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You are here: Home » Articles » Visual » The Dotbook Checklist

The Dotbook Checklist

publication date: Apr 16, 2009
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author/source: Evan Cooper
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Do your students have a dot book? What do they put in them? Just coordinates? Read on... 

The most helpful dots books are well organized complete, thorough, and used as a quick reference and study tool. Besides an instrument or flag, it is the most important piece of equipment that the marcher has on the field. It is a detailed roadmap of the field and is essential for a self-cleaning band member. The following is a list of everything that could be and should be written in a dot book. Every time you start or stop a set, the members can examine the dot book and precisely check what they just did or get ready for all that must be remembered for the next chunk.

  • Coordinates, exactly to the quarter of a step
  • MIDSETS!!! (the dot you are on half way into the move)
  • Horn moves (up and down, and how long)
  • Form responsibilities, reference points in view while on the move
  • Body movements with counts
  • Music, tricky notes or rhythms
  • Breathing counts for each set
  • Vectors to the next dot, such as up 4 and over 7 ½ steps. (aids in find midsets)
  • Musical reminders like dynamics, balance concerns, articulations
  • Duck tape the outside of the dot book, so it lasts longer
  • Attach to your waist with an old shoe string, it WILL stay on
  • Make 2 COMPLETE and UP TO DATE dot books! (in case you lose one...)
If all of this is in your marcher's dot book, then you only (theoretically) have say, "Check your dot book!" after each set. A self-cleaning band is the most efficient, and a great dot book can be the most useful tool!

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Evan Cooper frequently writes articles and teaches clinics on marching, movement, and brass instruction.  For a more complete bio please visit our consultants and clnicians page here.


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