Ranking UC's band

[cincy34]

THIS IS A FOOTBALL FORUM!!!!! Please make a new forum.

[Chewbacca2099]

If you guys don't want to read about the band don't open the thread... seriously. You open the band thread just to say not to talk about band. The only reason marching badn exists in the world is to support football. If there was no football marching bands wouldn't exist. If someone has questions about the band this is the only place to ask, the admins will not make a band forum and nobody reads the general forum. Football and Marching bands will be married forevor no matter how much you hate it.

FYI - I'm not starting any of these threads about the band, just replying. I care way more about the team than the band but I don't see any harm in discussing the band. I would love if they played more exciting shows and got better in general. OSU fans love their band because they are exciting and good, UC's band should be no different.

[cincy34]

There are 2 threads talking about the band. And another thread was completely taken over by band talks. The band also plays for Basketball. this should be in the general forum. If people want to read about it they will find it. at least combine the threads. I'm going to start a percussion thread tomorrow.

[Helicopter]

I'd like to see a showdown between UC's band and Grambling St., now THAT would end ugly.

[MST83]

You know if no one had a band I could care less. My wife likes the bands. But since everyone else has a band and the power teams have BIG GOOD bands, so we need to compete. Her is what we need:

1. A band director who is young and hip rather than a stoddy old fart who like to hear his name announced 4 times at every game. Dr. Terren L Frenze (or thereabout). With a young director I would expect some newer music and not old crap.

2. New uniforms

3. 50 more members who can march (actually playing is optional)

4. A diet for one baton twirler.

5. A diet for the flag girls and a lot of practice so they are actually in sync or close

[MST83]

Go see Ohio U band

daughter is an OU grad and they had and still have a band that fast steps like the UNF bands.

I'd like to see a showdown between UC's band and Grambling St., now THAT would end ugly.

[BearcatRob33]

Dedicating an entire forum to the band is incredibly ridiculous.

[cincy34]

put it in the general forum.

[Rock]

Keep this OPEN

College football is the whole enchilata--team, tailgaiting, band, cheerleaders, dancing girls, pom pons, the cannon going off, skydivers, announcer, the Bearcat, ETC... The MARCHING BAND is part of it and if the Athletic Department would like to keep filling the stadium, they have to create an atmosphere that is fun. Get with it!!

[ralph1950]

On a scale of 1 to 10 I give the UC Band a rating of 2.5. A big time football program deserves a 300 to 350 member marching band. With over 16,000 full time under grad students why cannot they find 300 to 350 to be in the band.

[Lobot]

On a scale of 1 to 10 I give the UC Band a rating of 2.5. A big time football program deserves a 300 to 350 member marching band. With over 16,000 full time under grad students why cannot they find 300 to 350 to be in the band.

As I explained in another thread, it's very unlikely that we will see a band that size unless CCM lets go if its' unwritten rule of non participation. They should at least require wind instrument music ed majors to join but it's unlikely to happen. Another thing that I failed to bring up previously is that, in the past, practices fell on the night were the Greek social fraternities and sororities have their meetings. Therefore you get almost no Greek participation either. That may have changed since I was around.

[CincySuperFan]

There are 10 high schools in Cincinnati with better bands. At OSU you have to try out for the band because it's a honor to be a part of it. We put out ads begging people to play. If you're going to have a big time program, you need a band to go with it.
I tip my hat to the kids in the band, because I'm sure that they work very hard. Something just needs to be done to get them to a place where we're proud when they walk on the field.

[t_witmer]

Dr. Frenz has brought stability to the band over the years but as someone said he is rooted in competition marching band...not the "show' that some would like to see.

Band membership will grow as the football team's success is maintained - it happened in the early 90's with the pep band when we were going to the NCAA's each year.

Funding is a major issue...just like with any other part of the atheletic department, there is no money to go around.

I was in the band back when we were almost cut by the University (1992).....CCM didn't want the "problem" of the band anymore even thought they were more than happy to divert funds away from the marching band to their more "pure" performing groups (Atheltic Dept. gave CMM money to run the band). Back then the inmates (sorry students) essentially ran the asylum, directors just showed up to rehersal.

I agree with all who say to contact Dr. Frenz if you want to see improvements.....none of us know if he knows how the public feels.

And as others have said, until CCM allows music majors, specifically music ed majors join the marching band, it will be hard to grow the group, let alone talent, without funding/recruiting/etc.

[fmrbandmember]

I just made an account specifically to address this topic. I was in the band for 4 years and recently left due to 2 reasons. I needed to focus more on school, and I did not see enough effort from the band members and staff to truly become better while I was there. I'll run down the major issues and then respond to a few posters here.

There were way too many people screwing around and just generally not paying attention during games or practices to ever make any real progress. We had people who would be dancing in the stands when they were supposed to be playing music, people screwing around during practice and complaining when they were told to shut up, drum majors who don't pay attention to the games including missing scores and being late starting Cheer Cincy or not seeing the score waved off by penalty and failing to stop because nobody else is watching to be able to stop them. The scary part? The people screwing around that I saw were all made section leaders, by Doc Frenz. He just doesn't seem to have it in him to ever punish anybody for anything, and once those few bad apples realize that it's exactly like letting the inmates run the asylum.

We had people who never practiced who thought they were hot $h17 and generally had bad attitudes that made the band even worse.

You talk about money problems? Yeah, the Athletic Department could do a lot more. But we had people actually encouraging new members to not pay band dues. And they got away with this because it was not enforced, which again falls to Doc. But speaking of dues, more than 50% of band dues is allotted to 2 yearly parties. In fact the year I left the band council nearly unanimously approved a dues increase so they could have a DJ. I was the only person to vote against it.

There may have been actual recruiting in the past, but it doesn't happen now. I strongly feel they should not have been celebrating their mediocrity as much as they still do with these parties, and should reallocate some money to real recruiting, including offering scholarships to high school students and CCM students.

Speaking of CCM, there is absolutely no push to try to get them to encourage instead of discourage their students to join the band. You want a quick fix? This would be it.

Did any of you realize the band plays before the game at Sigma Sigma? Yeah, not many people actually go there. It's at the point where it either needs to be cut or moved over to the Shoe or the Baseball stadium and properly advertised to get people to attend.

A problem few if any of you would be aware of is the Percussion instructor. He is a very good player, but he is not a very good instructor. I was only friends with a few percussionists, but I know 1 who left band and 2 others who switched sections because of him. I also know that many of the players still have reputations of basically being d-bags who nobody likes. The only thing they play that actually gets the crowd into the game, Down the Drive also known as Ohhh-Ohhh-Ohhh-Clap-Clap-ClapClap-UC, is severely underplayed, instead opting to play random crap that the band dances to but nobody else likes. This goes back way before the instructor's arrival, but is still a problem.

As a former member of the band, I believe that an administration change is really necessary to change the character of the marching band.

Dr. Terren Frenz is a great guy. He genuinely loves the work and the kids he directs. He's a terrific trumpet player, and has played in several famous jazz bands. He works very hard to up the visibility of the band, which was on the verge of disappearing a few years ago. An all-around good guy.

His history with marching bands, however, is grounded in North East Ohio high school competition bands, bands that he brought to national competitions. I've seen his competition bands perform before and they were very, very good. Unfortunately, that same philosophy is extended to the UC band, and that's the cause of the song selections.

New ideas really are needed on the marching end of things to excite the fans into staying in their seats at halftime instead of getting up for a beer. Case in point: the Ohio University marching band isn't terribly big, but they've got a big sound and are very exciting to watch. Lots of southern universities have a similar show band style and are downright fun, but aren't all that big.

^^^These are my exact feelings.

One other thing, the silly band fraternity and sororities have too much power there. Most of the people in those clique's are very dedicated and tend to stick around longer to the band but a lot of them are god awful musicians. They tried to recruit some of my friends which all turned them down, very highschoolish popularity contests going on inside KKY/TBS even though these same people would probably not be popular outside the band...

(not all of them are bad, some people are cool but the way they select members is suspect)

This post is filled with lies. The fraternity and sorority raise a lot of money for the band. A LOT of money. But beyond that, they don't actually have any power. They perform a lot of service projects; generally help out where the average, or in your case I suspect below average, members didn't. And since you obviously weren't a member nor does it sound like you were offered membership what would you know of how the selection process works at all? This comes off like sour grapes from somebody who has a high opinion of themselves that wasn't shared by others.


In closing, while the band puts in a lot of time, I'm not sure there is a lot of effort behind it. There really wasn't during my time. While I'm not at all suggesting it's everyone, it was certainly enough people to have a negative impact. It's a culture thing and it will almost certainly take a new director at this point to effect real change.

[Herb Jones]

What would Allen Iverson have to say about this? ... "Band? Band? We're talking about the Band?"

Oh yeah ... The uniforms are atrocious ... They look like they are from the 70's ... Ok ... Now back to Basketball and Football ...