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My Editorial Comment On Last Night;s Game....

Green Grenade II

By Green Grenade II
in Mean Green Football

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eulessismore Collaborator

eulessismore

Posted
Posted

Everyone in my section thought it was rude of them to sound louder than our band. Could someone please explain the acoustic physics of that?

I'm glad someone has asked that question so directly. My wife played in marching band in hs, and said it was due to the mix of instruments; brass, no woodwinds, lots of tubas. I respect her opinion in these matters, but am still thinking there are other factor(s). Since stadium acoustics has been mentioned as one of the many problems with Fouts, I'm thinking this needs to be seriously investigated, and tough questions asked. I have never felt before that our marching band was quieter than that of the visiting team.

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STE Newbie

STE

Posted
Posted

I'm glad someone has asked that question so directly. My wife played in marching band in hs, and said it was due to the mix of instruments; brass, no woodwinds, lots of tubas. I respect her opinion in these matters, but am still thinking there are other factor(s). Since stadium acoustics has been mentioned as one of the many problems with Fouts, I'm thinking this needs to be seriously investigated, and tough questions asked. I have never felt before that our marching band was quieter than that of the visiting team.

Your wife is right.

Many college bands don’t have as many woodwinds (clarinets, flutes etc) as we do.

Sometimes I wished we had more brass instruments so that we could sound louder.

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trud1966 Enthusiast

trud1966

Posted
Posted

Your wife is right.

Many college bands don’t have as many woodwinds (clarinets, flutes etc) as we do.

Sometimes I wished we had more brass instruments so that we could sound louder.

I posted on another thread about how loud they were. Im a former band/drumline geek. And yes, the percentage of brass vs. woodwinds makes a HUGE difference. The Green Brigade is about 50/50 with Brass to Woodwinds, which is rare for a Division 1 Marching Band. I asked Dr. Williams (Director) about that one time and he told me that GB is completely volunteer. Alot of Big 12 schools, Marching Band is a required course for many of the music majors, so it's easy for band directors to get their pick of how much Brass they want (the more, the better, the louder)

So you can do all the math on that, and still say "But even though Troy brought mostly brass, UNT still had MORE brass in the stands than they did, so why STILL louder? I got one simple answer, those kids could BLOW. I went over and stood in front of them when they played Stars and Stripes, every single brass player in that band had a TON of power. Literally standing in front of them almost HURT your ears they were so loud. Good for them.

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Texas Stranger Proficient

Texas Stranger

Posted
Posted

They simply played fff all the time, with no dynamic changes. Many of their tunes were not recognizable, except for "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker" by Parliament, which did sound quite good. If the Green Brigade played that way, Fouts' structural integrity (what's left of it) might be in jeopardy. By the way, they did play against the GB's Fight Song near the end of the 3rd Quarter, but they were drowned out. But yes, they were abnornally loud.

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NM Green Proficient

NM Green

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I have absolutely loved having visiting bands in our stands (Tulsa and Troy this year). At a minimum it keeps the GB on their toes.

I was thinking that maybe the GB could coordinate with the fireworks show and have some tunes lined up to play. Low and behold here comes TROY's band and I it sounded great! I was also hoping the GB was taking some notes and should have felt a little embarrassed that the visiting band decided to play traditional American greats during OUR fireworks show. Keeping this optimistic I am hopeful the GB plays some good ole American traditionals in the future and adds more cadences...I loved Troy's cadence just before kick-off. Unfortunately we got to hear it a lot.

I was at the Dodger game awhile back and they had the fireworks show with piped in music. I thought, we have the best band in the land in this stadium and how cool would it be to hear them play some recognized greats before they end with the always awesome - Glory to the Green.

GMG

P.S. - am I the only one that wasn't that disappointed and disheartened in last night's game? The day was perfect, the defense played better, the tailgate rocked and it was Mean Green football! Just getting on the board but seeing some frustrated fans and understandably so. It was still a fun afternoon.

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ADLER Grand Master

ADLER

Posted
Posted

I posted on another thread about how loud they were. Im a former band/drumline geek. And yes, the percentage of brass vs. woodwinds makes a HUGE difference. The Green Brigade is about 50/50 with Brass to Woodwinds, which is rare for a Division 1 Marching Band. I asked Dr. Williams (Director) about that one time and he told me that GB is completely volunteer. Alot of Big 12 schools, Marching Band is a required course for many of the music majors, so it's easy for band directors to get their pick of how much Brass they want (the more, the better, the louder)

So you can do all the math on that, and still say "But even though Troy brought mostly brass, UNT still had MORE brass in the stands than they did, so why STILL louder? I got one simple answer, those kids could BLOW. I went over and stood in front of them when they played Stars and Stripes, every single brass player in that band had a TON of power. Literally standing in front of them almost HURT your ears they were so loud. Good for them.

A couple of questions:

Why isn't Marching Band a credit course? Why shouldn't it count as a PE for music majors or even as a credit music course?

In a school of 34,000, especially at North Texas which is a school well known for musicians, why are there not students that aren't music majors in the band? Couldn't an open recruitment of qualified students result in an 800-1000 member Green Brigade? I think the largest music school in the country should have an incredibly impressive (and huge) band for football games and parades.

Is a thousand member band practial/possible? What are the biggest bands in the country?

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SilverEagle Mentor

SilverEagle

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Posted

1. It's my understanding that the GB is 50/50 music majors (mostly music education majors) and volunteers from the student body.

2. While I was waiting for FFR to finish talking with Darrell Daniels (out on the field) I walked over and let the GB director know that the Troy pep band made a bigger sound than they did. He responded that it was because of favorable accoustics because of where they were sitting. I didn't accept that explaination as the Troy band was sitting in the same concrete stands as the GB. He thanked me for my input (in a very dismissive way) and quickly walked away. As a parting shot, I also informed him that the Troy pep band OUT SPIRITED the GB as well.

3. Someone can correct me on this (GG II or Letsgiveacheer), but I believe that in the "old days", I think that even Lab band students were required to spend at least one semester in the Marching Band. Which probably explained why any Maurice McAdow Marching band could play circles around any of the GB bands starting about the late 70's thru now.

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letsgiveacheer Rising Star

letsgiveacheer

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1. It's my understanding that the GB is 50/50 music majors (mostly music education majors) and volunteers from the student body.

2. While I was waiting for FFR to finish talking with Darrell Daniels (out on the field) I walked over and let the GB director know that the Troy pep band made a bigger sound than they did. He responded that it was because of favorable accoustics because of where they were sitting. I didn't accept that explaination as the Troy band was sitting in the same concrete stands as the GB. He thanked me for my input (in a very dismissive way) and quickly walked away. As a parting shot, I also informed him that the Troy pep band OUT SPIRITED the GB as well.

3. Someone can correct me on this (GG II or Letsgiveacheer), but I believe that in the "old days", I think that even Lab band students were required to spend at least one semester in the Marching Band. Which probably explained why any Maurice McAdow Marching band could play circles around any of the GB bands starting about the late 70's thru now.

In the old days, it was common for the marching band director to also direct the best concert band and so it was at North Texas. If you wanted to play in the NT Concert Band you had to march! In fact, the concert band did not even begin until the second semester. My then fellow marching band members are all over the place, playing professionally, teaching at universities, etc. And we all had a good time! The marching band was much smaller then as well, about 120. What this meant is that you had most of the best undergraduate wind players in the marching band. It also was not required for music ed majors then. So basically, the marching band was not required of anyone unless you wanted to play in the top concert band.

As an aside, I really wanted to return to Denton this week to see the game and to visit with Mrs McAdow, but my opera company has a production this week. Mrs McAdow still lives by herself on Hickory and is doing well!

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meaniegreenie Mentor

meaniegreenie

Posted
Posted

I've got a better question. Why doesn't athletics count as PE credit? I had to take 2 PE classes my last semester to graduate, since I had difficulty finding the time to squeeze these in during my previous 4 years. I may be mistaken, but I think they did count marching band as a credit back in the 80s (at least that's what I always heard.)

gk

A couple of questions:

Why isn't Marching Band a credit course? Why shouldn't it count as a PE for music majors or even as a credit music course?

In a school of 34,000, especially at North Texas which is a school well known for musicians, why are there not students that aren't music majors in the band? Couldn't an open recruitment of qualified students result in an 800-1000 member Green Brigade? I think the largest music school in the country should have an incredibly impressive (and huge) band for football games and parades.

Is a thousand member band practial/possible? What are the biggest bands in the country?

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yyz28 Enthusiast

yyz28

Posted
Posted

Marching Band was a credit class in the early 90's when I was there. I can't imagine it isn't now...

...but I digress.

Part of their "loudness" and "thumpiness" was a HEAVILY amplified bass guitar plaing along with them as a part of the band.

Nick is correct about acoustics partially. From the field, "You'll Never Walk Alone" was every bit as loud as "Stars and Stripes" where it was SUPPOSED TO BE.

I've ALWAYS felt the band should do something during the fireworks routine. The one time they had "Super Mario Brother's" theme they played it during the show, and it was GREAT!

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kj86 Collaborator

kj86

Posted
Posted

I'm glad someone has asked that question so directly. My wife played in marching band in hs, and said it was due to the mix of instruments; brass, no woodwinds, lots of tubas. I respect her opinion in these matters, but am still thinking there are other factor(s). Since stadium acoustics has been mentioned as one of the many problems with Fouts, I'm thinking this needs to be seriously investigated, and tough questions asked. I have never felt before that our marching band was quieter than that of the visiting team.

Wow! This was a topic of discussion amongst the people I was sitting with as well.

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Lurker Apprentice

Lurker

Posted
Posted

Marching Band was a credit class in the early 90's when I was there. I can't imagine it isn't now...

...but I digress.

Part of their "loudness" and "thumpiness" was a HEAVILY amplified bass guitar plaing along with them as a part of the band.

Nick is correct about acoustics partially. From the field, "You'll Never Walk Alone" was every bit as loud as "Stars and Stripes" where it was SUPPOSED TO BE.

I've ALWAYS felt the band should do something during the fireworks routine. The one time they had "Super Mario Brother's" theme they played it during the show, and it was GREAT!

I believe that Marching Band is a credit course - I believe the students get one hour for it which is ridiculous considering the amount of time they put in for the GB.

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greenminer Grand Master

greenminer

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Marching band = 1 hour.

It was a requirement for MUed majors. 3 semesters needed to be done (maybe just 2 at UNT?)

Those numbers might have changed, but that's how it was in 2001.

Back then in was MWF 4:30 - 6:30. Game days required a rehearsal, plus the usual pre-game festivities.

A big load for only 1 hour credit, but I was not the norm and never cared. I did it for fun, for 4 years.

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