TubeNet

That wasn't difficult to find. The article appeared in Sports Illustrated. Here:

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ ... /index.htm

Pretty good article, but if I were the editor I would have lightened up on the alliterations a bit!

The best euphonium players know the same euphoria experienced by elite athletes

- Ick!

Here is a slightly different article on what is happening in a totally different "School of Brass Bands"
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/arts/music/09kun.html
and even further out:
http://www.extra-action.com/_spin/spin1.jpg and http://www.extra-action.com/_spin/spin2.jpg

(don't worry - there is a picture of a Helicon in one of those links ;-)

tubahead wrote:I thought the Sports Illustrated article was oddly condescending. snip...

What does anybody think about the other two articles I linked? They are having nothing to do with college marching bands (other than being a reaction to them, in a way - maybe a bit of parody?) nor the big dollars associated with them.

Anyway, I will be Tivoing the commercial free version of the Rose Parade and I hope the commentators will eventually learn to STFU during the marching band performances, but I have a feeling it will be same as it ever was...
(has there ever been a Rose Parade coverage with sounds but no commentators? Maybe just a text crawl at the bottom of the screen announcing the name of the band or float and the number of flower petals used? I would probably pay extra for that!) Put it on C-SPAN!

tubahead wrote:and yes, it takes the same amount of skill, determination, practice, and dedication to be the best damn band in the world as it does to be portrayed on Friday Night Lights...

I really hope you were just exaggerating to make a point, and don't really believe this is true. Nearly every college band has some sort of "best" slogan attached to them...I find that troubling, since so many in the band activity proclaim it as an "art" and "non-competitive" (which is a point-of-view I completely agree with). Best damn band in the world? You may as well convince me which hot dog is best (see related thread)...eye of the beholder, folks.

"Drumline" the movie was entertaining, but there were enough ridiculous band-related elements in it to make it laughable sometimes. Sorry, but the center snare player just isn't that important. A snare solo at the end of a drum feature that consists of a press roll...wow, I'd be nervous, too. The way the protagonist came up with his "miracle cadence" made no sense at all. And that P1, P2, P3, P4 stuff...can you imagine how much time these "challenges" after rehearsal would take ("Excuse me, Dr. Lee...")? And your spot in the band rests on 20 seconds of dancing and quarter notes on the bass drum? Crazy stuff, and completely unrealistic.

Rah, rah, marching band is all well and good, but you can't seriously compare it to top-level athletics. At all. The SI article was tongue-in-cheek; and, when considered in that light, done quite well.

Sorry if I burst anyone's bubble...just my opinion, after all.

tubahead wrote:Of course it was all tongue-in-cheek, that's what I had a problem with. I think I'm pretty easy-going, but attitudes like this from within and without our community make articles like this all the more frustrating. How can musicians expect to be taken seriously (any type of musician) if we don't take ourselves seriously?

It's not that I don't take marching band seriously...far from it. I just think it's ridiculous to compare the amount of work required to be an outstanding athlete versus an outstanding marching band member...not even close, in my opinion. Anyone who has been involved in both understands that, and it doesn't "help the cause" of bettering the perception of marching bands and band members in the general public by making comparisons like that. Rather, to some, it makes marching band folks look like whiners.

By expressing that opinion, I don't think it belittles the marching activity or the bandsmen in it...I think it's just a matter of perspective. I understand that many people in the marching band activity feel ridiculed and "put-down" even though they have a high level of commitment and dedication...but who cares about people who think that way about bands anyhow? Doing your best and really polishing a show should be its own reward.

tubahead wrote:And I do think that one of the points of the article is that these bands have moved away from non-competitive and "art" and are now considered sports themselves.

Marching band as sport? I hope not. Sports are, by definition, competitive in an objective way...score more points, run faster, throw farther, etc. You can tell me that the Wisconsin marching band (for example) is better than the Michigan band, but you're going to have a difficult time proving it. When their football teams play, it's decided by an objective means. Trying to slot marching band into a competitive activity is, to me, a waste of effort. Entertainment and education (not necessarily in that order) should be the focus.

A spirited, polite discussion so far. Any other views on this?

I don't really like the idea of comparing one college band to another. To me it seems masturbatory, (no one cares except those doing the comparing). I also don't like comparing music to sports. I think music should be music and sports should be sports, apples and oranges if you will.

now to return to lurking and High Life

Todd S. Malicoate wrote:Marching band as sport? I hope not. Sports are, by definition, competitive in an objective way...score more points, run faster, throw farther, etc. You can tell me that the Wisconsin marching band (for example) is better than the Michigan band, but you're going to have a difficult time proving it. When their football teams play, it's decided by an objective means. Trying to slot marching band into a competitive activity is, to me, a waste of effort. Entertainment and education (not necessarily in that order) should be the focus.

I wholeheartedly agree with you, however this seems to be the trend these days. At least it is true with high school bands in Texas. There are multiple contests of this type taking place every Saturday in October. Many schools compete in more than one per Saturday. I neither agree with, nor understand this trend. I sometimes think that high school band directors are their own worst enemy.

While looking for something else, I found this 1999 article about the University of Hawaii Sousaphone section - kinda interesting (if a bit basic)
http://archives.starbulletin.com/1999/1 ... tory1.html

TubaRay wrote:I wholeheartedly agree with you, however this seems to be the trend these days. At least it is true with high school bands in Texas. There are multiple contests of this type taking place every Saturday in October. Many schools compete in more than one per Saturday. I neither agree with, nor understand this trend. I sometimes think that high school band directors are their own worst enemy.

This is definitely a big problem with many music programs today. Many band directors spend the entire first half of the school year on marching music only. Excuse me if I'm being ignorant, but aren't the students supposed to be learning real music, and not that watered down marching crud? Let alone the fact that mellophones, sousaphones, and drummers are playing on entirely different instruments. This just doesn't seem fair to the aspiring musicians.

TubaRay wrote:I wholeheartedly agree with you, however this seems to be the trend these days. At least it is true with high school bands in Texas. There are multiple contests of this type taking place every Saturday in October. Many schools compete in more than one per Saturday. I neither agree with, nor understand this trend. I sometimes think that high school band directors are their own worst enemy.

This is possibly more than true. It may indeed be an axiom. The best (in terms of generating actual musicians) band directors, in my experience, did just enough in regards to marching band. They would do the games and maybe the end of the year contest with the local bands, but no more. The marching music went away after about the second week of school. If they had a band camp, it was one week long and maybe 3-4 hours per day. It is common to see students doing two weeks of camp for 8 hours a day. I was once employed to do sectionals for one of these types of bands, and the overall skill of the players was extremely low, yet their own ego/sense of ability was hysterically high.

It seems many of these band directors get caught up in the trend of the competition, satisfied with 70 hour weeks (for 35 hour pay), students who are underdeveloped musically, and students who are driven by a numerical score.

bloke wrote:I did not click on any of the links nor read any of the articles, snip

Actually, the articles I linked had almost nothing to do with the issues of College or High School marching bands - but they are related.

Come on, take a chance ;-)

I have never ever understood the whole marching band competition thing.

I have always viewed marching band as a kind of group performance art. At football games, the goal is to entertain the fans. Both during the game, and during the scheduled breaks in the action. For parades, the goal is to enterain folks along the route of the parade. Coordinated marching, and solid musical playing feed that goal of entertainment. obsession about lines, and such does not.