Yale Precision Marching Band

Yale Precision Marching Band YPMB, The Band
Yale Precision Marching Band and their überprop Dmitri at The Game 2010
School	Yale University
Location	New Haven, CT
Conference	Ivy League
Founded	1917
Director	Thomas C. Duffy
Members	100+
Fight song	"Bulldog, Down the Field"
Website	Yale Precision Marching Band

The Yale Precision Marching Band (affectionately known as the YPMB, or more simply The Band, for short) is the official marching band of Yale University. It is a scatter band (what some peers might call a "scramble band"), as distinct from university marching bands that emphasize precise movements and geometric field formations. Band members refer to themselves as "The Members Of...", which is derived from their introduction at Yale events.

Aside from Director Thomas C. Duffy and Business Manager Stephanie Theodos Hubbard, the band is largely student-run.

The band performs at most Yale football, basketball, and hockey events, and travels with Yale athletic teams across the country. It makes regular appearances in New York's Village Halloween Parade. It has been featured on Good Morning America and in many newspapers.

The repertoire of the YPMB is constantly evolving, driven by student arrangers and pop music trends. Besides standard types of band instruments, the YPMB includes violins, bagpipes, accordions, keyboards, keytars, musical saws, and air guitars, and in 1973, was the first scatter band to incorporate electric guitars.

The YPMB's "Squids" section creates large cardboard props for halftime shows. The Squids evolved from the "Appoges" /əˈpoʊdʒɪz/ (after "appoggiatura", a grace note) of the 1980s and 1990s, who handled props but also carried their own "instruments" (frisbees, stuffed giraffes, lounge chairs). The Squids have also been known to handle more visually stunning aspects of the halftime show, such as flaming sousaphones, blank-loaded firearms, and other non-traditional marching band additions. The appearance at certain games of smoke- and flame-producing pyrotechnics has also been linked to the YPMB Squids, but this has never been successfully confirmed via official channels. Squid alumni have gone on to join The Flaming Lotus Girls, The Cacophony Society, professional pyrotechnic companies, and other groups.