student section chant

[keefe]

it's just the same seven notes repeated over and over.

Are you talking about the 80's Hair bands?

[keefe]

For all my fellow middle managers out there:

A Day In the Life: Commons' Meteoric Rise Through the Corporate Ranks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1HqjBc6LhA

[🏀]

Come in now. The band started playing Mambo #5. Love me some Lou Bega.

[Goose]

Sultan

I appreciate all of what MU is. Nothing wrong with comparing era's. For guys old enough the AL era was better. I have very much enjoyed this season and looking forward to the rest of season playing out. Possibly the band does suck, the students are lazy and our coach leaves....it does not diminish my appreciation of the school. I'm going to have two there next year and if I did not love the joint I would not shell out the coin.

[4everwarriors]

Here, ring up Janners' digs----(414) 288-7125

[mugrad2006]

Club caliber musicians can't add a new song or two per year?  I think the newest song the band performs is "Seven Nation Army" - from 2003.  Also, it's just the same seven notes repeated over and over.

I think the earlier poster hinted at the biggest part with constantly changing the music.  Sheet music isn't cheap, especially for a school without a music program where they can leverage some of the purchasing power of an entire department.  

On top of that, despite some of your opinions it takes practice for the group to put those arrangements together and have them sound good, and as a club the group doesn't have a ton of practice time.

[setyoursightsnorth]

Big difference----DePaul actually has a School of Music. MU's Pep Band sucks because its essentially a club with club caliber musicians.

Biggest farce of all time. They are all talented musicians, just going from an actual band setting to club band is a different world. A good friend of mine goes to Georgetown and he's one of the most musically gifted people I know, but quit the basketball pep band because he was used to a more competitive atmosphere. It's the same for sporting events: I played competitive water-polo in High school and the club team here is a complete change of pace. The pep band is a way for them to keep doing what they love and keep that love of playing going and doing the best they can with limited opportunities to play music. If there is criticism anywhere, it could be with the organization of the pep-band, but do not criticize the actual musicians in the band. They are all talented in their skill and it's one of the few ways they get to express it at Marquette.

[SaintPaulWarrior]

Club caliber musicians can't add a new song or two per year?  I think the newest song the band performs is "Seven Nation Army" - from 2003.  Also, it's just the same seven notes repeated over and over.

Question the funding not the kids.

[warriorchick]

Question the funding not the kids.

Serious question - how much does sheet music cost?

[mugrad2006]

Serious question - how much does sheet music cost?

For pop music it can be 5 to 6 bucks plus per playing member. You figure a 30 person pep band and that's 150 plus per song. I know that doesnt sound like much but it's a lot to ask A club to pony up when their budget struggles to break even to begin with. All those members are volunteers and already pay club dues and pay for their own instruments.

You want to donate to the cause go ahead, I'm sure they'd be happy to learn.

[keefe]

For pop music it can be 5 to 6 bucks plus per playing member. You figure a 30 person pep band and that's 150 plus per song. I know that doesnt sound like much but it's a lot to ask A club to pony up when their budget struggles to break even to begin with. All those members are volunteers and already pay club dues and pay for their own instruments.

You want to donate to the cause go ahead, I'm sure they'd be happy to learn.

Bake Sale

[brewcity77]

For pop music it can be 5 to 6 bucks plus per playing member. You figure a 30 person pep band and that's 150 plus per song. I know that doesnt sound like much but it's a lot to ask A club to pony up when their budget struggles to break even to begin with. All those members are volunteers and already pay club dues and pay for their own instruments.

You want to donate to the cause go ahead, I'm sure they'd be happy to learn.

It wouldn't surprise me if they have to pay more since they use it for public performances. Maybe Rugbydrummer would know better.

[Avenue Commons]

A Day In the Life: Commons' Meteoric Rise Through the Corporate Ranks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1HqjBc6LhA

"I'm a single, successful guy, and I need to be fair to myself."

Great pull. Made my morning.

I think that might be a young Nicholas Cage manning the grill.

[warriorchick]

I think that might be a young Nicholas Cage manning the grill.

Yep.  With his original name (Nicolas Coppola) and his original nose.

[warriorchick]

For pop music it can be 5 to 6 bucks plus per playing member. You figure a 30 person pep band and that's 150 plus per song. I know that doesnt sound like much but it's a lot to ask A club to pony up when their budget struggles to break even to begin with. All those members are volunteers and already pay club dues and pay for their own instruments.

You want to donate to the cause go ahead, I'm sure they'd be happy to learn.

If money is really the issue here, don't you think that out of a $10 million budget, the basketball team could throw a few shekels the band's way? How much are they already paying ASCAP for the right to play "Gangnam Style" and "Cotton-Eyed Joe"  from the sound board?

And seriously, if the pep band had a fund raiser for new material, I'd be the first one with my checkbook out.

[Benny B]

I can't believe that no one has yet pointed out:

1) MU Students (or a select few) do a particular chant at every game - or at least the ones where Davante goes to the line - that, while not necessarily original, hasn't likely been done with any regularity at any school ever before.

2) MU hasn't done the over-rated chant with any regularity since 2005-06... that's a good thing because i) it's exponentially more cliche than "I believe," and ii) when you're the best team in the Big East over a period of seven years straight*, nobody you beat is over-rated.

3) Though MU hasn't done it much, if at all, this year, I would guess that no fewer than 100 different teams have "copied" MU in playing Zombie Nation.  So even if we're copying SDSU with the Big Heads, U-something with "Jump Around**," and USU with "I believe," MU's copy-to-copied ratio is still at least 33:1... that's pretty damn good in my book.

So quitchabitchin'.... MU is solid, doe.


*Objectively determined, of course, based on both consecutive NCAA appearances and the percentage of years making a tourney appearance by a Big East team)

** Though arguably, thanks to RAS, MU's version of Jump Around is quite original.

[uncle zeffy]

I think the thing that is lost on a lot of people here is that a majority of the pep bands play the same songs anyway. Yeah visiting DePaul you may hear "cool new music" but I would bet their fans have heard that same song for the 12th time this season.

A lot of effort goes into covering a popular song for a pep band. you need to transcribe what is normally done by a guitar and make it playable by the trumpet player. a song that originally features 4 instruments and vocals needs to sound the same with 20+ instruments and no vocals.

learning the music is the easy part. its having an artist sell their rights to someone to write this music is the tricky part, and this does not come cheep

i have linked an amateurs rendition of Call me Maybe so you can see what all goes into this.

http://musescore.com/user/12155/scores/55130

[warriorchick]

I think the thing that is lost on a lot of people here is that a majority of the pep bands play the same songs anyway. Yeah visiting DePaul you may hear "cool new music" but I would bet their fans have heard that same song for the 12th time this season.

A lot of effort goes into covering a popular song for a pep band. you need to transcribe what is normally done by a guitar and make it playable by the trumpet player. a song that originally features 4 instruments and vocals needs to sound the same with 20+ instruments and no vocals.

learning the music is the easy part. its having an artist sell their rights to someone to write this music is the tricky part, and this does not come cheep

i have linked an amateurs rendition of Call me Maybe so you can see what all goes into this.

http://musescore.com/user/12155/scores/55130

So your argument is that no one arranges songs for pep/marching bands?  That's a little hard to believe - you can browse YouTube and see any number of marching bands playing songs that were released in the past year. 
Here, for example, is Ohio Yniversity doing "Gangnam Style" complete with choreography:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cDficEfonAE?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


And I wasn't necessarily talking about brand new, popular songs.  Just something different than the same 6-8 songs every game, every year.  Given turnover, I would guess that about 25% of the band in any given year are new players who have to learn the entire repertoire anyway.  How about one year, you swap out "26 or 5 to 4" for "Play that Funky Music"? 

[uncle zeffy]

But they do play numerous songs, from the looks of it 70 songs are in their catalog and they rotate them on a pregame basis.

http://www.marquette.edu/band/documents/Playlists2012.pdf

for a band that is volunteer only, and you have to enrolled in a concert band to volunteer I think what they are doing is pretty good.

[warriorchick]

But they do play numerous songs, from the looks of it 70 songs are in their catalog and they rotate them on a pregame basis.

http://www.marquette.edu/band/documents/Playlists2012.pdf

for a band that is volunteer only, and you have to enrolled in a concert band to volunteer I think what they are doing is pretty good.

They should rotate some of the pregame songs into the game rotation once in awhile then.  Problem solved.  No one is in the stadium until they are basically done playing those pregames songs, anyway.

[BrewCity83]

They should rotate some of the pregame songs into the game rotation once in awhile then.  Problem solved.  No one is in the stadium until they are basically done playing those pregames songs, anyway.

Agreed.  Problem solved.  Get the rotation moving...

[MarsupialMadness]

I think they should hire Street Life, the band that played during timeouts of Bucks game.

[Eldon]

How about the student section take a cue from the greatest coach ever--Gordon Bombay

We could chant some of the players names (say, whoever is on the floor), or even the whole rosters names

"Jamil...Juan...Vander...Davante...etc"

then chant

"We are eagles...Eagles fly together"
"Eagles fly together" "Eagles fly together"
"Eagles fly together" "Eagles fly together"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzJY_K0cX1c
(starts at the 1:12 mark)

Then, the student section breaks into

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZR9SQj272Y