Penn Band on a national CBS broadcast!

Yesterday the Penn Band was on a national CBS Sports broadcast, as part of a program about Div II/III NCAA Championships. The band shots were interweaved between segments on various national champions in different sports. Clips can be seen here (about 4 minutes of footage out of the 1 hour program):

http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~kgupta/band/cbs1.html

The Band was approached a few months ago and did a two-hour shoot with the CBS crew at historic Franklin Field. Cool stuff!

WCU Drumline performs with Keith Urban

http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20071230/NEWS/712300324/-1/RSS&source=RSS

Drumline performs with Keith Urban - I've been much of a country music fan, but this is pretty cool.

Death of the High Step?

http://news.galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=d67f0647f1177d27

Could competitive marching band spell the end of the traditional high step?

A blind marching band member

A remarkable story -

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2007/12/26/a_sense_of_place/

Think about that the next time someone complains about tough drill!

Tax Credits for supporting Music Programs

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1225mr-ecaband1227.html

This is the way it should be. Kudos!

The Penn Band Summer Music Camp

www.pennband.net/pebc/

Woo!

Marching Band at the Vatican!

http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=7505556
How cool is that?

The Yale Band, President Bush, and Hanukah

Hands down one of my favorite non-Penn Ivy Bands:
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/22870

http://www.crownheights.info/index.php?itemid=9506

The Little Drummer Boy

Yesterday was Hanukah in the Gupta Household. My son (20 months old) received his gift - a red drum set. Something I had be planning for months, based on the fact that he has yet to relinquish two pairs of drum sticks and a practice pad from the Penn Band Drum Section.

I could not possibly overstate this - he *loves* the drums. And when he saw the drumset, he was smiling from ear to ear; its been 24 hours, and he has yet to relinquish the junior sized drum sticks. Exactly the thing parents live for.....until it's 6AM the next morning and discover the fatal flaw in their best laid plans....

Music should be Fun. Somewhere along the way, whether it be after some recital or band competition or chair audition, we have a bad habit of forgeting that. That's a shame. It's nice to rediscover this joy through the youngest musicians among us.

Roadtrip! The First Traveling Band

...or more precisely, the first traveling college band. (Otherwise, we'd be talking about the Sousa groups, or even before that, the military band of the Continental Congress!)

From what records are available, the University of Pennsylvania Band was the first college band to travel to an away athletic event, going to Harvard University in 1901. Ever since, the Penn Band has frequently found itself on buses and airplanes, traveling to football and basketball games, the NCAA tournament, and evening touring the South and Disney world. In its early days, it would find its way to football contests at South Bend, Ann Arbor, and Berkeley California, as well as the rest of the Ivy League.

Some interesting factoids:

1. The Penn Band has never left the continental United States (except for that one time when members took a little foray into Tijuana while visiting San Diego. But we won't talk about that. This is stark contrast to our colleagues in the Penn Glee Club, who have been to 6 of the 7 continents! (what's wrong with Antartica?)

2. From what information we have available to us, we are the only college band in the country to travel to all conference Men's basketball games, home and away. Sadly, the culture in modern college athletics is changing - visiting bands and cheerleaders are being welcome with less and less frequency in other conferences. It's almost as if we're the Last of the Mohicans!

Living by Common Sense

Rules and Policies

(note that I'm not making light of BU's policies or its wonderful program (most good programs have similar handbooks); I'm simply using this site as an example for the sake of conversation. )

In the Penn Band, we like to think that there are few rules that we impose on our membership, beyond the scope of "Common Sense." It's a philosophy that really has served us well.

What do we have? Well, there are written procedural guidelines for our listserves (which in the grand scheme of things aren't a big deal), procedures for basketball games (the annual "Manifesto") and of course our Constitution. But really, little in terms of a policy handbook that is whacked over the heads of members when they screw up.

Why do Organizations need rules that spell out what are seemingly obvious things? Well, all communities and groups need rules. They help ensure the quality of the joint experience, the best interests of the group and the constituents they might serve, and simple get everyone "on the same page."

But is it necessary to spell out transgressions that are already defined by societal norms and higher authority? Destruction of property, "questionable" vocabulary, tardiness, substance abuse, etc. etc.? I would think that Common Sense, as an all unifying principle, is easier to communicate, abide to, and enforce, for the students, the student leadership, and directors alike. Teaching such a principle is also much easier than simply policing a rule verbatim.

stuff to think about.

The University of Northern Iowa

Article

A nice article on the cheer elements out at Northern Iowa, a Div I-AA (championship subconference) school playing in the postseason versus Delaware this weekend. Nice to see that 'love of alma mater' is the big reason these kids do the activity.