Scramble band
Encyclopedia
A scramble band - also known as a scatter band - is a particular type of field-performing marching band
with distinct characteristics that set it apart from other common forms of marching bands; most notably, scramble bands do not normally march. In fact, the name comes from the way in which the band moves between formations – members run to each form without using a predescribed path; this is known as scrambling or, in the western half of the United States, scattering.
. In fact, most scramble bands do not march at all, regardless of whether their official group name contains a form of the word "March".
Like their marching counterparts, scramble bands almost always perform music using traditional band instruments. They will also stand in formations on a field, but that is usually where the similarity between scramble bands and typical marching bands end. The formations themselves are often simple shapes or crude "pictures" that lend themselves to a particular section of the performance instead of intricate geometric or abstract shapes. Additionally, scramble band performances often rely on a humorous or satirical script, read during the performance by an announcer using a loudspeaker or public address system.
Scramble bands are generally student-run and tend to be smaller in membership than what one would expect from a marching band.
According to the self-described "Cleverest Band in the World" at Columbia University, the origin of scramble bands is as follows:
However, there is no widespread agreement as to which school actually invented the scramble band concept. The Harvard University Band
lays a significant claim to the title with proof of scrambling as early as The Game (Harvard-Yale), November 23, 1946, as well as spelling "Keep 'em Flying" for the Navy and forming an airplane with the drum major twirling his baton as the propeller in 1941. With Guy Slade as director, baton twirler, and drill master, 74 letters were spelled during the 1930 football season, 29 at the Harvard-Yale game alone. The word "Welcome" was learned and formed in five minutes at a stadium game with Michigan.
Other characteristics of scramble bands vary by the particular group and may include:
colleges (excepting Cornell University
; the Cornell Big Red Marching Band
performs in the corps style seen in more traditional bands); Rice Marching Owl Band
; Stanford
; Villanova
; and William & Mary.
Besides school scatter bands, there are other traditional arenas for similar comic treatments of outdoor marching music, such as mummers parades, the pre-Rose-Parade
parody
known as The Doo Dah Parade
, Chinatown parades, Mardi Gras
parades, etc.
Occasionally, the tables are turned. The Texas Aggies
misinterpreted a 1973 performance of Rice
's Marching Owl Band
and formed an angry mob outside Rice's own stadium, trapping the Owl band inside for hours until police dispersed some of the crowd and allowed the band to exit, transported by food service trucks. (The entire show can be found herehttp://mob.rice.edu/history/scripts/1973/1973-Nov17__TX-A&M.shtml?1973.)
Marching band
Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...
with distinct characteristics that set it apart from other common forms of marching bands; most notably, scramble bands do not normally march. In fact, the name comes from the way in which the band moves between formations – members run to each form without using a predescribed path; this is known as scrambling or, in the western half of the United States, scattering.
Characteristics
Scramble bands often take pride in their diversion from the normal marching bandMarching band
Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...
. In fact, most scramble bands do not march at all, regardless of whether their official group name contains a form of the word "March".
Like their marching counterparts, scramble bands almost always perform music using traditional band instruments. They will also stand in formations on a field, but that is usually where the similarity between scramble bands and typical marching bands end. The formations themselves are often simple shapes or crude "pictures" that lend themselves to a particular section of the performance instead of intricate geometric or abstract shapes. Additionally, scramble band performances often rely on a humorous or satirical script, read during the performance by an announcer using a loudspeaker or public address system.
Scramble bands are generally student-run and tend to be smaller in membership than what one would expect from a marching band.
According to the self-described "Cleverest Band in the World" at Columbia University, the origin of scramble bands is as follows:
- "See, in the 50s, our great country was going through a lot of changes. Disco was at its peak, little Shirley Temple was charming the hearts of Americans everywhere, Jesus was walking the earth, and Ronald Reagan was pushing hard for the new Women's suffrage movement. The Columbia University Marching Band, which had always been slightly wacky, took a good look at itself. "How," we asked ourselves, "could we make being in a marching band even more fun?" Well, we decided that the whole marching around and forming rhombi thing had gone out of style with World War II. So we introduced the world to the "scramble band" concept - so named for the way bandies would scramble from one interesting formation to the next."
However, there is no widespread agreement as to which school actually invented the scramble band concept. The Harvard University Band
Harvard University Band
The Harvard University Band is the official student marching band of Harvard University. The Harvard Wind Ensemble, the Harvard Summer Pops Band, and the Harvard Jazz Bands also fall under the umbrella organization of HUB....
lays a significant claim to the title with proof of scrambling as early as The Game (Harvard-Yale), November 23, 1946, as well as spelling "Keep 'em Flying" for the Navy and forming an airplane with the drum major twirling his baton as the propeller in 1941. With Guy Slade as director, baton twirler, and drill master, 74 letters were spelled during the 1930 football season, 29 at the Harvard-Yale game alone. The word "Welcome" was learned and formed in five minutes at a stadium game with Michigan.
Other characteristics of scramble bands vary by the particular group and may include:
- Non-standard instrumentation - Some bands include string or electronic sections to offer membership to musicians who would otherwise be excluded from participation in a marching band. Instruments in this category might include violins, cellos, string bass, electronic keyboards, and electric guitar. More unusual instrumentation such as bagpipes and accordions is not unheard of. For example, the Princeton University BandPrinceton University BandThe Princeton University Band serves as the marching band and pep band of Princeton University. Like most other Ivy League bands, it is a scramble band. To members and fans, it is often known as the PUB or simply The Band...
included an accordion, a bagpipe, two violins (acoustic), an electric guitar, and an electric bass in the 2005-06 school year, and has also featured a set of plastic flamingos and a pair of plastic pumpkins. The Columbia University Marching BandColumbia University Marching BandThe Columbia University Marching Band has performed for Columbia University since 1904. In the early 1960s, the CUMB became the first college or university marching band in the United States to convert to a scramble band format. Most of the United States' best universities now feature scramble...
includes a six foot bench stolen from the University of Pennsylvania stands.
- Non-musicians - Just as membership often includes non-standard instrumentalists, it may also include people who have little or no musical talent at all. These members may "play" homemade instruments (washboards, trash can lids, mailboxes, etc.) or may participate in other various capacities. They are usually known as "miscies," while at Princeton they are known as "trash percussion." More skilled bands can have people with high levels of musical talent playing unusual instruments. The Stanford Band, for example, has "mugs" with sometimes up to a decade of musical education playing instruments such as a kitchen sink or satellite dish.
- Skits or other dramatic performance - Members may dress in costume and/or employ the use of props (usually handmade) to mime to the audience a scene described or suggested by the announcer's script. Such scenes are often overdramatic (to aid audience members seated far away) and make use of slap-stick comedy, where appropriate (or not). Members of the Yale Precision Marching BandYale Precision Marching BandThe Yale Precision Marching Band is the official marching band of Yale University. It is a scatter band , as distinct from university marching bands that emphasize precise movements and geometric field formations...
who act on the field are called "squids."
Particular ensembles
This style is practiced mainly by a number of college marching bands, primarily in academically elite or liberal arts schools such as the Ivy LeagueIvy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
colleges (excepting Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
; the Cornell Big Red Marching Band
Cornell Big Red Marching Band
The Cornell Big Red Marching Band is the only traditional marching band in the Ivy League. It performs at all home, and most away, Cornell Football Games...
performs in the corps style seen in more traditional bands); Rice Marching Owl Band
Marching Owl Band
The Marching Owl Band is the Rice University "marching band" in the sense that it is the official ensemble that performs during football games, some basketball games, parades, and other public events...
; Stanford
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
; Villanova
Villanova University
Villanova University is a private university located in Radnor Township, a suburb northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States...
; and William & Mary.
Besides school scatter bands, there are other traditional arenas for similar comic treatments of outdoor marching music, such as mummers parades, the pre-Rose-Parade
Tournament of Roses Parade
The Tournament of Roses Parade, better known as the Rose Parade, is "America's New Year Celebration", a festival of flower-covered floats, marching bands, equestrians and a college football game on New Year's Day , produced by the non-profit Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association.The annual...
parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
known as The Doo Dah Parade
Doo Dah Parade
The Pasadena Doo Dah Parade is a popular farcical and flamboyant parade held in Pasadena, California about once a year, usually in the fall or winter...
, Chinatown parades, Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras
The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...
parades, etc.
Stunts, antics, and tomfoolery
Scramble bands are notorious for their irreverent stunts, and some of these prove to be controversial. The most upsetting events usually have consequences (see also: censorship) regardless of whether the band intended such controversy. Listed below are some of the more notable events in scramble band lore:- The Princeton University BandPrinceton University BandThe Princeton University Band serves as the marching band and pep band of Princeton University. Like most other Ivy League bands, it is a scramble band. To members and fans, it is often known as the PUB or simply The Band...
was attacked by a group of cadets at The Citadel prior to a football game on September 20, 2008, while marching around the campus. Several Citadel officials apologized for the altercation, including The Citadel's President Lt. Gen. John W. RosaJohn W. RosaJohn W. Rosa Jr. is a retired United States Air Force Lieutenant General currently serving as President of The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina...
and the student body president; no action was taken by either school against the Band. (The incident ultimately did not prevent The Citadel from visiting Princeton for a football game in September 2009; that game went on without incident from either side.)
- ColumbiaColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
's altar-boy joke (tuition going down faster than...) at halftime of a football gameThe Liberty CupThe Liberty Cup is awarded annually to the winner of the college football game between Columbia University and Fordham University, the oldest remaining and two of the only three National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I football programs in New York City...
against FordhamFordham UniversityFordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...
, a nearby Catholic school. - UVa's Inbred Family Feud gag against West VirginiaWest Virginia UniversityWest Virginia University is a public research university in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. Other campuses include: West Virginia University at Parkersburg in Parkersburg; West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery; Potomac State College of West Virginia University in Keyser;...
. This was one of the events which ultimately led to the athletic department barring the band from attending all revenue sports in 2003. - Stanford's bandStanford BandThe Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band is the student marching band of Stanford University. Billing itself as "The World's Largest Rock and Roll Band", the Stanford Band performs at sporting events, student activities, and other functions...
accidentally rushed the field as the game against rival CalUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
ended. This memorable accident, seen to the right, became known as The PlayThe PlayThe Play refers to a last-second kickoff return during a college football game between the and the Stanford University Cardinal on Saturday, November 20, 1982...
, and is often seen on highlight reels and prompted the famous quote "The band is on the field!" - More recently, Stanford's band was disciplined for a show with jokes about polygamy during a game against Brigham Young UniversityBrigham Young UniversityBrigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
in September 2004. - The Marching Owl BandMarching Owl BandThe Marching Owl Band is the Rice University "marching band" in the sense that it is the official ensemble that performs during football games, some basketball games, parades, and other public events...
launched a weather balloon-based "UFO", eventually tracked by bewildered air traffic controllers. - YaleYale Precision Marching BandThe Yale Precision Marching Band is the official marching band of Yale University. It is a scatter band , as distinct from university marching bands that emphasize precise movements and geometric field formations...
was banned from West PointUnited States Military AcademyThe United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
after a Yale-Army halftime show in which band members formed "USA" on the field, then dropped their pants and marched off, leaving the letters spelled out in clothing. - Another Yale halftime featured the marriage of two former band members. ("At Yale, Wedding Band Takes On a New Meaning", New York Times, October 10, 1992.)
- DartmouthDartmouth College Marching BandThe Dartmouth College Marching Band is an officially recognized student organization of Dartmouth College, and is the oldest marching band in the Ivy League .-About the DCMB:...
was banned from Holy CrossCollege of the Holy CrossThe College of the Holy Cross is an undergraduate Roman Catholic liberal arts college located in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA...
for a show that involved a Ted KennedyTed KennedyEdward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
TriathlonTriathlonA triathlon is a multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events. While many variations of the sport exist, triathlon, in its most popular form, involves swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances...
which included the "Ted Kennedy drive and swim," a parody of the Chappaquiddick affair. Members of the Kennedy family were in attendance, and needless to say, were not pleased. The Dartmouth Band was allowed back for the first time in 2004, but did not attend due to a limited travel budget. - The Lady Godiva Memorial BnadLady Godiva Memorial BnadThe , or LGMB, is a student-run band consisting chiefly of University of Toronto engineering students. The LGMB is dedicated to the preservation and advancement of Skule spirit along with Ye Olde Mighty Skule Cannon and the Brute Force Committee...
[sic], made up of engineering students at the University of TorontoUniversity of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, attended the Bloor-Danforth subway opening on February 26, 1966, and "lept over turnstiles", with 400 students piling onto a train. One student then pulled the emergency power switch, interfering with regular service for more than 5 hours on the first day of the subway line's operation. http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/pdfs/ubyssey/UBYSSEY_1966_03_01.pdf
Occasionally, the tables are turned. The Texas Aggies
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...
misinterpreted a 1973 performance of Rice
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
's Marching Owl Band
Marching Owl Band
The Marching Owl Band is the Rice University "marching band" in the sense that it is the official ensemble that performs during football games, some basketball games, parades, and other public events...
and formed an angry mob outside Rice's own stadium, trapping the Owl band inside for hours until police dispersed some of the crowd and allowed the band to exit, transported by food service trucks. (The entire show can be found herehttp://mob.rice.edu/history/scripts/1973/1973-Nov17__TX-A&M.shtml?1973.)
Censorship
In recent years, administrators at many schools have taken steps to rein in their scramble bands' more embarrassing attempts at humor. These have included:- Requiring approval of show content
- Replacing student leaders with university faculty or staff
- Refusing to allow the band to perform (a step occasionally also taken by a host school during away games)
- Dissolution of the band