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prewritten Marching Band Shows |
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drill & show design FREE show design tools pre-designed (stock) marching band shows instrument jokes FREE metronome/tuner FREE service band CD's FREE finale notepad FREE music games music ed links music industry links free fingering charts free scale sheets |
I think that custom drill is the best way to put a band on the field. Most stock drill has inherent problems having to do with staging and ensemble balance, because the numbers aren't the same in any band. So I didn't sell used drill for a long time. Then things changed. Aew years ago some friends convinced me that offering the stock shows was in the best interest of their bands. That worked very nicely, so I'm offering them on bandtek. A more indepth explanation of my viewpoint is given below. It helps Google find this page. |
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To the right is a
list of
shows. I'm processing the files bit by bit, so if you don't find
what you need, come back in a few
weeks, or months or next year. This project is going to take me a
while to complete.
Here's a cool thing - since it's stock drill, you can lift the counts from the easy shows, and they'll work with most easy stock marching band music arrangements. It's a fringe benefit of the 4 measure phrase. |
| If you'd like to see
a set of charts, click the link and a PDF file of
the entire show will download your computer. (You'll need a PDF viewer, like Adobe, to view the files.) The files are locked, so you can't print them very easily. |
| If you'd like to
purchase one of the shows, send me an email and I'll mail the file with
an invoice. The listed prices are for the PDF version. Pyware
files cost $25 more per show.
If you need coordinate sheets, I can print those as pdf for no
additional charge. You'll need to purchase the music separately from someone else. I like Pepper best, but there are a lot of great custom arrangers out there too. Here's how it
happened - in 2005 a couple of things happened. First, a
friend persuaded me to let him use a show I had written for a band in
another state. I was very skeptical, but he convinced me that it
was a better alternative for him and his students than the other stock
shows available. I gave him the drill files, and he changed
the instrumentation and spacing, using his own copy of PyJava. I
charged him a
little less than half the going rate for stock
marching band drill and it ended up working very nicely. It
still looked and sounded good. He saved A LOT of money,
and the kids had a very positive experience. The band also won
and
placed in a few shows.
Second, a very able band director who student taught with me a few years back called and asked for help fixing a stock show he had purchased. Between ordering the drill and teaching it, he had recruited a half dozen more kids, (good thing) but the drill wasn't available as data he could edit (bad bad bad). He was also right in the middle of drum and flag camp and didn't have time to rechart the show. The company he had chosen wouldn't refund or exchange his drill (even worse). They had the money and he was stuck. When I fixed the problem (for free, cause he's my buddy), I got to look at the stock drill. It was even more disapointing than bad service he had received. It seems to me that when drill is paid for by parents cooking bratwurst or kids selling candy, the drill writer should do his best to serve the needs of the band. So, I looked at the files on my hard drive and decided to make them available. They're going to cost about half the going rate of other stock marching band shows, because that's what I think stock drill design is worth. The understanding is that the school who buys the drill designs has to rework the inherent staging problems. That school will also have exclusive rights in their area. You'll never get a show that was originally performed in your area. I'm putting them out there as PDF files because it's easier for the band directors. Am I worried about someone ripping off my ideas? Not much. I have two main reasons. First, totally original drill is pretty hard to find. Some moves I use I've learned studying battles between the Romans and Carthegenians. I once wrote a civil war show where the opening move was based on the battle plans drawn up by the town's own civil war general. I've watched the old films of Ohio and Michigan from the 40's and have grown up on a steady diet of drum corps. I learned creativity first hand from John Brazale and Michael Cesario. Discipline, cleaning and organization I learned from Steve Suslik and Richard Clary (yes he once had very good marching bands.) Philosophy I gleaned from Tim Salzman and Don Peterson. I'm always "ripping off" my best teachers. Second, my shows help bands win A LOT. They also grow grow. One reason they do is that my drill is designed to provides opportunities for musical experience. That happens because I don't just write nifty moves. I write nifty moves that do cool things like create antiphonal brass moments and highlight important musical ideas. Sometimes I even write visual motifs that reflect the motivic development of the musical composition. I ripped off that idea from Garfield '88 by Zingale. He was amazing. Every band director out there learned four part chorale writing, but none of us write like Bach, and very few of us write like Ann McGinty. Sharing drill ideas won't hurt the activity and I think it will probably be better for everyone in the long run. I respectfully request that you don't hack and print the files. I design marching band shows so I can afford to be a band director. The honor system will apply. Am I naive? Maybe a little, but I also have a lot of trust in band directors as role models. Most of us didn't get into this line of work because we like the sound of 24 alto saxes. (Not that that's ALWAYS a bad thing.) We band directors teach kids some of the best things they'll learn in their whole lives. |
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