Handjive
About this song
Instrumentation requirements
- bass drum
- low brass
- multiple trumpets (and ones willing to solo)
History
This cheer is traditionally started by either low wind/brass or the bass drum. The rest of the low brass/percussion then come in, and then the rest of the band. There is a solo ad lib trumpet part in between the melody that the rest of the band plays. The cheer can be repeated several times, and due to this it is frequently used to kill extra time in period breaks and occasionally time outs. The cheer ends with the melody cutting out, then the low brass and percussion, until only the bass drum is left.
Dances
The flutes, oboes, and clarinets (and anyone else who is so inclined) leave their instruments and do the handjive at the front of the stage.
Other instruments (saxophones, tubas, mellophones, and anyone else not on the chairs in the back row) form into a line and walk around the stage in an impromptu game of follow-the-leader.
On rare occasions, the band has marched all the way around the Field House while playing this.
During rare occasions in the late 1990s, at the end of the second intermission, the band would start Handjive on the stage and then collectively march to the walkway behind sections 22, 33, and 44. The band would finish Handjive when the referees began their third period warmup skate, and play Hail when the team emerged from the tunnel directly below them. This was eventually nixed by Field House staff who deemed it a fire hazard.
| America's Pep Band (album) | ||
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| 35. Wild Thing | 36. Hand Jive | 37. Alma Mater |
| Pep Band 2006 CD | ||
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| 8. Stacy's Mom | 9. Handjive | 10. Ghostbusters |