Dear Band Director

[bandzip]

Well let me "constructively criticize" the music selection i heard today from the bands practice. "American Pie" is not an energetic song. I seriously almost fell asleep sitting there listening. Why can't we play something more exciting and upbeat?

Noted. We're doing a show to commemorate 50 years since the day the music died. American Pie will be performed right before the traditional America ending with all of the highschool bands playing too. It'll start slow just like the original (minus labout 5 verses) and then pick up from there.

[RootforRoo44]

Well let me "constructively criticize" the music selection i heard today from the bands practice. "American Pie" is not an energetic song. I seriously almost fell asleep sitting there listening. Why can't we play something more exciting and upbeat?

Noted. We're doing a show to commemorate 50 years since the day the music died. American Pie will be performed right before the traditional America ending with all of the highschool bands playing too. It'll start slow just like the original (minus labout 5 verses) and then pick up from there.

Well that makes it a bit more understandable. I just want ONE awesome loud/fast/pumpup song though.

[Big Zip]

Listen....if you want to play slow music then play in a concert band or something. Our band as good technically as they may be is boring and I too am sorry if I offend anyone. I really like Galen and think he is a great guy who loves his job, but song selection is average at best. I don't care if the music died 50 years ago -- maybe there is a reason the music died. There are lots of modern songs that will not offend the old people and will get the younger folks engaged. The band members really seem to enjoy themselves...you can tell when they are in the stands playing....but the minute they hit the field most of the time they appear to be sleep walking. Here is a question I have regarding bands maybe you can answer....I think everyone agrees the HBCU schools have the best bands...why is that...why not look to them for something to copy? Why do the eschew the "traditional" glide step or slide step or whatever...if it isn't boring? I'm at the game to have fun get amped up and excited don't bring me down. Please don't compare the band bringing it down to me going to a concert and the band doing the same....it simply isn't the same. The band should set a goal of making people want to see you....people looking forward to your show. People run for the exits and don't care and others don't hardly pay any attention. Have some fun!

[Zips DM]

...I think everyone agrees the HBCU schools have the best bands...

Not everybody.Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great HBCU bands out there... but it is a completely different style, and we will NEVER adopt that style here at Akron.2 things about HBCU bands, then Ill drop the subject.1: Keep in mind that they play for a much more homogeneous audience, thus playing music the audience likes is a bit less complicated.2: None of us band members are physically capable of producing the volume and endurance required for a HBCU gameday performance. Those bands draw from a pool of high schools that reinforce that style. From a young age those players are taught to be loud for a long time. And like it or not, those practices are against principles of music education in our region.Now, as far as song selection is concerned.... any suggestions?It is easy to pick apart what you don't like about our song selection... but nobody ever gives any actual suggestions of songs.Song Titles and Artists people. Because it would appear that we don't know what you mean when you say "pump up music"Also, as far as the "energy" level of our performance goes, we are not quite used to projecting our performance to an actual audience, also the acoustics of the stadium are severely different from those of the Rubber Bowl. So, if you want a better show, stay for our postgame performance, or show up at Guzzetta an hour before kickoff... or spring for better seats. But trust me when I say that we are really trying with the energy thing, its tricky.P.S. We are tweaking our run on for the next game (to generate more intensity) and the rest of our pregame performance will be slightly altered. After Saturday there will be quiz to see if you noticed what we changed.P.P.S. I just realized the absurdity of revamping our pregame mid-season because of fan feedback, you guys don't know how lucky you are.... (imagine OSU changing script Ohio because of one person's comment online)

[Blue & Gold]

Pregame was/is great!If you're looking for suggestions for the musical selections for halftime, may I suggest major motion picture scores? I find them both artistic and rocking! Almost anything by John Williams would fit the bill. I think a halftime show featuring the music from Star Wars, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc., etc. would be great. Throw in the themes to Spy Hunter and Mission Impossible & man, you probably would have enough great material for every halftime show for the rest of the season! I think the people would love it, and, in playing these orchestral scores - albeit "pop" orchestral scores - I believe the band would definitely retain a sense of artistic integrity.

[bandzip]

Pregame was/is great!If you're looking for suggestions for the musical selections for halftime, may I suggest major motion picture scores? I find them both artistic and rocking! Almost anything by John Williams would fit the bill. I think a halftime show featuring the music from Star Wars, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc., etc. would be great. Throw in the themes to Spy Hunter and Mission Impossible & man, you probably would have enough great material for every halftime show for the rest of the season! I think the people would love it, and, in playing these orchestral scores - albeit "pop" orchestral scores - I believe the band would definitely retain a sense of artistic integrity.

We did a John Williams show two years ago where we played Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Olympic Theme. We performed it at at least two home games and Bands in the Bowl...

[RootforRoo44]

...I think everyone agrees the HBCU schools have the best bands...

Not everybody.Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great HBCU bands out there... but it is a completely different style, and we will NEVER adopt that style here at Akron.2 things about HBCU bands, then Ill drop the subject.1: Keep in mind that they play for a much more homogeneous audience, thus playing music the audience likes is a bit less complicated.2: None of us band members are physically capable of producing the volume and endurance required for a HBCU gameday performance. Those bands draw from a pool of high schools that reinforce that style. From a young age those players are taught to be loud for a long time. And like it or not, those practices are against principles of music education in our region.Now, as far as song selection is concerned.... any suggestions?It is easy to pick apart what you don't like about our song selection... but nobody ever gives any actual suggestions of songs.Song Titles and Artists people. Because it would appear that we don't know what you mean when you say "pump up music"Also, as far as the "energy" level of our performance goes, we are not quite used to projecting our performance to an actual audience, also the acoustics of the stadium are severely different from those of the Rubber Bowl. So, if you want a better show, stay for our postgame performance, or show up at Guzzetta an hour before kickoff... or spring for better seats. But trust me when I say that we are really trying with the energy thing, its tricky.P.S. We are tweaking our run on for the next game (to generate more intensity) and the rest of our pregame performance will be slightly altered. After Saturday there will be quiz to see if you noticed what we changed.P.P.S. I just realized the absurdity of revamping our pregame mid-season because of fan feedback, you guys don't know how lucky you are.... (imagine OSU changing script Ohio because of one person's comment online)

I dont see how it's so hard to learn new things, there are bands that do more than 1 thing a year. And hey, Believe it or not there are others on here not affiliated with UA's band that know a thing or two about college marching bands! Heck, some have been in others bands. BTW, i got a song for you... See, now i feel like breaking things and/or flipping cars over. I'm pumped up. See how easy that is? There are TONS of songs out there, find a good one.

[saxyzip87]

...I think everyone agrees the HBCU schools have the best bands...

Not everybody.Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great HBCU bands out there... but it is a completely different style, and we will NEVER adopt that style here at Akron.2 things about HBCU bands, then Ill drop the subject.1: Keep in mind that they play for a much more homogeneous audience, thus playing music the audience likes is a bit less complicated.2: None of us band members are physically capable of producing the volume and endurance required for a HBCU gameday performance. Those bands draw from a pool of high schools that reinforce that style. From a young age those players are taught to be loud for a long time. And like it or not, those practices are against principles of music education in our region.Now, as far as song selection is concerned.... any suggestions?It is easy to pick apart what you don't like about our song selection... but nobody ever gives any actual suggestions of songs.Song Titles and Artists people. Because it would appear that we don't know what you mean when you say "pump up music"Also, as far as the "energy" level of our performance goes, we are not quite used to projecting our performance to an actual audience, also the acoustics of the stadium are severely different from those of the Rubber Bowl. So, if you want a better show, stay for our postgame performance, or show up at Guzzetta an hour before kickoff... or spring for better seats. But trust me when I say that we are really trying with the energy thing, its tricky.P.S. We are tweaking our run on for the next game (to generate more intensity) and the rest of our pregame performance will be slightly altered. After Saturday there will be quiz to see if you noticed what we changed.P.P.S. I just realized the absurdity of revamping our pregame mid-season because of fan feedback, you guys don't know how lucky you are.... (imagine OSU changing script Ohio because of one person's comment online)

I dont see how it's so hard to learn new things, there are bands that do more than 1 thing a year. And hey, Believe it or not there are others on here not affiliated with UA's band that know a thing or two about college marching bands! Heck, some have been in others bands. BTW, i got a song for you... See, now i feel like breaking things and/or flipping cars over. I'm pumped up. See how easy that is? There are TONS of songs out there, find a good one.

dear rootforroo-good song-thats the sort of stuff i listened to in high school before sport events to get myself going. the hard part with band is just trying to get the instrumentation right. i am going to have to agree with zips DM tho, if you don't like what we are playing now-suggest something! we cant change our direction if everyone is name-calling and pointing fingers and no one is driving the car...if you get my drift. and we do more than 1 thing year-each half time show is different. unless you mean pregame, which bandzip and others have already said we are tweaking it. but no school [that i know of at least] (OSU included if you really feel the need to compare Ohio's Pride to our neighbors down south...) changes their pregame for everygame. there just aren't enough hours in the day. again, appreciate the criticism, but tell us what you want to hear, and i am sure Mr. Karriker will be happy to see what he can do

[Aaron]

Desired stand/marching tunes:Iron Man (make an Ozzy show sometime too, with War Pigs and Paranoid)Land of a 1000 DancesFinal CountdownCome Out and PlayDuel of the FatesWilliam Tell (aka Lone Ranger theme)We're Not Gonna Take ItBlitzkrieg BopWe Like to Party - Venga BoysJungle BoogieI'm sure I'll come up with more when I think about it, but these are what I could think of off the top of my head. Not sure if you have these in your repertoire or not, but I don't remember hearing any of them at the game.

[freddiecoffey]

Desired stand/marching tunes:Iron Man (make an Ozzy show sometime too, with War Pigs and Paranoid)Land of a 1000 DancesFinal CountdownCome Out and PlayDuel of the FatesWilliam Tell (aka Lone Ranger theme)We're Not Gonna Take ItBlitzkrieg BopWe Like to Party - Venga BoysJungle BoogieI'm sure I'll come up with more when I think about it, but these are what I could think of off the top of my head. Not sure if you have these in your repertoire or not, but I don't remember hearing any of them at the game.

How about the Darth Vader theme from Star Wars (to play from the stands) now that we might have a defense that warrants such an ominous tone.

[Aaron]

Desired stand/marching tunes:Iron Man (make an Ozzy show sometime too, with War Pigs and Paranoid)Land of a 1000 DancesFinal CountdownCome Out and PlayDuel of the FatesWilliam Tell (aka Lone Ranger theme)We're Not Gonna Take ItBlitzkrieg BopWe Like to Party - Venga BoysJungle BoogieI'm sure I'll come up with more when I think about it, but these are what I could think of off the top of my head. Not sure if you have these in your repertoire or not, but I don't remember hearing any of them at the game.

How about the Darth Vader theme from Star Wars (to play from the stands) now that we might have a defense that warrants such an ominous tone.

I'm fairly certain they have the Imperial March, only reason I didn't mention it. Definitely one of the better ones though!

[ZachTheZip]

Maybe you could to a video game music show for one half time show. They seemed to be a hit a few years ago at some different schools. If you put it up on youtube it's practically guaranteed to get you lots of publicity, if done well.One song that I always thought would translate pretty well to a marching band sound would be Achilles Last Stand by Led Zeppelin, but it's probably too long to be played in full.But check out some of those video game shows put on by other college marching bands on Youtube and see what kind of a reaction they got.

[interfx]

Here's some more show ideas...Beatles (did this back in the 80's - stadium loved it!, timely with the re-release of the Beatles. You have the music in your library)Classic Rock ShowSports show (Olympic theme, Rocky, ESPN, Monday Night Football)Good luck!

[zipseuph]

rootforrooI LOVE THE IDEA OF DU HAST(sp?)BIGZIPI don't see how it's not the same nd the "reason the music died" was because a plane crashed and took the lives of Buddy Holly Ritchie Valens and J.P Richardson (the big bopper) if paying tribute to those men who helped revelutionize rock isn't good enough for you then I honestly don't care.AARONlove the song ideas

[saxyzip87]

I'm fairly certain they have the Imperial March, only reason I didn't mention it. Definitely one of the better ones though!

we do indeed have imperial march. we even played it a time or two :)also, the venga boys' "we like to party" is an interesting suggestion. i say this only because it can be hard to translate techno into band music. i didn't say impossible, mind you. its just that if its written poorly it can not sound good AT ALL.

[Blue & Gold]

You guys played the Imperial March?! Good! I was going to post that we NEED to hear that score for our defense!I wasn't aware that you guys had rocked the Imperial March because I'm sitting in the east grandstands GA area and it was a bit difficult to hear the band. But, hey, you get what you pay for, I guess, and I'm in the cheap seats.

[RootforRoo44]

rootforrooI LOVE THE IDEA OF DU HAST(sp?)BIGZIPI don't see how it's not the same nd the "reason the music died" was because a plane crashed and took the lives of Buddy Holly Ritchie Valens and J.P Richardson (the big bopper) if paying tribute to those men who helped revelutionize rock isn't good enough for you then I honestly don't care.AARONlove the song ideas

Thanks, i really think Du Hast would be perfect. It just sounds like something a marching band could do. I'm just worried that the fans might get too pumped and burn down our beautiful new stadium.

[zipseuph]

rootforrooI LOVE THE IDEA OF DU HAST(sp?)BIGZIPI don't see how it's not the same nd the "reason the music died" was because a plane crashed and took the lives of Buddy Holly Ritchie Valens and J.P Richardson (the big bopper) if paying tribute to those men who helped revelutionize rock isn't good enough for you then I honestly don't care.AARONlove the song ideas

Thanks, i really think Du Hast would be perfect. It just sounds like something a marching band could do. I'm just worried that the fans might get too pumped and burn down our beautiful new stadium.

I know I'd fight someone

[freddiecoffey]

I'm in the same boat with not knowing you played Imperial March... as I sit around the 50 in the east GA. I'd say that any 80's hair metal would be great to pump up the crowd as well. GNR, Van Halen, Bon Jovi... heck, even through in some Journey, Boston, Styx and Rush! P.S. I absolutely LOVED when the band broke up and played in different sections in the 3rd and 4th quarters. I also thought the block "A" coming down the field in pregame was pretty impressive. For game one, the lines were about as straight as anyone could've expected.

[Aaron]

I'm fairly certain they have the Imperial March, only reason I didn't mention it. Definitely one of the better ones though!

we do indeed have imperial march. we even played it a time or two :)also, the venga boys' "we like to party" is an interesting suggestion. i say this only because it can be hard to translate techno into band music. i didn't say impossible, mind you. its just that if its written poorly it can not sound good AT ALL.

I agree about the techno - I don't think you could get a good arrangement of the entire song, but the 'hook' is good enough (and musical enough) to be a classic stand tune.

[tbozeglav]

I'm fairly certain they have the Imperial March, only reason I didn't mention it. Definitely one of the better ones though!

we do indeed have imperial march. we even played it a time or two also, the venga boys' "we like to party" is an interesting suggestion. i say this only because it can be hard to translate techno into band music. i didn't say impossible, mind you. its just that if its written poorly it can not sound good AT ALL.

I think of all the techno you could play, "We Like to Party" is probably the easiest for you guys to translate to band music. Its a very simple song in structure and really only the "catch" part (the part everyone knows) is necessary. Id love to see that played.I know ive seen bands play Sandstorm, but I dont know how successful it was. Its been a while since I have heard it played by a band.Another GREAT song you guys could learn to play would be the Motral Kombat theme song. Id look into it if I were you...

[Aaron]

Marching Band,It was a night and day difference this week at your performance. Congratulations! You put a lot of work this week into pregame and it showed. You definitely showed the energy expected from the band, and showed it well. You were easily 2-3x louder this week than the week before, and the marching looked great. I liked the subtle changes in run-on, as well as Phil's (the announcer) higher energy calls, and fewer announcements during the show.Halftime is what it is, great sound playing the music. Song selection wasn't my style, but I can appreciate a song played well. Didn't expect much marching since you only had one week to get it ready. Can't wait to see what the next show is, I'm looking forward to being on the field with you guys in the alumni band.Keep up the good work!

[WinZip]

Good job again!! The band did at least as well as last week, in my opinion. It was really cool to see so many musicians on the field. I have to say I wasn't blown away with the sound, further supporting my rationale that sound is amplified downward in that stadium. I'm not gonna complain at all thought, very nice show. The hard work is continuing to pay off. Hopefully more and more musicians are brought in to really amp the energy.

[ziptrumpet87]

Good job again!! The band did at least as well as last week, in my opinion. It was really cool to see so many musicians on the field. I have to say I wasn't blown away with the sound, further supporting my rationale that sound is amplified downward in that stadium. I'm not gonna complain at all thought, very nice show. The hard work is continuing to pay off. Hopefully more and more musicians are brought in to really amp the energy.

I was also at the game (E side gen admin near 40) and all I can say is the acoustics are so bad I could hardly hear the band when they were playing from their seats. It was a better at halftime, but the sound still didn't get up to us much (I know, partly because they face the W side). The old RB was all concrete except the turf with both ends having concrete to reflect off; the new stadium has only the N endzone bldg. I don't expect it will improve until the new dorm get built on the S end or it gets expanded to a larger capacity. I wonder how much of the sound is just getting trapped under the upper deck?

[bandzip]

Marching Band,It was a night and day difference this week at your performance. Congratulations! You put a lot of work this week into pregame and it showed. You definitely showed the energy expected from the band, and showed it well. You were easily 2-3x louder this week than the week before, and the marching looked great. I liked the subtle changes in run-on, as well as Phil's (the announcer) higher energy calls, and fewer announcements during the show.Halftime is what it is, great sound playing the music. Song selection wasn't my style, but I can appreciate a song played well. Didn't expect much marching since you only had one week to get it ready. Can't wait to see what the next show is, I'm looking forward to being on the field with you guys in the alumni band.Keep up the good work!

Thanks! The subtle changes you noticed were 6 to 5 instead of 8 to 5 step size during run on and a new arrangement of Rock and Roll #2 where everyone is playing the whole time instead of just the low brass. Halftime we added some more park and bark sections and a ton of horn to the box moves. I think the biggest difference between the Info and the RB is simply that when there are people sitting in the seats the sound gets absorbed into peoples bodies rather than bouncing around off the stands. When we rehearse in there with the stadium empty it is LOUD. Unfortunately the reason it seemed 2-3x louder may be because there were 10k less people there this week...