Scramble band
A scramble 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.
Characteristics
Scramble bands often take pride in their diversion from the normal marching band. 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 "normal" marching bands ends. 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.
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 absurd instrumentation such as bagpipes and accordions is not unheard of.
- 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.
- 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).
Particular ensembles
This style is practiced mainly by a number of college marching bands, primarily in more academically elite or liberal schools such as the Ivy League, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, and the University of Virginia.
Well-known scramble bands
Besides school scatter bands, there are other traditional arenas for similar comic treatments of outdoor marching music — such as Mummers Parades, the Parade-Before-the-Rose-Parade, Chinatown parades, Mardi Gras parades, etc.
Stunts and antics
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:
- Columbia's altar-boy joke (tuition going down faster than...) while playing at a Catholic school.
- UVa's Inbred Family Feud gag against West Virginia.
- Stanford's band accidentally rushed the field before the game ended. (Pay attention to history highlight reels and you may see a clip of this priceless football moment.)
- More recently, Stanford's band was disciplined for a show with jokes about polygamy during a game against Brigham Young University in September 2004.
- Rice launched a weather balloon-based "UFO", eventually tracked by bewildered air traffic controllers.
Occasionally, the tables are turned. The Texas A&M Aggies misinterpreted (or simply didn't like) a 1973 performance of Rice's MOB and formed an angry mob (no pun intended) 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.
Censorship
In recent years, school scramble bands have come under pressure to calm their ways, as today's athletic departments have less patience for students' sometimes embarrassing attempts at humor. The traditional pull between individualism of bands/staffs/schools and those more Puritannical or marketing/corporate interests will no doubt continue, as it always has.
Such interests have led to the censorship of many scramble bands in the form of:
- Pre-approval of all show content
- Replacing student leadership with university faculty or staff
- Simply refusing to allow the band to perform (whether by decision of the school, an opponent, or stadium facility)
- Disbandment
