How many pages of drill are in an average world class show?

[DrumManTx]

Ok, these guys move FAST, that was the thing that surprised me most when I watched my first show in 08. There have got to be a bunch of sets in those shows. The max I've had in my band is about 75. So, how many sets does an average show have in DCI?

[craiga]

Ok, these guys move FAST, that was the thing that surprised me most when I watched my first show in 08. There have got to be a bunch of sets in those shows. The max I've had in my band is about 75. So, how many sets does an average show have in DCI?

I think most World Class would be up aroung 200-250 sets these days, including subsets. Just a ball park...

[bawker]

I think most World Class would be up aroung 200-250 sets these days, including subsets. Just a ball park...

Beat me to it; that's a pretty good average for stuff these days.

[MikeN]

In my HS band, the most we had in one show was 35 (this was back in the day). I can't even fathom 200+.

But I do remember Crown folks saying in preseason they hit an even 200.

Mike

[sopchick_01]

I think we did 150-200. I agree.

[NewTuba2011]

My highschool had 110 pages last year. Well the writer for the coats write for us so idk if that correlates at all >.>

[Mr.Potato.Head]

200-250 is about right.

Then you have a few cases every year of a corps rewriting a big chunck of drill and sometimes even music, this year apparently the Blue Stars just relearned around 100 pages of drill the past 4 days. I remember that Phantom rewrote a lot of their drill in 2009.

[ouooga]

From everything I hear most of the corps in the top 8 are in the excess of 200 pages. But I'd argue that it's a lot less than that, or at least now we're at the point where the amount of pages of drill doesn't mean the same thing it used to.

A page in drill in most software happens when there's a direction change. I mean, that's obvious to most of us, but think about this. If you have 4 people who make a very simple square with 4 steps in between each of them, and that box rotates, every 4 counts is a new set. Now let's say that that box does 2 complete rotations. That's 8 pages of drill, and 32 counts. But also during those 32 counts is a block on the other side of the people, and all that block does in those 32 counts is float across the field 32 steps. If you're using software, that block has a page of drill every 4 counts as well. So if you had 8 pages in a row of you and the rest of a block marching 8 to 5, would you really count that as 8 sets or would you just say you have 1 set that's 32 counts away.

So ya, I don't always agree with the 200+ count on drill pages since we're seeing a lot of drill that follows the above mentioned pattern. It's all very impressive stuff though.

[GeneralTsoChicken]

There will be tons of variations in the amount of drill corps have. This is based upon several factors:

1.) Some drill writers use the music phrases to denote drill pages, then use subsets to breakdown individual moves within. This is difficult to follow and thankfully most have gone away from this with the change in how music is used.

2.) Some corps (like cavaliers) don't generally march curvilinear paths, so they have a lot of sets (in 4 count/8 count) to help them set up for the next true (or as we would see it) visual page. They turn out a lot more pages of drill, when in actuality a lot of these pages are to aid transition for a corps that doesn't march curvilinear paths.

3.) Some corps write large parts of the drill, then about halfway thru the season have a "mad hatter" type come in and rewrite the drill on the field. There are no pages anymore and the amount of drill can't be gauged. 03' Phantom Regiment is a good example of this, having well under 200 pages, but after Tony Hall rewrote large segments of drill on the field without paper or pen, they were closer to 350.

[MotorCityMusician]

From everything I hear most of the corps in the top 8 are in the excess of 200 pages. But I'd argue that it's a lot less than that, or at least now we're at the point where the amount of pages of drill doesn't mean the same thing it used to.

A page in drill in most software happens when there's a direction change. I mean, that's obvious to most of us, but think about this. If you have 4 people who make a very simple square with 4 steps in between each of them, and that box rotates, every 4 counts is a new set. Now let's say that that box does 2 complete rotations. That's 8 pages of drill, and 32 counts. But also during those 32 counts is a block on the other side of the people, and all that block does in those 32 counts is float across the field 32 steps. If you're using software, that block has a page of drill every 4 counts as well. So if you had 8 pages in a row of you and the rest of a block marching 8 to 5, would you really count that as 8 sets or would you just say you have 1 set that's 32 counts away.

So ya, I don't always agree with the 200+ count on drill pages since we're seeing a lot of drill that follows the above mentioned pattern. It's all very impressive stuff though.

this.

A friend and I taught at different schools last year and was saying how much more drill they had but I asked did it count small moves he said yes. Our drill was less pages but we added said moves like the rotating box in quoted post but counted it as one.

It's all on how you look at what a set is.