1) Play The Star Spangled Banner
2) Come up with an exciting pregame entrance and a cool signature move.
3) Reach out to Alumni, and parents,and local businesses to form the base of a strong booster club.
4)Have at least a pep band presence at Cal,Stanford,USC,& UCLA games.
5)Offer seminars to local high school band directors,help them with their drill,guard and drum lines.In other words a pipeline for recruiting especially drums and brass.
6) Find someone to be a full time arranger.
7) Embrace the historical and cultural diversity of Tucson.
8) Sit in the north end zone, so you don`t have to dash across the field after the tunnel for the team.
9) If you insist on having soloists,they should be miked.
10) Play a different show at every home game
11) Coordinate the drums with the cheerleaders at least on DEE-Fence chants.
12) Be ready to play the fight song when the team comes out for the second half!
The marching band should be one of the best revenue generaters on campus.Every campus related activity should be willing to pay the band to appear at their events.The band should be the most spirited group on campus,so the athletic department will choose to give the band travel money.Imagine going to the NCAA Playoffs without the pep band.The football team should feel the same way about away games.The USC Band has had a presence at every game , home and away since 1987!
The U of A is the only game in town! The Pride of Arizona should be a huge source of pride for this entire community!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
The Reason I Missed Band Day
October 30, 2010 was Homecoming at The University of Southern California,and a 40-year anniversary of Arthur C.Bartner becoming band director.So I had the opportunity to go to Los Angeles and participate in a 500+ piece alumni band.
We gathered on campus at 9:00am for rehearsal.Music for halftime and post-game was available earlier in the month,and down loadable,but we didn`t know which songs we were doing for halftime.As it turned out,we played "Tribute To Troy" marching on the field into all three choruses of "Fight On!" Now we march with a Big Ten Style High-Step,so these two songs, playing, and marching is pretty grueling for us old codgers! Then we played "Sing,Sing,Sing," "Tusk," & "Conquest," before we quick stepped off the field.So after a two hour practice,I went to my vehicle to grab my camera and proceeded to walk around the entire campus, taking pictures of all the new buildings.
Now there is something very special about USC on Game Day.The Campus only allows vehicles on the perimeter,and the vast majority is only open to foot traffic,set up to be very park-like.So about 50,00 people tailgate(more like picnic) all over campus until the marching band comes by, to lead everyone to The Coliseum.There was an amazing spread set up for band alumni.
Kickoff was not until 5:00pm,so there was tons of time to eat and socialize.We stepped off for the march to The Coliseum around 3:30pm.What a blast it was,marching to the stadium!!So we entered the stadium at the peristyle entrance (the arches under the Olympic Torch) and marched down the stairs,to field level, where we stowed our instruments until halftime.Then we took our seats to watch the current band play pregame.
A week earlier I attended The U of A`s Homecoming.I was really shocked when The Pride of Arizona didn`t play a pregame show.I know that if I was back at Homecoming,pregame would be one of the main attractions.I already knew that The U of A Band never does The National Anthem,which I find appalling,but why wouldn`t they do pregame? So at halftime they did their pregame show,and there was no alumni band.
So back to USC,we take our seats and watch the band play a 12 minute pregame show,complete with "America the Beautiful," and "The Star Spangled Banner."
There isn`t a cloud in the sky,and over 90,000 people are ready to give The #1 Ranked Ducks a bad time.
Just before halftime,the alumni band makes its way to the floor of the stadium to grab our instruments and prepare to take the field.First the current band goes on and plays a couple songs,then we take the field to do our 5 songs with them.It is hard to describe how great the rush is,being out there.It is so much fun and goes by really quickly.It seems like as soon as we are out there,we quickstep off the field and it is over.
For awhile in the 3rd quarter, it actually looks like we might pull off the upset.But even after the disappointing end to the game,several thousand people gathered to hear the band play a post game concert.So the final hurrah for the alumni band is the post game concert of about 8 songs.So around 10:00pm I made it back to my vehicle,thoroughly spent, but what a great day!!
We gathered on campus at 9:00am for rehearsal.Music for halftime and post-game was available earlier in the month,and down loadable,but we didn`t know which songs we were doing for halftime.As it turned out,we played "Tribute To Troy" marching on the field into all three choruses of "Fight On!" Now we march with a Big Ten Style High-Step,so these two songs, playing, and marching is pretty grueling for us old codgers! Then we played "Sing,Sing,Sing," "Tusk," & "Conquest," before we quick stepped off the field.So after a two hour practice,I went to my vehicle to grab my camera and proceeded to walk around the entire campus, taking pictures of all the new buildings.
Now there is something very special about USC on Game Day.The Campus only allows vehicles on the perimeter,and the vast majority is only open to foot traffic,set up to be very park-like.So about 50,00 people tailgate(more like picnic) all over campus until the marching band comes by, to lead everyone to The Coliseum.There was an amazing spread set up for band alumni.
Kickoff was not until 5:00pm,so there was tons of time to eat and socialize.We stepped off for the march to The Coliseum around 3:30pm.What a blast it was,marching to the stadium!!So we entered the stadium at the peristyle entrance (the arches under the Olympic Torch) and marched down the stairs,to field level, where we stowed our instruments until halftime.Then we took our seats to watch the current band play pregame.
A week earlier I attended The U of A`s Homecoming.I was really shocked when The Pride of Arizona didn`t play a pregame show.I know that if I was back at Homecoming,pregame would be one of the main attractions.I already knew that The U of A Band never does The National Anthem,which I find appalling,but why wouldn`t they do pregame? So at halftime they did their pregame show,and there was no alumni band.
So back to USC,we take our seats and watch the band play a 12 minute pregame show,complete with "America the Beautiful," and "The Star Spangled Banner."
There isn`t a cloud in the sky,and over 90,000 people are ready to give The #1 Ranked Ducks a bad time.
Just before halftime,the alumni band makes its way to the floor of the stadium to grab our instruments and prepare to take the field.First the current band goes on and plays a couple songs,then we take the field to do our 5 songs with them.It is hard to describe how great the rush is,being out there.It is so much fun and goes by really quickly.It seems like as soon as we are out there,we quickstep off the field and it is over.
For awhile in the 3rd quarter, it actually looks like we might pull off the upset.But even after the disappointing end to the game,several thousand people gathered to hear the band play a post game concert.So the final hurrah for the alumni band is the post game concert of about 8 songs.So around 10:00pm I made it back to my vehicle,thoroughly spent, but what a great day!!
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