How to Organize Formations With a Marching Band

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By eHow Contributing Writer

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To organize formations with a marching band, you need a strong visual eye, a great sense of timing and the ability to communicate your vision to your marching band members. The goal here is to create geometrical formations that are eye-catching and dynamic, but still stay with the rhythm and feel of the music being performed. Depending on your budget and time restrictions, you can either create your own formations, work with a custom drill designer or buy pre-arranged shows with the music and arrangements already prepared. Whatever way you decide to go, you'll want to organize formations that are crisp, clear and unique.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Colored pencils or markers
Marching band
Drill graph paper

Organize Formations With a Marching Band

Step 1

Draw up all the formations you want for each song, using drill graph paper, which is usually marked with the yard lines of a football field. Use different colored ink for different sections.
Step 2

Arrange them in order, indicating the movements in getting from one formation to the next.
Step 3

Transfer your drill designs to transparencies or slides, and demonstrate them for your band members, indicating movements.
Step 4

Rehearse the formation transitions on the field, making sure each musician knows his line of movement and target point for each formation.
Step 5

Divide each song into segments, so that you can rehearse transitions to perfection in smaller pieces, and then put all the pieces together to create the entire show.

Tips & Warnings

Surprise the audience by coming up with interesting new variations on traditional formations. For example, have one line sweep forward while another moves backward, creating an effect of breaking apart, then have them integrate back together at a key moment in the music.
If your band is performing for a half time show, be sure to consider all sides of the audience. Make the show engaging for all the viewers by having band members face different directions at various times in the song and make the formations pleasing to look at from all angles.
Pick up a copy of "The Complete Marching Band Resource Manual: Techniques and Materials for Teaching, Drill Design, and Music Arranging," by Wayne Bailey and Thomas Caneva, at Amazon (see Resources below).
Be careful about borrowing formations from other directors' shows. Musical directors have been known to sue competing schools for using designs they believe have been stolen from their own shows.

Resources