Proud Papa-Iowa State Varsity Marching Band

[Sigmapolis]

My audition experience was similar. Smith came to my school (he was doing a clinic that day with our band) and me and a couple others auditioned. Told me I was in on the spot. Only question at band camp was on being an alternate or not for freshman year (which I was, I shared G3, but I ended up marching in every show)

At current levels? I'm almost sure i'd be cut. I wasn't the greatest marcher when I started (and oh boy did I feel the pain of that at ISU and even moreso when I did my first DCI tour), so I probably would have been cut at the visual portion of the audition.

I think I would have made it.

Arguments for --

-- I was one of the better if not the best marcher in my high school band. I have terrible hand-eye coordination (so was never much good at ball sports) but good "rhythmic coordination."

-- By the standards of high school band nerds in Iowa, I was a pretty good athlete. I wasn't a good athlete compared to actual athletes, but cross country in the fall, track in the spring, and baseball in the summer left me in good enough shape to do what a high school or college marching band requires of you.

-- I could play really ******* loud without totally ruining my timbre. I never had the consistent range of a 1st but definitely had a "power band" right where 2nd and 3rd parts would end up.

Arguments against --

-- I was loud but far from good. I was probably the best trumpet in my high school band come by senior year, but that's not saying much. That section was bereft of talent compared to others who had a bunch of future music majors who would end up as music teachers and high school band directors themselves.

-- I never did any solo/ensemble or all-state competitions. I doubt I would have gone much of anywhere had I done so. Musical subtlety and technique was never my thing. The good news is that stuff matters far less in athletic bands, so maybe I could have overcome the fact I wasn't great at scales or sight reading.

So, I hope I'd done great on visual portion and been "good enough, he'll make us heard" on the second one.

 

[ghyland7]

You have to be in marching band in order to qualify to get into pep band.

UNLESS you play bass, and the current bass player unexpectedly decides not to do it, but you have been in Jazz 1 for a few years and are talented and well thought of in the department, and your buddy who is in Jazz and ISUCFVMB and pep band says you should try to get it, and you do.

And then your dad watches you in pep band during the Kane-Ejim season and it is about the best thing ever! For the record, I'm the dad...

is your kid Spencer?

 

[CascadeClone]

is your kid Spencer?

Hi Grant!

 

[psychlones]

Just reading through this post as I sit on my front porch, drinking coffee and listening to the marching band practice in the distance... congrats to your son and everyone else who made the band, they are a great part of the game experience!

 

[Sousaclone]

What's also cool is how the memories and feelings stick with you 15+ yrs later (at least for me).

I was at a Cal-Poly vs UCDavis football game two years ago with some friends and it was the first college football game I'd been to since graduating in '07. Watching the Cal-Poly band warmup, march to the stadium, pregame antics, stadium entrance, etc brought back all sorts of feelings & memories (one of the people I was there actually commented on the big smile and my change in demeanor when hearing their drumline start the cadence for the march to the stadium).

 

[Cyclonetrombone]

And apparently its gotten decently difficult to make it in.

Saw a post on reddit today of a Colts trumpet player who just got off DCI tour who didn't make it in.

Yeesh. Glad my time was 2003 to 2007. Considering I ended up in one of those spots that would have had an alternate in C rank (C3 if I recall) but the section didnt have enough members to have full alternates I can tell you for a fact I would not have made it in my highschool didnt actually do marching band drills so I was learning on the job first year. Heck probably wouldnt have made it year 4 even because my fundamentals were always terrible.

 

[danwbarrett]

Yeesh. Glad my time was 2003 to 2007. Considering I ended up in one of those spots that would have had an alternate in C rank (C3 if I recall) but the section didnt have enough members to have full alternates I can tell you for a fact I would not have made it in my highschool didnt actually do marching band drills so I was learning on the job first year. Heck probably wouldnt have made it year 4 even because my fundamentals were always terrible.

I was in the last all-male ISU marching band (1971) when we marched 100 plus a female twirler in The Sun Bowl, ISU’s first bowl game. My freshman year (1970) we only had 82 “try out” and we marched 80. We did a reversing block I singing “Rise Sons of Iowa State” at the south end of Clyde Williams Field.

Female instrument players joined the band in 1972 when we grew to 145 and went to the Liberty Bowl. My senior year, we jumped to 180 and I designed the first reversing I-STATE performed by the band before that was the Cyclones logo.

 

[SaraV]

Before the band leaves the stadium after the game, they sing "Bells". For those who don't stick around, this is how it sounds