Part IV: Technology has made designing choreography easier, but it’s the OSU Marching Band’s perfect execution that make their performances timeless
By MIKE McINALLY - February 23, 2024
After the themes for each season’s halftime shows have been set, after the music the band plays as it takes the field has been written, after the musical arrangements have been worked out and the color guard starts practicing its routines, Olin Hannum, OSU’s associate director of bands and the university’s director of athletic bands, starts writing the drill -- essentially, the fine art and science of getting every band member in the right place at the right time.
The days when marching band directors used graph paper to map out a drill, step by painstaking step, are gone.
Today, band directors like Hannum work out all the moves using computer programs “which basically tell everybody where to go at what point.”
Each dot on the screen represents the position of an individual band member. When Hannum finishes a drill, he can share the program with each of the band members, who download the program on their smartphones, identify the dot that represents them and get a sense of how the drill is supposed to work and how and when they have to move.
During rehearsals, though, band members also learn to calibrate their movements by watching the yard markers – and also learn to keep their eyes on other band members as guideposts as they move from drill to drill.
Each halftime program involves a different set of visual challenges for the band members. For the Parton program, for example, the band spells out the word “ALWAYS” during “I Will Always Love You.” Then, they reform into the shape of a guitar. Along the way, they put down their instruments to perform a little two-step with the dance team; this draws appreciative applause from the crowd. The band spells out “9 2 5,” a reference, of course, to “Nine to Five.”
Finally, the band spells out the name “Dolly!”
During rehearsals, it has proven to be a tricky bit of business to get the two “Ls” in the name straight. But tonight, it’s better – the second “L” might be a little off to a practiced eye, but the thousands of spectators at Reser can easily make out what the band is spelling.
The halftime show takes almost exactly 10 minutes. It represents hours of work – and some shows, like this Parton tribute, are performed only once.
As the band members head back to their seats for the second half, they grab a snack; it’s the first bite they’ve had to eat since the baked potatoes they consumed more than three hours ago.
The Beavers build on a 7-0 halftime lead and pull away for a 21-7 win. The players head to the locker room.
It’s 9:22 p.m. – more than eight hours after the band’s initial call – but the band still has work to doas fans stream out the stadium.
At the end of every home game, band aficionados – friends, family, music fans – head over to the south end zone to watch the band perform tunes like “Radar Love” and the inevitable “Beer Barrel Polka.”
Somebody watching calls out for “Free Bird.”
The band does not play “Free Bird.”
Instead, the final selection always is the alma mater, “Carry Me Back to OSU.”
More than 20 minutes later – it’s 9:44 p.m. – the show ends. Instruments go back into cases. Equipment is packed up. The members of The Sound and Spirit of OSU head out into the night.
Hannum and his colleagues are pleased.
“It was what I was hoping for,” Hannum says about the season’s first full band performance. “I’m always expecting things to go well. If I’m ever pessimistic about things, I tend to rehearse down to it.”
But he’s already looking ahead.
“Monday’s going to be a pregame day,” he says. “Take the field.”