Great halftime show!

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Ski U Master

Ski U Master

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Kudos to the band for putting together a very entertaining halftime show on Halloween night, I really enjoyed it!
 

Thriller...

When MJ died I wondered if it would be "okay" for the Band to do their "Thriller" routine "this soon"...

Obviously, the answer was "yes."

I know other college FB marching bands do this too, but the UM Band's performance is very well done.

THANKS BAND!:clap:

Go Gophers! Beat Illinois!
 

It was awesome. Lots of fans talking about the show around me. One person who left to use the restroom was pissed they missed it.
 

Yes, the halftime show was great... one of the better ones I have seen. And, with a memory of "the best damn band in the land" fresh in my head from my trip to Columbus the previous week... I can also add that the UofM pregame routine is quite impressive. Everyone knows about "script Ohio" because OSU is always on national TV. But, from start to end the UofM pregame show is more impressive, more difficult, and offers its own super-cool tradition... rotating the M and marching it down the field.

The only thing that isn't up to par is way our band is so hard to hear. I know there are seats in the stadium that can hear them fine but overall you hear comments all the time about people not being able to hear them... especially when the crowd is loud and they are playing the rouser. I sit as close to the band as any non-student could, and I struggle to hear them when they are seated. Even on TV, you can always clearly hear the OSU band, Hail to the Victors, and other bands. I don't know if this is due to...

-all brass bands vs those with woodwinds
-mic locations (hearing the band on TV)
-that sunken pit our band has to perform in
-a little of all of the above
-something else

Regardless, it would be awesome to hear them better. They are second to none in quality and quantity, there just happens to be some factor(s) at play that aren't in play elsewhere (I could hear the OSU band like they were next to me, despite sitting on the exact opposite side of the stadium, waaaay up on C deck).
 

We are on the opposite side/home side. We get pretty frustrated that we can't hear the band well enough to know what part of the Rouser we should be at. It feels like 50% of the time we are off.
 


Band Volume

I'm part of the band. It is because of the pit. It channels our sound straight across the field.
 

Ski U Master said:
Kudos to the band for putting together a very entertaining halftime show on Halloween night, I really enjoyed it!
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I thought the band was GREAT on Sat. night..really got one of the biggest roars from the crowd I've ever heard. Now if only something could be done about getting the band to take a road trip and the lame pre-game stuff outside the stadium instead of something "memorable" , i'd be totally happy. Nice work on Saturday, band!
 

GoldenGopherSax said:
I'm part of the band. It is because of the pit. It channels our sound straight across the field.
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I'm sure this frustrates the band more than the fans (you guys do a great job and I'm sure you want to be heard).

Any thoughts on what the band leadership wants to do about this?
 

The answer is simple, get rid of the concrete walls surrounding the sides of the pit and widen the space from one tunnel to the other. Will the U do it? No idea. Will it be done this season? No. It would have to be in the offseason. Another idea is to elevate the band, but that would block the views of the students. Might not even need that it the walls are taken out
 



I'd like to see the band get more brass. They sound like they have about 30 t-bones and a hundred flutes. That might do the trick too.
 

How good is our band? I'm not being a jerk, I just honestly have no basis on which to evaluate them. They are the only halftime show I can remember viewing, so I'm just wondering what caliber of show am I watching. I hear all these stories about how great the BADger band is...are they true? I'm a little bored by the halftime shows (expect during the thriller dance...I look forward to that one every year) and I'm not sure if it's just not my thing, or our band is missing something. Please don't take my boredom the wrong way...I love the tradition of marching bands and never want to see them go away and I appreciate all the work you guys obviously put in.
 

GoAUpher said:
I'm sure this frustrates the band more than the fans (you guys do a great job and I'm sure you want to be heard).

Any thoughts on what the band leadership wants to do about this?
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I can assure you that the directors are cognizant of the complaints about sound quality/volume. There have been dozens more rotations in the halftime drills to make sure the band plays towards all parts of the stadium at some point during every show.

The band members that sit off to the side of the band pit have been instructed to play out towards the left and the right (depending on what side they sit on) instead of straight at the field as another attempt to help sound volume. Can't speak as to whether there are plans in place to change the band pit, but just know that efforts are ongoing to try and make sure the band is heard.

People have said this before, cutting woodwinds (Clarinets, Flutes, Saxs) does not equate to having more brass. The number of brass members in the band is the number of people that signed up in those given instruments. If there were a dozen more trumpets that wanted to be in the band, we'd have a dozen more trumpets.
 

GopherHomer said:
How good is our band? I'm not being a jerk, I just honestly have no basis on which to evaluate them. They are the only halftime show I can remember viewing, so I'm just wondering what caliber of show am I watching. I hear all these stories about how great the BADger band is...are they true? I'm a little bored by the halftime shows (expect during the thriller dance...I look forward to that one every year) and I'm not sure if it's just not my thing, or our band is missing something. Please don't take my boredom the wrong way...I love the tradition of marching bands and never want to see them go away and I appreciate all the work you guys obviously put in.
Click to expand...

IMO Minnesota Marching Band is pretty good. (disclaimer: I'm a band alum, and haven't personally seen all the bands). All the bands of the Big Ten are historically some of the best in the nation--Minnesota's band was definitely better than Virginia and Kansas' bands at the bowl games in 2005 and 2008, and I've heard similar stories of Big Ten bands showing up the "opposition" at bowl games.

If I had to rank the bands, I'd say Minnesota is somewhere in the #3-#5 range in the Big Ten. Ohio State and Michigan State are almost without a doubt the top two, and Michigan's probably a little bit better (and bigger). We're about on par with Purdue and Penn State's bands, and a little bit better than Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, and Northwestern.

Wisconsin's band is... special; they kind of do their own thing and don't care what anyone else thinks; it's one of those "you have to appreciate it for what it is" situations: they're pretty good at what they do, but not everyone likes it--a lot of Badger fans think their band is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that every other band is inferior, so that's probably a lot of what you've heard. (I personally don't care for it, but like I said, they're good at what they do)

Comparing bands is pretty hard, especially across conferences, where bands have vastly different styles. But, all the Big Ten bands are pretty similar in the grand scheme of things. What someone thinks of a band really depends on what you want out of them--Big Ten bands have a reputation for a lot of tradition and the "Big Ten High Step," whereas bands from the SEC and Big 12 usually only low step, but still put on a damn good show (Texas Tech was one of the best bands I have ever seen). ALL bands work extremely hard to do what they do, and, again, it really comes down to what you want to see a band do.

One of the things that's unique about the Minnesota Band is the end-of-year indoor concert (we were the first marching band in the nation to do it; tons of other bands have followed suit). The directors have the challenge of creating shows that are not only entertaining to the crowd at the game, but also make for a good sit down concert, given limited rehearsal time. Usually, a show will lend itself to one or the other (the Thriller show is obviously the former), but they try to get a good mix throughout the season.
 





Bonesaw said:
IMO Minnesota Marching Band is pretty good. (disclaimer: I'm a band alum, and haven't personally seen all the bands). All the bands of the Big Ten are historically some of the best in the nation--Minnesota's band was definitely better than Virginia and Kansas' bands at the bowl games in 2005 and 2008, and I've heard similar stories of Big Ten bands showing up the "opposition" at bowl games.

If I had to rank the bands, I'd say Minnesota is somewhere in the #3-#5 range in the Big Ten. Ohio State and Michigan State are almost without a doubt the top two, and Michigan's probably a little bit better (and bigger). We're about on par with Purdue and Penn State's bands, and a little bit better than Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, and Northwestern.

Wisconsin's band is... special; they kind of do their own thing and don't care what anyone else thinks; it's one of those "you have to appreciate it for what it is" situations: they're pretty good at what they do, but not everyone likes it--a lot of Badger fans think their band is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that every other band is inferior, so that's probably a lot of what you've heard. (I personally don't care for it, but like I said, they're good at what they do)

Comparing bands is pretty hard, especially across conferences, where bands have vastly different styles. But, all the Big Ten bands are pretty similar in the grand scheme of things. What someone thinks of a band really depends on what you want out of them--Big Ten bands have a reputation for a lot of tradition and the "Big Ten High Step," whereas bands from the SEC and Big 12 usually only low step, but still put on a damn good show (Texas Tech was one of the best bands I have ever seen). ALL bands work extremely hard to do what they do, and, again, it really comes down to what you want to see a band do.

One of the things that's unique about the Minnesota Band is the end-of-year indoor concert (we were the first marching band in the nation to do it; tons of other bands have followed suit). The directors have the challenge of creating shows that are not only entertaining to the crowd at the game, but also make for a good sit down concert, given limited rehearsal time. Usually, a show will lend itself to one or the other (the Thriller show is obviously the former), but they try to get a good mix throughout the season.
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I will add, in regarding your rankings, that Michigan's MB is much worse than the Gopher band. I went there very excited to hear and see the band that has such a proud reputation and was sorely disappointed. Their pregame show is basically marching the block M back and forth while playing different versions of "The Victors". In the stands they are equally as repetitive.
 

Getting rid of the concrete walls on the side would help most

Pushes sound forward instead of up and around when you sit on that side. Gopher band has one of the best pre-game routines in the Big 10 and it is not even close. Only places I have not road tripped to are MSU or Indiana but Indiana's band has come here a couple times. Band has a good sound just wish they could play a few more modern songs like you hear the California groups play,(UCLA comes to mind as being a group that get's the crowd going) Oh well, I know music rights cost money.
 

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