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SOTOGAB

lokisapocalypse said:
Ah yes, our annual complain about the band thread. It's very easy to sit in your seats, point at the band and say you guys need to be bigger.

The fact is that being a part of the band is a very thankless job. 95% of people outside of the band don't really care about us. We spend 12 hours a week including 8 hours on game day only for most people to either go to the bathroom or concession stand when we do our halftime show.

Not to mention that most of the perks of being in the band have dried up. When I was a junior, we traveled to Boston for the BC game. I think most of the band went because we just wanted to go to Boston. But even then, the athletic department started reducing the budget so that we couldn't go to every away game any more. Also, I'm not a student any more so people aren't flocking to join the band just so they can hang out with me.

The idea of having students switch instruments always gets brought up and there is a few reasons why it's not a good idea:

1) Ron Wellman had it too.

2) It's not easy to switch from a woodwind to a brass instrument. I took a class in grad school where I learned to play a brass instrument. I actually took it twice because it was fun. But at best, I would be a terrible trumpet player. We might be louder, but we'll sound terrible.

The only ways this problem gets addressed is what's already been mentioned: open up the student info so the band directors can reach out before school started, provide more incentives for students to be a part of the band, give more course credit. I did 7 semesters of band when I was an undergrad. I didn't understand why that didn't count for my music requirement. I don't think it would be unreasonable to allow for students that do band for two or three years to have that count as their music /arts requirement.

The biggest issue though is enrollment. Small enrollment = small band. Here are some numbers.

Wake undergrad enrollment: 5441
Wake band size: 70
% of students in band: 1.2%

Pitt undergrad enrollment: 19197
Pitt band size: 300
% of students in band: 1.5%
Click to expand...

So we should reasonable expect at least 16 more band members. I don’t think anyone is suggesting it’s easy or cheap to grow the band. The enrollment argument is tough to make when Wake has significantly more students now than when most posters were in school. I think it also has a lot to do with the rigors of Wake and competition for time.
 
Deacfreak07 said:
So we should reasonable expect at least 16 more band members. I don’t think anyone is suggesting it’s easy or cheap to grow the band. The enrollment argument is tough to make when Wake has significantly more students now than when most posters were in school. I think it also has a lot to do with the rigors of Wake and competition for time.
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Back before the SOTOGAB, when it was just the WFU marching band, there were 96 instruments marching. Plus the band front of flags etc. That from a student body of about 2700. It's not just numbers. There have to be other things at work.
 
Pitt's band seemed absolutely massive as compared to other schools we've played
 
I didn't give two squats about the band when I was younger, but having a stepson who is in his HS marching band has been an eye opener. The time commitment required for marching band, even if you're the last chair on the shittiest band, is just insane. I was a two sport varsity letterman in HS, and he spends more time doing band shit than I did with sports. Practice before school and often after as well, not including the class time. Football games every Friday. Band competitions. Individual tryouts for district/region/etc... I can only imagine that it's worse at the college level, even at a school like Wake where the perks are supposedly few and far between.
 
BarcaDeac said:
Pitt's band seemed absolutely massive as compared to other schools we've played
Click to expand...

Clemson and NC State are roughly equivalent

re: enrollment growth, a decent percentage of WF's increased undergrad enrollment comes from overseas. There is not a large marching band pipeline from China to the US.

I was in the band my freshman year, a long time ago. The WF band was probably double the size that it is now, and still way smaller and not as good as my high school marching band. The WF band at the time was probably 50+% freshmen, most of whom then left for a variety of reasons, including the one I just mentioned, a lot of work for little short-term payoff, and lack of excitement for the projected long-term payoff of playing in the pep band at the ACC tournament (when was the last time the ACC/NCAA tournament was fun for a WF fan?)

If WF could get 70% of high school marching band members to enroll in SOTOGAB, and 70% of them to stick around, that would be a decent sized band. Good luck with that.
 
If we can't significantly increase numbers (like 50%+) then I agree with a few in this thread that we should scrap the band. It would be sad, but not as sad as how much time and effort the current participants are putting forth to produce a product that is basically a laughing stock.
 
Let's have a one on one competition with the Rice band
search
 
EatLeadCommie said:
I didn't give two squats about the band when I was younger, but having a stepson who is in his HS marching band has been an eye opener. The time commitment required for marching band, even if you're the last chair on the shittiest band, is just insane. I was a two sport varsity letterman in HS, and he spends more time doing band shit than I did with sports. Practice before school and often after as well, not including the class time. Football games every Friday. Band competitions. Individual tryouts for district/region/etc... I can only imagine that it's worse at the college level, even at a school like Wake where the perks are supposedly few and far between.
Click to expand...

It’s not even close to serious HS marching band rigors in college. The time commitment is really not that bad. I think we came back to campus a week or so early in the summer. A couple hours a week during the season for practices. 4 hrs early on game days was kind of tough for 12pm games but if you’re going to the games anyway you’d be there close to that early. If folks reading this are concerned about joining for time reasons, please reconsider.
 
Also I remember being contacted the summer before freshman year by a few folks from the band and that got me to join. If I waited to get to school to even think about doing it and got caught up in other things it might not have happened. If the admin is no longer giving the staff the tools to do that recruiting that is a major hit.
 
It definitely caught my attention that

1 - our band seemed really small, even in comparison to other away games this year?

2 - Pitt's band seemed disproportionately huge compared to what I would expect

From what is being described here, the incentives aren't strong enough. Some combination of class credit, scholarship dollars and better freshmen recruiting seems like the focus first. If that doesn't make a difference, then I would go more drastic routes like trying to get other schools involved.

I have confidence this will be addressed on some level given many of the other improvements we have seen under Currie so far. Having a good band is a massive part of the college sports experience.
 
Well said, Paddy. It’s worth it to have a good large band.
 
Do you really think UNCG students would spend 1.5 hours in commute time, 3 times a week, to come over here to march in our band? It has been offered before, and over the years, TWO students from UNCG joined SOTOGAB. One big problem is that UNCG performance ensembles all meet in the afternoon, the same time as SOTOGAB rehearsal.
 
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Minideac said:
Hey, I still have a couple of years of eligibility! Let me get my chops back and I can be the white haired trumpet player!

Having been in both high school and college bands, I know they work hard but man, can they do a different show? They've been doing the "Billy Joel played here" show for at least a couple of years, maybe three (not counting last year, of course.)
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Actually, no. The first time was four years ago, when BJ did the concert at BB&T Field. It came up again this year because the band seniors wanted to do it again.
 
I'm curious, does the experience of the students who do stay in band for four years matters? Those band members love band, love Wake, and go on to be great fans. They find their "people" at Wake through band. If they love the activity, does that matter at all to the "scrap it" folks? I'm assuming, no.
 
DeaconJoe said:
I'm curious, does the experience of the students who do stay in band for four years matters? Those band members love band, love Wake, and go on to be great fans. They find their "people" at Wake through band. If they love the activity, does that matter at all to the "scrap it" folks? I'm assuming, no.
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I’m not in the scrap it boat but something needs to be done if they are going to continue to be a marching band. They are fine for bball games where you can hear them. I guess they are ok in the stands at football games (even though I can’t hear them). There legitimately are not enough of them to march on the field though.
 
I don't care enough about the band to read this thread. Are there really a lot of people who think this is important? Use that money to give us some more soccer scholarships. Play the alma mater over the PA system.
 
Demonbeck said:
I don't care enough about the band to read this thread. Are there really a lot of people who think this is important? Use that money to give us some more soccer scholarships. Play the alma mater over the PA system.
Click to expand...

It matters for Championship games and bowl games when the band is on TV representing Wake.
 
Demonbeck said:
I don't care enough about the band to read this thread. Are there really a lot of people who think this is important? Use that money to give us some more soccer scholarships. Play the alma mater over the PA system.
Click to expand...

Many more Wake fans see the band than will ever see soccer, tbh. I love what we are doing in soccer, its not really a fair comparison to football and basketball.
 
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