<p>cali - there's one African-American girl currently in band, and she'll be a 4th year next year.</p>
<p>sweater - I'm not entirely sure what color guard is, but if color guard is the group of flag girls that are on the field with the band, then Cal does not have color guard. Many other bands do, and that's cool too, but personally I find them superfluous.</p>
<p>One thing I forgot to add - Cal Band does not use percussion pit. I quote one of Cal Band's former Drum Majors' idiotic repeated quote of choice: "Everybody's marching, everybody's playing!"</p>
<p>And if you guys were formerly drum major in high school and plan on directing the band at football games, forget it. We hire 3 professional conductors in addition to Bob.</p>
<p>VonWeber:
1) Of course it's impossible to know EVERYBODY in band, but as time goes on, you find people that you hang out with and stuff. I have at least 2 or 3 good friends in every single other section (except for perc), and everybody's really friendly and willing to talk to you even if you aren't good friends with them.</p>
<p>One way to get to know some band members is by living in the band house, Tellefsen Hall. Yes, the band has its own house that shelters 44 members. I don't live there, but I think application for living there is first come, first serve. The housing is far cheaper than dorms, it's very convenient (it's 2 blocks directly north of campus), and the hired cook, Nancy, makes some of the best food EVER. Tellefsen Hall, more commonly referred to as TH, also holds parties (usually) after every home game. By living in TH, you will get to know everyone else in the house very well. That will guarantee links to sections besides your own.</p>
<p>2) Nope, not that I know of. We do, however, get invited to some pretty cool events. For exmaple, in the 2004 season, the Oakland Raiders invited Cal Band to perform a halftime show at one of their games. Imagine that kind of publicity. However, we always march-up to the stadium right after Noon Concert Rally on Sproul Steps, and march-down from the stadium back to Sproul Plaza after the game. Those are always fun because during march-up/down, each section has its own set of unique "continuities," like special moves or whatever. They're hard to explain - you have to see them for yourself.</p>
<p>3) The only songs we're required to memorize are pre-game songs (Big C, Sons of California, Cal Band March [or maybe Stanford Jonah], and Fight for California) and the halftime show songs. You can use music for pretty much all other songs, though some you'll naturally memorize from repetition.</p>
<p>4) At Cal, marching band and wind ensemble (equivalent of concert band) are completely SEPARATE entities. Once the marching season is over, you can have a nice long semester break. Wind Ensemble is a class here - you get 2 units of credit for taking Wind Ensemble. Of course, some people in marching band choose to take Wind Ensemble, and likewise, most people in Wind Ensemble do NOT do marching band. Totally separate things.</p>
<p>I can, however, answer your question about WE repertoire, since I'm in it anyway. Er..."eclectic" is one way to put it. This semester, Bob happened to choose quite a bit of Renaissance-sounding music, but also some really cool modern concept pieces. Wind Ensemble performs 2-3 concerts a year - easy as pie. Show up to class, do what you're told, and you get a free A.</p>
<p>5) Many people look at band on different levels. During the Fall, I choose to have my life revolve around band just because I love it so much. Some people totally don't give a crap about showing up to rehearsals or whatever, and that's their choice. For me, since I like to give 100% during rehearsals and learning the shows and stuff, band takes up a lot of my study time. Moral of the story: it's a BAD thing. I kind of screwed up my grades first semester because I didn't have my priorities straight. If you want, band CAN become your social life - you eat dinner with your bandmates, hang out with them on weekends, etc. Some people have found lifelong best buddies in band - I don't like to immerse myself THAT deeply into band. The most extreme example would be TH, as I mentioned before - they literally LIVE band.</p>
<p>6) It depends on how much you're willing to extend yourself socially. You're likely to become good friends with your floor/suite-mates. You can join some clubs - Cal has over 600 clubs to choose from - and make friends that way. It all depends on what you want your social circle to be like. If you want, sure, make your entire social circle band folk. No shame in playin' the game. However, it's unlikely that your social circle will be ENTIRELY band (again, floormates are the first people you live with, unless you live in TH).</p>
<p>7) Ah, yes. The stanFUrd band. All of us, and in fact many of their own students, wonder why they still use that word to describe themselves. The snodfart band is not so much a "band" as it is a group of morons with outdated 70's humor who happen to hold instruments in their hands. But tell me - what have you heard about the band from the Junior University? I'd like to know the rumors that are flying around these days.</p>