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Aug 1, 2017
2:50:14pm
teancum All-American
There actually is a reason for this
Most school's bands are made up of music majors who live with their instrument and want to perform for a living, and the marching band is a big part of their primary focus in the fall.

It was my experience that BYUs music majors honestly don't have time to also take marching band and still graduate on time. Most scholarship musicians have to spend time in the philharmonic, Synthesis, etc. and really don't have time for the marching band. The band does get a small scholarship stipend, but it is really small. So the band is made up primarily of musicians who are trying to take a full course load in some other area of study and treat the band like somewhere between a club and a part-time job.

Most schools have several weeks of nearly all-day rehearsal during the summer, BYU's band starts right before school starts because so many kids don't get into town early enough, and they don't mandate summer attendance. The band has good musicians but the halftime show, etc., just isn't their focus. I was a music major at BYU, had a close friend go be a music major at Utah. I did not play in our marching band, he was either mandated or strongly encouraged to play in Utah's. He was required to spend time during the summer, and got paid a lot more for being in the band than I would have gotten had I been in the band. But I was on scholarship elsewhere and I knew I had to work my butt off or I would lose it because competition was really fierce, so I just didn't have time for marching band rehearsals.
teancum
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teancum
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