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"As You Were"

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 6:23 pm
by lord hornblower
In a drill down, is "As I was" an acceptable response to "as you were, sir" if you are calling the drill down? Or must the person calling the drill respond with "As you were"?

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 6:36 pm
by Zarathrustra
Usually, "As I was" is what is stated.

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 7:01 pm
by formermarcher
I agree...if you made a chain of verbal commands that conflicted with each other (either on purpose or by accident), make sure the group shouts out "as you were sir".

They aren't supposed to do anything until you say "as I was".

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 7:23 pm
by MoophoniumMan
That's funny... I am about to graduate after four years of marching band -- two as drum major -- and I always thought the commander said "as you were" after the band said "as you were" to correct the mistake; to my understanding there is no first-person in drilldowns.

Anyone else in the same boat as me?

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 9:11 pm
by Ryan H. Turner
Yes...there is no "first person" and however that got started, apparently they didn't check with me. The correct response is either to confirm the receipt of the message yelled at you by replying, as if in agreement, "as you were". Or...I used in my drill downs way back when "cancel previous commands" to clean the slate, so to speak.

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 10:13 pm
by lord hornblower
precisely. so, the way I understand it, if the drum major were to respond with "As I was", then the people participating in the drill down would respond with "As you were, sir" after the next command, or be out.

LAME. I got second place at the Encinal Band Review drill down(norcal) because of this. The drum major made a mistake, and myself and the two other remaining participants responded with "as you were". The drum major responded with "as I was", and then proceeded with the next command. I heard this as a mistake, and was the only one that responded with "as you were" again. The two other participants complained, claiming that they had "learned it both ways", so we continued the drill down. I got all mad, lost concentration, and came in 2nd.

ahhh. well, now I know for sure.

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 10:37 pm
by ZJH
No Gomez, the DM shouldn't even be saying "as I was" in the first place. The only acceptable responses would be "as you were" or "cancel all previous commands," but I would think that "as you were" would be the preferred command.

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:19 pm
by FluteOfTheNewWorld
What's a drill down... lol

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:40 pm
by Ryan H. Turner
FluteOfTheNewWorld wrote:What's a drill down... lol
Are you serious? I'll assume you are.

The basic definition is taking a group of people and having them "en masse" execute a series of standing commands, such as attention, parade rest, facings, horns up, horns down, etc. You can even have moving commands as well, such as "forward...hut", "backwards...hut", "to the right flank...hut", etc. The drill down is an honor system, so if you make a mistake of any kind, you are supposed to take yourself out. Normally on drill downs the people that take themselves out stand at attention in front of the people that are still in and watch. Other times I've allowed them to watch and cheer. That's always fun too.

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 4:03 pm
by FluteOfTheNewWorld
Ryan H. Turner wrote:
FluteOfTheNewWorld wrote:What's a drill down... lol
Are you serious? I'll assume you are.

The basic definition is taking a group of people and having them "en masse" execute a series of standing commands, such as attention, parade rest, facings, horns up, horns down, etc. You can even have moving commands as well, such as "forward...hut", "backwards...hut", "to the right flank...hut", etc. The drill down is an honor system, so if you make a mistake of any kind, you are supposed to take yourself out. Normally on drill downs the people that take themselves out stand at attention in front of the people that are still in and watch. Other times I've allowed them to watch and cheer. That's always fun too.
Oh ok.. yeah we do that... but in the flute section don't have a name for it other than the marching simon says.

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:33 pm
by March4Life
FluteOfTheNewWorld wrote:
Ryan H. Turner wrote:
FluteOfTheNewWorld wrote:What's a drill down... lol
Are you serious? I'll assume you are.

The basic definition is taking a group of people and having them "en masse" execute a series of standing commands, such as attention, parade rest, facings, horns up, horns down, etc. You can even have moving commands as well, such as "forward...hut", "backwards...hut", "to the right flank...hut", etc. The drill down is an honor system, so if you make a mistake of any kind, you are supposed to take yourself out. Normally on drill downs the people that take themselves out stand at attention in front of the people that are still in and watch. Other times I've allowed them to watch and cheer. That's always fun too.
Oh ok.. yeah we do that... but in the flute section don't have a name for it other than the marching simon says.
Hahahaha... it sounds more fun and less intimidating that way! :D

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:09 pm
by bugledog
if you are calling and you make a mistake
"Belay my last"
is what you say to cancel the command.


to send them back to where they were
"as you were"

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:09 pm
by sokkerboie
I think "as you were" is a command back to the person calling the command that he/she gave an incorrect command and for him/her to give the correct command. I think it has more to do with the command giver than the body receiving the command (as would be "as I was").

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 12:47 am
by Tobias087
haha, its very interesting to read about this. i suppose our band (the North Hollywood HS Royal Regiment) must have done all of this at one point, but now we dont, and only fragments of it are still taught. for example, we still teach attention and parade rest (which we never use), but we stopped teaching at ease and as you were 3 or 4 years ago, although they never found their way off the list of things to teach. we were confused about what "as you were" was until somebody looked it up on wikipedia, and an older member said "oh yeah, i remember now"

nobody's really sure about "at ease" though...

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 8:44 am
by sokkerboie
I love the at ease command as an educational tool. When giving instructions or working on drill, etc. the students are at attendtion. When we finish a phrase my students remain at attention until told to relax/go to at ease or parade rest (two different states of relax for the students). At ease means the students can release from their phsical posturing while parade rest has a specific posture and the students are still focused for instructions. At ease/relax means they can fully release, move around and talk some. Then we call them to attention or "set" to begin again.

I think students need both the parade rest and at ease commands to maintain focus in a rehearsal.