An interesting article

[randomnoise]

Just buy a copy of Jock Rock. The fans will love it.

[The Other Mike]

That's funny... the visual guy for the band I arrange for took on a position at the University he works at to be the Pep Band advisor (he was recently hired as a drug/alcohol counselor at the school), and he has asked me to do up some charts for him. The first tune I thought of was The Horse. :P

Right now I am thinking that tune, On Broadway, maybe Wipeout, and other upbeat short tunes...give me ideas! :P

With the HS band I arrange for, Tequila was always on our list of stand/parade tunes until about 6 or 7 years ago when the admin made us stop because the tune is named for an alcoholic beverage. One of our main parades is the annual Princeton U alumni P-rade, billed as the "biggest sloppy parade in the country." Usually whichever class has hired us to march for them has asked for Tequila and Louie, Louie. At least we still do Louie, Louie. :)

I can send you the stock arrangement of On Broadway, that way I can say I can't put my hands on it and it's out of print so I don't have to play it again.

My favorite with the horse was doing the intro and going directly to the ending just to #### off the cheerleaders. ( I have to put them on the field at halftime and they can never find the right yardline )

The bands favorite cheer is 2 bits 4 bits 6 bits a half, those who can't find a yardline, stand up and laugh.

Typical shorts:

Horn Go

Blue Funk

Go big Blue

Land of 1000 dances

Mars

Imperial March

For a fumble recovery - The Merry Go Round Broke Down

Let me know what tunes you're looking for and I might have them to send you.

I think I still have the Budwiser " Here comes the King" tune.

I still have some of the old " State of the Art " arrangements like La surta del a tontas ( it's been a long time since we played it so I don't remember the spelling )

I have many of the old great Larry K arrangements.

I'm looking for an arrangement of "Push It" by salt n peppa, I can't even find a midi file of it to open in Finale.

Yesterday we read through Brazil to do for a concert / dance line tune ( we are doing The way we were /Malaguena for the alumni game in two weeks )and the kids complained that it was elevator music...................

On a side note: I HATE bands that play back at each other with the same tune so I try NOT to do it unless someone irks me. It was a game where we were the visitors and the home band played the second to worst National Anthem I have ever heard. In the second quarter they decide to play a tune back at us so I stood the band up and played the first 3 measures of Star Spangled Banner back at them.

The teams all looked up, everyone looked at us and when they realized what we were doing, most people in the stands applauded.................the other band was pretty quiet most of the game.

[The Other Mike]

Just buy a copy of Jock Rock. The fans will love it.

Dang it, I bought the score book for that on Ebay this past summker and forgot I have it....................................somewhere under the piles of papers in my office.

Hey Mike, do a "short" of Push It and I'll buy it. It takes me too long to arrange anything, I have to write it out for G bugles then go back and transpose everything to multi key :ramd:

( sarcasm off )

[jwillis35]

I read the article and then read many of the responses, and I think this person summed it up well.

BlueCheese

posted 10/22/07 @ 8:16 AM MST

Lauren,

I found your article, and your conclusions to be ludicrous. What you are saying is that the Tiger band should preform at the same caliber as a DCI drum and bugle corps? Since you marched in Regiment, you know that DCI corps practice the same show for almost a year... the SAME SHOW. LSU's Tiger Band performs a different field show every game. They have less than a week to learn the music, and learn the steps for the show.

Also, you just can't compare the type of performance from the Tiger Band that you would from a DCI corps. The primary job of the Tiger Band is to get the crowd pumped for the football game. Football fans are not looking for the same type of entertainment that fans of DCI are looking for. Football fans want tradition. They want to hear the Pregame song 100 times in a game. They want to see the Band and Golden Girls looking the same every year.

There is a reason why the Tiger Band is voted as the most entertaining college band every year. It is because the do NOT emulate DCI. DCI is great for lovers of extreme marching bands, but it just doesn't translate well into a college football atmosphere. And yes, I marched in highschool band, and in a Division Corps.. so I know a little about the subject.

So please, in the future, keep your opinions to yourself... all you are serving to do is confuse the issue.

As a college band director who loves drum corps, all I can say is this young lady may have meant well, and she probably has a point with uniforms and some of the traditions. I have often thought that many college marching bands look a bit out-of-date and perhaps stuck in the 70s or 80s. And not all traditions are worth saving forever. Sometimes it is good to move forward and give the students and fans new things to grab onto.

However, having said that, you cannot compare the two (drum corps and college marching band). Most college bands do more than one show, we have MUCH less time to learn everything (I get one week for camp to learn the 1st show plus pregame). Once school starts we meet for 50 minutes a day, and the bigger schools may meet 2 hours per day, but that is nothing to the 12 + hours per day that corps put in at camps and in the spring and summer. We have far less staff (myself, a percussion guy, and flag and majorette advisers). A corps may have upwards of 30 staff members. Not to mention that the atmosphere is quite different, so yes, she was way off base and probably should have clarified herself better. Had she just stuck to the uniforms and the image of college bands without it being super offensive I might have been inclined to agree (a little), but as it is she is way off base.

JW

Edited October 26, 2007 by jwillis35

[MikeD]

I can send you the stock arrangement of On Broadway, that way I can say I can't put my hands on it and it's out of print so I don't have to play it again.

:P

Thanks! I may take you up on that!

My favorite with the horse was doing the intro and going directly to the ending just to #### off the cheerleaders. ( I have to put them on the field at halftime and they can never find the right yardline )

The bands favorite cheer is 2 bits 4 bits 6 bits a half, those who can't find a yardline, stand up and laugh.

:P

This will be for their basketball pep band...only a dozen or so members.

Typical shorts:

Horn Go

Blue Funk

Go big Blue

Land of 1000 dances

Mars

Imperial March

For a fumble recovery - The Merry Go Round Broke Down

Let me know what tunes you're looking for and I might have them to send you.

I think I still have the Budwiser " Here comes the King" tune.

Thanks!

I still have some of the old " State of the Art " arrangements like La surta del a tontas ( it's been a long time since we played it so I don't remember the spelling )

I have many of the old great Larry K arrangements.

Yes, we at the HS have a few of those old 70's pseudo-Spanish tunes. The one our kids love to play is called "Mirada". I cringe whenever they start it! :)

I'm looking for an arrangement of "Push It" by salt n peppa, I can't even find a midi file of it to open in Finale.

If I run across one I'll let you know. Not sure how many tunes the guy wants me to arrange.

Yesterday we read through Brazil to do for a concert / dance line tune ( we are doing The way we were /Malaguena for the alumni game in two weeks )and the kids complained that it was elevator music...................

b**bs

On a side note: I HATE bands that play back at each other with the same tune so I try NOT to do it unless someone irks me. It was a game where we were the visitors and the home band played the second to worst National Anthem I have ever heard. In the second quarter they decide to play a tune back at us so I stood the band up and played the first 3 measures of Star Spangled Banner back at them.

The teams all looked up, everyone looked at us and when they realized what we were doing, most people in the stands applauded.................the other band was pretty quiet most of the game.

:P

Pretty funny. I hate that too. We are small, so we can never win a volume contest...but then it often deteriorates further into a tempo contest, and our kids are good players, so they usually 'win' that one.

[MikeD]

Dang it, I bought the score book for that on Ebay this past summker and forgot I have it....................................somewhere under the piles of papers in my office.

Hey Mike, do a "short" of Push It and I'll buy it. It takes me too long to arrange anything, I have to write it out for G bugles then go back and transpose everything to multi key :ramd:

( sarcasm off )

If I do it I'll just give it to you.

[Piper]

Going back to the original topic, I agree that it's apples and oranges. The Drum Corps culture is a lot different. I've seen a lot of talented high school and college band kids take the plunge into the Drum Corps world (rookies if you will) and were surprised that the intensity is cranked up so high. Most of them make it, but some of them have to go through what the sporting world calls "jock shock".

[GMKuzma]

On a side note: I HATE bands that play back at each other with the same tune so I try NOT to do it unless someone irks me. It was a game where we were the visitors and the home band played the second to worst National Anthem I have ever heard. In the second quarter they decide to play a tune back at us so I stood the band up and played the first 3 measures of Star Spangled Banner back at them.

The teams all looked up, everyone looked at us and when they realized what we were doing, most people in the stands applauded.................the other band was pretty quiet most of the game.

That's interesting. I've also seen that happen down here in Texas at a few football games. But, I have yet to see a band play the National Anthem back at the home band. That must have been quite a moment...wish I could have seen that!

-GM

[LAMystreaux]

On a side note: I HATE bands that play back at each other with the same tune so I try NOT to do it unless someone irks me. It was a game where we were the visitors and the home band played the second to worst National Anthem I have ever heard. In the second quarter they decide to play a tune back at us so I stood the band up and played the first 3 measures of Star Spangled Banner back at them.

The teams all looked up, everyone looked at us and when they realized what we were doing, most people in the stands applauded.................the other band was pretty quiet most of the game.

Now that took some balls. Awesome!

[GMKuzma]

This just makes all people who march corps look bad, IMO. The notion that all corps people have big heads and want everything to be like corps comes out in full force in this article. I showed my boyfriend this article (he has the same idea of corps people, that they want to make corps style the standard in all bands) and he was disgusted. One of the reasons he is not friends with a few corps members of our band is because they act and talk just like this person, and we all know that the grand majority of DCI alums do not act like this ... I'm sure LSU people would be pretty ticked to see a change in their programs.

What gave her the right to write this article anyhow? I'm geniunely curious, it's kind of a random topic.

I agree. She wrote a story and got burned. At least she wrote a response to it and tried to explain why she said what she did.

I can understand where's she's coming from as someone with a lot of competitive performance background. However, her inability to articulate her feelings about "moderinizing" college marching band drew a foul from the LSU faithful.

Hopefully, she'll live and learn (especially if she continues to write for media in the future).

-GM