A new tradition I would like to see get started

NT91 · December 18, 2017

What???

FirefightnRick · December 18, 2017

31 minutes ago, greenminer said:

@FirefightnRick I was a part of the 2001 halftime show. Do you remember it, and how was this year same/different to you?

I don't recall. But I don't recall the Colorado State band either, so maybe y'all didn't get showed up as bad as the group did yesterday.

Rick

SilverEagle · December 18, 2017

32 minutes ago, greenminer said:

@FirefightnRick I was a part of the 2001 halftime show. Do you remember it, and how was this year same/different to you?

Is there a youtube video of any of the 2001 performances? Was Dennis Fisher directing the band then?

Felozano · December 18, 2017

1 hour ago, FirefightnRick said:

If you attended the N.O. Bowl game you would have seen the VAST difference between a band that is there to promote school pride and spirit..(Troy).....and one that treats their halftime show as a stage event..(North Texas).

The stage performance is wonderfully performed by the best musicians around and would be great.....ON A STAGE. We already have that over at the Dillo dome. They are called the symphony and concert bands.

What we're lacking is a band geared towards promoting pride and school spirit called a FOOTBALL MARCHING BAND.

Rick

If memory serves, there was a section on our end of the year fan survey concerning the band (pre game, half time, etc). If enough people filled out the the survey, and feel as strongly about the band, then I’m confident there will be an inquiry by the people in charge. I’m sure reaching out to WB wouldn’t hurt either.

NM Green · December 18, 2017

Troys band was awesome and once again the green brigade were outclassed and left standing in the stands silent while Troy played New Orleans themed music and danced in the stands. At least our band director was looking across the field. He must of been saying, “how do they do that!?”

thank you sound of the south. You added to the electric atmosphere in a great way!

GMG

SilverEagle · December 18, 2017

8 minutes ago, NM Green said:

Troys band was awesome and once again the green brigade were outclassed and left standing in the stands silent while Troy played New Orleans themed music and danced in the stands. At least our band director was looking across the field. He must of been saying, “how do they do that!?”

thank you sound of the south. You added to the electric atmosphere in a great way!

GMG

.......and I don't think Troy is known for their school of music either.......hmmmm.

NM Green · December 18, 2017

We will be able to tell if the band takes any of those comments in the survey to heart next season. My thought is that they will scoff at them like they have all these years regarding feedback and calls for amping up their game.

Troy does a fantastic job of tying their brand together. The band uniforms music selection and the way they put thought into the house of the rising sun halftime show were solid. That’s why I don’t understand the GB. They are proud and have so many creative artists at their fingertips - why not customize a show to your opponent or location of show. Everything Troy played sounded powerful very “men of Troy” like. Our band does some nice things but have a lot of room to grow.

Play with pride, not arrogance.

GMG

Rudy · December 18, 2017

2 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

If you attended the N.O. Bowl game you would have seen the VAST difference between a band that is there to promote school pride and spirit..(Troy).....and one that treats their halftime show as a stage event..(North Texas).

The stage performance is wonderfully performed by the best musicians around and would be great.....ON A STAGE. We already have that over at the Dillo dome. They are called the symphony and concert bands.

What we're lacking is a band geared towards promoting pride and school spirit called a FOOTBALL MARCHING BAND.

Rick

That's been my impression of the GB the past few years. They treat it as practice and place the importance elsewhere. They don't use their in game performance to promote excitement, pride, and spirt. Same as the cheerleaders in the early 2000's. I, and others, felt they used the game to prepare for their routines and they didn't really care about the school, spirt, or in game presentation. They couldn't even get the hand sign right.

greenminer · December 18, 2017

3 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

I don't recall. But I don't recall the Colorado State band either, so maybe y'all didn't get showed up as bad as the group did yesterday.

Rick

We shared the field to hold the flag and play America the Beautiful

untjim1995 · December 18, 2017

2 hours ago, Rudy said:

That's been my impression of the GB the past few years. They treat it as practice and place the importance elsewhere. They don't use their in game performance to promote excitement, pride, and spirt. Same as the cheerleaders in the early 2000's. I, and others, felt they used the game to prepare for their routines and they didn't really care about the school, spirt, or in game presentation. They couldn't even get the hand sign right.

It’s never easy getting people who are conditioned to loathe athletics or be apathetic to it to change that mindset. Most of those members and their families and friends who come to watch them performer truly believe that game days at apogee are built around halftime.

Theres not another single university that I am aware of that has this identity issue like we do...

Rudy · December 18, 2017

51 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

It’s never easy getting people who are conditioned to loathe athletics or be apathetic to it to change that mindset. Most of those members and their families and friends who come to watch them performer truly believe that game days at apogee are built around halftime.

Theres not another single university that I am aware of that has this identity issue like we do...

Yep. I'd rather have a smaller GB that is into the game, and that cares about the atmosphere, spirit, and showmanship, than a large apathetic GB. That doesn't even wear their uniform for half the season.

DT 90 · December 18, 2017

15 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

It’s never easy getting people who are conditioned to loathe athletics or be apathetic to it to change that mindset. Most of those members and their families and friends who come to watch them performer truly believe that game days at apogee are built around halftime.

Theres not another single university that I am aware of that has this identity issue like we do...

Believe it or not.... Aggies.

untjim1995 · December 18, 2017

1 hour ago, DT 90 said:

Believe it or not.... Aggies.

Aggies love BOTH their teams and their band...

NMC21 · January 4, 2018

On 12/18/2017 at 12:03 AM, Rudy said:

Yep. I'd rather have a smaller GB that is into the game, and that cares about the atmosphere, spirit, and showmanship, than a large apathetic GB. That doesn't even wear their uniform for half the season.

To be fair, I was in a handful of bands where we did not wear our uniforms all season. It was also pretty common in the high school I was at and surrounding high schools, but then again we were not corpstyle and heavily underfunded, we were showstyle and we built upon what the audience enjoyed.

southsideguy · January 4, 2018

On 12/17/2017 at 8:43 PM, Rudy said:

That's been my impression of the GB the past few years. They treat it as practice and place the importance elsewhere. They don't use their in game performance to promote excitement, pride, and spirt. Same as the cheerleaders in the early 2000's. I, and others, felt they used the game to prepare for their routines and they didn't really care about the school, spirt, or in game presentation. They couldn't even get the hand sign right.

The band members that play at the basketball games has a lot of sprit. We need the full band to get with it.

I do enjoy the student section when they chant "you can't do that" after a penalty on the other team.

Someone does the air raid siren,, perhaps Iowa State?

Edited January 4, 2018 by southsideguy

KRAM1 · January 4, 2018

There is a new attitude and a new regime in place from top to bottom and folks across departments are “cooperating and playing nice” with each other. And, there is a joint effort going to try to increase attendance at both football and basketball games.

So, with that in mind, I suggest some emails and phone calls to the Athletic Director, the Dean of the Music School, the VP for Advancement and President Smatresk suggesting that the band could, but is not currently, an asset for either spirit or attendance at games. And, that one thinks that if the band once again became a spirit booster and entertaining at games that both attendance and donations to both the School of Music and Athletics would increase.

These calls and/or emails should, of course be professional and reasoned. And, constructive ideas should be presented. Think about your correspondence as if you were on the receiving end, not the sending. What would you like to see? A positive constructive piece or just a bunch of complaining? Which do you think might get serious consideration?

And, send the same email, one, to all parties concerned so each will see who has received the email and suggestions.

If they feel, like many of us do, that change is needed and that the band could indeed help attendance and donations, I would bet changes would definitely be made because the emphasis for that change would be coming from “above”.

Just a suggestion.

SilverEagle · January 4, 2018

5 hours ago, KRAM1 said:

There is a new attitude and a new regime in place from top to bottom and folks across departments are “cooperating and playing nice” with each other. And, there is a joint effort going to try to increase attendance at both football and basketball games.

So, with that in mind, I suggest some emails and phone calls to the Athletic Director, the Dean of the Music School, the VP for Advancement and President Smatresk suggesting that the band could, but is not currently, an asset for either spirit or attendance at games. And, that one thinks that if the band once again became a spirit booster and entertaining at games that both attendance and donations to both the School of Music and Athletics would increase.

These calls and/or emails should, of course be professional and reasoned. And, constructive ideas should be presented. Think about your correspondence as if you were on the receiving end, not the sending. What would you like to see? A positive constructive piece or just a bunch of complaining? Which do you think might get serious consideration?

And, send the same email, one, to all parties concerned so each will see who has received the email and suggestions.

If they feel, like many of us do, that change is needed and that the band could indeed help attendance and donations, I would bet changes would definitely be made because the emphasis for that change would be coming from “above”.

Just a suggestion.

Excellent idea.

When I found out that a new Dean of the school of music was about to take over two years ago, AND that he came from the University of Nebraska, I took it upon myself to look up how Nebraska's Band gets the crowd going.

I sent him a youtube of a Nebraska pregame entrance/show and basically said that, as a long time NT fan. I would like to see something similar at our games. Since that initial e-mail i have sent him examples of Oklahoma, University of Ohio, LaLa, and Texas.

His initial response was very polite and professional. I even got a history lesson about the University of Nebraska band. it seems that it was initially formed, by Black Jack Pershing, to help the ROTC troops at Neb. to march better. I was very polite, respectful, and after a while, almost pleading with him about the state of our football band.

Most recently I got tired of sending youtubes of other schools bands, and sent him this youtube of the 1991 performance of the NT Band...........

Here was my message to him.

Quote

Dr. Richmond, I wanted to share this youtube of a performance by the Green Brigade in 1991. It represents the energy, big sound, and general level of musical competence that I came to know as a young High School Band member attending North Texas games in the 1960's. THIS is the North Texas Band I always want to see represent our University at football games, and other public events. Not the bloated, plodding, ordinary group that shows up every week at our football games and enters the field with that tired old march.

Thank you for you indulgence.

Respectfully,

Bill Covert, NTSU 1975

If you want to send something, here is the top guy Dr. John Richmond.

john.richmond@unt.edu

Dr. Richmond prefers that you cc Dr. Williams in all correspondence to him.

'nicholas.williams@unt.edu

MrStrange18 · January 5, 2018

Regarding all this band talk:

I think the issue is that the bar has been raised. We have raised the bar with the whole game day experience. The football team is winning, the stands are filling up, and there is great buzz about this program. We are starting to turn that corner.

So, it is hard to watch something that still seems to be behind the rest of the experience on Saturdays. I hope they step up and if they want to keep calling themselves "the best band in the land," they should consider taking a look at where the new bar has been set.

I would much rather watch some othe Texas program's college bands. We are one of the best music schools in the country. i know that doesnt mean "best marching band school" in the country... but still.

SilverEagle · January 5, 2018

2 hours ago, MrStrange18 said:

Regarding all this band talk:

I think the issue is that the bar has been raised. We have raised the bar with the whole game day experience. The football team is winning, the stands are filling up, and there is great buzz about this program. We are starting to turn that corner.

So, it is hard to watch something that still seems to be behind the rest of the experience on Saturdays. I hope they step up and if they want to keep calling themselves "the best band in the land," they should consider taking a look at where the new bar has been set.

I would much rather watch some othe Texas program's college bands. We are one of the best music schools in the country. i know that doesnt mean "best marching band school" in the country... but still.

The point that I was making by sending the link to the 1991 Band performance to Dr. Richmond is that North Texas has had much better Bands, and the 1991 youtube is just one example.

What I didn't say, but it should have occurred to him, was that they should take all that energy, pride, and musical excellence that the 91 Band was putting into it's performance, and translate it into a grand-school-spirit-crowd-energizing-pre-game-entrance/show.

What is it that all these PhD's in music, music theory, music education etc. etc. don't get? It's not like I haven't provided them with more than adequate visual aids.

PlummMeanGreen · January 5, 2018

2 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

The point that I was making by sending the link to the 1991 Band performance to Dr. Richmond is that North Texas has had much better Bands, and the 1991 youtube is just one example.

What I didn't say, but it should have occurred to him, was that they should take all that energy, pride, and musical excellence that the 91 Band was putting into it's performance, and translate it into a grand-school-spirit-crowd-energizing-pre-game-entrance/show.

What is it that all these PhD's in music, music theory, music education etc. etc. don't get? It's not like I haven't provided them with more than adequate visual aids.

Some things are just set in concrete, SE, but we have to keep our chipping 🔨 hammers out & just hope more tactful chipping can eliminate what we perceive to be UNTCOM sludge.

ON ANOTHER FRONT:

The pic of Fry you use as your icon with the generic green & white cap he had on has always been a matter of interest to me. Why a cap with no letters or an Eagle mascot? I've never seen a D1 HFC wear such a generic cap. Wonder what the storyline is on that cap?

GMG!

Edited January 5, 2018 by PlummMeanGreen