Golden Buffaloes march into fans hearts
At CU football games, it’s not always the football team the crowd is cheering for. Some fans are turning their attention towards the Golden Buffalo Marching band.
At CU football games, it’s not always the football team the crowd is cheering for. Some fans are turning their attention towards the Golden Buffalo Marching band.
“My favorite part about marching band is probably what it adds to the game,” said CU marching band enthusiast Dan Pinkston. “You get to chant along with what they’re doing. They set the tone for how it’s going and you always know it's a first down when you hear Glory Colorado.”
Pinkston isn’t the only one whose eyes are turned towards the band during the game. A popular chant is “Tuba, tuba, tuba,” a request for the “Tuba song,” which is one where the tubas do a specific routine.
“It’s just fun to watch the tubas dance around at the games,” said CU alum Amber Wills. “When the team isn’t doing so well, I try to keep myself entertained, and the marching band certainly provides that.”
The band is very appreciative of the crowd’s support.
“As drum majors we always get the request for ‘tuba’ the request have shot up recently, as early as the first quarter, depending on how well the team is doing,” said drum major Paul Farus. “We get some fans over on our left shouting for tuba. They even know the hand signal and everything. It’s great.”
Unfortunately for fans, the Tuba song runs two minutes long, so the Golden Buffaloes don’t have many chances to play it.
A typical band season consists of learning three halftime shows, plus the songs they play during the game, like the fight song and music after certain types of plays.
“This year we have a Led Zepplin show, a show based on space music, and finally we will be doing a 70s funk show at the Nebraska game,” Farus said.
It takes a lot of work and practice to put together the season’s band program. They start with a week of band camp before school starts, then progress to six hours of practicing a week during the school year.
“A typical rehearsal means we’ll show up and do some basics and make sure we’re warmed up with the feet,” Farus said. “Then we’ll do some playing basics so the low and high brass players don’t blow their chops in the rehearsal. And then we just kind of start hitting the shows going set to set, making one picture on the show, then go to the next picture and make sure the pictures look good then put it back in the whole part so that the whole movement looks like a continuous picture.”
Farus said it’s a lot of work, but in the end it’s worth it.
“I’m lucky. I get to spend time with 200 of my closest friends; I know a lot of the kids and they’re my best friends.”