* [percussion]
>> It's Saturday morning.
It's 8:30 in the morning.
We're getting ready to do
our early morning practice.
>> Whoo!
* ["On, Wisconsin!]
>> It's a 2:30 game, so we can
sleep in a little bit today.
If it were an 11:00 game,
we'd be out here before 7:00.
But we're going to be going
till about 6:00 tonight.
Good morning, Elm Drive!
[blows whistle three times]
*
* ["On, Wisconsin!"]
I'm the Director of Bands
at the University of Wisconsin
and Director
of the Marching Band.
I came to Wisconsin in 1969.
[beeps]
[old film projector sounds]
I came at a time
when the marching band
was at kind of a low ebb.
I was the third marching band
director in three years.
Our football team had set
a record for most consecutive
games without a win.
But I saw it as a great
opportunity to sort of come in
at a place that had
a great band tradition,
and hopefully reawaken it
a little bit and start doing
some things that I thought
this band would be able to do.
[old film projector sounds]
* [percussion]
*
I immediately thought
it should be more showbiz.
So I tried to make everything
more upbeat.
I changed the arrangement
of "On, Wisconsin!"
I changed the way
the band marched.
I put a little gimmick in it
that we call, "stop at the top,"
where there's an energetic
sort of a piston like motion
in the way the band performs.
Better.
More stop at the top.
Stop at the top.
One, two, ready...
*
We rehearse Tuesday through
Friday, from 3:45 to 5:30.
An hour and forty-five minutes,
four days a week.
That can get scary,
because you've got four days
to learn the music,
learn the drill, and perfect it.
I think the one thing
that I do really well
is teach work ethic.
Push! Push! Push!
*
Push! Push! Push! Push!
I really think if a student
comes to this group
and doesn't have a work ethic,
one of two things is going
to happen.
They're going to be gone
quickly, or they're going to
develop a work ethic,
because there's no way
you can exist in my group
without showing that effort.
That has to happen every time.
Turns have to be a habit.
They have to be a habit.
You say, "Oh, I'll do it
this afternoon."
No you won't.
Every time, then it's a habit.
Then that's the way
you'll always do it.
*
I get all kinds of letters
later from students.
I just got one not long ago
from a guy who was in
my 1971 Band.
He said, it took a while
for me to understand
what you were teaching,
but this idea of the work ethic,
the idea that you can do
more than you think you can do
is something that I realize now.
That's what you were teaching
in band every day.
[blows whistle three times]
Our job is to entertain.
And to entertain, I think
the audience has to sense
that you're having fun doing it.
I tell the band,
you're going to have fun on this
whether you like it or not!
[laughs]
Two, three, and now!
[indistinct radio announcer]
>> It's 11:30 on Saturday
morning, rehearsal's over.
I came back to my office,
I dressed, changed clothes,
ate a little sandwich
and a candy bar,
and I'm ready for the day.
So, once I leave this office,
I'm working the rest of the day
without much break.
There have been a few people
who've offered to drive me,
but I got started walking
and it almost becomes a ritual
or a tradition.
Some people call it
a superstition.
I prefer to think of it
as a ritual.
I know I could walk that way,
but I really can't,
I gotta go this way,
and then that way.
[laughs]
* [percussion]
>> The University of Wisconsin
Marching Band!
[cheers and applause]
*
* ["On, Wisconsin!"]
Camp Randall is my favorite.
Camp Randall is special.
I don't know any other stadium
in the country
where you can do a 5th Quarter
and get away with it
the way we do.
*
You're not going to have
happiness with this band.
What you are going to have
is moments of happiness.
There's going to be moments
of great exhilaration,
and great pride, of great
sense of accomplishment.
And what you have to do
in this band, and in life, you
have to draw on those moments
and then when things
aren't going well,
you have to go back
in your memory and say,
I can get through this,
because there will be,
somewhere down the line,
another moment of happiness.
We've always left the stadium
happy.
Not pleased, maybe
somewhat disappointed, but
we've always had a good time.
You look over your shoulder
and freeze that moment.
*
I think the thing that really
motivates me is,
I've never seen an end.
I've never seen a point where,
okay, the band is as good
as it's ever going to get.
I think people get burned out
when they've reached the end
of their expectations, perhaps.
I don't think I've reached
the end of that yet.
*
* We love you, Mike
* Oh yes, we do
* We love you, Mike
* And we'll be true
>> It's about two minutes
till 7:00 on Saturday night,
after a tough loss
but a fun afternoon.
And my day's over.
Kids did well.
It's very gratifying
to see the seniors, you know,
so emotional
about what we're doing.
I think somebody once said,
it was probably Vince Lombardi,
because I quote him a lot,
that you never can receive
perfection, but in seeking it,
sometimes you get excellence.
That's really
what we're trying to do.
* U Rah Rah Wisconsin
* Hey... Up!
>> All: Once a Badger,
always a Badger!
*