Computers say its impossible, so how does the FTAB make it possible?

For computers, it's impossible for two objects to occupy the exact same space at the exact same time......
Not so for the Aggie Band

Mirrors.

seriously though,

When the two bandsmen are supposed to occupy the exact same spot, they twist their bodies, and their feet are overlapped and you kind of "lean" around them so you can march by.

Overlapping mirrors.

Never have cared for the 4 way cross thru. Looks like a mess even when alignments are as good as they are going to get. 2 way cross thru, either perpendicular (easier) or diagonal (harder) look so much better. Plus you don't get the audio see-saw 'stereo' effect. Just an old BQ's opinion.

"Recall.....Step off on Hullabaloo..."

a combination of rotating the upper torso, adjusting the instrument's position, lots and lots of practice, and a dose of luck.

the idea of a minstrel turn (passing by one another at a perpendicular or near-perpendicular angle) is that you "rub shoulders". based on which direction (left or right) the person is coming from, you turn one way or the other in order to slip past each other.

EDIT: in the case of a 4-way cross, you alternate rotations left to right every step to ensure proper passage.

[This message has been edited by bq06 (edited 9/14/2009 12:29p).]

...and ,bq06, if you misread your drill card, you have a head-on collision. ;-)

and don't let your saxophone get caught in anyone's GM cord's either.

invisibility cloak?

It is not a success if there isn't some piece of an instrument left in the middle of the field after it is done.

Magic

drinking LOTS of awesome sauce before halftime

"fudge factor" --Daylen Borders

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Computers say its impossible, so how does the FTAB make it possible?

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Because they are Aggies, who have been known to do the impossible-good and bad-from time to time.

4 way isn't all that hard to do, so long as EVERYONE does what they're supposed to, and noone panics or hesitates going in. If one person freezes, or goes on the wrong side of a crossing line, a cluster F can ensue. That's what is so hard about it. One person out of over 300 can really hose it up, and it affects a LOT of the rest of the band, potentially.

Also, getting those basses and bass drums in that tight space sucks. I spent my entire pisshead year in file 6 with my buddy in file 7, and the bass drummers beat the crap out of us on a regular basis if we weren't sure to give em a little extra room passing by.

Thanks for the info guys

If it was easy, SOMEBODY else would have done it by now.

t.u. did a two-way criss-cross one year in Austin, (was it '68 or after I left, I don't remember), but they were at about four times the distance from each other that we marched. The crowd was not all that impressed since we had just done ours, as I recall.

When you are a fish and in the middle of said cross, there is usually large amounts of 'guidance' issued from all directions to help you on your way.

Very Carefully.

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Never have cared for the 4 way cross thru. Looks like a mess even when alignments are as good as they are going to get. 2 way cross thru, either perpendicular (easier) or diagonal (harder) look so much better. Plus you don't get the audio see-saw 'stereo' effect. Just an old BQ's opinion.

"Recall.....Step off on Hullabaloo..."

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Because we all know it was better in your day...just like it was in my day as a Q

In all seriousness though, you throw your instruments over the shoulder of the person you are moving through and learn to dislocate your arms. To put it all in perspective for you...Chuck Norris came one day to give us a motivational speech and he couldn't even do the move.

[This message has been edited by p-wonk01 (edited 9/14/2009 2:09p).]

Not at all p-wonk. The 4 way just is too much single file stuff for the eyes and it looks like spagetti to me. The Band looks/sounds better when kept in 'groups of files', one of LTC Adams rules, and the 4 way cross is basically 16 single files approaching the middle of the field from 4 directions. Didn't like it the first time I saw it, don't like it now. No flame intended, just looks like a visual mess.

There are plenty of routines done by the FTAB since I stopped walking in drills that I like. Sawing the horns off, 4 way files in and out, bringing back the 'Lost Indian' - probably got a new PC name, etc. Not going to say that only stuff done in my era was 'good'. Much of the music is better, too. The stuff I find that takes away from what makes the Aggie Band look sharp are things I take issue with - the strange countermarch footwork I see sometimes and most all the single file stuff. Keeping bandsmen in groups maintains volume. Single file stuff waters it down.

The 'phalanx' look of files in groups of 3 or 4 or 6 or all 12 going somewhere and coming back was always a trademark of the Aggie Band. Simple, yet effective if done perfectly.

Old drills were usually in 3 parts. The spread, block band, and the T. Each portion had stuff done with it, lots of versions and variations over the years. I miss the Band filling into the south end zone from a spread formation. Rarely done anymore. Been years since the T was 'turned around' in a drill. You have probably 60 years of film to review to find things that have been done before and would be interesting to re-cycle again. Old stuff can be 'new' again because few remember seeing it the first time.

Simple things done perfectly ALWAYS look/sound better than complicated things done ½(_,_). If some of this year's DMs are reading this I would challenge them to take a few hours and pull out some tapes/film from pre 1970 drills and check out some of the tricks of the trade.


"Recall.....Step off on Hullabaloo..."

I do know that Col. Brewer does review old film when working on drills. I sat in on a couple of viewings when I was a zip.

[This message has been edited by RootAg (edited 9/14/2009 2:50p).]

these are not the droids you are looking for.

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Old drills were usually in 3 parts. The spread, block band, and the T. Each portion had stuff done with it, lots of versions and variations over the years.

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You'll be pleased to know that this is still the case. Almost every time I marched (02-05), we started in spread and sometime between 30-60% we moved to block band. We always finished with the block T or block aTm as well. There were a few exceptions that I recall, such as stepping off into spread band.

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I miss the Band filling into the south end zone from a spread formation. Rarely done anymore.

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I may be misunderstanding what you mean, but I'm fairly sure we often marched in spread and 4-step countermarched on the south goal. Do you mean you miss the band actually marching 10 yards INTO the endzone and the countermarching?

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Been years since the T was 'turned around' in a drill.

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Again, I may be misunderstanding you here, but the band still forms the block T, marches south, countermarches on the goal and heads north again. If that is what you mean by "turning around the block T", then they just did that for the UNM game.

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You have probably 60 years of film to review to find things that have been done before and would be interesting to re-cycle again. Old stuff can be 'new' again because few remember seeing it the first time.

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As someone mentioned above, they still do this somewhat frequently. Throughout my 4 years, we'd have at least a couple drills per year with maneuvers that they pulled out of the archives. One of which was the gate turn. Rather than taking an oblique into the 4-way cross, we actually rotated like a pinwheel into the cross and achieved a true perpendicular intersection.

[This message has been edited by bq06 (edited 9/14/2009 3:55p).]

DON'T STOP!!!!

PLOW THROUGH!!!!!!!

TUBAS TURN YOUR HORN!!!!

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TUBAS TURN YOUR HORN!!!!

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and trombones...suck it up!

FTAB the best reason to visit Kyle. Whoop!

Nothing like having to confiscate some fish's horn in the second half in the stands do you could play after some #$^@ put a monster ding in your trombone slide during the halftime drill. It always meant on Monday you were making a trip to visit (at the time) Maj. Brewer's basement fix-it shop.

menstruals

wasn't he promoted to colonel your senior fall semester?

What the Efff!?

I think by "turning the T" he means that the entire band does a minstrel turn in the T so that the top end up moving towards a sideline. We did that several times back when.

At Rice one year, I think '66, we did the same but with only the outside of the T, so that we had the "shell" going from sideline to sideline and the "body" from endzone to endzone. When it came back together, the crowd went nuts. That was a cool drill.

Being a bass drummer means fearing no maneuver.