Old School Drill

[Piper]

I can only speak as a former snare drummer, but watching them today I often wonder how they manage to play out there. They're expected to do everything but stand on their heads. However, it's not relugated solely to percussion. You could probably ask former guard members and brass players and they'll say the same thing. Drill design today is far more demanding than it used to be. With that said, Drum Corps was never intended to be easy.

[RKF]

Excellent observation ... I'm surprised none of the M&M purists have chimed in ... when I joined drum corps in the late 50's/early 60's ... a good deal of our time was spent doing "Close Order Drill" ... it would look something like this:

All the "manuvering" was based on military "moves" ... it was the discipline and the exactness of the move and the pattern that was so challenging to all (well at least to me) ... Squad Right March ... Sqaud Left March ... To The Rear March ... Eschelons ... Waterfalls ... To The Winds March ... Guide Left ... Guide Right ... DRESS CENTER DRESS!!!!

It was all good ... at least for this young kid ...

:-)

:-)

Army Field Manual 22-5

[FlamMan]

I miss symmetry.

[lindap]

I miss symmetry.

Symmentry with connect the dots, elbow to elbow, drum line on the 50. If you had a seat on the 50 there was symmentry sound and sight

I like modern drum corps with forms, ideas, logical transitions (ahem to some) with sound out front or hauntingly played to back field (like the 70's ;)

and I like how we can now be surprised that a corps can start anywhere (a tunnel), move the eye here and there and follow the ending phrase where it fits : )

[pearlsnaredrummer77]

I can only speak as a former snare drummer, but watching them today I often wonder how they manage to play out there. They're expected to do everything but stand on their heads. However, it's not relugated solely to percussion. You could probably ask former guard members and brass players and they'll say the same thing. Drill design today is far more demanding than it used to be. With that said, Drum Corps was never intended to be easy.

What is lost is the context. For our day the norm of HS band was high stepping and bad drum lines. So for our day to march uniformly, play cleanly, handle equipment with precision, etc., was just as "amazing" as today's high speed drill, etc. One big difference is that the current folks mostly come from programs that have directly or indirectly benefitted from drum corps. They come to the activity with a different background than most drum corps vets. Relatively speaking, with different contexts considered drum corps demand was high 50 years ago and remains so now.

[chasgroh]

And done without yard lines and hash marks to guide off of......

Anyone have a Youtube of the Suicide Wheel (any year)? All I have is a recording of the crowd going apestuff at 1975 Dream and want to show my wife what was going on.

...when I was a marching instructor at '74 Kingsmen under Bobby Hoffman, he introduced me to the "pick"...I was solid west coast and it was great to learn his eastern tricks. He wrote some *very* complicated drills for Kingsmen in '73 and '74...elegant, even...one of my jobs was to measure distances from back-sideline and center line, creating intersections or, lo and behold, DOTS, where a couple of guard members stationed on the back sideline would practice getting to...endlessly. There were 3 or 4 times in our '74 program where those girls would march to the "dot" (ain't that weird? Hahahaha) and horn elements would key off them in order to keep things even side-to-side...the very next year, when I was writing Velvet Knights drill, I actually tried to "grid" a field...it didn't work 'cuz of all the different ways fields were configured back then, but by '77 I was using everything usable on a football field; hashes (which were still not standardized so a few times I'd have to brief the corps to not pay attention to the ones they were about to march on...), of course yardlines, which *were* standardized, and even individual yard markers. I wasn't the only one, for sure, but SoCal was, and is, a world of its own, so I didn't know what anyone else was doing! AND, on another tack, Jim, I was on the east coast in '75 with the Muchachos and therefore at the Dream in '75...in actual fact on the sidelines feeling inadequate trying to take photos next to Moe Knox, lol, when that move came down...my jaw got stepped-on!

[chasgroh]

What is lost is the context. For our day the norm of HS band was high stepping and bad drum lines. So for our day to march uniformly, play cleanly, handle equipment with precision, etc., was just as "amazing" as today's high speed drill, etc. One big difference is that the current folks mostly come from programs that have directly or indirectly benefitted from drum corps. They come to the activity with a different background than most drum corps vets. Relatively speaking, with different contexts considered drum corps demand was high 50 years ago and remains so now.

...perfect comment. Bravo. To add: most of the scratch teaching in the marching caption gets done in high school. The kids who end up in corps are generally taught the style for the particular group and, of course, tightened up a bunch. It's a pleasure teaching World Class now, or teaching Div I back a couple of decades...caliber of student is similar. Difference now is they are even more well trained, and the talent level is WAY off the charts...down the food chain you still will find, say, reed players learning brass, but that doesn't happen on the WC systems at all. DCA probably is more true to the olde ways, 'cuz filling spots is a challenge!

[lindap]

Found a video. Hope you don't mind drill link with no sound : )

Could someone help me figure out how to add video with imbedded video-picture-thingy please. Thanks : )

[oldtimefan]

please correct me if I am wrong, but in days gone by, drill was written by hand. Today it is computer generated and can be changed with the click of a mouse. Might be a whole different topic if computers were used "back in the day".

[chasgroh]

please correct me if I am wrong, but in days gone by, drill was written by hand. Today it is computer generated and can be changed with the click of a mouse. Might be a whole different topic if computers were used "back in the day".

...of course BITD charts were hand written, and there are a few big-timers still doing it today (only what they write is transcribed to, mostly, Pyware for ease of teaching/communication)...the computer doesn't "generate" drill, it is "written" within the program...but you can move pretty quickly compared to charting by hand, that's for sure. I teach so many drills these days, well, I'm SICK of Pyware! I mean, you can easily see Pyware drill if you view with that in mind...of course you have to be familiar with *how* it looks, but that's no big deal if you pay attention. If you have Fan Network check out, say, Crossmen and then switch over to Colts...you will definitely see the difference. AFA "changed with the click of a mouse" well, it's just like charting by hand here, just easier to do the job, as far as I know there's no program out there that'll do the thinking for you if you're having to write-out a hole or something...guys are moving pretty fast nowadays, but they are making a living doing it...a *good* living...