I feel obligated to post.
I agree with much, if not all that has been said here. I am good friends with an avid reader who was a music major as well, and we have this discussion from time to time.
On a personal level, I like Mrs. Lance. I think she is a good director. That said, much like Ron Polk's day passing him, perhaps the same is true for Mrs. Lance. I think she has some insecurities about herself and her abilities and ideas, and micromanages a little too much. I think she tries to be too much like Doc Sills at times as well, when she really maybe needed to be herself. And she at times can be stubborn- if you don't like the DPR band version- and let's be honest who does- DO NOT COMPLAIN IT WILL MAKE IT WORSE. IF YOU WANT IT TO STOP, JUST DON'T RESPOND TO IT IN THE STANDS. That is the best bet to get it stopped.
There is a bit of pressure that comes with the MSU band job because we have actually been blessed through the years with very good band directors throughout the history of the band. Believe it or not.
I have also heard about in-fighting within the band, and that hurts morale and performance a lot as well. When people are pissed off, they tend to give less of a ****. It's also bad for morale when you have people that want to be the best that they can, and you have some people not giving a **** about what they look like or whether the band is good or not. That, and maybe some lack of creativity on the directors part, as well as some probably very good ideas being shot down have hurt our band to the point where it is what it is now.
So, I'm going to rip off some of the avid reader from Tupelo ideas- and he is more qualified than me from a musician standpoint.
1. Get a new and creative director. If such is already on staff, promote him. The other solution is for Mrs. Lance to stay and let the other directors do their jobs.
2. Limit the marching band to 150 members. That would make us one of the smaller bands in the SEC- maybe even the smallest. But what we would be doing is sacrificing numbers for quality. You announce this in the spring, and I guarantee that most of the goofballs will cut themselves. What you hopefully end up with is the very best people for putting out a quality product. If there are any goofballs left, they will be policed pretty easily because they will be outnumbered and shunned. Band can remain an organization that anyone can be in, but to be in the marching band, it has to be earned. You're forcing accountability. We would also actually end up getting more out of our scholarships by doing this as well because our funds wouldn't be spread so thin. That means that we could attract better players as well.
3. Simplify/shorten the pre-game show. Ours is probably the longest in the SEC. It needs to be march on the field playing the fight song/go State, form MSU, play the National Anthem and either God Bless America or the alma mater, then the STATE spellout, then play the fight song marching down the field instead of Madelon, make the tunnel and play Hail State when the team runs out. Very simple, and easy for our band to learn, and also will get our crowd into the game. Which is what you want for the pre-game show. We spent a ton of time on the pre-game show when I was in the band, and that takes away from the halftime show. My pre-game show could be put in during the second day of band camp, and could be very, very clean.
4. Extend the practice time from one hour to two. This is where Mrs. Lance gets kind of weird about Doc. Doc once upon a time promised the band that they would never have to practice more than an hour a day. Mrs. Lance was always adamant about keeping it that way, even though people were willing to extend the practice time even back when I was in the band. I really don't think the band would have a problem extending the practice time if it meant that they would have a better product at halftime.
5. Cut down the stand tunes. MSU has probably well over 100 "stand tunes" in their folder. It's massive. There's so much music, that at times we would be sight reading in the stands. And then the communication system is not very good between the director and the band. The result is crap. We need to have a first down song, a second down song, etc. Essentially what LSU does. Again, very simple, keeps the crowd into the game, very easy communication system, and also again allows the band to focus on halftime.
We have some issues, but they're all very easily remedied.
