Well, we just returned from a GREAT visit with DS (Admitted Student, Presidential Scholarship, Engineering, Honors College) who is interested in playing in the MDB. He has played in his HS marching band for 3 years and has been in curricular bands since 5th grade. But apparently, there are new MDB tryout procedures this coming year for incoming freshman and returning MDB members. Instead of tryouts in early August before school starts, all incoming freshman have to complete a tryout prior to April 25!!! There is no way we can travel back for to T-Town for this between now and then, both financially and logistically.
Does anyone know why this procedure has changed? Most colleges don’t even require a kid to commit to attend and pay an enrollment deposit until May 1. Seems like this will impact many OOS kids who may want to try out for MDB as freshman. Maybe not so much the in=state kids. This is a pretty disappointing change of procedure in our view. I’d be interested in the reasoning behind it.
Anyway, we wanted to raise this issue n case other kids planning on trying out for MDB don’t know about this change. The link is below –
robotbldmom – did so via email.
bandmomof3 – yeah, he’ll probably do AA or OA if he cannot try out for MDB. But he was looking forward to MDB. He has a few buds from HS marching band who are freshman and engineering majors and in MDB.
^^^ @drw4taww I am so glad that your son will be able to audition vis Skype. Hopefully other students can take advantage of this idea as well. Would you mind posting the person’s contact email so that other students can also email their request? Thanks.
I believe the change was made mostly so that students would know whether or not they were in the band BEFORE band camp. Previously, you only found out if you made the cut after band camp, and only like 1-3 did not make it last year.
Just out of curiosity- @drw4taww : did your son make it onto the MDB?? My son’s very interested in auditioning next year, so looking for a predecessor’s experience.
We are from the west coast and my son is a junior and a member of the MDB. He has friends who made MDB this year as freshmen, and they both easily auditioned via Skype. I agree that the nice thing about auditioning early is that you KNOW when you get to camp that you’re already a member of the MDB. When my son went to MDB camp as a freshmen a few years ago, he said some people DIDNT make it into the band and it was devastating for those that didn’t make it, since they arrived early for camp, only to find out they didn’t make it!
FYI my son LOVES being part of the MDB! It is amazing the experience he’s getting from traveling to different states with the band and the friendships made. If you visit during a football game day, the experience is unlike anything we’ve ever encountered. You can be walking with your child dressed in his /her marching uniform and fans will stop him/her to take photos with your child. (They have a big following of fans!) He also said when they step out onto the field in front of 100,000 people-the excitement and rush is amazing!
Lastly, I want to point out (one of my concerns when he was an entering freshman), that there is NO HAZING (unlike some of the other bands we heard of). So far, our experience has been that they are a wonderful group of directors and kids. Hope that helps!
@khidhala - yes, he did the Skype tryout, made MDB as a trumpet player, and just finished up MDB summer camp before classes started. So far, he is having a great time, and is awaiting the performance experience as described by @amster.
