Story by Hannah Tabor
Multimedia by Chris Brooklier
All true Oregon football fans know about the Oregon Marching Band. They recognize the green and yellow jackets, the baseball caps, and the gleaming instruments. But what they may not know is that, just like the football team they play alongside, the band works a grueling amount of hours to put on an entertaining show for the crowd. With around 230 members, OMB is the largest student-led organization on campus. It is open to all students; there are no tryouts or music major requirements. Though the band is a well known presence on campus, it often goes unnoticed how large a time commitment being a member is.
The band begins every school year with an intensive two-week band camp. They arrive several weeks before classes begin and put in twelve-hour days to perfect the show they will eventually perform in front of the screaming crowd of 54,000+ at Autzen Stadium. Starting at 9 am, the band tirelessly works on every aspect of their performance. They begin with marching fundamentals, practicing their marching technique. They then move on to music practice during the middle of the day. They finish the day working on their formations (the pictures they form on the field, like the Win The Day symbol that is one of the fan favorites on game days), until practice ends at 9 pm. It is this grueling camp that gives the OMB a strong start to the season, but the practicing and hard work doesn’t end after those two weeks.
During football season the band practices three times a week for close to three hours a day with an additional two-hour rehearsal on game days. Frequent practices allows for OMB to constantly work on improving their game day performance.  “It was really hard but it was always really rewarding” said former OMB member Zach Grossfeld. Practices are rigorous and structured, but there are interspersed with moments of fun. At practice there are not only swells of music but also laughter and chatter as the band takes advantage of the infrequent lulls in play. With such long and frequent practices, the band members become close-knit, hanging out and joking around between drills, and creating a fun, friendly air in what might otherwise be a monotonous practice. In fact, the band never seems to tire of their drilling or repetition of the same two lines of music. Instead, they seem to relish it, watching the band director with a dedicated and intense focus. It is evident that the marching band members care deeply for the music that they are playing and that marching band is not merely a way to pass the time but also a way of life, a group of friends and above all, a way to musically express themselves.
OMB is a contemporary marching band, which means they wear Nike-designed athletic style uniforms and they rail step, which means they keep their legs straight at all times. Traditional marching bands generally high step, which means they use exaggerated bent knee steps. The Oregon Marching Band also sets itself apart from other bands by never using music when they perform. Each member of the band has every piece they play memorized, a grand total of close to fifty pieces of music. Though fifty seems like a daunting number to memorize, each song is repeated so many times in practice and during games that it becomes second nature. The band has songs for many different game day situations. In addition to the longer pieces they play during the halftime show like “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga and “Jump” by Van Halen, the band also has pieces meant to start cheers in the Oregon crowd.
“It’s cool to think we play a role in the success of the team. We are the soundtrack of the game, we get the crowd excited and get the cheers started” said Dan Hartley, drum major of the Oregon Marching Band. The band aims to increase school spirit, provide musical accompaniment to the highs and lows of game and keep people excited and cheering the whole way through. Marching Band’s commitments are far from over when football season draws to a close. “The season doesn’t end when football does…It’s a year-round thing. People don’t realize that,” said Hartley. At the end of football season, a subsection breaks off and plays at the Oregon basketball games. The Oregon Basketball Band, as they are known, is a smaller band consisting of fifty to sixty marching band members who try out for a position and play at all home basketball games.
In addition to the Oregon Basketball Band, there are two garter bands which play year-round. During football season they have practice every day: the three marching band practices and two additional garter band practices. The Yellow Garter Band is a twelve-member band which gets paid a small yearly stipend and plays at tailgating and other athletic events. “My favorite part about the Garter bands is the atmosphere we strive to create, especially on game days,” said Megan McMillan, a Yellow Garter Band member. “It’s fun to go out and play for the tailgaters and get them all pumped.”
The Green Garter Band is also a twelve-member band, distinguished from the Yellow Band by the fact that the GGB members are considered the most elite of the marching band. The Green Garter Band plays wherever the athletics department requests them to be, playing at all Oregon athletics games (not just football and basketball games). “Having a small band creates a fun atmosphere to play in. Everyone’s part is really important so it makes everyone work harder,” said McMillan. Members of the Green Garter Band are guaranteed a two-year membership and have in-state tuition completely covered for the time they are in the band. Membership to both garter bands is based on tryouts.
The closeness of the band means that many members spend time together outside of practice and games. One such time is when the OMB members roam campus, instruments in hand, playing for the passersby. This is not an official marching band event; rather, it is the marching band students taking their music off the field and into their social life. Another such event is Civil War. Like other Oregon students, Civil War is a fun and rivalry-filled week for marching band students. In addition to the football game and their annual Battle of Bands against Oregon State’s Marching Band, a group of OMB students form a flag football team and practice throughout the fall in preparation for a Civil War showdown in which they play flag football against the Oregon State Marching Band’s team.
OMB is much more than what is seen on the field. Their success in front of the crowd is due to months of meticulous practice done outside of public awareness. Each member works to be the best musicians he or she can be, and each is as dedicated to their music as the football players are to their sport. Their camaraderie and commitment to the music is enough to rival any sports team, so next football game, as the band prompts the cheers and instills Oregon pride in the audience through song, remember that the members of the football team are not the only ones who worked hard to be out on the field.