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UCMB Takes the Field for Exhibition
By Peter Cantatore
In the wee hours Oct 29th, the first volunteer crew from the UCMB arrived in New Britain to help the USBands staff facilitate the 2016 New England States Championship. Our volunteers added a commitment to excellence, a good attitude, and a smile to all the jobs they were asked to complete, and were rewarded with the grateful appreciation from the judges, staff, and attendees.
Of the over 50 bands that performed, many were organizations from which our own UCMB members hailed. With such a busy football season, this was the first time that many of these members were able to see their high school groups perform and they were certainly enjoying every moment of it. As soon as the UCMB buses pulled into the stadium, the stands became speckled with blue warm ups and white hats that cheered on the bands with the intensity and appreciation that only a fellow bandsmen could have.
The UCMB was able to return the favor to the groups that had performed that day by way of our own exhibition performance at the end of the night. The largest high school that evening topped out around 160 members so the sight of 300+ musicians taking the field was a shock to the entire stadium before we even had to play a note. The audience responded to our performance with thunderous applause and a standing ovation, assuring us of a job well done.
Exhibition performances are a great recruiting event and it is the truest wish of each UCMB member that they can convince at least one high school band student to continue fostering their love of music at the collegiate level and that they hopefully choose the University of Connecticut Marching Band to do so.
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UCMB History Day
by Emilyn Tuomala and Christine Goss
The first ever UCMB History Day went off without a hitch on October 16th, with more than one hundred band members and alumni congregated in the Student Union ballroom to learn more about the organization that they call home. The room was set up with seven posters showcasing old photos from football games, rehearsal, social events and exhibitions. There was also a table with old vinyl records of the UCMB and past portions of our marching uniforms. Brett Simms created a great trivia game that surprisingly had Marvin McNeill come in second place (there's always next year). Questions ranging from "Which country has the UCMB not visited?" to "When did we adopt the current name for the fight song?" had people on their toes.
There had to be food of course, there always needs to be food. Keep your eyes peeled for plans and suggestions regarding next year's History Day and other alumni events!
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The UCMB celebrates Band-O-Ween in style!
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Behind the Scenes of Drumline Features
By Thomas Ropes
So what exactly goes into the preparation of a feature by the Drumline? Some years it seems they’re ready to perform their feature at the very first game day, others there’s not much to show for it. Often times, near the beginning of the season, there will be anywhere from 16 to 32+ measures of silence in the show where the drum feature is supposed to go. Then, miraculously overnight, one day the Drumline arrives to rehearsal and starts laying down extra spicy beats. We even move around sometimes. So what’s this process like? How do we get from nothing to running around the field playing crazy beats in part 3?
Most of everything we do as a line for the field show comes from our writer for our music, Chris, and sometimes, it’s a bit of a timely process for the music to be fully written. For example, this year, we started off with the majority of part 1 written and ready to play by the 3rd Percussion/Guard camp. Our final version of part 3, solos and everything, was written sometime around late September or early October. Though it seems like a lot of time for something to be completed, we have to realize that writing new music for an entire drumline is not an easy task. First Marvin has to write his normally kick-ass music for our writer (Chris) to start writing the percussion part. Plus, when you’ve graduated and made a life for your own, it becomes difficult to find the time to do something like write music for an entire field show for a college marching band. I think (and hope) I speak for everyone involved in the Drumline when I say we greatly appreciate what he does for this line.
So, we have the music. What comes next? Practice. Lots and lots of practice. Tuesday nights are crucial when learning our features, especially since we usually don’t have the time during normal rehearsals when we need to be with the band. The first Tuesday with the feature is usually spent in the music building (sorry for ditching you, guard) where we split up into our respective sub-sections (snare, tenors, bass, and cymbals) and get to work. Every measure is broken down piece by piece, and repetition is crucial as we pray to whatever higher being we believe in that someday this will be muscle memory. And it will be, but not without a lot of hard work playing to the Dr. Beat, that loud beepy thing that tells us when we’re wrong.
So, the feature is in our hands. What’s next? More repetition. There’s always more to clean in a feature. Then, our Drumline instructors get to work. We spend another Tuesday night working with them and their ideas on how to create visuals and drill for the feature. By the way, this usually isn’t laid out for us on a piece of paper like the rest of the drill. This is “so *section name*, do you think we can get there in eight counts? It might look cool.” The entire thing is a big group experiment, which is usually the better way to go about it. The line can work with the instructors to see what actually looks cool and is feasible, compared to what might have been a good idea in our heads but might hurt someone in real life.
Now that the drill is down, guess what’s next? You guessed it. More repetition. Now on Tuesday nights, we get to run the feature over and over again at w lot with no interruptions. Plus, while one of our illustrious drum majors is conducting, the other two are set on metronome duty, where all they do is follow us around to make sure we have a solid tempo to play to. Whether or not they enjoy this job is not for me to say, but it helps us a ton.
That, my friends, is what goes into a Drumline feature. Now, for my good friends in the Pit, I’d like to point out that I chose not to talk about your part in the feature because I simply have no idea what goes into a pit feature. However, from what it looks like to me, I believe they work just as hard as any of us in the Drumline and should receive all the credit they deserve.
Firesticks? I’m sure that’s what you were expecting. They are a beast of their own, and would make this already long article longer than it needs to be, so I’ve chosen not to talk about them right now. However, If you’re still curious, you can be sure that an article about them will be coming to you in the future.
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UConn Drumline Performs at 2016 First Night!
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Got Alumni News?
Are you an alumnus? Has something exciting happened concerning you or other alumni? If so, the Newsletter wants to hear about it! Contact ucmb.news@gmail.com with your news and get it published in future newsletters! |
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Reverse Caption Contest
For this issue, The Pride is hosting a reverse caption contest! Instead of providing a picture and asking for the best caption, we'll be giving you the caption, and you, faithful reader, will provide the picture! Please email appropriate pictures to ucmb.news@gmail.com with your name so you can be credited in the next issue!
This month's caption is:
Just another average band rehearsal
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Upcoming Performances
Saturday, November 19th - UConn @ Boston College
Saturday, November 26th - UConn v. Tulane
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UCMB Homecoming
By Kimberly Cisco
Homecoming has once again come and gone for the band. While it's always great to be visited by our alumni at the Saturday football game, the band was also very busy this year participating in various homecoming events leading up to the game. The theme of homecoming this year was "Artist Tributes: Music Tours in Storrs" so the band chose Katy Perry as their artist to tribute. By the end of the week, the band had placed in three events and had a lot to celebrate. First place was earned for both the Lip Sync and Banner Competitions and third place was earned for the Parade Marching Unit. The homecoming team was comprised of a lot of incredible and passionate people this year, and I cannot wait to see the results of next year.
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The UCMB's 2016 Lip Sync Performance!
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The Pride Poll
by Oliver Kochol
For October’s Pride Poll, the newsletter team asked you all to tell us what the scariest, spookiest, Halloween monster is. The winner was Zombies, with a whopping 52.9% of you choosing it as the Halloween creature you would not want to run into. This is unsurprising considering the popularity of Walking Dead and video games featuring zombies.
Here is a fun facts about zombies movies!
“White Zombie” is considered the first feature length zombie movie and was released in 1932. During this time zombies were depicted very closely to the Haitian tradition which states that a zombie is a person brought back to life and is under a spell, being controlled by a sorcerer or witch. It isn’t until the very popular “Night of the Living Dead” in 1968 that zombies were portrayed as reanimated, uncontrollable, cannibalistic cadavers.
For this month, we here at the Pride want to know what your favorite classic side dish to eat at Thanksgiving dinner is!
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