Hey everyone! I’m a member of the Mighty Sound of Maryland and I love band. I’m happy to answer any questions potential terps have about the band or really anything about the university.
Thanks for posting! I am interested in joining the marching band, but I am not sure how it will compare to my experience in highschool…how intense is the commitment? How many different shows do you guys usually prepare in one season? And how many away games do you usually attend (especially since Maryland is in the Big 10 now!)? Do you find that since the marching band does not require auditions it is boring or too easy for you? Haha sorry for so many questions marching band is an important factor for deciding where I want to go since I loved it so much in hs!
Its MWF 3-5pm for outdoor rehearsal and Tuesday nights 7-9pm for indoor rehearsal. It is a big time commitment, but everyone loves it and makes it work. Its also not too intense, like we want to be good, but its still pretty chill. We learn a completely different show for each home game (idk how many that is lol). We only get to attend 1 away game per season, this year it was Penn State and it was epic, especially since we beat them! There are all different levels of musicians in the band since there are no auditions, some people are not very good, but some people are incredibly talented. The music we play is usually slightly more difficult than your average highschool, and the drill is easy or complicated based on the difficulty of the music and how much time we have to learn the show. Its never boring or too easy, but its also not usually incredibly difficult either. (btw I consider myself to be pretty good).
Outside of that the social life is great and the people in my section are like my family, I see a lot of them everyday and we are constantly hanging out. I consider joining the band the best decision I ever made in college.
Awesome, thanks for all the information!
I know this technically isn’t “band” because its not instrumental but do you know anything about the flag corps or the feature twirler programs?
I’m sorry I don’t really know much about them. I know that there are no auditions to be in the flags. You just sign up for the class. They practice MWF 3-5 with the band and then separately TuTh 630-830pm. I know we have twirlers but I literally know zero about them.
haha no worries. thanks!
Hi! You know how intramural sport clubs exist for people who want to do a sport but not actually play competitively for the school? Is there something like that with band? (Sorry if that’s confusing, I don’t know how else to describe what I’m asking). I play clarinet on the side but my ability definitely isn’t up to par to play in marching band.
Regardless of playing level or experience anyone can join the marching band. Technically you can join even if you can’t play your instrument haha. There are audition at the beginning but that just decides part assignments. (Like you’d probably get put on the second clarinet part).
If thats not for you though there is there more casual university band, which anyone can also join. It has auditions for seat placements, but everyone “gets in”. Its only one night a week and has some very good players and some very new players. The music is not too difficult, perhaps a high school level, some pieces being more and less difficult of course.
If you are up to a challenge I’d suggest joining the marching band because even if you are not very good its still a fun time. There are incredibly talented people in marching band, but there are also alot of people who are new to their instruments.