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THEBandMan

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  1. I usually don't post on this network. I usually don't read the posts here, as my job keeps me busy enough that I honestly don't have much time to read and respond to the number of positive or negative posts. I appreciate the support that the band receives from the vast majority of the alums, fans, and supporters of the University of North Texas and all of its students (including the student athletes and members of the student support groups--band, cheer, dance, wings, etc.) My response is as follows. 1. I would rather that current students of the Green Brigade not respond to the posts on this website. What we do is consistently recognized as among the elite in the college band activity. For all of my "young'uns" don't feel that you need to respond or defend any of our actions (or mine). As a matter of fact, just appreciate the fact that you were noticed. :-) 2. The only somewhat valid point made in this thread of conversation is the fact that the shorts don't match. This is an obvious observation. So, thank you to those who noticed. There are many institutions across the country who have gone to this "summer uniform." Those institutions who have made this temporary switch have done so for the physical safety of the students who wear the (wool) uniforms. The decision to not wear a full wool "suit" is a well-informed decision. I made the decision to do what was in the best interest of our students. I will continue to make the decisions that serve in the best interest of our students. (Many of you who have been around for a while will probably remember the criticism that we received when we played schools who did the summer uniform when we didn't. Further, another interesting thing about this conversation is that the OU band is receiving similar criticism in that "North Texas has figured out how to deal with the elements" to all the students to do their job better. interesting.... 3. Yes, we could purchase matching shorts for the band every year, but I don't see that as a good way to spend university (state of Texas) funds for one or two events per year. (This purchase could be $5,000 to $7,000 per year.) The band students pay tuition to be in the marching band class. I would not expect them to purchase "band shorts" to be worn once or twice. If there is a donor who would like to pick up the cost for this and provide the shorts for the next several years, please, lets call me. I will not turn down the gift. But, in all honesty, I would rather that donations/gifts/pledges go to our scholarship fund or something that could truly benefit our students in a non-clothing-related way. New instruments? 4. Yes, the band, the cheerleaders, the dance team, and the student athletes do represent our university. Yes, they represent the university well. Yes, the band is the Pride of North Texas. Yes, they do all that they can do promote spirit and pride. (Did I mention they PAY to do this? There are no scholarships for marching band at UNT. There is no stipend to do marching band. There is no tuition waiver for this class.) Yes, they do everything that they what they can to promote a positive atmosphere in these athletic events. Yes, they do their job well. And, yes, I am proud of them...as you should be as well. 5. As far as performance goes, our cheerleaders, dancers, and band members did an outstanding job on Saturday. Was there ever a moment on Saturday where I felt our students were outperformed by our friends and colleagues at OU? No. With all due respect to those students and teacher at OU, the students at OU did their job well; we did our job well. 6. Of course we have green flags. We use them at EVERY pregame performance. We use them for most halftime performances. We will use them again. We typically get a new green flag every year to add to our collection. 7. The band is, of course, always in the public eye. I'm aware of the nature of our public image. While the saying is true, "you can't please everyone," I feel that we do a great job of representing the university to the highest level. Through my work throughout the world, I often have the opportunity to see what goes on other campuses. I wish I had the resources to show you (or let you listen to) the other groups. You should be proud of the effort, spirit, and performance of our band members. What they do is consistently at the highest level. Is it the largest band? No. Is it the loudest band? Almost always, but not always. (Sometimes those bands that are twice our size make more "sounds" than we do.) Finally, I realize that one of the reasons for this network is to give our fans a place to publicly voice their opinions, whether the opinions given are positive or negative. My advice to everyone on this network, as it relates to athletics and the groups who support our student athletes: lets spend our time, energy, and resources on creating a larger fan base, having more active supporters on game days, creating positive energy for our students. Lets focus on supporting our student athletes so that they always feel that their efforts are appreciated. Lets do what we can to uplift our students who are cheerleaders, athletes, dancers, and band members. Positive energy leads to positive results. The negative vibe only helps to tear us down. And, really, who needs that? None of us do. We are at the beginning of a new era for our football program. Lets find ways to jump on that "band wagon". Lets find ways to create a stronger UNT network. I don't intend to respond to any further posts on this subject. All I have left to say is.... GO MEAN GREEN! Nicholas Williams director of the Green Brigade Marching Band UNT classes of 97 (BM), 03 (MM), 08 (DMA)
  2. Nebraska--76, UNT--14 (was that 92 or 93?)
  3. So...once again, I shall speak on this network...it's only my second time to post. I usually just read and think to myself, "self, we've come a long way since I began my career (14 years ago) as a life-long, green-bleeding, mean-green-loving, constant-supporting member of the "North Texas Network." Let me give you all some background information that might clear the air. 1. This will be my only post on this topic, as I have other things to occupy my time as we (the unified team of athletics and band) continue to build, refine, and maintain our school spirit. 2. One of the comments that I heard this tournament was, "our band didn't play enough." I agree. Once the game begins, each school gets one time-out to perform. ("School" being all of the support groups.) So, when the dancers and/or cheerleaders want to perform to something, we play whatever they want. The dancers/cheerleaders perform to music that they have routines for...music that they're familiar with, so that they may perform well for YOU (our audience, fanbase, and current/former students.) Sometimes, this causes "tunes" to be repeated at the games. In addition to the one time out per half, we may perform only during the time outs that OUR team calls. If you recall, WE (mens bball team) called very few timeouts during the game. Consequently, we played less than the other school whose team called more time outs. So, this is why we didn't play much during the game. Those are the rules; therefore, we follow them. 3. I heard every band play during the tournament. I was proud of each band that performed, as they did what was appropriate for THEIR team, audience, and fan base. For those of you who are as analytical as I am about everything, you'd probably notice that the schools that had the most "spirit" were the ones who had a few cheers (both led by the cheerleader and the band) that ALL of their fans knew. The audience participated with loud and energetic responses. What we are trying to do for OUR university is to have a few cheers and songs that CAUSE a response. Lets look at the things that the band plays often, "The Hey Song"--->for crowd response. Do YOU participate? Do YOU know that the band and cheerleaders have added "Go Mean Green" in the tune. "Fly like an Eagle"---> Do YOU participate in the yell "Go Green!" and "Go White!"? "Band Cheer 1" which is designed to prompt the audience to yell "Go Mean Green!" (3 times)..."Band Cheer 2" is designed to prompt the audience to yell "North Texas! North Texas! North Texas, Fight!"....the song "Go Mean Green" (aka "Go Big Blue" [Michigan]...everyone plays it.) The cheerleaders and dancers have several cheers that they begin that very few of our fans respond to. My FAVORITE SONG...our "Fight Song"...do you YELL the words in the middle? Do you do the body gestures? (making the letters UNT) 4. As far as what the band plays, yes, those are my decisions. We all noticed many schools that played songs from the radio, theme songs to various tv shows, etc. Every piece that is performed in public has to have official permission granted from the copyright holders to create an arrangement, and to perform the arrangement. The penalty for not following the copyright is several thousands of dollars per occurance. MANY schools simply ignore this rule because it's rare that anyone gets penalized. BUT, it does happen. North Texas will NEVER be sued for copyright infringement while I'm the director. The bottom line is that most schools break the LAW by playing most of what they play. We will NOT do that. For those of you who were on this network during football season, the idea came up that we should play the Super Mario Brothers theme for Jamario. I looked into it, permission was denied. We didn't play it. That's the appropriate thing to do. While I would very much like to play the theme songs to "The Price is Right," or "The A-team," the Dave Matthews Band music, or that Beyonce (sp?) song, until we can perform those legally, we won't. While I don't mean for this to be a finger-pointing message, I would bet money that NONE of the schools who played that music had permission. I'm sure some of you at this point don't care about this argument, and you couldn't care less about copyright violators. I do; we will continue to stay in compliance with the law. Let me point out a few positive comments that I heard throughout this tournament. One of our fans pointed out how "classy" our band is. That's awesome...thank you to whoever the lady is who said this. The Athletic Director for Arkansas-Little Rock personally thanked us for contributing to their game (some of our band members played for their game because they couldn't afford to bring their band to the tournament). The UA-LR cheerleaders and cheer coach thanked us for taking time out of our "day off" to help make this game more memorable for their students. EVERY pep band director at the tournament complimented our band on our music, the performance, the professionalism, and the spirit that our band gives. Several have asked to borrow music from OUR pep band book, because they liked our selections and arrangements. (see copyright issues above.) Some asked when OUR practices were so that THEIR students could watch US! So, while I hear the comments that you all are making about music selection, etc., let me recap. 1. I hear your comments. 2. Every year we add more music to the pep band folder. 3. We will continue to play the music that has meaning for OUR university. 4. We will continue to uphold the integrity (and class) that people respect and expect from THE University of North Texas. 5. We will CONTINUE to, first and foremost, do what we can to support and uplift our ATHLETES. What's interesting to me is that when I talk to my band director friends at other schools (like A&M, OU, OSU, Tech) they mention that most of their fans complain when they don't play enough of their school spirit songs. Here, at OUR university, I get complaints when we play them too much. interesting...perhaps a paradigm shift is necessary. Finally, just a few of my own thoughts that are not necessarily reactionary to the posts on this network...Maybe instead of complaining about how the band isn't as "peppy" as it "should be," maybe WE should all join the band, cheerleaders, pit-crew, and dancers on EVERYTHING that we do to provide "atmosphere" for the game. Maybe WE should actively work on bringing more people to the games (indoors and outdoors), to have more people to PARTICIPATE. I wrote earlier that we've come a long way since I started here as an undergrad. It's true. When I started as a freshman, we would have fewer than 1,000 people at ANY home football game, and fewer than 300 people at bball games. A lot has changed in recent years, much in part to Rick V., his athletics team, and a changing culture in the "North Texas Network." Now that WE are starting to pay attention to our teams, I think it's normal and natural that we'll have these growing pains. Maybe we should have a more productive use of our time and energy. Maybe we should figure out how to get more people involved in OUR university. Maybe we shouldn't say/do/imply things that weaken US! We can do this, by simple participation. To be blunt, stand up during the games; cheer with the band, dancers, cheerleaders, pit crew, talons, etc. Stand up, clap, and do the gestures during the "Fight Song;" don't leave before the "Alma Mater" is played. SING THE WORDS TO THE "FIGHT SONG" AND "ALMA MATER!" I realize that there might be some who think that I (or this post) is full of __fill in the blank___, BUT before you blast it, consider : "am I helping the cause?" If not, save it! :-) I have so much respect for my "band kids", the dancers, cheerleaders, talons, and pit-crew....because it's hard to stand up and "...give a cheer for U of NT" when you're often the only ones doing it. It takes time to build tradition. That's what we're doing now. These schools that rocked the house at the tournament, at the bowl games, at our "away" games...they've been doing this for years and years. (In December, I asked the marching band director at the University of Michigan what they do to get the crowd involved. His reply was, "the same things that we've been doing for a hundred years.") It takes time to build what we all want; in my opinion we're still in our infancy. My advice: be patient, be a part of the growth, be a part of the tradition, be a part of the solution. To those loyal supporters of UNT and its student athletes and performers----YOU ROCK! Respectfully, Nick "The Band Director" Williams
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