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Walk-On Pep Band Auditions?
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BarsemaBone2 Offline
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Post: #1
Walk-On Pep Band Auditions?
https://twitter.com/NIUAthletics/status/...6201826305

Did something change with the Pep Band this year, or do they just not have enough people signed up for it? I did basketball band for 2 years and they never ran anything like this.

Pep Band, like marching band, is (or was if something's changed) a 1-credit hour course through the music department. Basically, if you wanted to do pep band, you signed up for the class, and you played.

Seems like more evidence that people don't want to play for Dr. Bough after their first year in the marching band, which is one of the big reasons why the marching band's size has dropped off in recent years.
01-19-2016 05:09 PM
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thehappyhuskie Offline
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Post: #2
RE: Walk-On Pep Band Auditions?
(01-19-2016 05:09 PM)BarsemaBone2 Wrote:  https://twitter.com/NIUAthletics/status/...6201826305

Did something change with the Pep Band this year, or do they just not have enough people signed up for it? I did basketball band for 2 years and they never ran anything like this.

Pep Band, like marching band, is (or was if something's changed) a 1-credit hour course through the music department. Basically, if you wanted to do pep band, you signed up for the class, and you played.

Seems like more evidence that people don't want to play for Dr. Bough after their first year in the marching band, which is one of the big reasons why the marching band's size has dropped off in recent years.


you sure it wasn't the fact that the halftime shows are either Rocky Horror Picture Show or the very best of ELO? I can't imagine anyone getting stoked for that, and I did marching band.
01-19-2016 11:30 PM
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HuskieTom1951 Offline
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Post: #3
RE: Walk-On Pep Band Auditions?
(01-19-2016 05:09 PM)BarsemaBone2 Wrote:  https://twitter.com/NIUAthletics/status/...6201826305

Did something change with the Pep Band this year, or do they just not have enough people signed up for it? I did basketball band for 2 years and they never ran anything like this.

Pep Band, like marching band, is (or was if something's changed) a 1-credit hour course through the music department. Basically, if you wanted to do pep band, you signed up for the class, and you played.

Seems like more evidence that people don't want to play for Dr. Bough after their first year in the marching band, which is one of the big reasons why the marching band's size has dropped off in recent years.

I've been complaining about the lack of pep band support and the lack of size in the marching band for years also. With a student enrollment of 24,000, I can't believe that you can't get better band support at athletic events. It's terrible.
01-20-2016 06:14 AM
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BarsemaBone2 Offline
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RE: Walk-On Pep Band Auditions?
(01-19-2016 11:30 PM)thehappyhuskie Wrote:  
(01-19-2016 05:09 PM)BarsemaBone2 Wrote:  https://twitter.com/NIUAthletics/status/...6201826305

Did something change with the Pep Band this year, or do they just not have enough people signed up for it? I did basketball band for 2 years and they never ran anything like this.

Pep Band, like marching band, is (or was if something's changed) a 1-credit hour course through the music department. Basically, if you wanted to do pep band, you signed up for the class, and you played.

Seems like more evidence that people don't want to play for Dr. Bough after their first year in the marching band, which is one of the big reasons why the marching band's size has dropped off in recent years.


you sure it wasn't the fact that the halftime shows are either Rocky Horror Picture Show or the very best of ELO? I can't imagine anyone getting stoked for that, and I did marching band.

Something that people need to keep in mind regarding that: that was done before Dr. Bough was hired as Director in 2005. In fact, that may have been the impetus of why he was hired in the first place, because people got pissed off about the Rocky Horror halftime show (for my money, people's anger at that was caused more by the fact that they did it at the Toledo game in '04, which was a mess in and of itself for various reasons) and wanted to tame the band a bit.

What happens nowadays is that the majority of the marching band appears to be made up of freshmen, who come in wanting to do marching band, but then drop it after one year because they can't stand Dr. Bough's ways. That's what happened with me after two years. It seems like there are very few upper-classmen in the band nowadays.
01-20-2016 08:56 AM
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zdsmith Offline
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Post: #5
RE: Walk-On Pep Band Auditions?
It's an "audition" to make sure they don't add dead weight to the band. Anyone is eligible to join, but they're just making sure people are being halfway serious about it and can actually play their horns.

The pros and cons of having an "easy-A" course.
(This post was last modified: 01-20-2016 09:06 AM by zdsmith.)
01-20-2016 09:06 AM
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HuskieJohn Offline
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Post: #6
RE: Walk-On Pep Band Auditions?
(01-20-2016 06:14 AM)HuskieTom1951 Wrote:  
(01-19-2016 05:09 PM)BarsemaBone2 Wrote:  https://twitter.com/NIUAthletics/status/...6201826305

Did something change with the Pep Band this year, or do they just not have enough people signed up for it? I did basketball band for 2 years and they never ran anything like this.

Pep Band, like marching band, is (or was if something's changed) a 1-credit hour course through the music department. Basically, if you wanted to do pep band, you signed up for the class, and you played.

Seems like more evidence that people don't want to play for Dr. Bough after their first year in the marching band, which is one of the big reasons why the marching band's size has dropped off in recent years.

I've been complaining about the lack of pep band support and the lack of size in the marching band for years also. With a student enrollment of 24,000, I can't believe that you can't get better band support at athletic events. It's terrible.

Enrollment is 20,130 with 15,027 undergrads....but yes I agree.

With all the complaining from the former members I don't understand why Bough still has his job since Baker and Frazier have had plenty of time to get input and see for themselves.


Though I have to say my dad and I were happy HMB did the RUSH show. Though doing it 4 times in 1 season was a bit much.
01-20-2016 09:42 AM
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BarsemaBone2 Offline
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RE: Walk-On Pep Band Auditions?
(01-20-2016 09:42 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  
(01-20-2016 06:14 AM)HuskieTom1951 Wrote:  
(01-19-2016 05:09 PM)BarsemaBone2 Wrote:  https://twitter.com/NIUAthletics/status/...6201826305

Did something change with the Pep Band this year, or do they just not have enough people signed up for it? I did basketball band for 2 years and they never ran anything like this.

Pep Band, like marching band, is (or was if something's changed) a 1-credit hour course through the music department. Basically, if you wanted to do pep band, you signed up for the class, and you played.

Seems like more evidence that people don't want to play for Dr. Bough after their first year in the marching band, which is one of the big reasons why the marching band's size has dropped off in recent years.

I've been complaining about the lack of pep band support and the lack of size in the marching band for years also. With a student enrollment of 24,000, I can't believe that you can't get better band support at athletic events. It's terrible.

Enrollment is 20,130 with 15,027 undergrads....but yes I agree.

With all the complaining from the former members I don't understand why Bough still has his job since Baker and Frazier have had plenty of time to get input and see for themselves.


Though I have to say my dad and I were happy HMB did the RUSH show. Though doing it 4 times in 1 season was a bit much.

I believe the marching band is still under the control of the Department of Music, rather than the Athletic Department. I could be wrong, but if that's still the case, then that's why Bough's been around that long. He was really close to Dr. Bauer (the old head of the Music Department) and as long as Bauer was there, Bough wasn't going anywhere, despite the fact that he had few other friends in the department, at least at the time I was a student.

If the marching band got put under the athletic department's control again, I'm sure Frazier would have removed him from over the marching band by now.

The issue with Bough isn't that he's not a good director. He's a really good concert band director; he's just not a good marching band director.
01-20-2016 10:44 AM
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Lord Stanley Offline
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Post: #8
RE: Walk-On Pep Band Auditions?
I'd love to see a strong(er) Pep band. I failed recorder back in 5th grade so maybe I am underestimating the difficulty, but yes it seems odd that something as simple (as defined above by those in the know) as Pep Band doesn't have a waiting list of people wanting to join for free game attendance and an easy credit and grade.
01-20-2016 10:58 AM
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zdsmith Offline
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RE: Walk-On Pep Band Auditions?
(01-20-2016 10:58 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  I'd love to see a strong(er) Pep band. I failed recorder back in 5th grade so maybe I am underestimating the difficulty, but yes it seems odd that something as simple (as defined above by those in the know) as Pep Band doesn't have a waiting list of people wanting to join for free game attendance and an easy credit and grade.

The pep band was long run under the graduate assistants. The lack of continuity and style between the different directors splinters the group a lot. I played under 3 and was one of a few who did. Now the director is one person and he is (hopefully) going to be there more than two years. I know a lot of people who would get recruited by the graduate assistant and then when they graduated they left because it wasn't "their guy".

That and the recruitment needs to go outside of the music building, which I think is what this is. It's great having the KKPsi, PMA, and SAI people join (music fraternities) but they're only so large. I wouldn't be surprised if this "Walk-On Audition" thing was a brain child of SF.
(This post was last modified: 01-20-2016 12:29 PM by zdsmith.)
01-20-2016 12:28 PM
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