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Here the band is heading "up" the page, preparing to make a
right-hand turn. Those spiffy red dots are band members; the gray things
that look like sheep or clouds or something are the crowd.
Note that the front rank is still completely horizontal; i.e., nobody
has started to turn yet.
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The first rank has now started the corner. The person on the inside of
the turn acts as a hinge; the rest of the rank acts as a gate.
Note that the second rank is still completely horizontal and has not
started the turn yet. This leads to IMPORTANT
RULE #1: Do not start to turn until all the members of your rank have
actually reached the intersection.
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Now we've got two ranks into the turn. Note that the person on the inside
of the turn is closer than usual to the rank in front of him/her, while
the person on the outside of the turn is much farther away than usual.
This is IMPORTANT RULE #2: You can't keep constant
front-to-back spacing while you're in the midst of a turn; people on the
inside get closer than usual to the rank in front of them, people on the
outside get farther away than usual.
Also note that the third rank is still horizontal and has not yet started
the turn.
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| The first rank has completed the turn and is back in its usual
formation; ranks two and three are in the turn, rank four is getting ready
to start. Note that if you're a person in rank four, you may feel like you're
no longer "in line" with the people in the file in front of you.
If you incorrectly try to get into a straight line, you'll march
too far to your left; i.e., you'll "swing out" into the curve
(our usual mistake). This leads to IMPORTANT RULE
#3: Don't try to be in a "straight line" with the rest of your
file while you're in a turn. Instead, recognize that your file
is now curved, and that's an okay thing. |
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| The second rank has completed the turn. Note that the first
two ranks are now back in their usual spacing, and are proceeding to the
right at their usual speed. If you think about it, you'll realize that the
ranks that are "in the turn" can't be moving at that same speed.
This leads to IMPORTANT RULE #4: The person on
the inside of a turn moves more slowly than usual (smaller steps), the person
on the outside of a turn has moves more quickly than usual (bigger steps). |
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Notice that each rank continues to obey Important Rule #1 by staying
straight across the street until it reaches the intersection.
Usually, we guide to the right side of the rank while we're on the march.
In a turn, however, each person is moving at a different speed and it's
harder than usual to stay in line. The person at the inside of the corner
has the least work to do, so we make him/her responsible for keeping everyone
else aligned. This leads to IMPORTANT RULE #5:
Guide to the inside (pivot) person when in a turn.
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| Here the last rank is finally beginning the turn. Note that
they still swing around just like all the other ranks; i.e., they don't
start marching "up the page" to try to make the files straight
(i.e., they continue to obey Important Rule #3). |
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| The last rank swings around the last part of the curve. By
now the sheep, er, the crowd is cheering wildly. Ladies throw kisses; grown
men weep at the magnificence and precision we've shown. |
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| With the turn completed, we're all back in normal spacing
and heading to the right. The whistle has blown to call a roll-off of another
tune, and the trumpets are complaining bitterly that we're playing too often
and they're losing their lips <grin>. |
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| Here's the whole turn in glorious animation! |
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