Ranking UC's band

[AeroCat]

The band just seemed to overthink the sugar bowl. They needed to keep with standards people know and not play during gametime. I don't want to even begin to complain about their competence. I think they're pretty good actually, not as good as tOSU but their budget is stupid. But their 'play-calling' was pretty bad, and it was annoying as the game got out of hand that they kept playing inane things (and during the game...) When I was in band, we were told that we needed to play as much as possible up until the snap. Now that our team is beginning to succeed, it'd be nice if the band stopped playing a few seconds before the snap so the team could hear the audibles.

Note 1: Nobody has known the words to give a cheer for 70 years, stop it.

Note 2: The red and black is a great song, but nobody knows the words to it. Why play it over and over again and not play the fight song until the second quarter? (im going to post a new thread somewhere with the words...) This really is up to the drum majors, but would you prefer that the band ONLY plays Cheer Cincinnati? Not knowing the words to a fight song doesn't mean that they should go away.

Note 3: We have a great alma mater, why don't we ever play it? The band plays the Alma Mater during pregame, and after the game.

All of the superman crap is cool and neat, but really, thats a ton of work for the band kids just to annoy us fans. Keep it simple, let the band have a good time too.

Some of my responses in red.

[Lobot]

UC is a big time football program, it needs to have a big time band. I think Miami O has more band members than UC. I am a Bengals ticket holder, every year the UC band plays at halftime at one of the Bengals games. It is definitely a problem hearing them, the 65,000 at the Bengals game drown them out.

Miami has in the past always had a larger band. Unlike UC where CCM students rarely join the band, at Miami They are REQUIRED to participate.

[jmo_2010]

Note 3: We have a great alma mater, why don't we ever play it?

As AeroCats explained, the band does play the alma mater before and after each game.

No one ever stays to sing it at the end of games though besides a handful of die-hards! This is really troublesome I think. One problem is the students have no reason or incentive to stay to sing "O, Varsity" after the games. The team did a great job of learning, and singing "Cheer Cincinnati" after the games in the south endzone (i.e. Gilyard) this year, and that got kids to stay a little, but no one made a conscious effort to get everyone to stay.

The alma mater unites the students and encourages them to stay Loyal to their great University and their team (whether or not we win or lose).

A good friend of mine said he was singing ours after our loss at the Super Dome Friday with a couple of his friends, and some random UC student told him "to take off his Cincy gear if he was going to sing that Florida song".

Completely unacceptable.

What we need is the team, and especially Coach Jones to buy into the idea of creating an atmosphere of tradition. There are great songs and traditions already available, but bringing those traditions more prominence takes their participation, along with the band. I'd love it if Coach Jones got all his players to learn the Alma Mater and get them to stay afterwards with the students and sing it (or at least lock arms and sway with the crowd!)

Unfortunate example, but tOSU requires all players to learn Carmen Ohio. The team always lines up after games at the endzone, and sings along with the band. It's an awesome sight to see and will make your hair stand on end to hear a full stadium singing that song, regardless of win or loss.

I think we can do the same with "O, Varsity".

All the people complaining about this topic really should check out the dedication the band at other schools receives from students, alumni, and fans. College football is about the entire atmosphere of game-day, and the band at big-time schools adds to that atmosphere 110%. That atmosphere brings in contribution to the school from boosters, fans, and people that like paying attention to details.

(All of you with little brother syndrome, please don't start OSU bashing to follow up my response. As much as I'd love to kick their tails on the field, they certainly know tradition much better than we do.)


Check out these videos on YouTube for examples of the OSU band. I even included Notre Dame to get some people really fired up.


OSU Skull Session (Pre-game):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8h2rDUPOWs

"Normal" Post-Game OSU Alma Mater:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqHKz1p9hc

After OSU vs Michigan - whole stadium singing alma mater
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icrjwcC2BG0

ND Alma Mater - Kelly never took the time to learn ours, but he'll get run out of town if he doesn't learn this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp1k64n9WNI

[applegbt]

Miami has in the past always had a larger band. Unlike UC where CCM students rarely join the band, at Miami They are REQUIRED to participate.

Yup, and it's not just Miami. This requirement exists at many schools.

I agree that it's probably going to take a change in leadership within the band program to make things improve. A major shift towards showmanship is sorely needed, regardless of band size. The band doesn't need to be huge to be entertaining and bring excitement. And a more exciting style will likely be viewed as more fun to play in, and would likely result in higher numbers as well.

[CaptainProbasco]

Ranking UC's band

Disclaimer: I'm not what you'd call a marching band aficianado. I played football in high school, so I've rarely seen even high school bands perform. I'm judging this as someone who loves that atmosphere of college football.


I know lot of folks on this board aren't big fans of UC's band. But after going to the Sugar Bowl, I was surprised how much better our band was than Florida's. Theirs has a few more people than ours does, but their marching lines sucked and even I could hear how poorly they were playing.

So after the game, I took some time to view some youtube videos of other program's bands, and I'm surprised at how well our band stacks up. While it's not at the level of OSU or USC, I think it's better than average for our (football) conference and far and away better than every SEC band.

What do you think? Should we be comparing our band to OSU, UK, or other Big East schools? Where do you think we stack up?

[BearcatRob33]

I don't know much about the band...all I know is this thread isn't going to end well...

[McMickenKid]

What game were you at? While the UF band wasan't spectacular, I could at least hear them. Our band is pretty bad, plain and simple. Comparing them to OSU is idiotic also. I was forced to attend an OSU game earlier this season and let me tell you what, they put on a show up there. The people cheer harder for the band than the friekin team.

[Carthage World]

I'd rather watch and listen to Withrow's 20 person band than UC's.

[ucgrd]

Have the admin add a new Forum for the Band discussions....

just a thought.

[Rock]

UC Band

IMO, Pep Band at Basketball (inside) is excellent! At football games, pagentry and loudness out weighs pure music. We need more brass, more people. more flags, plumes in the hats, new flashy unis, modern "Bearkittens" with small unis, etc. We need to evolve into something people want to see and hear. We, the fans, are not looking for musical technique!

[Chewbacca2099]

As a former UC Band member, I would put us in the bottom quarter of all college marching bands. We are more on the level of Miami-Ohio and even they do some things better than UC.

Most MAC schools have better bands. Ohio U. band would blow UC away, and we got embarrassed by Western Michigan band at the International Bowl when I was still in the band. There are youtube videos of the band showdown where we sound god awful and WMU sounds amazing. ALL Big East football schools have MUCH better AND bigger bands.

The best bands are all brass instruments, UC has a lot of Woodwinds... aka Flutes, piccolo's, clarinets which you can't hear at ALL in a stadium and a we have a ton of saxophone's which are slightly audible but would be much more so if they were all brass.

There is no reason why our band shouldn't be at least as good as WMU or OU bands, but it's not even close.

3 Main issues that HAVE to change for the band to get better.

1. New band leadership, the guys running the show are way past retirement age already, and they are stuck in the past. More swing music anyone? The director thinks swing music is UC's identity... seriously.

2. MONEY, the band is broke. We got a new building a few years back finally but there is seriously no money there. We used to get to goto a couple away games. Now they don't even send them there b/c of money issues. No band for Pittsburgh game is ridiculous.

3. CCM needs to get it's panties out of a wad and stop acting like its too good for UC. CCM is like the rich kids walking around with its nose up in the air. Most music majors at other universities are allowed in the marching band, CCM should let their students participate and support the university.

Voice your opinions, goto www.ucband.uc.edu all contact info is there.

[Jeorby Nanpa]

Things are getting better for our little band, that's all we can hope for.

I was there during the really crappy years (1986-1992) and remember going to the field playing "Dances With Wolves." Today's group is much different. The biggest change is the director. He's sort of an odd guy and has spawned a gentler touchy-feely kind of member than us crazy nuts from the late 80's. I've got some issues with him and that's my own problem, but those issues represent his unwillingness to GET OUT THERE AND KICK SOME ******* ***!

That's really all they need to do. And, listen to your alumni or else they'll quit supporting you.

/and burning "They Call Me Al" wouldn't hurt either.

[Bearcat62]

Have the admin add a new Forum for the Band discussions....

just a thought.

no doubt. I've never seen this sort of attention to the band on a football forum. Please go away.

[bearcatfan]

WVU brought their band to UC this year. Unfortunately, they were not able to play at halftime due to time constraints. My daughter and I went to watch their pregame performance at the commons area.

I'm not sure that they are all great individual players, but it is a huge band with a powerful sound. Even listening to their warmup scales gave you goosebumps.

Here is a video of their pregame at WVU.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Vq1...eature=related

[Levittation]

Say what you will about the UC band, but I would put them well ahead of Boise St's band. I am not a band guy, but I know a good bad when I see one and I know a bad one when I see one - Boise was not a good band.