re: Dr. Moorhouse leaving Tiger Band

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I love how people just come on here and just start spouting crap that they know nothing about.

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i was in tiger band for 4 years. i have a master's degree in music performance and i marched d&b corps. i taught music for over 20 years. but, i don't know what i'm talking about.

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Approximately 80% of Tiger Band members are majoring outside of music.

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you apparently didn't understand what i said. i said tiger band has more music majors in it than at other schools. that may have changed recently but, it was the case for a long time. from all my experience being in tiger band, observing rehearsals over the last 20 years and knowing people who are in tiger band, linda and bovi do very little to cultivate the sound of the horns. the reason tiger band has such a great sound is because the horn players are already good. and, it is a fact that neither bovi nor linda have implemented the latest visual trends in their shows in their time at lsu.

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Her eye for detail and precision is unmatched

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do you know anything about drum and bugle corps? there are a few college marching bands that march much better than tiger band. if you follow "the academy" out of ariz, you know that they have had a strong impact on marching at ariz and ariz st. so, no. her "eye" is not unmatched.

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linda is definitely qualified to be director of bands. is she the best choice? not by a long shot. there are some seriously talented and experienced people out there. wickes' best asset was the baton. very few people in america were as good. fennell, junkin, paynter, etc. linda isn't even close to that league. i spoke to her and she said lsu wasn't going to give her the chance to take over so, i would imagine that was a big part of her leaving. neither her nor wickes were nice people and i'm saying that from first hand experience.

illinois does have a very respectable music program but, certainly nothing compared to the conservatories. marching band is big 10 style which is a mix of old (military) and new (drum corps), mostly old. i don't care for it.

linda and wickes know the tiger band routine well but, they never marched drum and bugle corps and were never up on the latest trends. she does produce somewhat entertaining shows and she should get credit for that.

linda did not make tiger band great. the reason why tiger band has been at the top is because tiger band has always had a higher percentage of music majors than any other marching band. that is because tiger band is under the umbrella of the ath dept and thus students get paid more than at other schools. if the band isn't going to pay well, performance majors aren't going to participate. they would rather be practicing for their recital or orchestra excerpts. these days, there are some marching bands now that have surpassed tiger band visually, but not audibly because of the performance major factor.

btw, linda and wickes did have a relationship that went back to their time at florida when she was a grad arse.

the legend of jumas was always 10 times greater than the actual group itself. it was mostly inside jokes from a few tuba players. oh, they occasionally did something semi-scandalous that a few people heard about and even fewer cared about.

"The marching and playing has gotten infinitely better since about 94-95". i definitely can't agree with that, espeically the drumline. the drumline was incredible in the 80's mostly due to the influence of drummers who had stuided with marty hurley and marched d&b corps. in the early 90's, those guys were gone and the drumline turned into 13th grade. it improved a little in the 2000's but, there are still almost no drummers on the line who march d&b corps. the color guard is better in my opinion. the golden girls have always been incredibly well choreagraphed. the sound is still very good and the marching is still outdated. what irks me the most is the lack of discipline in the stands. there are several times each game when the band is not coordinated in terms of beginning and ending songs which would never have been tolerated in the 80's/early 90's. in all fairness, there is much more mulitmedia at the games going on now that we didn't have to fight with.

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sigh...where to start.

K, drumline first since that is where my expertise lays. In the early 2000s no, the drumline did not have many members that marched Drum Corps, the last few years this has not been the case. I myself was in The Cavaliers for 3 years, we have also had members march Spirit, Troopers, Kiwanis, Cadets, Bluecoats, etc. Also, marching drum corps does not make you a great drummer, there are plenty of college lines where most of the members don't do drum corps that are very, very good (Auburn's comes to mind).

Illinois has one of the top schools of music in the country. No, they aren't at the same level as the conservatories, but who is? That's what conservatories are for and that's all they do. UI has a tremendous band dept (they have 6 performing bands). Linda will not be working with the marching band, something she has been doing for over 25 years, I think she's just tired of it.

Tiger Band does not have many Performance majors in it. Yes, we have Music Ed Majors, but when I marched (2003-2007) we had very, very few performance majors march (it is actually looked down upon by most of the music faculty, they don't want use marching, I got crap from my percussion professor all 5 years). There are bands that have many more music majors than LSU's does in it. (Our brassline is good, not great, and they are loud because there are so many.) Believe me, we are not the best sounding brass line in college, not even in the SEC, but we are the loudest.

I agree about the latest trends thing, all the drill was the same (and being in drumline it was boring).

Even if she were to apply for the job she would still have to go through the hiring process, her being here already does not entitle her to the position as Director of Bands. The common sequence of events for a hiring such as this is to hire an interim Director (which could have been her) and do interviews and such for the entire year before choosing the replacement. We went through this with the Percussion Department my first year and were lucky enough to keep the interim professor.

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linda and wickes know the tiger band routine well but, they never marched drum and bugle corps

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wrong, Linda marched with Spirit of Atlanta

I'm going to assume that this message wasn't ment
for me, I never marched drum corp. I was in Tiger Band and have worked with Linda for the past 20 years. She does have a very keen eye for detail for even the smallest things.
Roy does not write drill, so they will be hiring someone to write the shows for the fall.

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wrong, Linda marched with Spirit of Atlanta

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i stand corrected and i had forgotten that. at any rate, you have to admit that tiger band isn't exactly on the vanguard of marching trends. she might have incorporated that experience back in the 80's but, even then, we were behind the times in terms of drill. lots of waterfall, follow the leader, symmetrical sets, elevator drill, etc.

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Drum corps<college bands

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while this is true, you have to acknowledge that UNT, by far the best run of any college line ever, was great because they had a preponderance of guys marching corps, not because they just liked going on band trips. btw, auburn has a good drumline mostly because of the influence of troy breaux (lsu grad) who marched regiment and studied with marty hurley.

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UNT has one of the best lines in the country because of the staff that was there to establish it. Yes, they have amazing players, but those players wouldn't be there if the staff that was set in place years ago never came about. The percussionists back then came for the concert program and started marching, they focus on a full rounded education so the emphasis on marching was raised greatly.

Troy Breaux hasn't been at Auburn in 5 years (he was my percussion teacher for 6). The line was pretty good before he got there (Dr. Greg Byrne, who is now the Marching Band Director at Louisville). And while Troy did stufy some with Marty he wasn't his primary teacher, Phantom in those days was taught by John Wooton who was a protege of Marty's (and damn can Marty still drum). While the line was very good while he was there they have grown rapidly in the past few years with Dr. Rosener (UNT Grad). I should know, I taught them last year (great line, crappy football hahaha).

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agreed but, i didn't make a distinction between perf and ed. i just said music majors. ed majors are typically going to be better on their instrument than the non-music major student.

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agree, but you would really be surprised sometimes by how bad Ed majors can sound on their instruments.

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since '07, i've been to almost every lsu game and i don't recall hearing a hornline that i thought was better than lsu. from what i've seen, tiger band is still about the best overall product on the field. when i was in band, we respected bama and that was about it.

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believe me, the line could sound much better. Hanging over releases, no emphasis on proper tone quality or tuning. The line could be much louder if everyone played in tune with each other. Of course, having the same instruments would help. I wish Linda would have made an attempt to get some type of instrument sponsorship deal for the horns, Auburn did this and they not only look better since all the instruments are the same, they also sound better because the little inconsistencies on the instruments are about the same.

and times have changed, we don't respect Bama anymore. If I had to guess I would say that there is a better relationship with Auburn's Band since the two head directors are LSU grads, I know for a fact we have traded shows with them. But screw Bama.

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Despite being named Director of Tiger Band after the announcement of Frank Wicks' retirement, Linda Moorehouse is accepting an "unsolicited and unexpected offer" from the University of Illinois.

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Have a nice day...

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my main point is that linda isn't solely responsible for making tiger band great like some people in this thread have suggested. there were great players for a couple of reasons. all linda and bovi had to do was to steer the bus.

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we can both agree on this, especially where the drumline is concerned. We were left to our own devices for the most part. Never did much during rehearsal since we didn't move, all rehearsals were on our own, we wrote the music (always at the last minute, I would get the chart during Wind Ensemble Monday afternoon and would have to have it written by Monday evening for rehearsal). Those were "the good ole days" let me tell you.

What does JUMAS stand for. I know it's an acronym. Someone once told me but I have forgotten.