Band Amplification: The Word From On High

This is the same guy who had to take the fall when the hockey band director decided to stop dancing. Clearly annoyed by years of hateful, snarky emails.

Still, it's an upgrade, and we've just moved up one notch in the ideal stadium atmosphere chart (in reverse order of preference):

4. Canned music and a band that can't be heard.

3. An amplified band with less canned music.

2. An amplified band with no canned music.

1. A sufficiently loud band positioned where people can hear them and no canned music.

Only concern is that "preparations" for UConn involve playing more softly to avoid blowing out the mics.

He has to come off sounding like a....well, let's just say he doesn't need the "Haith" in his name...

Having known Prof. Haithcock for almost 10 years, and having him as a close personal mentor, I can assure you he's nothing close to pretentious.  He's really one of the nicest and most loyal people you'll ever meet, and I hope some of you do get the opportunity to meet him someday, I'd say anyone would be better for it!

I will say, though, his style of writing is rather diplomatic, so I don't blame you for having that reaction, just know that his choice of words really does not reflect his personality or character, he's just very informational in writing.

Also, to my knowledge, he does not pick the music for the MMB, to make a metaphor, he's sort of like an athletic director, who speaks for the programs and makes larger, overarching decisions which affect all sports programs, but does not make decisions on who gets playing time or what offense to run (or in Prof. Haithcock's case, decisions on what music to program for halftime shows or the technique of marching that the MMB uses).

Scott Boerma is the MMB director, not only is he the main programmer, he also arranges most of or all the shows (for the non-musicians out there, this means he takes whatever rock song or opera he wants the group to play, and adapts it for marching band instrumentation)

Hope this is helpful!

but he is also the kind of guy who e-mailed a person who runs a blog so that the fans would know what's going on with the band.  If he was pretentious he would just ignore us.  His writing style may be formal, but I appreciate him taking the time to send such a long e-mail to Brian.

You say that like it's a bad thing

You don't have to like opera or the administration in charge of the band but you should respect the effort that the MMB members put in for the fan no matter what they're playing. Those kids work their butts off to entertain. If the music is bad, blame administration and ask for better but enjoy the performance anyway because the performers are doing their damnedest to show you something great. Don't just resent opera for the sake of resentment. That's just cynical.

Edit: I should clarify that last year at the game with the opera show, I actually heard students boo their own band because they didn't like the choice of music. That's not acceptable. If we're that disrespectful to our own band, what does that say about us and what does that say about the way we treat other fans etc.?

Well, no. 

To me it sounds like the kind of conversation I like to hear around issues and events on campus, and it seemed entirely fitting with the general tenor of this biog.  I mean, we get our yuks in, but it has always seemed to me that most of the readership appreciates an in-depth discussion that distinguishes itself from the usual internet rumormongering, hysteria,and hyperbole.  I thought what he wrote was perfectly in line with mgblog content.

And he's a professor; PhDs can't help it.

The access to internet was in its infant stages pre 1995.  People didn't have as big a voice for stuff like that.  In other words, there is more opportunity to bitch about things and be heard since the internet has come so far.  I don't know, that is just my guess.

As a member of the student section "back in the old days" of 1995, I seem to kind of remember difficulty hearing the band when they sat below us on the sideline.  Then again, maybe it was all the coke and hooker hangovers I was having at the time.

The "old days" comment made me laugh.  Jesus, it was only 15 years ago.  You know, right around the time we were winning the national championship. 

even make a claim to doing hard rock? I understand what you mean--they are translating rock tunes into the idiom--but can what comes out the other end be called hard rock? Not just criticizing, I'm curious, and maybe a bit old school about this myself, much as I care about and love all genres like a good old CBN-freeform lover should.  

Great news!

My seats are in section 1, right in the middle of the sideline.  Even with the new stadium and its acoustically reflective new structures, when the band faces the other side, which they do the majority of the time, you just don't hear them.

I am thrilled that amplification is going to happen.

I come for the whole experience  - always getting to the Big House about an hour before the game and look forward to hearing the band.  As a prior poster noted, there is a lot of talent around the campus.  They will get things figured out.

...Pearl Harbor, the Movie. Except in jest.

(And nothing but pop for 3 years? Wasn't Opera just last year?).

I'm not much for the Drum Corps approach, either, but then I was in the band just before it was co-ed!  So, from a dinosaur's point of view:

Does anyone remember how much crap we gave the USC band for wearing amplifiers ON THEIR BACKS at the '70 Rose Bowl?  I'm not against anything that will let us better hear the MMB, but let's hope that the technology has progressed to the point where we don't have to do anything remotely similar.  I'll leave that to the sound engineers.  Any band's sound is directional, and moving them so that they are pointing at the home stands and the team is a good idea.

Maybe we could play clips from 300!! THIS... IS... oh wait, wrong board.

/sarcasm

Anything that accurately projects the band to the opposite corner of the stadium to reduce the sound-delay inherent with such a large stadium is cool by me. It's annoying to see hands waving at different times during "Temptation" and hearing a stuttered "YOU SUCK" around the stadium.

edit: after reading this again, I now see the humor. (in the interest of full disclosure, that wasn't me that negged you)

UNACCEPTABLE

Also, canned crap.

I'll sit and listen to them by myself

I don't think they've lost sight of their audience. They're supposed to do a Gaga show this year for goodness sake. You can hold Opera against them for 20 years. It doesn't negate the classic rock shows/songs they regularly perform (ie, Don't Stop Believing, Livin' on a Prayer, etc.) in the stands and on the field.

And at the end (along with the embarrassing typo), and the passive-aggression throughout? 

I'm a little unclear why the marching band should feel they have any say or interest in what happens over the sound system when they are not playing. What possible leverage do they have in such a negotiation? The marching band is not really in charge of all music or sounds that are made during a football game.

When the marching isn't playing, it is really none of their concern what is happening any more than it is any other person's concern sitting in the stadium.

I await the sign hanging from one of the luxury boxes announcing "It has been 2437 days since the last Ann Arbor Rocky and Bullwinkle," a la the Dead at Winterland.

I remember Nix not liking Bullwinkle, and that was one reason it wasn't played when he was there and that killed it. He also used to diss Varsity a lot. I kind of like Varsity.