Funding

Purdue’s Marching Band has been growing larger and larger since day one. The band has also been invited to travel to international places such as China. Though all of these things are great, funding may be hindering the band. Purdue University only gives so much money to the band every year. 65% of the bands funding comes from personal donations. Without these people’s kind donations the band wouldn’t be what it is today.

Halftime Show

Purdue’s marching band has many values. However, one of their most important values is putting on a good show for their audience. The marching band will practice for hours during the week to try to perfect their halftime show so their audience will enjoy their experience watching the show.

Marching Band Language

The marching band has a different language than what most people are used too. There are different key words that are involved with keeping order within the marching band. A few examples of marching band language are:

• Set – put your instrument up and be ready 
• 8-to-5 – eight steps between each yard line
• Jazz Run – take four steps between each yard line and put your toe down first
• Box Drill – marching forward, right, backwards, and the left (making a box)

Purdue’s Block ‘P’

Purdue’s Marching band was the first marching band to form a letter during their show. The year that Purdue’s Marching band first formed the ‘Block P’ during their show was in 1907. This link shows a few of the variations of the ‘Block P’ through out the years.

http://www.purdue.edu/bands/media/Photo%20Albums/Block%20P/index.htm

All American Marching Band

Purdue’s All American Marching Band has a lot of history and long lived traditions. In this link a lot of Purdue’s marching band’s history and rituals will be found. This link also talks about how Purdue’s current marching band came to be what it is today.

http://www.purdue.edu/bands/aamb/history.html

Director of Bands

Jay Gephart is the Director of Purdue Bands. He is in charge of all of the bands and everything that they do. He also helps organize events for the band to participate in. Gephart has been Director of Bands since 2006. Below is a link that has more information about Gephart and his history.

http://www.purdue.edu/bands/dept/staff/gephart.html

Drum Major

A drum major is in charge of conducting a marching band. They will move their arms in a certain pattern they can control how fast or how slow the band goes. With out the drum major the marching band cannot perform efficiently. The link below has some basic information about drum majors and some of the different conducting skills they have to have.
http://www.sythe.org/archives/423543-art-conducting-drum-major.html

Neil Armstrong

Purdue’s marching band has achieved many firsts among other Big Ten Colleges, however, one of the more prestigious first is to have one of their very own alumni go to the moon. Neil Armstrong played the baritone in the band. He not only joined the marching band but he also joined Purdue’s orchestra and the Glee Club.

World’s Largest Bass Drum

Purdue holds the record for the largest playable bass drum. It was added to Purdue’s marching band in 1921 by the Purdue Bands Director Paul Spotts Emrick. The bass drum, when mounted on its carriage, stands more than ten feet tall. It is also about eight feet in diameter and roughly four feet wide. The drum is handled by four band members and there are two people who hit either side of the drum.

http://www.purdue.edu/bands/aamb/bbd.html

The Very First Band

This picture represents the very first Purdue marching band. It originally started off as a drum corps for the Purdue Student Army Training Corps just before World War I. In 1886, a year after the Training Corp band formed, five other people joined them and formed the very first Purdue Marching Band.