Bowling Green State University’s band is now amongst the biggest college bands in the country with 425 members, which is almost double the 280 members of last year.
With such a big band, it would seem likely that there would be issues when it comes to managing all of the students. Assistant Teaching Professor of Athletic Bands and Music Education, Jonathan Waters, said the assumption is wrong thanks to his student leadership team.
“We’ve got a great leadership team in place. Our student leadership team really helps to handle all the management day to day. Making sure students know where to be when, what they need to be wearing, what they need to have with them, their uniform, their instrument, both in rehearsal and for performances,” said Waters. “Our student leadership team really gets the credit for all of that. Those students are really outstanding leaders.”
Rowan Raynes, a mellophone section leader said everything gets communicated as timely and simply as it can.
“I very much think that everyone communicates as best as they can. Professor Waters, Dr. Cook and the drum majors do a wonderful job at communicating stuff in a timely manner and wording in the easiest way they can,” said Raynes. “We have a whole Falcon Marching Band group chat, which has been really nice to see how many people we have here.”
Waters said logistically, having hundreds of students has been a challenge.
“It takes longer to write the visual program on the field, the drill. We ran out of uniforms, so you’ll see our drumline wearing a different outfit. I’ve had to borrow some instruments from some friends who are band directors,” said Waters. “Every time we go somewhere it takes nine charter buses. All of that just makes it, from a logistical standpoint, more challenging.”
The BGSU band, with all of their students, doesn’t just have one performance to learn. Drum Major Natalie Arrington said that with each home game, there is a completely new and different performance to learn.
“We have a new half time show every single home game, so I think we will have four or five this year,” said Arrington. “Every half time show is different from the last.”
Despite any minor issues the band might have, Waters believes it is impressive and eye catching to see so many students on the field. He said the band is visually striking and they are already getting comments on how many members they have.
“Visually we cover more field, and it’s striking when the band steps onto the field, so we’ve gotten a lot of comments from the crowd,” said Waters. “When we went to Penn State we got a lot of audience response from Penn State, and we got a lot of audience response when we were here for our first home game.”
Being a part of the band and performing for a crowd can be even more thrilling than watching and listening. Raynes said the feeling of the crowd’s reaction has been great this year.
“In the past, I know last year, we didn’t have as big of a reaction, especially from the student section… But to get such a great reaction from our first game, we got a standing ovation from the students section,” said Raynes.
Raynes explained how it felt to have such an active student section.
“They were engaged, they were cheering at our music. It was a really awesome experience. When we went to Penn State for a band show, the crowd was kind of raving about how big our band is, how big our sound is,” Raynes said. “It has been a really great feeling and I love it.”
The BGSU band’s next performance is at the Homecoming game on Saturday, Sept. 28.
