The marching band consists of 225 members. Supposed to be the largest all brass and percussion marching band. http://tbdbitl.osu.edu/?action=a018
225 Marching and playing members, plus head drum major and Assistant drum major. (No flags, dance team, or any of that extra fluff) For most shows the band marches 192 members, with the other 33 serving as alternates. For the bowl game, the band will march all 225 for pregame (which includes a double Script Ohio), and 192 for halftime. Different from most college bands, the band has a set instrumentation: The instrumentation for the 192 regulars: 10 Eb Cornets 44 trumpets 18 Flugelhorns 24 Mellophones 24 Trombones 24 Sousaphones 12 Snare Drums 4 Bass Drums 4 Quad Toms 4 Cymbals There is a very intense 2-day tryout process for the band that consists of 1 playing audition, and 4 marching sessions.
Did you just come on an LSU board and refer to the Golden Girls as "fluff"? :dis: Stay out of the crosshairs now, ya hear?
All brass? Cool... we do that with our basketball band, the Bengal Brass. There's 325 in the Tiger Marching Band. No set instrumentation, and that does include the "fluff" as you refer to it. We march a Colorguard and the Golden Girls (dance team). 2 days sounds weak compared to our tryout process. Usually the semester before a freshman begins college, he/she will have a playing audition for the band. Then, the week before the fall semester, we have a preseason week. From Sunday-Saturday we march and play, and it's all essentially one big tryout. The final roster for the band is picked on Friday, but afterward it's tryouts for a spot in Pregame. The week is beyond intense, especially for a freshman who hasn't even gone to a class yet.
The OSU band has 'voluntary' rehearsals all summer, twice a week for 2 hours a night. It's a pretty thorough workup to tryouts. You don't have to go, but they're always reminding the returning members that their spots are not guaranteed, and that there are many prospective members fighting for each slot. The year I went (and realized my knees just weren't up to it anymore), there were 20 people trying to fill the slots from 4 graduating seniors (or anyone else they could knock off...) in my section. (I'm overly fond of parentheticals.) (sorry.) Oh, and you folks have a nice board... thanks for treating us misguided northerners so well.
