Yet another marching band season has come as A&T makes its transition from its past to the future.
Fresh off of what was said by many to be the best show at the Honda and coming off of an incredible performance at Appalachian State many want to know what’s up with A&T?
Well I’ve got the unbiased info right here.
Despite the fact that I left my notepads in the car a long way away, I still got the job done for everyone. Just required a little ingenuity and stealing some napkins from a plate of discarded chicken tenders.
As I walked to the stadium during the first quarter, A&T’s band broke into “You Don’t Wanna Go To War”
Although it didn’t seem like the band was able to finish the song. A&T sounded good from well over a mile away. The low brass was particularly coming through loud and clear.
I turned back to my car when I realized I didn’t have any money. Now, with me even further away from the stadium, A&T’s band started playing. “All I Do”
More to come...
You need to be a member of bandhead.org to add comments!
Replies
I may have been over a mile and a half away from A&T’s band and still heard the everything clearly.
All of the low brass melodies came through extremely clear. I was amazed at how well in tune the low brass section sounded.
The trumpets sound clear as well. At times not quite as strong as the low brass since they were not written in a range for maximum projection. Other times, when the first took it up an octave the trumpets came through loud and clear.
While I was next to the stadium, A&T’s band broke into a song that I didn’t recognize. Maybe someone will help me out here.
The band sounded great. Each part was confident and well-executed.
The baritones in particular sounded good here although I wasn’t sure if the trombones weren’t playing with them as well.
After this the band played Aggie Spirit and a percussion cadence. I was behind the band by now and so really don’t have anything to say about those pieces other than that the tubas sounded very confident on their part.
Next Up...Halftime is Gametime!
Before the band’s halftime performance, the family of Doc Hodge (the previous recently deceased band director), presented Dr. Ruff (the current band director) with Doc’s Hodge’s Gold Jacket. A short but touching presentation. The presentation was made by the5thquarter’s very own “The Voice.
Ok now let’s get to the show.
The Aggie Lean
Now I know it’s gonna mean, lean and clean and the crowd loves it but we could really stand to see the band members lean a little bit more here. I'm just saying.
Drill
A&T’s band started their drill with you guessed it…
“Fine China” – The required drill song for Showstyle bands this semester.
A&T’s tuba section is split into two halves with the percussion section in the middle.
When the band first broke into Fine China, they were still on the sidelines. The two halves of the tuba section started the song out-of-sync from each other. Although this continued for a good portion of the beginning of the song it didn’t continue long enough to cause problems for the rest of the band.
There was very little energy in the marching. This took away quite a bit from the energy of the show.
As we’ve come to expect from A&T, there was a very, very strong sound from the overall band. There was a very nice part in there were the tubas played in harmony.
The crowd of course was excited about the band making A&T on the field and announcing the US News and Reports ranked A&T the number one public hbcu in the nation. The announcement sounded a lot like "A&T was ranked the number one university in the nation." This reminded me of the announcements that “The Voice” used to make.
Showstyle band fans will notice the fact that A& T now uses a like of corps techniques in their drilling. The band faces the front as much as possible with the wind players doing slides/shifts to keep the sound straight ahead. Even with these techniques the drill has to stay sharp and precise.
Next up the slow song.
"When I Was Your Man" – Bruno Mars
I am ashamed to admit that I’d never heard the original of this song. Beautiful song. Bruno Mars truly has a great voice. My hats off to the young man.
In the meantime, the band.
A&T’s band played this song with a lot of quiet control that for the most part worked really well for the delivery of this song.
The “Ooh, ooh, ooh” part in the mellophones (probably flugelhorns) and saxophones was gorgeous! Great sound here.
This was a good choice for a song as I heard a lot of people in the audience singing along.
Golden Delight positioned themselves in the middle of the band and pulled out some stunningly beautiful flags during a high point of the show. Now I really don’t pay a lot of attention to flags, but these really caught my attention.
Ok, so now that the superlatives are out of the way let’s talk about some of the negatives.
Most noticeably. The band didn’t really know the song. The trumpet section in particular struggled from a real lack of confidence in this. Next week, I’m sure this will be better, but this week it faltered some.
2nd Issue – A lack of climax. There was a powerful portion of the song, near the beginning but for the most part the song stayed at mezzo-forte the whole time. Granted, the song itself is not a loud song, but this lack of climax definitely took away from the energy of the show.
More to come…
The marching during the transition to this song was much better here. Maybe it was the faster tempo but it added a lot of energy back to the show.
The trumpets were very clean here.
The mellophones had a few misses on their features.
Very nice catch by Golden Delight. One girl leaped into the air and was caught by the others.
Dance Routine.
The dance said that it was "party time" but this was said way too prematurely. The band played the intro to Jay-Z's "Holy Grail" for a long time before coming in with the rap part. So it was a long before it was actually party time.
Everyone knows that the slow part of "Holy Grail" ends with Justin Timberlake saying the name of the song. Right after A&T played this, the band started dancing. This meant that the band cut the last note really short to do this. This really took away from the entrance of the song that the band had been building for the last 20 seconds. Maybe the insertion of an extra beat right after this figure will help the passage to ring and help to make a smoother transition into the dance.
During this song, half the tubas continued playing the bass line, while the other half played the Nirvana part. Very cool idea!
Like at the beginning of the show the tuba section was split into two halves. Representatives of both of the two parts were present in both halves of the tuba section. The tuba section sounded a little out of sync here.
The players playing the Nirvana part played with unfocused tone.
"Crooked Smile" - Good choice for a song. Very recognizable, just not very powerful.
"Feds Watching" - Nice groove here. The band really seemed to be holding back in power. A&T's band is really known for bringing the sound. Yet the power was relatively low (comparatively speaking).
The band sounded much fuller during their drill than here. Noticeably “No One Blows Like The Aggies” was absent from the announcers commentary. The announcer did say during the dance routine that A&T’s sound was unmatched. When he said this it seems that they did what drum corps calls a diaphragm snap. A quick tuck of the diaphragm to produce a quick leap in sound volume or sudden crescendo. A&T did the latter, but the sound was definitely not unmatchable.
At the end of the show, the band did a sideline blowdown to “Feds Watching.”
A&T’s tubas were immensely powerful here.
After the show ended the band added a tag on the end and the Golden Delight busted a sleep.
This little bit really added a tremendous amount to the overall effect of the show. A&T’s show could probably be called decent but the sideline blowdown with the extra tag on the end helped to move the show to “very good show” in the minds of the audience.
More to come…
"Knuck If You Buck"
I wonder why so many bands are playing that this year. It’s really amazing how brass instruments work. When you sit next to them, you can’t really here them, but it front of them wow. This is exactly what happened here. I know that A&T’s band was bringing it but I really couldn’t tell from my position.
The main thing that I noticed was the lack of phrasing. Every quarter note got its own breath, which really gave the song a disjointed feeling.
A&T’s tuba though. Wow are they powerful! There was absolutely no doubt that they were bringing it when they came in. The articulations weren’t very clean here though.
"Fed’s Watching" – Two Chains
Ok, A&T committed a no-no in my book here.
You can’t play a song that you played on the show again in the stands. This time the band played a longer version of the arrangement.
The mellophones played a soli that sounded very different that your average mellophones soli. Although the tone was very mellow, the pitch was extremely well centered. I kept looking at the trumpets to see if they were playing as well, but they were dancing in front of the mellophones and the sound didn’t have any of the characteristic trumpet brightness. I figured that the flugelhorns had to be playing along with the mellos. Talking to an A&T flugelhorn player after the game confirmed that this was exactly the case. Hey you guys need to get with these flugelhorns. These instruments will probably solve a lot of problems with your mellophones and trumpets.
The trumpets break into the song “Down Bottom” during this song. Very creative arranging. Good playing from the trumpets. Sounded really good when the firsts took it up an octave.
The woodwinds also get a soli during this song.
“Talking Out The Side of Your Neck” - Cameo
This is a really interesting arrangement (interesting in a good way). Even though the mellophones have an important part to play they don’t have the intonation problems and Southern and other bands are notorious for having on this song. Good work mellos.
“Hay In The Middle of Barn” – Crucial Conflict
I really like the glissy trombone part in the beginning. It really makes you want to sing along.
More to come…
Alma Mater
Wow. This is a truly beautiful arrangement and it is well executed.
"Never Stop" - Brand New Heavies
Ah, an oldy but goody from A&T. The band has been playing this very original and very groovy arrangement since at least 1994.
I noticed a few differences here. The trumpets seem to swing their 16th notes now. This makes the song a lot more interesting and the melody a lot easier to follow.
The trumpets do a good job of holding their own throughout. The song is arranged for a band that has a decently large trumpet section versus the other instruments.
A&T’s trumpet section is not significantly larger than the others but yet in still, all the sections of the band played with balance here.
The chords at the end of the song though. This was the weakest I have heard the chords in the numerous times that I have heard the song.
"Velvet Rope" - Janet Jackson
Powerful and well performed. A&T’s tubas sounded very full on this one. Every section pulled their weight here. Great work to the baritones near the end.
The secret to this song is the percussion part which really gives this song life.
Tunnel
I followed the band throughout the performance including watching the band tunnel back into the bandroom. Cool as you might imagine from a tunnel. Just need more energy in the movements from the cymbal players.
Ok, Bandfans…That was the whole day of music.
Now its time for a quick wrap up and we’re out.
2. Transition – The band seems to still be in a transition from the old powerhouse A&T to the new “Norfolk-ish” A&T. In the past, A&T was known for its power; while Norfolk was know for its impressive musicality. Being stuck in the transition means that sometimes A&T’s band seeks complexity but doesn’t always execute and sometimes is not exceptionally powerful. A&T most learn to do both at the same time. That’s what their competition in other parts of the country is doing.
3. Marching – While A&T’s band at times can match the best bands in the country in terms of sound their weakness has been in the marching. As I am really paying attention to several bands in the upper echelon the difference is clear. The fact that A&T is using several corpstyle techniques to keep the music facing the front doesn’t mean that the transitions shouldn’t be precise or that the marching style throughout the band should not be uniform.
I hope that you have enjoyed the Prunalysis and have felt that it was unbiased. I look forward to hearing your comments, critiques, criticisms and questions.
Thanks!
The Prunester…”Telling It Like It Is”