A team of 3 longtime friends, bonded by a shared passion and a history of nearly two decades of collaboration in the marching arts, were thrilled at the announcement of a new Winds division of WGI. Following years of planning from Nate Hughes, James Millis, and Cayce Long, the trio formed their own group, Obsidian Winds, providing competitive performance opportunities for students in the Middle Tennessee area without a high school indoor winds program. The group quickly moved into the Independent Open Class this year following a successful 2025 inaugural season. Nate Hughes, Drill Designer and Winds Arranger for Obsidian Winds, shared with the team at Pyware several ways the software has cultivated his craft in drill design and influenced his career, especially in this new endeavor with Obsidian Winds. Nate wears multiple hats within the organization, writing both the drill and music; he also lives in the next state over, so having a fully featured, readily available tool that maximizes his design time with the ability to make edits anywhere, is essential.

“Even though I currently teach band more than 250 miles away from where the group rehearses, Pyware still allows me to impact rehearsals at a moment’s notice. Because I have the ability to quickly share charts, coordinate sheets, or directly upload files from Pyware to the UDB app and straight to members’ phones, I can receive a FaceTime from a staff member who offers a compelling reason to make a drill change and in less than 5 minutes I’m asking them to reload the file in UDB and set back up at the beginning of that chunk to learn the changes.”

 

For Obsidian Winds’ 2026 production, Nate dove deep into the extensive suite of tools and features Pyware offers and provided examples of how certain tools have boosted efficiency manipulating drill on the page, beginning with “Fast Edit” function.

“As someone who grew up in a small band program and written dozens of shows for small bands, I’ve really appreciated Pyware’s “Fast Edit” functionality, where I can drag and drop individual performers to different areas on the grid at will. When you’re dealing with a small section or a small band, this can be a quick way to stage a moment and bypass going back and forth between selecting performers, selecting a tool, confirming your selection, etc. With the Real View window open from a realistic vantage point, I can simultaneously adjust individuals bit by bit and see the adjustment in 3D in real time. To manipulate individuals in this way in the past, I would be stuck manually using the ‘Push tool’ one by one and moving them around with the arrow keys. This tactile experience just removes one more point of friction from my workflow.”

Nate went on to describe tools he routinely uses but only recently discovered the full range of their capabilities. For example, the “Adjuster Tool,” which he describes as his “go-to” when writing curved paths or helping individuals avoid collisions. Although familiar, it was not until writing the final movement of this year’s production that he learned more of what the tool has to offer.

“I wrote drill for years without really exploring the versatility of the ‘Adjuster Tool,’ but it allows me adjust individuals or groups, view all their pathways simultaneously, and workshop different pathways in seconds. There’s a moment in our final movement this year where I used this tool to allow a woodwind curvilinear to follow-the-leader while simultaneously slightly reshaping into a right-angle, framing the corner of the floor. That’s one of those things I would see watching drum corps throughout the 1980’s and could never figure out how to plot in Pyware until recently. I also love how you can use the ‘Arrow Tool’ to create arrows printed right on the page that perfectly map out an individual’s pathway without having to recreate the pathway yourself manually. Just click ‘Create Arrows from Paths’ and voila, now there’s a literal roadmap for members and staff to use to make what used to be ambiguous and complicated as simple as anything else.”

The “Track Tool” also proved effective particularly toward the finale of the show, as Nate designed the woodwinds and brass operating as two distinct visual elements to come together in a filled form.

“While the woodwinds march to their dots with straight-line paths and even sized steps, the brass have a more circuitous route to get there. Across 16 counts, each horizontal line of brass has a staggered step-off in which they leave on count 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 and take two 8-5 steps straight backwards. Then, they use the remaining counts to go straight to their final dot, which means that each line of brass has a different count structure between holding and moving. I used the Track tool to manipulate the pathway of each horizontal line to get them to their final position as part of the larger filled form while adjusting the yellow anchor forward in time 1 count and repeating this process with the next line until the entire brass section landed in set 43.”

Nate embraced the full spectrum of Pyware features throughout this WGI season, workshopping ideas for the production any moment inspiration struck. Around the clock, he continually refined the drill in the software and uploaded modifications to the UDB app. This placed updated changes directly in the students’ hands and provided more quality rehearsal time. Teaching a polished production made through Pyware with a “dot marching” approach, “gives each individual all the tools necessary to be 100% accountable for every coordinate in their show,” Nate explained.

With over a decade of experience as a drill designer, writing for various top-tier ensembles and indoor groups, he is continuing to refine his craft and delve further into his full creative potential, only now as a founding member of a group he helped establish, and they are off to a terrific start. The team at Pyware have been alongside Nate throughout his journey and are thrilled to see his success in drill design, and his pursuit to educate, inspire, empower the next generation through his own group, Obsidian Winds.

“Pyware’s customer service and commitment to being deeply ingrained in every aspect of the marching arts community are second-to-none. The people at Pyware always want to know about my personal experience using their product. I got the same level of attention and genuine communication back when I was writing for one or two small bands that I do today, writing for a number of WGI finalists in both Percussion and Winds as well as BOA Regional Finalists,” Nate said.

“I’ve yet to encounter a question that went unanswered within the same day, whether I reached out directly or via the Pyware Users Group on Facebook. They’ve helped foster an extremely positive and engaged community amongst drill writers from all over our activity. I’ve found myself commenting on a thread in the Users Group and everyone involved is interacting with people from the entire spectrum of our art form, including the people I’ve spent decades looking up to and admiring their work… Who all just so happen to use this tool to create moments that have shaped my entire experience in the marching arts and inspired me to find my own creative voice. Thank you, Pyware! Here’s to more than 40 years of shaping the very foundation of our activity, and plenty more to come!”