College Bands

[dtxtrmpt]

So I'm thinking about colleges and stuff and I was just wondering what yalls opinions on Texas college bands are. My two that I'm really interested in now are UofH and Baylor. Basically, I'm really bored and need something to do.

[Clarinot]

I'd say it depends what you're looking for...

 

Are you interested in majoring in something music-related or just doing band for fun?

[takigan]

Not sure what you're asking......you school searching for college or are you just probing for information just for the heck of it.

 

UNT's Mean Green is pretty much the best......they're also mostly music majors. 5A All-State players are a dime a dozen. I knew a Euphonium player who made 5A All-State all 4 years of high school and she made the 3rd band her freshman year at UNT. Hardcore graduate school.

 

Texas Tech.....400+ band, Big 12 school, school has good opinion of their band.....40,000+ screaming fans can't be beat....if you're looking for excitement this is the school. They did a Guitar Hero show a while back.

 

Stephen F. Austin......does both corps and military style shows, due to this; the marching side of their instrumental education program is well respected.

 

U of H......mostly music majors in marching band (80-90% wouldnt be an exaggeration).....Huge school, EXTREMELY high level concert ensembles. Major Grad school.

 

UT Arlington.......no football team, one of the best marching bands in the state. Only BOA style college band I know of (I wouldn't have minded going there just for that fact)

 

Texas State and Sam Houston State.....populations are exploding, music schools are growing rapidly. Marching Band is ok, good balance of majors to non-majors (roughly 50 non music majors for every 50 music majors). I don't recommend Sam Houston to people looking for a good marching band experience.....we only went to 1 Away Game last year and home games are nothing to write home about.

 

West Texas A&M.......no pit. Good program though. One of the few programs in the state where you'll get to march in the snow at a home game.

 

Texas A&M......almost no music program to speak of (which is surprising considering the school is so large) but their marching and concert bands are still pretty good.

 

Don't know much about Baylor......can't help you there.

[borchnork]

Not sure what you're asking......you school searching for college or are you just probing for information just for the heck of it.

 

UNT's Mean Green is pretty much the best......they're also mostly music majors. 5A All-State players are a dime a dozen. I knew a Euphonium player who made 5A All-State all 4 years of high school and she made the 3rd band her freshman year at UNT. Hardcore graduate school.

 

 

Actually, our marching band is mostly Non-Music Majors. I found that out today. I think when asked, only about 1/3 of the band was a music major of some sort.

 

Anyways, you definitely have the stories of the hardcore-ness of the college down. I went in for my simple marching band audition today, and I was SHOCKED at how amazing the flutes were. I really felt like I sucked when I was there. I ended up First Chair, 2nd flute out of like... 30 or so flutes, so I faired pretty well in the end.

 

But my old lesson teacher told me of how she had a Master's Student at UNT working on her PHD for Flute Performance at North Texas, and she got Last Chair, Last band. OUCH! That's why I'm not auditioning for a concert band. lol.

[jd2012]

well even if this isn't in texas i'm from mckinney and can say that i'm having a blast in the arkansas razorback marching band, also mostly non music majors...if you want intensity in football games with 76,000 people, come to the SEC...music is awesome also (doing a Journey show, thriller, guitar hero, and millenium celebration)

[MisterNick]

Actually, our marching band is mostly Non-Music Majors. I found that out today. I think when asked, only about 1/3 of the band was a music major of some sort.

 

Anyways, you definitely have the stories of the hardcore-ness of the college down. I went in for my simple marching band audition today, and I was SHOCKED at how amazing the flutes were. I really felt like I sucked when I was there. I ended up First Chair, 2nd flute out of like... 30 or so flutes, so I faired pretty well in the end.

 

But my old lesson teacher told me of how she had a Master's Student at UNT working on her PHD for Flute Performance at North Texas, and she got Last Chair, Last band. OUCH! That's why I'm not auditioning for a concert band. lol.

 

Yeah, the Jazz director at my old school got his masters/doctorate at UNT, and the highest he made was the 2 o'clock lab band, very fierce competition... from what I've been told, it's better for graduate studies than undergrad.

 

As for SFA, if you want to be a band director, it's a really good place for it... it's considered one of the best music ed programs in the state, and they're consistently raising the performance standards as well. I was a student there for a while, but I had to take a couple of years off to work and save some money so I can go back and finish.

[borchnork]

well, we've gotten placement result back from auditions. As far as wind ensembles go, only 5 freshman made higher than concert band, and they all placed in the lower half of symphonic band.

 

And we only had 3 freshman make a jazz band. 1 made the two o clock! INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!! and the other two made 9 o clock.

[MisterNick]

well even if this isn't in texas i'm from mckinney and can say that i'm having a blast in the arkansas razorback marching band, also mostly non music majors...if you want intensity in football games with 76,000 people, come to the SEC...music is awesome also (doing a Journey show, thriller, guitar hero, and millenium celebration)

 

Actually, I would like to explore eventually how music works in other states. Sometimes in Texas, we're so used to doing things our way, that sometimes we forget that there's a whole world out there.

[takigan]

Actually, I would like to explore eventually how music works in other states. Sometimes in Texas, we're so used to doing things our way, that sometimes we forget that there's a whole world out there.

 

Bands of America forums probably wouldn't be a bad place to start (they're dead lately, but they've got a huge forum archive that goes back over 9 years).

 

well, we've gotten placement result back from auditions. As far as wind ensembles go, only 5 freshman made higher than concert band, and they all placed in the lower half of symphonic band.

 

And we only had 3 freshman make a jazz band. 1 made the two o clock! INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!! and the other two made 9 o clock.

 

Are there only 3 bands at UNT? I always thought they had 4 (Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band and Concert Band I and II)...plus a brass band.......and like, a billion jazz bands .

Edited September 6, 2008 by takigan

[mattthetrumpeter]

The initial response to the original posting has its information incorrect, at least regarding the University of Houston. The marching band is made up of 300+ members, half of which are non-majors. It performs all styles of marching, including but not limited to, corps-style, showband-style, and pseudo-military style. The fact that the author of the initial response was under the impression that the band was 80-90% music majors seemingly speaks volumes of the quality of the program, which can also be noted given its dime-a-dozen 5A All-Staters collection (UNT is not the only intense music school in TX).

[Dynasty]

I can at least say the UT Austin (Texas) marching band out of my own experience. Music majors are a vast minority - probably around 30%. Take that for what its worth though; I know music ed majors are required to do Longhorn Band. Out of those not doing music, about 60% of the kids are engineers.

 

The big thing is that it's not high school. It's fun and a class rather than an extracurricular. People are laid back and you don't spend all of your time memorizing dots and music. You don't go to football games to perform at half time; you go to games to see the football team play! The shows are fun and usually involve music that is traditional or appeals to the drunken crowd (like Led Zeppelin or Aerosmith).

 

I guess if you love high school band and BOA style marching, UT wouldn't be your thing. But honestly... it's nice to yell, cuss, watch the football team play and not worry about your performance.

 

Now if you're talking about the School of Music, then you'd have to find a music major :-)

[treblemaker]

I'm pretty sure I saw you at the Texas- FAU game. I was on the sideline crew and you were having a blast. Everyone was really. It made me really want to be in LHB.

[borchnork]

Are there only 3 bands at UNT? I always thought they had 4 (Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band and Concert Band I and II)...plus a brass band.......and like, a billion jazz bands .

 

 

Actually, when you audition as a wind player there's up to... 6 ensembles that you can be placed in to...

 

Wind Symphony, Symphonic band, Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra, Concert Band 1 and 2, and after marching season is over, we can have up to Concert band 1, 2, 3 and 4.

 

I saw the first concert of the year tonight, the Symphonic Band...

 

I think that was the most perfect thing I've ever heard in my entire life. No lie, I was shocked. Like... If they were THAT good... I'm kinda scared as to how beyond perfect, almost godlike, the wind symphony is going to be next week.

Edited September 19, 2008 by borchnork

[takigan]

You heard the 1 o' clock yet?

 

You wanna see Herculean feats of musicianship you should hear them. First time I heard them was at the TMEA 2005 convention. They played this piece that was pretty much a screaming trumpet battle and they were hitting notes I didn't even know existed on Trumpet, I couldn't even begin to guess to how high above the staff they were playing.

 

But as for hearing beyond perfection....I find that once you get to that level of playing it gets really hard to tell which is better without trained ears. Even now I don't think I'd be able to tell much difference in ability between the Dallas Wind Symphony and North Texas's Wind Symphony, or even their Symphonic Band for that matter. You'll feel a stronger presence on stage from them (the Wind Sym) for sure....but as for sound and clarity....I don't think you'll be able to tell, plus the Wind Symphony plays a lot of modern music while the Sy Band is known for playing a lot more classics so the Sy Band is actually a little more fun to listen to IMO.

[borchnork]

Actually, oddly enough, Symphonic band didn't play a single piece older than 40 years old. All but 1 of their pieces was written within the past 10 years, 2 of them were written this year/summer.

 

And the 1 o' clock has yet to put on a performance from my understanding, but I walk by the practice hall everyday when the start rehearsal and it's intimidating. haha. I've heard them before... and My jaw dropped. But the 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock have already put on at least 2 performances each.

[takigan]

What pieces did the Symphonic Band play? Do you remember?

 

When I say "modern" I'm talking works that have been written VERY recently, haven't been performed much at all (UNT does a lot of premiers), are often written by a composer no one's heard of and usually don't sound that satisfying. I don't consider Frank Ticheli's 'Nitro' (2006) to be a modern piece...but then I don't consider it to be a classic either. I would consider Mark Camphouse's "A Movement for Rosa" to be a classic even though it's less than 20 years old. I consider any orchestral arrangment (Shostakovitch, Bach, Holst etc.) to be a classic even if it's less than 20 years old...particularly if it's a popular arrangement just due to the nature of the work.

[borchnork]

I don't member what they played, BUT thankfully I took a program. =]

 

They did a world premiere of a piece for Organ and Winds called "Fanfare Europa" I actually sat next to the composers parents. it was cool.

 

The rest of the program was:

 

"Scenes from 'The Louvre'" ~Norman Dello Joio

"Strange Humors" ~John Mackey

"Song for Lyndsay" ~Andrew Boysen Jr.

"Raise the Roof" ~Michael Daugherty

"AirLink" ~Jack Stamp

[treyj]

I don't member what they played, BUT thankfully I took a program. =]

 

They did a world premiere of a piece for Organ and Winds called "Fanfare Europa" I actually sat next to the composers parents. it was cool.

 

The rest of the program was:

 

"Scenes from 'The Louvre'" ~Norman Dello Joio

"Strange Humors" ~John Mackey

"Song for Lyndsay" ~Andrew Boysen Jr.

"Raise the Roof" ~Michael Daugherty

"AirLink" ~Jack Stamp

 

 

strange humors is REALLY cool.

we played the 2 years ago.

i really enjoyed it ;]

[borchnork]

strange humors is REALLY cool.

we played the 2 years ago.

i really enjoyed it ;]

 

I've heard several performances of this piece, but NEVER anything like this... It was stunning. Like, the concert was YESTERDAY, and I'm STILL in shock over it.

[Nancy08]

Yeah well you did make it to the Wind Symphony concert right? WOW. That is all there is to say. Our concert was not very good though. I was kinda disappointed, almost a little embarassed given our rep...

[borchnork]

OF COURSE I made it to the Wind Symphony concert!!!!!!!!!!!

 

And they performed GODLY. It was sickening, yet overly impressive all at the same time. I didn't know that perfection of that level was possible... I was in love with the concert. lol.

 

 

Yesterday we got one of the greatest compliments ever. The Green Brigade went to the UNT vs. Rice game in Houston, and after our half time show, we had ALL of their side on their feet cheering for us. =] After, we also had a man come up and say "That was by far the best musical performance EVER performed in this stadium. Thank You." Although, The Rice band was entertaining. They did a show based off of politics and the current political race, and I must say, I enjoyed it, and even their little jab at us. "Did you know that UNT has the largest music college in the nation? So next time you see a UNT college of music graduate, be sure to tip your waiter!" hahaha. It was creative for sure.

[Nancy08]

Haha that's pretty nice. Rice was a pretty cool school to go and visit. How did UNT do against them?

[borchnork]

I'll tell you in class tomorrow... Sure, we have the number 1 music college, but not necessarily the best football team. haha.

[jd2012]

haha I just had to add this after we performed it and got a standing ovation from the student section (big achievement in college band)...sorry about the quality, it's just about the dance.

 

 

now we are working on the cadets 2000 show Millenium celebration, GO HOGS!!! haha

[saxplaya]

haha I just had to add this after we performed it and got a standing ovation from the student section (big achievement in college band)...sorry about the quality, it's just about the dance.

 

 

now we are working on the cadets 2000 show Millenium celebration, GO HOGS!!! haha

 

 

Question, who was your "Thriller" arranged by? It sounds vaguely familiar to the one my band played last year.