10-13-2012, 10:58 PM
That was even more awesome than I've come to expect from that band.
I've had some experience with some of the practice required for stuff like that. Starting my Junior year in HS (back in the early 90's) we brought in someone from the Madison Scouts to do the design and drill for our shows, thanks to some alumni endowments to pay for it. Which worked well since our band director admitted to not enjoying doing the marching band direction, he just wanted to handle the concert and smaller groups (jazz, pep, ect) we weren't a large school (~600 students total for 9th -12th grades not per grade) so the band was the band, I know some larger schools had separate marching and concert, but for use if you were in the band you marched unless you were on the football team, where it was a case by case situation since the contest season went longer than the football season and if you were good enough at marching your place would just be a hole at the half time shows (as was the case for me my junior year when I was varsity on the football team, I didn't play football my senior year due to, well conflicts with the coach). Anywho, since we were students time allowed for practice was limited in the same way it was for athletics (20 coached hours per week, and games/performances counted against that) so it wasn't the same as the profession corps or a big time college band, but we did at least get a taste, and our turn around was dramatic from scoring in the 60's in our first show my junior year to consistently in the 80's by the end of my senior year; judged to the same standards as the DCI competitors, mid 80's would often win the high school competitions.
What is funny is that some of the stuff that was in that video wouldn't be considered all that challenging for competition level stuff. I always found it a bit humorous that the things that tended to score highly in the competitions were things that just weren't as interesting for fans at half time shows. I can't fully blame them because some of the difficulties of the technical marching and performance is lost to people that don't know/care about it. Fortunately the directors from the Scouts realized this too and we would do "simpler" stuff that was very easy to visually get for the halftime shows. So things like spell stuff, or a clear image that went with the music. My favorite was doing two football helmets, one with our school logo, one with the opponents and having them collide with the opponents "shattering." Looked very cool and did have some difficulty in execution too and the crowd loved it.
That horse though, that's just impressive no matter what lens you look at it through, and the entertainment value, which is the key at a half time show, for that whole show was through the roof. Of course Ohio State has had the advantage of having a good football team to go watch too. When I was in HS in Wisconsin they hadn't turned the football program around yet and at times it was very possible there were more people at the home games to see the band than the team. Wisconsin has a damn fine marching band too, but I can admit that while it can rival OSU, it's not as consistently good. The Best Damn Band in the Land is not a title that was just given to them by some reporter. They aren't the Dallas Cowboys who some beat writer dubbed America's Team and it got picked up by the AP and unfortunately stuck. They got that because of consistently being innovative and excellent.
I've had some experience with some of the practice required for stuff like that. Starting my Junior year in HS (back in the early 90's) we brought in someone from the Madison Scouts to do the design and drill for our shows, thanks to some alumni endowments to pay for it. Which worked well since our band director admitted to not enjoying doing the marching band direction, he just wanted to handle the concert and smaller groups (jazz, pep, ect) we weren't a large school (~600 students total for 9th -12th grades not per grade) so the band was the band, I know some larger schools had separate marching and concert, but for use if you were in the band you marched unless you were on the football team, where it was a case by case situation since the contest season went longer than the football season and if you were good enough at marching your place would just be a hole at the half time shows (as was the case for me my junior year when I was varsity on the football team, I didn't play football my senior year due to, well conflicts with the coach). Anywho, since we were students time allowed for practice was limited in the same way it was for athletics (20 coached hours per week, and games/performances counted against that) so it wasn't the same as the profession corps or a big time college band, but we did at least get a taste, and our turn around was dramatic from scoring in the 60's in our first show my junior year to consistently in the 80's by the end of my senior year; judged to the same standards as the DCI competitors, mid 80's would often win the high school competitions.
What is funny is that some of the stuff that was in that video wouldn't be considered all that challenging for competition level stuff. I always found it a bit humorous that the things that tended to score highly in the competitions were things that just weren't as interesting for fans at half time shows. I can't fully blame them because some of the difficulties of the technical marching and performance is lost to people that don't know/care about it. Fortunately the directors from the Scouts realized this too and we would do "simpler" stuff that was very easy to visually get for the halftime shows. So things like spell stuff, or a clear image that went with the music. My favorite was doing two football helmets, one with our school logo, one with the opponents and having them collide with the opponents "shattering." Looked very cool and did have some difficulty in execution too and the crowd loved it.
That horse though, that's just impressive no matter what lens you look at it through, and the entertainment value, which is the key at a half time show, for that whole show was through the roof. Of course Ohio State has had the advantage of having a good football team to go watch too. When I was in HS in Wisconsin they hadn't turned the football program around yet and at times it was very possible there were more people at the home games to see the band than the team. Wisconsin has a damn fine marching band too, but I can admit that while it can rival OSU, it's not as consistently good. The Best Damn Band in the Land is not a title that was just given to them by some reporter. They aren't the Dallas Cowboys who some beat writer dubbed America's Team and it got picked up by the AP and unfortunately stuck. They got that because of consistently being innovative and excellent.
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It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.