schoolers struggle with getting their shoulders around square to the front, but most corps do this without blinking. Corps often have very specific definitions about where horns should be pointed; some always aim directly at the judges, others at the middle of the audience, some are always parallel to the sideline, others are always pointed at the DM; there are also often definitions about whether to forward or backward march when moving parallel to the sidelines. A common one is that if you are moving away from the 50 you should backward march and if moving towards it, forward march. If your group always points to the center of the stadium, or points inwards once outside the 30s/40s/, you may have to slide past perpendicular. If you're looking straight down on a horn player on the 10 yard line, their hips might be facing 120 degrees away from their shoulders.

Basically, visual style in corps has a lot of specific knowledge and an enormous amount of minutia that is carefully defined and constrained. I can't personally speak to how much people know from their band programs or "BITD" corps experience, but i feel like the heavy use of ballet terms is fairly new and that the physical expectations are probably higher. The highly regimented military-style micromanagement is something that I think is probably a proud tradition and that those who got penalties for inspection tics can relate to still :p

You are not a rudimental drummer...you just torture them (just kidding).

Edited April 21, 2011 by Piper

[JimF-LowBari]

Hmmmm...it's usually on the "and" of 1-e-and-ah....but y'all might have done it differently.

LOL, I think "Different" was the band directors (Charles Casavant) middle name. IIRC we had a (roughly) quarter beat pause in the mark time and forward march on the "and". Guess that's why the first week of band camp we worked on style and didn't get to drill until week #2 (and first game days away)

Think the "pause" marching was only for certain times in the show. Casavant had a corps style drill (corps style for the era) and would not allow more than 150 members in band and band front. Any more would "Get in the way of my drill". (At least I still remember THAT quote.) Also this was the start of Charles Cs career and he threw everything except the kitchen sink in a drill to show he had the family drill writing talent. (Only freaking time my drill spot was 5 feet OUTSIDE the field. )

Edited April 21, 2011 by JimF-LowBari

[mellophonium]

Jazz running isn't nearly as boiled down as forward or backward marching; each group seems to have their own variation on theory and execution. many are rooted in a basic ballet technique, but some groups (Cadets) try to make it resemble their regular technique as much as possible. Phantom seems to swing wildly back and forth between a brutally straight-legged and flowing half-crouched ballet run. BD is actually jazz running all of their sets and we just never noticed. The majority of jazz-run techniques will have marchers turning out their feet, rather than maintaining parallel "tracks", and using a strong push to ensure they get far enough and that the back leg extends straight out. If you're at a particularly extended step size you may be completely off the ground during the crossing count. Proper jazzrun usually involves a lot of ankle strength both to push off and catch without jarring bounces- my favorite vis tech description is "pretend you're flicking a giant lighter with your foot."

False.

[hornandsoccer]

from there you can go on to 3rd, 4th, and 5th. these are a bit more complicated, but 4th is Regiment's "Kick Halt" position, so that should give you some idea. (maybe they call it 3rd?) The right foot goes out in front of the left for 3rd, followed by in to the arch of the left for 4th, then behind for 5th with the right arch against the left heel.

You've got 3rd and 4th backwards. Ballet third is the feet being together but the toes being 180° apart. Regiment 3rd is drum corps first with the left heel being placed in the arch of the right. 4th is separated and usually turned out (i.e. Glassmen's first big hit last year) and 5th is the heel of one foot connecting with the toe of the other (can't think of a good example off the top of my head)

[kickhaltsforlife]

False.

I took it as a little bit of humor.

[ouooga]

I took it as a little bit of humor.

There's no humor in drum corps!

[fsubone]

Most corps try to emulate what BD does, where the legs are straight and extended on the downbeats, and SLIGHTLY bent on the crossing count. The technique is all about minimizing motion so there isn't any unnecessary movement. It's most efficient and clean looking on top of being easiest to clean. It also looks BA when you do it right. IMO completely straight leg, and crazy bent leg makes you look like a dork

Only a few corps really do the same style as BD, and that would be Todd Ryan's influences. They didn't even go to their straight-leg technique till he came to them in 94 after leaving Star, and he took most of the technique over from them. I know BD does it, I think Madison's technique is pretty close, and a few other corps. A lot of them are closer to the current Cadets technique, just with the left-foot step-off, with a bit of bounce going on through all of it. Watch Bluecoats, Boston, Cadets, or Crown, and you'll see it.

And the bent leg technique really is the best for your body, and hey, it sure seems to get results. I think the Cavaliers can attest to that one.