Frequently Asked Questions
No! We have over 40 different majors in our ensembles. We welcome students of all majors and degree levels (graduate/undergraduate). In fact, non-majors can have the Pep Band, Spirit Drumline, or Historical Ensembles (constituting of the Patriot's Fife and Drum Corps and the 8th GM Regiment Band) count as their fine arts requirement for the general education studies in their degrees if they participate and register for the 1 credit course associated with each ensemble.
The Green Machine Pep Band plays academic events, admissions events, men and women’s home basketball games, DC Sports games, as well as other various sporting, charity, and community events. We travel with the Mason basketball teams to their post-season tournaments and also travel in support of additional tournaments as funding becomes available.
Our competitive ensembles – George Mason University Indoor Drumline and George Mason University Winterguard – typically perform February-April across the country at AIA and WGI performances.
The 8th GM Regiment Band, Green Machine Spirit Drumline, Green & Gold Soul, and Patriots Fife and Drum Corps perform at various University & community events throughout the year. Emerald Desire performs primarily alongside the Pep Band at Mason basketball games, but also performs in many other University and community events.
You can also connect with our ensembles via our digital content library, available at https://greenmachine.tv
All Green Machine Ensembles are available to book via requests, which will be fulfilled as time and instrumentation allows. You can request a Green Machine ensemble using the Request Form found under the Contact tab.
Please visit PatriotWeb to add Pep Band, Spirit Drumline, or Historical Ensembles as a class. All of our classes are offered as different sections of the 1 credit course MUSI 280. These courses count as a chamber ensemble credit for music majors or an elective credit/fine arts credit for the general education requirement for non-music majors.
Scholarship recipients and students seeking credit for the course are required to register. If neither of these apply to you, but you are passionate about coming to rehearsals and games, we ask you to register if you have the 1 credit hour space in your schedule. Exceptions can and will be made for students who want to play but have a full schedule. Please email greenmachine@gmu.edu if you cannot register for the 1 credit course.
In order to receive a scholarship you must be a registered Mason student, taking the Pep Band course for credit, and fill out the Scholarship Interest Form sent out each Fall and Spring. Instrumentation, service to the band and seniority are all taken into consideration when reviewing applications.
Scholarship requirements vary from semester to semester, but include a required amount of Mason basketball games to be attended, attending all rehearsals, and attending a set amount of additional events per semester. The scholarship specifics will be outlined in the scholarship contract that the Green Machine Ensembles Admin team will send out each semester.
General questions/not sure where to go? All questions can be sent to greenmachine@gmu.edu!

