Corps-Style Marching/Drill/Coordinates

Coordinates, also called "Dots," are the building blocks of drill. They define, for each individual marcher across the entire show, where to be and how long it will take to reach the next spot. Reading dots are a fundamental skill that any marcher must possess.

Dots and Sets

Each dot represents one individual marcher, which stays the same throughout the entire show. For example, an individual trumpet player might get assigned "T6," and they will have to follow that dot throughout all of the sets of the show.

A set is a snapshot of everyone's dots at one point in time. They describe both where each individual is supposed to be, and how many counts it takes to get from the previous set to the current set. They often line up with musical moments, but there can also be sets or subsets representing transitory movements. It is common for high school shows to have somewhere around 80 sets, and Drum Corps shows to have in excess of 120.

Sets are a convenient way to rehearse chunks of the show. A director might say "Everyone go to Set 34, we'll take it from here until Set 40" to rehearse the musical/visual chunk between Sets 34 and 40.

Location

The first important part of a dot is that it defines where exactly an individual must stand in each set. To do this, a coordinate system based on convenient markings of an American football field and an 8 to 5 step size.

Diagram of an American Football field

Horizontal Coordinates

Horizontal coordinates stretch all the way from one end zone to the other. Because the field is symmetric, it gets split into Side 1 and Side 2.

If you are an audience member sitting in the stands, "Side 1" is to the left of the 50-yard line, and "Side 2" is to the right. This can lead to confusion, because that perspective is mirrored for the performer on the field looking at the audience. For the marcher on the field looking at the audience, "Side 1" is to the right.

Horizontal coordinates are relatively simple because there is a huge white line every 5 yards. Notice how the field in the diagram goes "50 - 45 (unlabeled) - 40 - 35 (unlabeled) - 30" and so on. Dots are communicated in relation to these yard lines.

• Your dot may be "On a yard line". Simple enough, this means that your dot is exactly on the yard line.
• Your dot may be "X steps inside the yard line", where inside means the direction in towards the 50-yard line. For example, if your dot says "2 steps inside the 35," you can measure this by starting on the 35, and taking two 8 to 5 steps towards the 50-yard line.
• Your dot may be "X steps outside the yard line", where outside means the direction out away from the 50-yard line. For example, if your dot says "3 steps outside the 45," you can measure this by starting on the 45, and taking three 8 to 5 steps away from the 50-yard line.
• Your dot may be "Splitting two yard lines." This means directly in between, or equivalently, four 8 to 5 steps. For example, if your dot is "Splitting the 40 and the 35," then you are exactly in between these two yard lines.

Vertical Coordinates

Vertical coordinates are more complicated, because a football field has far fewer vertical guides—and those vertical guides that do exist can even change depending on the field.

Sidelines

The sidelines are the thick white "out of bounds" lines that run across the front and back of the field. The "Front Sideline" is the one closest to the audience, and the "Back Sideline" is the one furthest from the audience.

Vertical coordinates can be expressed in terms of how far in front of or behind the sideline you are. Note that there are far fewer vertical guides, so you will likely have to take more steps to reach the intended coordinate, and your 8 to 5 step size must be extremely consistent.

For example, your dot may be "20 steps behind the front sideline". You can measure this out by starting at the front sideline, and taking twenty 8 to 5 steps away from the audience.

If your dot is "On the sideline," it means precisely where the green grass turns into white sideline. In football terms, it means exactly where the out-of-bounds starts.

Hash Marks

The other major vertical guide are the hash marks: the small pair of dashed lines that run across the middle of the field. The "Front Hash" is the dashed line that is closer to the audience, and the "Back Hash" is the dashed line further away from the audience.

This is a little-known fact, but the hash marks are actually in a different spot depending on the football field. Their purpose is that they roughly line up with the field goal posts; but high school football has very wide field goal posts (to make it easier for people to kick footballs into). A college football field has somewhat narrower posts, and somewhat narrower hash marks. A professional football field has the narrowest goal posts and the narrowest hash marks of all.

So when learning drill, you must be careful that the dots are based on the hash marks of your field. You cannot learn drill on a high school field with a coordinate sheet that expects college field hash marks.

Hash marks also problematic when performing in an unfamiliar space. If you learned the show with high school hashes and then perform on a professional field, the visual guides you relied on will be in the wrong place. Many competitions will spray paint on temporary hash marks corresponding to other fields, but it can still mess with your muscle memory.

In terms of using hashes to find your dot, the same principle applies as it did for the sidelines: a certain number of 8 to 5 steps in front of (towards the audience) or behind (away from the audience) the front hash or the back hash.

The Combination

A Horizontal Coordinate plus a Vertical Coordinate can perfectly describe any location on the field. Try some practice: On a football field (or just using the diagram above) figure out where you would be if your dot said:

• Side 1, Splitting the 30 and 35, two steps in front of the front hash
• Side 2, 0.5 Steps outside the 45, 20 steps in front of the back sideline
• Side 1, 3.25 Steps inside the 20, 12 steps behind the front sideline
• On the 50, 4 steps behind the back hash

Counts

The other critical part of a coordinate system is that it tells you how long it takes to go from your previous dot to the current dot. In other words, how long it takes to go from one set to the next.

These counts often line up with the music in some sensible way. 16-count sets are very common, because 16 beats is 4 measures of 4/4 time, which is a sensible musical phrase. If the current set says 16 counts, it means you have 16 steps you get from the previous dot to this one.

Learning Drill with Coordinates

This section will provide an example of an ensemble learning the first 3 sets of the show, describing use techniques to facilitate this learning.

Set 1

This set is the beginning of the show, so the counts for this set are irrelevant. All marchers find their dots using 8 to 5 steps, staff assisting with corrections as necessary. Marchers place an identifying marker at their current location (for example, Marcher T6 places down a plastic chip labeled with T6).

Set 2

The coordinate sheet says this is a 16-count move. All marchers find their dots using 8 to 5 steps, staff assisting with corrections as necessary. Marchers place another identifying marker at their new location.

Moving From Set 1 to Set 2

All marchers return to Set 1. The first stage of getting a feel for this movement is to turn and face their dot in Set 2, so that everybody can see where their next dot is (nobody is marching backwards without knowing where they're going). Perform the 16-count move:

1. Set a metronome, optionally at a slower tempo than the real thing. Marchers take 16 evenly-sized steps to reach their dot.
2. Check? Without moving their body, marchers visually check how close they were to hitting their dot.
3. Adjust? Marchers move onto their correct dot.

Do this turn-and-face learning a few times. Eventually, perform the 16-count move with everyone facing in the correct direction. With enough repetition, hopefully the Set 1 → Set 2 move is comfortable with reasonable accuracy.

Set 3

The coordinate sheet says this is an 8-count move. All marchers find their dots for Set 3, and place a third identifying marker.

Moving from Set 2 to Set 3

Again, marchers will get into Set 2, and turn and face their Set 3 dots. Perform the 8-count move as above, and eventually transition to facing the correct direction. With enough repetition, hopefully the Set 1 → Set 2 move is comfortable with reasonable accuracy.

Sets 1 thru 3

Starting in Set 1, we will head to Set 3, but we will stop in Set 2 to collect our bearings, before putting it all together.

1. Set a metronome, optionally at a slower tempo than the real thing. Facing the correct direction, marchers take 16 evenly-sized steps to reach their dot for Set 2.
2. STOP IN SET 2. Check? Marchers visually check how close they were to hitting their dot.
3. Adjust? Marchers move onto their correct dot.
4. Onto Set 3. Facing the correct direction, marchers take 8 evenly-sized steps to reach their dot for Set 3
5. Check? Adjust?
6. This time, we will go non-stop from Set 1 to Set 3. In total, this is a 24-count chunk (16 + 8). Check? Adjust?

After running this a few times, marchers are hopefully comfortable with this small chunk. All marchers pick up their identifying markers, and the process repeats: perhaps the next sensible chunk is Sets 4 thru 8. Practice going from Set 3 to Set 4, and Set 4 to Set 5, and so on and so forth, always building upon what was learned previously.

A good-sized chunk (say, Sets 1 thru 8) can be learned in an afternoon. After which, it may be sensible to begin putting music to these bigger chunks.

Expected Timelines

Marching Bands or Drum Corps can typically learn their respective shows in approximately two weeks, give or take how complex the show is, how long the rehearsals are, and how much else needs to be rehearsed (e.g. music, fundamental marching techniques).