First down music

[Cajunmac]

Part of the money that built the IPF was supposed to build up the PRIDE of Louisiana/Acadiana.

Well, it has always seemed to me that the band has always looked underfunded. We need both numbers of musicians and support for what they need. Having them show up in shorts and t-shirts is not really what we want. Is it? And I know, daytime games in September are brutally hot, but the t-shirt thing just looks small time. There must be something cooler than formall marching band 'formalwear' but above bbq cookout attire. And I don't know if they need scholarships to fill numbers or what exactly, but whatever we are doing to support these musicians is, in my opinion, woefully short.

[Just1More]

Well, it has always seemed to me that the band has always looked underfunded. We need both numbers of musicians and support for what they need. Having them show up in shorts and t-shirts is not really what we want. Is it? And I know, daytime games in September are brutally hot, but the t-shirt thing just looks small time. There must be something cooler than formall marching band 'formalwear' but above bbq cookout attire. And I don't know if they need scholarships to fill numbers or what exactly, but whatever we are doing to support these musicians is, in my opinion, woefully short.

I'm not too big on whether they have great uniforms or if they wear t-shirts on hot days. If you sound good, you can wear whatever you want. The UL band used to have a pretty decent scholarship program that helped retain the numbers and attract more solid musicians. That went away for some reason and it hit the UL band pretty hard. I don't think it's coming back in mass so that is not going to become the saving action. Most band members are not music majors. It is a big personal time and hard work commitment to be in a college band. There needs to be a "cool factor" to young men musicians.

Growing a larger and more powerful UL band starts with the band director(s). They can blame it on a lot of other factors, but in order to sound powerful in a stadium, you have to have really good drum and horn players. You have to be a dominant sounding drum and horn band (not a well balanced symphonic band). 90% of the people in the crowd don't know jack about what they're hearing. They know when they hear clean powerful play. Powerful drum and horn players are going to join bands that have other powerful drum and horn players. There are specific arrangement styles and composition that are ideal for the crowded stadiums and sounding clean and powerful... and there is a bunch of stupid tinkering around junk that band directors usually have the band play. It sounds neat to them in the band room. It sounds like BS inside a noisy stadium.

It all starts and ends with the band directors at the high school level. If they are overly geeky music freaks and don't know how to both organize and run a concert band organization at that time of year... and then retool and build a good powerful stadium/marching band... we will see high school and college bands getting worse every year. College and high school band directors with any sense realize that the football game stadium performance is probably their biggest exposure to the local community in mass. A lot of youngsters are there. They are not impressed that the clarinets just played a nice counter melody to the xylophone. They are impressed with loud, clean sound. If their dad says "dang, the band sounds good... he meant that it sounded clean and powerful"... it imprints a memory that will come back in the future to spin a positive for band to this youngster.

There is a huge challenge for creating and retaining good band students. Band requires work, dedication and following direction. Xbox and the internet do not. I want to see more kids interested in band... especially young men. Band directors need to stop doing for themselves and the "easily obedient". In order to have a powerful UL band, it is going to take attracting and retaining a group of powerful... and hard to control... young men. You keep their attention by making them blow and bang their guts out on their horns and drums... not by wasting their time making arcs and intersecting patterns on the field.

[HOUCajun]

Tons of BCS programs pipe in music. Many have pointed to Nebraska on the uni thread for their tradition. Nebraska pipes in rock Rap you name it. As does VT, Penn St, etc etc etc. If it's good enough for the big time programs it's good enough for UL!!

I think our band was much improved last year with their stands tunes and overall sound from the year before. Granted it is much easier to wine about problems than acknowledge incremental improvement but they did improve in many of the areas people complain about.
Everyone's favorite flag man will not be out there this year. That alone is real progress!

[Just1More]

Tons of BCS programs pipe in music. Many have pointed to Nebraska on the uni thread for their tradition. Nebraska pipes in rock Rap you name it. As does VT, Penn St, etc etc etc. If it's good enough for the big time programs it's good enough for UL!!

I think our band was much improved last year with their stands tunes and overall sound from the year before. Granted it is much easier to wine about problems than acknowledge incremental improvement but they did improve in many of the areas people complain about.
Everyone's favorite flag man will not be out there this year. That alone is real progress!

We cut off Cayenne's tail and made "incremental improvement" to our insane mascot. If we give up one less touchdown this year, we'll make "incremental improvement" over last year. If we added $1 to the Athletic Foundation, not created RCAF, we'd have gotten "incremental improvement". And you know what... we'd still suck... but just a little bit less.

If you would have made more than incremental improvement in school, you'd spell "whine" with an "h". (Ha)

[awadelewis]

Al Davis said it best: Just win, baby, win.

[HOUCajun]

We cut off Cayenne's tail and made "incremental improvement" to our insane mascot. If we give up one less touchdown this year, we'll make "incremental improvement" over last year. If we added $1 to the Athletic Foundation, not created RCAF, we'd have gotten "incremental improvement". And you know what... we'd still suck... but just a little bit less.

If you would have made more than incremental improvement in school, you'd spell "whine" with an "h". (Ha)

I prefer wine over whine because good wine makes incremental improvement over time and whine is like sour grapes initially and gets worse.
I thought the band was ok in 09 and pretty good last year. I don't know how many 3/4 star players are on the roster, so I don't know how much better they will or should be this year. Perhaps HUD could talk to some of those brazen brass players on his recruiting visits to high schools!
If the band gets better again like they did last year people will still complain because it is easier to complain than recognize improvement. If it does not get better it will need to be put on the list of things that needs money thrown at it. That's a pretty long list for us right now.

[Just1More]

I prefer wine over whine because good wine makes incremental improvement over time and whine is like sour grapes initially and gets worse.
I thought the band was ok in 09 and pretty good last year. I don't know how many 3/4 star players are on the roster, so I don't know how much better they will or should be this year. Perhaps HUD could talk to some of those brazen brass players on his recruiting visits to high schools!
If the band gets better again like they did last year people will still complain because it is easier to complain than recognize improvement. If it does not get better it will need to be put on the list of things that needs money thrown at it. That's a pretty long list for us right now.

I'm very confident in the things I've suggested. Very confident. What I suggested doesn't require a lot of money. All of my suggestions are directed at the people in charge... not the students. As for me... I'd like to park this subject for a while.