How a Show is Custom Designed

Decide on a concept

Find an idea that best suits your band. ​ Perhaps the concept will take the audience to a different time or place. Or how about telling a story with a more literal concept? Maybe you would prefer something vague and abstract? Whatever the case, we will help you realize your concept.

From there, we plan ways to make it come to fruition. This includes what musical source material is used, any special instruments or narration, visual concepts through forms and staging, props, sound effects, costuming, characters, etc. We discuss thoroughly from our experience all considerations in show concept selection to help you enable the most student success.

Instrumentation and Ability Profile

Once you have decided on a concept, we begin scoring music based on your band's instrumentation and abilities. We use a profile worksheet, which was created by our designers, that asks you to give us instrumentation numbers and ability levels of each section in your band. ​

This is where the Pulse Marching advantage lies. Any imbalances in instrumentation or abilities across your band are creatively leveled out through our design. Our belief is that scoring and difficulty is not one-size-fits-all. Your stronger sections will be highlighted through demand while weaker sections are well-supported to build their confidence.

Drill Endurance and adding Choreography

The custom process then moves to the visual, with careful thought every step of the way. Seamless pairing to the music, flashy visual maneuvers, and endurance considerations are all included. Artful staging serves the music: We work to pair like parts on the field, we bring forward important musical lines, and we visually convey the overall concept that the music accompanies. Whole step intervals are used to assist in cleaning, while also familiarizing your students with standard spacing.

Finally, the choreography is designed to further portray your concept, while keeping both the music and drill in mind. Implements are decided based on your program's experience level, direction, and goals in mind. Transitions come together with ease by choreographing to the drill, eliminating collisions and confusion during pass throughs.