Pyware User Forums

Hi,

I am writing drill for the first time (officially) this year. There are just a couple of things I'm not sure of and would like some input.

1. I know it's good to stick with equal intervals (2 steps, 3 steps etc) left and right, but does the same rule go for curvilinear drill? Circular drill? How important to have an exact 3 step or 2 step for curvilinear? I'm mostly try to stick to that number but sometimes it's very difficult to get to one of those even intervals, especially after morphing from a geometric form. A lot of the samples I've looked at too are not quite 2 or 3, although close most of the time. What do you guys do?

2. What interval do you find is best to use for company fronts? I would like to have it as close as possible, but don't want issues with flutes and sousa's. Anyone have any advice on what to use for company fronts? How about if the sousas are not in the company front?

The problem with curvilinear designs is that vertical spacing and horizontal spacing need to be different. This means that if you have the same spacing left to right and from front to back your curve will look squashed down. You need to take your curve and stretch it vertically or else the curve won't look how you intended it. Use the stretch tool to adjust. Let me know if you have any more questions.

thank you for your response,

I more would like to know how hard I should work to keep the distance between two people at exactly 2 or 3 steps for curvilinear forms. (where pyware actually says the interval is 3.0 or 2.0 etc). Or does it not quite matter as much for curvilinear?

I wouldn't worry too much about even spacing, unless the kids have to have it. That being said, most kids will be able to get used to an adjusted interval. What is more important is the flow of the form and, if you are standing in the form for a while, the overall shape. You can set the interval at whatever, but I would draw the form flatter than normal. Then after you get the players in positions, you can stretch the form vertically to make it better visually. Make sense?

And on company fronts, sousas would be better in the back, imho.

For a company front, the closest spacing you can do without Flutes and Sousaphones getting cramped is 2 steps.

Before doing this, remove the Percussion players and plant them somewhere (in a line behind the big company front most likely so that they are not drawing attention). This is because you'll run into bigger spacing problems from your Bass Drums than you ever will from the Flutes and Sousaphones.

Also before doing this, take out the auxiliary stuff (flags, rifles, etc) unless you really want to have your aux instructor throw a fit because "they are too close together." If it were me, I'd put them as a dome above the company front, assuming that you want to highlight what is being played.

You *can* take a company front to a 1-step interval if the band is large enough, meaning more than 81 of non-percussion, non-auxiliary playing members. That magic number is because the moment you add an 82nd wind instrument, you run out of spaces in the company front (81 goes from goal line to goal line with a 2-step interval).

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