Yes I'm joking (but those guys rocked). I'm a fan of stand a blow people out of their seats (no pun intended). UCs band likes to perform pretty symphonic melodies while drifting about. Nobody can hear it so nobody pays attention. Our big tear the house down number for a couple seasons was The Piano Man. Holy shinkes...
More brass and drums, less clarinet and glockenspiel, please.
(This post was last modified: 02-08-2017 08:40 PM by rath v2.0.)
(02-08-2017 08:39 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote: Yes I'm joking (but those guys rocked). I'm a fan of stand a blow people out of their seats (no pun intended). UCs band likes to perform pretty symphonic melodies while drifting about. Nobody can hear it so nobody pays attention. Our big tear the house down number for a couple seasons was The Piano Man. Holy shinkes...
More brass and drums, less clarinet and glockenspiel, please.
False. The "previous administration" liked to perform that kind of music. UC's band, however, would love to blow people out of their seats. When our football team were getting their asses handed to them by pretty much the entire AAC, did you assume our players liked it? Did you assume they chose to punt at BYU, for example?
For what it's worth, I and virtually everyone I ever knew in the band (many staff members included) share your taste in music. I personally arranged some popular music for the band a few years ago which was summarily dismissed by "the administration" as not being "musical" enough.
I don't want to sully the man's reputation anymore because he did do a lot of good things for the band over many years which deserve our respect, so I'm not going to talk about him anymore in this thread. But right now is a time to be VERY excited for the band, since it finally gets a fresh start under new leadership. I am hoping the university hires the right person that can help the band realize its enormous potential.
I'm still of the mindset that the Sugar Bowl was lost before the game when the UC band did a simple cross hatch and appeared to be satisfied that no one ran into each other, and then the UF band came out and spelled out Florida and then Gators in perfect cursive while 25,000 Gator fans did call and response chants in unison....
(02-08-2017 08:39 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote: Yes I'm joking (but those guys rocked). I'm a fan of stand a blow people out of their seats (no pun intended). UCs band likes to perform pretty symphonic melodies while drifting about. Nobody can hear it so nobody pays attention. Our big tear the house down number for a couple seasons was The Piano Man. Holy shinkes...
More brass and drums, less clarinet and glockenspiel, please.
False. The "previous administration" liked to perform that kind of music. UC's band, however, would love to blow people out of their seats. When our football team were getting their asses handed to them by pretty much the entire AAC, did you assume our players liked it? Did you assume they chose to punt at BYU, for example?
For what it's worth, I and virtually everyone I ever knew in the band (many staff members included) share your taste in music. I personally arranged some popular music for the band a few years ago which was summarily dismissed by "the administration" as not being "musical" enough.
I don't want to sully the man's reputation anymore because he did do a lot of good things for the band over many years which deserve our respect, so I'm not going to talk about him anymore in this thread. But right now is a time to be VERY excited for the band, since it finally gets a fresh start under new leadership. I am hoping the university hires the right person that can help the band realize its enormous potential.
(02-08-2017 08:39 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote: Yes I'm joking (but those guys rocked). I'm a fan of stand a blow people out of their seats (no pun intended). UCs band likes to perform pretty symphonic melodies while drifting about. Nobody can hear it so nobody pays attention. Our big tear the house down number for a couple seasons was The Piano Man. Holy shinkes...
More brass and drums, less clarinet and glockenspiel, please.
False. The "previous administration" liked to perform that kind of music. UC's band, however, would love to blow people out of their seats. When our football team were getting their asses handed to them by pretty much the entire AAC, did you assume our players liked it? Did you assume they chose to punt at BYU, for example?
For what it's worth, I and virtually everyone I ever knew in the band (many staff members included) share your taste in music. I personally arranged some popular music for the band a few years ago which was summarily dismissed by "the administration" as not being "musical" enough.
I don't want to sully the man's reputation anymore because he did do a lot of good things for the band over many years which deserve our respect, so I'm not going to talk about him anymore in this thread. But right now is a time to be VERY excited for the band, since it finally gets a fresh start under new leadership. I am hoping the university hires the right person that can help the band realize its enormous potential.
When should a new director be in place?
Does the band train off season as a whole?
I would expect the new band director to be named by years end.. and yes, the marching band does basketball band, and then a concert band portion during the spring.. so they do have other more "traditional" band music opportunities
One of the secrets to a better band is budget. Many universities have a band staff three times UC's size, including a music arranger. Some schools have a lot of partial scholarships to subsidize players. Here, the director has to scramble and beg for the money to keep the band in uniforms and repair instruments.
Back in the 1960's and early 1970's, the band was well funded by university student activity funds. Much of that was changed to funding through the athletic department. Do you remember just how starved the band looked in the late 1980's and early 1990's?
The athletic department and university have stepped up a little bit. Several years ago they finally got a decent band room. But compared to many of our peers, they are cash poor.
I have donated money to the band, including their scholarship fund, but my pockets are not deep enough to go far.
The band has not been what I would like it to be. (I could go on for a while about what I would like to "improve.") But if you are going to *****, step up with some $$.
(02-09-2017 10:21 AM)ucbandguy Wrote: One of the secrets to a better band is budget. Many universities have a band staff three times UC's size, including a music arranger. Some schools have a lot of partial scholarships to subsidize players. Here, the director has to scramble and beg for the money to keep the band in uniforms and repair instruments.
Back in the 1960's and early 1970's, the band was well funded by university student activity funds. Much of that was changed to funding through the athletic department. Do you remember just how starved the band looked in the late 1980's and early 1990's?
The athletic department and university have stepped up a little bit. Several years ago they finally got a decent band room. But compared to many of our peers, they are cash poor.
I have donated money to the band, including their scholarship fund, but my pockets are not deep enough to go far.
The band has not been what I would like it to be. (I could go on for a while about what I would like to "improve.") But if you are going to *****, step up with some $$.
Great insight. Hopefully, a new director will work to energize band alumni and engage with some folks for more private support. And that's not suggesting the retired director didn't do that; I'm not an insider so I just don't know what's been done in the past in that regard. But if we aspire to the P5 and being a big-time program a quality marching band is part of that equation. Personally, I'd like to see the band featured more in game for both football and basketball in place of some of what gets blasted through the speakers during timeouts. Bands are an important element of big-time college sports that create a different experience from professional sports.
My daughter spent the last five years doing alterations and repairs to the band uniforms for free with almost no budget. I believe they did actually spring for a sewing machine one year. They were also hauling equipment on a cart with flat tires a couple of years ago until I lent them an air compressor. They had been rolling the carts to a gas station before that. It is amazing how cash strapped the band is.
Use a little creativity to raise money. How about announcing several times each game and on the Scoreboard "The Bearcat Marching Band sponsored tonight by (Insert Company). Leave it up the entire performance.
That could replace "Under the direction of Dr. Terren L. Frenz" 3 times a night.
I talked to Mike Bohn about this at his town hall and he smiled and said "Dr. Franz is retiring in the next couple months, the band will become more exciting going forward." I'm not a huge band person, but something DECENT would be nice at half time instead of sitting in my seat wallowing in self pity as I had to all of last season.
Funny that I'm credited with starting this thread. I don't really care about the band that much. I'd probably be more entertained by monkeys dressed like cowboys and riding a dog.
(02-09-2017 07:00 PM)JackieTreehorn Wrote: Funny that I'm credited with starting this thread. I don't really care about the band that much. I'd probably be more entertained by monkeys dressed like cowboys and riding a dog.
(02-09-2017 07:00 PM)JackieTreehorn Wrote: Funny that I'm credited with starting this thread. I don't really care about the band that much. I'd probably be more entertained by monkeys dressed like cowboys and riding a dog.
That was actually a half time show at a Bengals game in 2015! Pretty F'in cool
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[split] b!tching about the band
