As some people mentioned in the comments to the Ben Howland: 30-Minute Man post, the 8-clap led by Johnathan Franklin in Pauley during the $c basketball game was one of the most incredible I've ever experienced. The 8-clap has amazing potential when done by everyone in a stadium.

But the 8-clap has some fundamental problems that are difficult to overcome:

• It is impossible to start it in a coordinated fashion in more than 1-2 sections, except when it’s part of our fight song
• Tempo control is difficult enough for high school orchestras and bands with <100 people. To ask a massive crowd to carry a consistent tempo as others around them is asking for too much. Human tendency in performing music is to rush, and the result is seen in the 8-clap, when everyone just goes as fast as humanly possible

As amazing as the eight clap led by J. Frank was, even that one had two or three different tempos and endings throughout Pauley.

I have a simple solution to this that I’ve never been able to relay on to the appropriate people. The only time that the crowd ends up doing a perfect 8 clap in unison is when it is part of our fight song. However, it takes awhile for the song to get to the 8-clap portion.

The solution would be for the drum corps. to come up with a distinctive, short cadence that everyone will be able to recognize, and then proceed to “clap” it out with the crowd. I know this can be done… can somebody get this message to the band? Let's get some awesome 8-clapping going!