Michigan Marching Band

ckd022
Sun, 31 Mar 2019 22:01:33 +0000

I’ll take a crack. First, checkout this old thread on the MMB, it was the one I found most informative when my son was looking at joining.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-michigan-ann-arbor/1132802-u-m-marching-band.html

I also highly encourage checking out the MMB site, there is lots of information there:

https://www.michiganmarchingband.com/audition-information

Marching band has a summer camp that starts the week before classes, so you will be there before move in day:

https://www.michiganmarchingband.com/season-schedule

The bands stays in West Quad for band week so most likely you will have to move again on the regular move in day. We had to move my son to his dorm across campus on move in day. We basically just had him pack enough stuff for the week and then brought the remainder of his things on the regular move in day.

I can’t comment on how hard it is to get in for clarinet - my son is in the drumline so the audition and practice schedules are completely different. My son’s HS was not particularly competitive, but he was section leader there. Most MMB participants don’t seem to be music majors and for whatever reason there are a large number of engineers (my son is an engineer as well).

The MMB is definitely time consuming, but as long as you manage your time it is doable. Normal home game days are long and there can be a few road trips a year (the band typically attends ND, MSU, OSU away games) as well as a potential bowl game (the went to the Peach Bowl this year).

My absolutely loved every minute of the season (although the summer camp was grueling). He actually didn’t know what to do with all his time when MMB season was over!

Go Blue!