• The KillerFrogs

UAPB Band

BigPurple87

Active Member
I'm sure our band is technically great and I know they love and support the frogs through all kinds of weather/conditions, etc. but sitting in the end zone after UAPB played, I swear I've heard louder elevator music. My wife didn't even realize they had started playing until I said something 3-4 minutes in.

I have to believe a real spread would have been much higher.

What we played WAS elevator music
 

Billy Clyde

Active Member
The HBCU bands are always so much more fun. Always reminds me of Bear Bryant, back in the "good ol' days," before he was allowed to have black football players on his team. USC came to town with Sam "Bam" Cunningham and thrashed Bama on their home field. At one point Bryant referencing Sam, said, "I gotta get me one of those." There is a story that he knew his team would get torched by USC, and scheduled the game as a way to convince boosters of the need to integrate Bama football. Worked out pretty good.

Wish we could replicate what their bands do. Would without question be a much better halftime show, and might even help the campus feel more integrated than what it does now.
 

Eight

Member
The HBCU bands are always so much more fun. Always reminds me of Bear Bryant, back in the "good ol' days," before he was allowed to have black football players on his team. USC came to town with Sam "Bam" Cunningham and thrashed Bama on their home field. At one point Bryant referencing Sam, said, "I gotta get me one of those." There is a story that he knew his team would get torched by USC, and scheduled the game as a way to convince boosters of the need to integrate Bama football. Worked out pretty good.

Wish we could replicate what their bands do. Would without question be a much better halftime show, and might even help the campus feel more integrated than what it does now.

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Big Frog II

Active Member
It's not the band members or the show girls I am directing my comments to but the band leadership. They have be doing the same thing for way, way too many years. It's time for a change especially if everyone is going to be hanging around at halftime. Halftime should be entertaining, and we are not entertained. While we are at it, get some new uniforms.
 

Froginbedford

Full Member
I've complained about this for 15 years and I just get push back because of our "sound quality". The UAPB band was awesome!

The UAPB band was loud and maybe not musically solid as TCU's....Lots of brass in PB band, not many reed instruments....School of music at each school is obviously of different minds as to what they want their musicians to do....SMU band is loud...smaller than TCU's, but also without many reed instruments, heavy on brass...you will be making the same comments after September 21 game...yes, you have made these comments in previous TCU-SMU games....Consider also that the visiting band (PB and all future visiting bands) are situated now in a relatively open corner of the stadium...the sound is not absorbed/blocked by a tall structure (even with the east side expansion) [yeah, I know they were loud facing the west side during the halftime show]...the visitor's band's sound is angled toward a larger span of the stadium...TCU's band faces head-on the home side....I wasn't in the band at any level of school, I haven't played a band member on TV, and didn't pay enough attention in science classes to be able to offer up a physics explanation of this....And besides, PB band played the same medly that the Southern band did last year, two gospel songs..."I so glad [I go to Southern U/PBU'] and "Give me that old [Southern/PB spirit"]....Interesting historical footnote...the old I. M. Terrell High School band in Fort Worth played "Give me that old [Terrell spirit] near the end of every game....
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
As much as our football team has to beat the odds with recruiting, our marching band has it much worse.

First off, a typical school has about 1 band member for every 100 undergrad, which means TCU should have around 80-90 people in the marching band. TCU manages to get over 200, but the way they do that is by allowing anyone who has ever picked up an instrument into the band. Schools like UT and OSU have auditions and you have to prove you know the music. TCU can't afford to do that and have a similar sized band. (UAPB has a huge band for how big their enrollment is btw)

2nd, most schools don't force their music majors to be in the band. You'd think having music majors in the band would make it better, but it doesn't when half of them don't actually want to be there. Imagine if you were an engineering major on an engineering scholarship, and they said, "As part of your scholarship stipulations, we want you to spend 10 hours a week practicing water aerobics so that you can perform while showing us math equations at the weekly swim meet. And we're going to pair you up with a bunch of people who struggled to complete algebra II." You wouldn't put much effort into it.

Lastly, the actual caliber of players at TCU is much lower than many public schools simply because of how expensive it is to go to TCU. It is much cheaper and much more prestigious to go to University of North Texas if you're wanting to become a professional musician. When most music majors are looking to either take a teaching job (making less than $50,000) or go on to graduate school, it doesn't make financial sense to go to TCU.

All that being said, I think our band does a decent job. I'd personally rather have their performances over Rice or Stanford's.
so then why do we have a marching band?

Honest question - if we aren’t going to be good at it by the very nature of our school, why have it?

Surely we could find something else to do at half times
 

Billy Clyde

Active Member
It's not the band members or the show girls I am directing my comments to but the band leadership. They have be doing the same thing for way, way too many years. It's time for a change especially if everyone is going to be hanging around at halftime. Halftime should be entertaining, and we are not entertained. While we are at it, get some new uniforms.

"MORE COWBELL!!!"
 

YA

Active Member
TCU Band director hates playing sporting events and has expressed the same to anyone who will listen--thus you see the product on the field reflect the band director's true feelings
 

satis1103

DAOTONPYH EHT LIAH LLA
TCU Band director hates playing sporting events and has expressed the same to anyone who will listen--thus you see the product on the field reflect the band director's true feelings
Seriously?

I hate doing ticket work at the law office but it's part of the job, so I have to suck it up. He should too. GF is a band nerd and she pointed out they did basically no marching. It's getting less and less exciting as years go on.
 
My unpopular opinion:

The TCU band sounded awesome. Their musicianship was far beyond UAPB. That Beatles medley was fantastic and so were the featured artists. The Showgirls were also far, far better Thant the other team’s dance troupe. Just playing as loud as you can is fine but not to my taste.
 

6Frog6

Active Member
My unpopular opinion:

The TCU band sounded awesome. Their musicianship was far beyond UAPB. That Beatles medley was fantastic and so were the featured artists. The Showgirls were also far, far better Thant the other team’s dance troupe. Just playing as loud as you can is fine but not to my taste.
I'll take your word for "sounded awesome". I had to turn up my hearing aids to hear them.
 

What Up Toad

Active Member
TCU Band director hates playing sporting events and has expressed the same to anyone who will listen--thus you see the product on the field reflect the band director's true feelings

Which band director? The one who's in charge of it loves it.
 

westoverhillbilly

Active Member
A
All that being said, I think our band does a decent job. I'd personally rather have their performances over Rice or Stanford's.

Stanford, followed by Rice and other private schools with similar small numbers, just gave up on having a band and went with a spoof band that is popular and entertaining and does satires, but they did throw in the towel sometime in the late 60s/early 70s. SMU just went small and semi- casual.

I would hate to go to an important bowl game (especially in a dome environment) with a mini-band like Stanford.. I believe our band played a role in those come from behind wins in the Alamodome by giving the fanbase energy. I realize that some of our halftime shows aren't going to wow anyone..
 
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