SOTOGAB

[Deac83]

In the pre-game both bands were on the field together. Sent a picture to my wife, she thought I was talking about the Pitt band for comparison when I said 'we need a bigger band'.

It's just factual that the Pitt band took up nearly 3 full sections and ours took up about 3/4 of one.

When the Pitt band played you could hear it above the crowd. When our band played you couldn't really make it out in the midfield sections. And if Pitt's band started playing at the same time, which they did at least once (is that ok?) we were completely drowned out.

Plain and simple if you want your band to fire up the crowd, it has to be big enough to be heard, especially in a bowl game.

Side note, I guess Sweet Caroline is a 'Pitt song' and ours is Eurithmics Sweet Dreams are made of these. I notice they would have one schools name showing when a particular song was playing. They cut off Sweet Caroline (Pitt showing on the rim display) and then switched to Wake for Erithmics. Is it a thing? The Pitt side was pretty darned fired up for Sweet Caroline.

 

[ChaosDeac]

You just cannot switch instruments on people since they A) likely don't know the other one, and B) don't want to it either, but if WF is going to be constrained by numbers, it really needs to figure out a way to get the most bang for the buck with the instruments. Smaller woodwinds like flutes and clarinets are a nice compliment with sufficient band size but those instruments are quite lacking compared to drums and bigger brass when size is an issue.

 

[deacdixieboy]

Another humorous thing from last night is that they called that the Pitt Varsity band meaning that’s not even all of them.

 

[SeaMonster]

Hire a band.

 

[WakeForestRanger]

I think the band should break from the “ marching band” thing, and do basically performance theatre. Be irreverent and out of the mold

That sounds like the awful, awful stuff that UVA and Stanford used to do.

 

[ipitytheblue]

Give em all drums and do some creative percussion productions

 

[PhDeac]

I always thought Wake should work out a deal with WSSU to combine band forces. Maybe NCA&T, too.

That’s like WSSU and A&T asking Wake to join college basketball forces. No offense to our band. It’s just a different level.

 

[Minideac]

Yeah y’all. The band used to be 2x (or more) the size it is now when the student body was smaller by about 1000 people. I think SoCal let’s community members be a part of the band. It may be time for us to do the same. I agree that last night was embarrassing. We should’ve invited WSSU or UNC-C to join.

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.)

 

[deacdixieboy]

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.)

I only know that that’s the show because of the announcers telling us that. I couldn’t hear them at any game all year.

 

[AlphaDeac]

That sounds like the awful, awful stuff that UVA and Stanford used to do.

When UVa's band (Marching Chowder Society was part of the name) did halftime shows, people stayed in their seats because the band was better than the football team. Irreverent and funny and really pushed the envelope. They got West Va. fans all fired up one year for doing stuff about hillbillies and cousins intermarrying. One year when Hoos had Ralph Sampson and Georgetown had Patrick Ewing, those two teams met in the early season. A month or so before the game, at a football halftime, the UVa band formed the letters S A T on the field, but with the S backwards, and the narrator asked "And Patrick Ewing, how do you spell S-A-T?" That caused a bit of a reaction. Anyway, love 'em or hate 'em, people talked about them and UVa fans loved the halftime shows. But the Virginia administration got tired of the constant controversies and bad press and pulled the plug on them. In today's world where people think they have a right to not be offended, there's no way such a group could exist.

 

[Shake]

UNCG has a top 5 music department in the the country but no football team

Wake no music department and a football team

It’s worth a discussion and we might add 75 band members for home games

 

[deacdixieboy]

UNCG has a top 5 music department in the the country but no football team

Wake no music department and a football team

It’s worth a discussion and we might add 75 band members for home games

Good idea! I nominate Shake to make this happen.

 

[PhDeac]

When UVa's band (Marching Chowder Society was part of the name) did halftime shows, people stayed in their seats because the band was better than the football team. Irreverent and funny and really pushed the envelope. They got West Va. fans all fired up one year for doing stuff about hillbillies and cousins intermarrying. One year when Hoos had Ralph Sampson and Georgetown had Patrick Ewing, those two teams met in the early season. A month or so before the game, at a football halftime, the UVa band formed the letters S A T on the field, but with the S backwards, and the narrator asked "And Patrick Ewing, how do you spell S-A-T?" That caused a bit of a reaction. Anyway, love 'em or hate 'em, people talked about them and UVa fans loved the halftime shows. But the Virginia administration got tired of the constant controversies and bad press and pulled the plug on them. In today's world where people think they have a right to not be offended, there's no way such a group could exist.

There are plenty of comedy groups in 2021 America. But yeah, a school sponsored group that did lowest common denominator stereotype jokes wouldn’t fly. I hope people wouldn’t think either of those was funny.

UNCG has a top 5 music department in the the country but no football team

Wake no music department and a football team

It’s worth a discussion and we might add 75 band members for home games

That makes sense. It would help both schools. UNCG could be more competitive for undergrads who want to do marching band and maybe convince some Wake music majors to go to their grad school. The practice schedule may be tough though especially when UNCG pep band starts up.

 

[WakeForestRanger]

When UVa's band (Marching Chowder Society was part of the name) did halftime shows, people stayed in their seats because the band was better than the football team. Irreverent and funny and really pushed the envelope. They got West Va. fans all fired up one year for doing stuff about hillbillies and cousins intermarrying. One year when Hoos had Ralph Sampson and Georgetown had Patrick Ewing, those two teams met in the early season. A month or so before the game, at a football halftime, the UVa band formed the letters S A T on the field, but with the S backwards, and the narrator asked "And Patrick Ewing, how do you spell S-A-T?" That caused a bit of a reaction. Anyway, love 'em or hate 'em, people talked about them and UVa fans loved the halftime shows. But the Virginia administration got tired of the constant controversies and bad press and pulled the plug on them. In today's world where people think they have a right to not be offended, there's no way such a group could exist.

Like I said, they were terrible.

 

[WakeForestRanger]

UNCG has a top 5 music department in the the country but no football team

Wake no music department and a football team

It’s worth a discussion and we might add 75 band members for home games

This has always seemed like the best solution to me.

 

[birdman]

I haven’t read the whole thread so maybe it’s already been said, but, lots of the big schools with great bands actually recruit and have scholarship money for marching band. (I don’t know about Pitt specifically.) They usually hold tryouts and people don’t make the band. Wake’s band takes anyone that they can get and they have very little funding. There is really no comparison.

 

[tsywake]

It IS nuts...Let me clarify: the administration no longer provides the information that identifies prospective band members. If there were a list, the students would be contacted. No list = wait until the student inquires about band membership.

Wasn't there a change 15 or so years ago in the way credits were attributed to the classes as well? We had credits for marching and concert band, but I thought I remember hearing it switched to an elective or something like that?

 

[lokisapocalypse]

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%

 

[lokisapocalypse]

That’s like WSSU and A&T asking Wake to join college basketball forces. No offense to our band. It’s just a different level.

It's absolutely a different level. There was a game where we played A&T at home when I was at Wake where we let A&T perform at half time. It was really cool to watch.

 

[Biff Tannen]

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%

Thanks for all the excuses/reasons. This band is completely inadequate for a college football game setting. It's not even audible in the stands and it's headed downhill. Our enrollment is not interested. It's not worth spending millions of dollars to try to increase the numbers. Scrap it.