damn!! Okay...why doesnt our half time show look anything like those bands!!


We have the talent and numbers to do something like what im seeing on tv...but maybe the director doesn't have the same skills as the director of those bands on that Drum Corps Competition.


Even though its a marching band competition..it's impressive to watch.

9/5/2006 8:27:29 PM

there is a huge difference from our band to DCI organizations

9/5/2006 8:30:04 PM

Yeah our flag girls dont look like that!!.....


ecplain more as to what you were referring to when you said "DCI"...?

9/5/2006 8:31:24 PM

Deez Crazy Instruments

9/5/2006 8:37:27 PM

DCI = Drum Corps International. There are no woodwinds in DCI which kind of sucks.

9/5/2006 8:40:01 PM

Damn...well Im out then b/c I used to play saxophone & clarinet.

9/5/2006 8:43:19 PM

There are no woodwinds in DCI which kind of sucks. makes a lot of sense

9/5/2006 8:50:57 PM

^Exactly.

And the reason our band (btw, those arent bands) doesnt look like any of those is because they dont do 15 hour rehearsal days and perform almost every night all summer. If you do drum corps, you live and breath it for 3 months....its your life, there is nothing outside of it. I did it for 3 years (hence the "contra" in my username), and youre pretty much in another world for that period of time....all you do is rehearse, perform, travel, rehearse, perform, occasionally sleep, rehearse.

One thing our band could do to at least make a step in that direction is pick one good show and stick with it all season, rather than attempting to learn a new show every other week and never getting it to the point where its actually entertaining.

9/5/2006 10:12:12 PM

or make a weight limit and start a true music program at the school......

9/5/2006 10:45:29 PM

or let them be able to read their music v. having to memorize it... half the time only half the band is playing, except for the fight song and the almamater... listen for yourself... with the size of our band it should be much much louder...

oh and that stuff was AWESOME... sounded sweeeet in 5.1 surround...

9/5/2006 11:34:07 PM

^You cant perform worth a damn if you have to use a damn lyre....again, one show, easy to memorize music.

9/5/2006 11:51:37 PM

Quote :

"You cant perform worth a damn if you have to use a damn lyre....again, one show, easy to memorize music."

no shit

marching and reading music at the same time would be a disaster
someone would get hurt

9/6/2006 9:10:28 AM

anyone dvr it or anything id love to watch that competition

9/6/2006 9:51:31 AM

cos we're not black enough... you can take that as a racist comment if you'd like, but all black bands know how to get down... 'sall dey iz to it...

9/6/2006 10:44:07 AM

i heard one time at coach camp, amato stuck a flute up bunting's pussy

9/6/2006 10:49:23 AM

^ shoulda said I heard one time at coach camp amato stuck a whistle up bunting's pussy... but since you didnt I heard one time at coach camp amato was doing jumping jacks and he hit himself in the face with his man boobs.

[Edited on September 6, 2006 at 1:29 PM. Reason : ]

9/6/2006 1:28:42 PM

Quote :

"We have the talent and numbers to do something like what im seeing on tv...but maybe the director doesn't have the same skills as the director of those bands on that Drum Corps Competition."

We don't have the talent to perform at the DCI level. The DCI corps draw the very best from around the county. In contrast, the NCSU marching band will take just about anyone they can. Not to hate on the NCSU band or anything, but they don't pull from a big enough population to be selective enough to put a band together with that kind of talent. Add in the fact that NCSU doesn't have a music major program that will typically attract DCI level players. With DCI, you're looking at the top 0.001% of talent in the nation. They even draw in talent internationally The NCSU band driector is decent, but you need to start with more raw talent to perform at the DCI level.

If you want to see something neat (well, better than NCSU's band), take a look at ECUs marching band. They are composed of between 25-50% DCI regulars. My younger brother plays on the ECU drumline. He didn't get to march snare drum this year because the entire ECU snare line came from DCI corps that placed in the top 5 at the DCI finals. My brother would make almost any other college snare line in the country. He's hoping to march DCI this summer if our folks will pay for it.

9/6/2006 2:17:12 PM

Hey Darkone: that's impressive man..what show is ECU doing this season....and do you know if they'll be bringing their band to Carter Finley when we play them at the end of the season?


-Corey

9/6/2006 4:16:14 PM

if colleges competed the marching bands would be decent

but they dont, so no one cares

9/6/2006 4:32:48 PM

^^ I don't know what their program is . I can ask though. Checking their website might get you aanswers quicker. I know their. Their band is supposed to come to the NCSU/ECU football game, but I dont' know if they'll march.

9/6/2006 4:58:56 PM

dci is some really impressive stuff. i watched the end of it last night.

we don't march with music because if you're forced to memorize, you'll play more confidently and will sound better and be able to concentrate more on marching. that's the goal anyway.

we do more than one show because however many thousand people who sit in the stands and actually watch half time would get pretty bored after about the 3rd game. I'm sure less than 5 people would actually note any improvements anyway. and then we'd get bashed for being "repetative" and "simple" or something. The only reason high school bands do season-long shows is that they're essentially using football games as dress rehersals for competition. (same with dci and touring.)

if we practiced more...not quite the 15-hour-days of dci...and had a music program, yeah, we'd be a whole lot better. sort of like the university/athletics' recruiting efforts of bettering facilities (campus, stadium) the music department needs a total overhaul for us to draw in more talent and support. on a final note (heh) we do practice 2 hours a day, 3 times a week. plus a solid week of band camp, weekly sectionals, and about 7 complete saturdays. how many other classes of that volume do you take that give only ONE credit hour. pitiful.

[Edited on September 7, 2006 at 2:19 AM. Reason : ,]

9/7/2006 2:17:39 AM

band is serious business

9/7/2006 2:54:04 AM

^^Completely disagree. Design an entertaining show and people will want to see it more than once. People get bored because you guys play the same old stuff all the time, and its not even good stuff. I know Ive heard the theme from Indiana Jones multiple times...sure its a great piece...in the movie. On the field, it sucks...it doesnt go anywhere. Picking some music that is actually fun and exciting will go along way to keeping people in their seats.

Practicing approximately the same amount of time as a college band, a high school band can put together an entertaining show thats probably a couple of minutes longer too. A college band can do the same if they focus on perfecting one show rather than learning new shows every week. I realize the talent level is not the same as what I might find at a school with a music program, but theres no reason State cant put an entertaining product on the field.

Question though, and lets be honest: since when does our band march? All they do is park and attempt to blow.

9/7/2006 6:54:09 AM

Quote :

"The only reason high school bands do season-long shows is that they're essentially using football games as dress rehersals for competition. (same with dci and touring.) "

My highschool had a competition show and new shows for football games

Quote :

"how many other classes of that volume do you take that give only ONE credit hour."

well i mean... its band. you dont really learn anything

[Edited on September 7, 2006 at 8:33 AM. Reason : .]

9/7/2006 8:32:15 AM

^^It would also be difficult to do one big show for the season since there are other things that go on during half time as well.
The Toni Masini presentation was just last week.

Not everybody in the world even cares about marching band, but you go out there and do your best. Somebody said it earlier- putting on a DCI caliber show would require more hours of rehearsal per week than some students have credit hours per semester.

We have the talent, but we do not have a music major. Although we sound and look better than ever, we are not a music school. The university does not put that much into the music dept; Dr. Garcia, and Dr. Fuller before him, had to work extremely hard just to get the band where it is today. It may be different in other places that have an actual music major, where you march as part of your degree, or at places where the school and 100% of the fans support the marching band.

As far as marching, stopping, and playing goes, you can get a better sound and concentrate entirely on play when you're not moving. It's just the way the drill was designed. It is possible to do more technical stuff, but again, with limited practice time, it's pointless.

I think the quality of the marching band will continue to improve as the attitudes toward the band continue to improve.

9/7/2006 9:34:32 AM

haha, no offense but you all do not have the talent

9/7/2006 9:47:01 AM

While running around at 200 clicks per second, my high school marching band was able to produce better sound than the NCSU marching band does when they park and blow. We practiced about 2 hours a day, 4 times a week. Saturday practices thrown in during the season, and one week of band camp. We weren't able to attract "specialized talent" - depended on the school district lines.

You could argue the two bands are pretty similar. Parking and blowing may allow you to concentrate better on playing... but doesn't mean the sound is better/louder. It takes the students practicing and a band director that is committed to making the sound better. As a trumpet player, we were forbidden to playing high notes if we cracked them. Sounds like a good policy for the NCSU band....

9/7/2006 11:52:55 AM

Wow...if people in this thread haven't just PISSED me off.....why the hell doesn't anyone at this school thatvis not associated with band understand that we don't have a music program. We're a bunch of engineers and other assorted majors who enjoy playing music and the thrill of performance. Sorry we can't meet your expectations. We perform multiple shows to keep interest level during half time. If we played the same show 7 times it would be completely redundant and fans would bitch even more than they do now.

9/7/2006 3:02:44 PM

Coming from someone who was in the marching badn while at State....ill answer/critique a couple of things posted earlier...


"Yes, there is ALOT of talent within the marching band"..HOWEVER i think with people doing it for the love of wanting to play....it only being a one credit hour class.....and frankly "GREAT seats to football and basketball..while getting to harass the away fan/band....make it ALL worth not hvaing to wait in any long as hell line for game tickets...

"In my high school, at J.H. Rose-we had a small power hours band of about 140 students, and we also had two main show...one for halftime and one for the 7 band competitions we went to..."such as Garner Band Day...Cary Band Day, etc....

"With the expansion of the ACC to 12 schools now, it would FUCKING AWESOME, if two weekends before there could be an Innaugural(check spelling) ACC Marching Band Competition...I bet you THEN the level of the halftime shows would SKY ROCKET through the roof..and then perhaps maybe the 1st, 2nd , and 3rd place bands could earn a monetary award from the conference, tv sponsor, or concessions/vendors etc. and have the funds directly go into music scholarships, travel expenses for the band, etc.....it would defintiely highlight the season before the big championship game! Just a thought....

9/7/2006 3:24:54 PM

So how's this for a solution...instead of being a military-marching-type band, make it a scatter band. NCSU would be the only one in the conference, and if I'm not mistaken, the only one in the southeast US. All you would have to learn is static formations every week. Might even get some good press.

9/7/2006 4:50:13 PM

e-mail our director with suggestions, guys. he's open to ideas, and some of your ideas sound pretty great.

paul_garcia@ncsu.edu

9/7/2006 6:27:26 PM

My mistake...Virginia has a scatter band. That's OK, though.

9/7/2006 8:19:51 PM