Nick Cannon did his own drumming on screen while his double, Jason Price, did majority of the close-ups with complex techniques.

Leonard Roberts, who plays Sean, was actually very sick when the last scenes of the "BET southern classic" were filmed, which is why he is so sweaty and looks slightly weak at the end of the film.

While Morris Brown is a real college in Atlanta, there is no real Atlanta A&T. The filming was done at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta and at Morris Brown. The performers (aside from those from Morris Brown) were recruited from high school and university bands all over the Atlanta and Metro Atlanta area. High school band director Don Roberts was recruited to turn the performers into real, convincing bands.

In the movie Nick Cannons character says that he doesn't have a lot of kids running around. As of May 2023 he has 12 kids, by several different women.

Nick Cannon prepared for his role by practicing in a hotel suite with his double and drummer, Jason Price, as well as sleeping with the drumsticks tied to his hands.

Continuity

Size of burger when Ernest is sitting at the table eating.

Marching band auditions are held at the end of band camp - traditionally at the end of summer and prior to the school's first football game. During this time, it would be much too warm in Atlanta for one's breath to be visible - even at night.

Devon drops one of his sticks when Dr. Lee steps in to test him. In the next shot he has both sticks in his hand.

When Devon steals Sean's solo at the first performance, Devon is playing using matched grip at the end, but in a close-up of his hands, he's playing using traditional grip.

Sean's drum head changes colors between shots.



Factual errors

The sheet music printed off is not percussion music.

The stadium lights during the finale are shown turning on and rapidly back on again. Stadium lights are gas discharge lamps, and cannot be turned off and on again without a significant warm-up period.

When A&T is playing "Can You Feel It", the band members form the numerals for the year "1970" when in fact the song was released in 1980 by The Jacksons on their "Triumph" recording.

Devin receives a package from his father in New York City, yet it is postmarked Atlanta, GA.

During one of the performances, there is a shot of a baritone horn player moving his fingers to press the valves. However, he is playing a valveless baritone.



Revealing mistakes

During the graduation scene, the drummer playing the tenor drums is using mallets that aren't used for tenor drums, but for keyboard instruments such as xylophone or vibraphone.



Miscellaneous

In the DVD's credits Leonard Roberts name is misspelled "Lsonard Roberts"



Audio/visual unsynchronized

The inkjet printer in the practice room makes the sound of a dot matrix printer.

During some part of the movie, when Dr. Lee begins conducting the band at a performance, his hands are conducting beat four, when the band is playing on beat one.

In the graduation scene at the beginning, the drummers that are playing snare are playing concert snare drums. The sound heard however is from a marching snare drum which uses a Kevlar drum head as opposed to a plastic drum head that would be used on a concert snare drum.

On numerous occasions, the music heard from the drums does not match the hand motions, particularly with the tenors and when Sean is playing in a close-up.

During one of the practices, when the band is playing a scale, the trombone slide positions do not match the note being played.



Character error

During one of the performance scenes there is a shot of the whole drum line and it shows that some of the snare players are playing with quad sticks rather than snare sticks.