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I’m really curious to see if more bands will start their BOA seasons with the entire show on the field now that CTJ was so wildly successful doing that last year. Not to take away from the absolute brilliance of The Forest Through The Trees, because it was indeed brilliant and would have no doubt won all of the awards regardless, but I’m still curious to see if this will start a new trend of bands laying down their entire show early in the season. We shall see!

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I'd love to see it happen more often too!!  Getting the whole show on the field takes a crazy amount of cooperation from the design team especially on the visual side.  Drill writers typically have a ton of clients to write for and having that drill completed before the first show is quite rare. 

 

Back in the 2000's, Bowie was notorious for having their entire show on the field before the first football game.  It was insane to watch!  

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I'd love to see it happen more often too!! Getting the whole show on the field takes a crazy amount of cooperation from the design team especially on the visual side. Drill writers typically have a ton of clients to write for and having that drill completed before the first show is quite rare.

 

Back in the 2000's, Bowie was notorious for having their entire show on the field before the first football game. It was insane to watch!

I didn’t think about having the design team fully on board so early in the season and how tough that might be to accomplish. I wonder how Johnson did it? Do they have one dedicated writer who only designs for them or what?

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I didn’t think about having the design team fully on board so early in the season and how tough that might be to accomplish. I wonder how Johnson did it? Do they have one dedicated writer who only designs for them or what?

 

I believe their drill is done by one of their staff members.  It helps!!!

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I'd love to see it happen more often too!!  Getting the whole show on the field takes a crazy amount of cooperation from the design team especially on the visual side.  Drill writers typically have a ton of clients to write for and having that drill completed before the first show is quite rare. 

 

Back in the 2000's, Bowie was notorious for having their entire show on the field before the first football game.  It was insane to watch!  

It has only been in the last 10 years that Bands have not been able to put their show on the field in a finished manner at the start of the football season. I realize that the degree of difficulty has gone up with the shows, and thus more time is needed to get them ready. However one thing that is very noticeable, but not talked about is that with this degree of difficulty forcing later presentations of the full shows, you have far more shows done that are less than great and more mistakes are very noticeable. The truth is that many Bands are trying to push the envelope in what they are capable of doing and when they do not succeed the show's score is not good.   I think we are reaching a stage when the Shows will be too difficult for all but the top Bands. What then do the Bands that are just average to.   For every CTJ, Marcus, Hebron, Flower Mound, etc, there are ten Bands who have taken on shows they have no business doing. I do not know what we are trying to prove by doing this. The Fans are not coming out in great numbers to watch shows that Bands are in over their heads performing.

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It has only been in the last 10 years that Bands have not been able to put their show on the field in a finished manner at the start of the football season. I realize that the degree of difficulty has gone up with the shows, and thus more time is needed to get them ready. However one thing that is very noticeable, but not talked about is that with this degree of difficulty forcing later presentations of the full shows, you have far more shows done that are less than great and more mistakes are very noticeable. The truth is that many Bands are trying to push the envelope in what they are capable of doing and when they do not succeed the show's score is not good.   I think we are reaching a stage when the Shows will be too difficult for all but the top Bands. What then do the Bands that are just average to.   For every CTJ, Marcus, Hebron, Flower Mound, etc, there are ten Bands who have taken on shows they have no business doing. I do not know what we are trying to prove by doing this. The Fans are not coming out in great numbers to watch shows that Bands are in over their heads performing.

 

While I definitely agree that the shows are becoming far more difficult to perform and perfect, I don't necessarily think that is a bad thing.  Just like technology, everything must change with the times in order to keep up.  While it is frustrating at times to see the top bands obliterating the rest of the competition, at the end of the day, the kids in the non winning bands are JUST as capable of producing winning results as the top bands are.  We just have to figure out what it takes to get there.  Why hold the kids back by telling them it's not possible to succeed at a CTJ level when it obviously IS possible?  I think that children (and adults!) will meet whatever level is expected of them.  

 

I also have not seen a reduction in the number of fans coming out to see the competitions.  If anything, it appears that the numbers are rising.  It's exciting to see what the kids put together year to year, and I think more and more parents (and alumni parents such as myself!) are going to see it.  

 

Just my 2 cents, as always!

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Also, putting those shows out that might seem "too" hard (if there is even such a thing) will drive the kids to work harder and no matter what score they receive, it is still a success and they will have more to take away from it than if they were to put on an easier show that they were able to perfect. Believe it or not, most kids want shows that are "too hard" because it exposes their weaknesses and they will never get bored of the show.

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and this year will be an even bigger challenge, There are 6 Texas Regionals in a 3 week span - then nothing until the Alamodome SR in November - could be some big changes in that time frame.

 

I would guess that the design process is happening earlier in the prior year - I would also hazard a guess that the big shows are mapping out their programs 1-2 years in advance - then pull out the show that meets the talent of the group you have to put on the field for that year.

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  • 1 month later...

Westwood did the same and also had their best season ever. Placing 1 out of finals at BOA Austin (debatably only missed because of fried electronics), placing 2nd at Vista Ridge Invitational pretty close on Cedar Park's tale, competing with previous BOA GN finalist Owasso at St. Louis, and then placing top 20 at (probably) the most competitive BOA SA just behind Round Rock (GN finalist) and ahead of Churchill (BOA Austin finalist). I know a few of my friends experienced staleness of the show by the end of the season, which could factor into motivational issues, so there's positives and negatives to both strategies. I'd like to see more schools do this to get a better idea of whether the positives outlay the negatives, but so far it looks like they do.

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Westwood did the same and also had their best season ever. Placing 1 out of finals at BOA Austin (debatably only missed because of fried electronics), placing 2nd at Vista Ridge Invitational pretty close on Cedar Park's tale, competing with previous BOA GN finalist Owasso at St. Louis, and then placing top 20 at (probably) the most competitive BOA SA just behind Round Rock (GN finalist) and ahead of Churchill (BOA Austin finalist). I know a few of my friends experienced staleness of the show by the end of the season, which could factor into motivational issues, so there's positives and negatives to both strategies. I'd like to see more schools do this to get a better idea of whether the positives outlay the negatives, but so far it looks like they do.

Excellent points here. I didn't realize Westwood presented their entire show at BOA Austin. I wish I had known that when I was watching! Bluebird was a beautiful show, truly.

 

I can see how show weariness could be a factor by the end of the season, but I think the constant tweaking of and additions to a show throughout the season would help with that.

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  • 5 months later...

I’m really curious to see if more bands will start their BOA seasons with the entire show on the field now that CTJ was so wildly successful doing that last year. Not to take away from the absolute brilliance of The Forest Through The Trees, because it was indeed brilliant and would have no doubt won all of the awards regardless, but I’m still curious to see if this will start a new trend of bands laying down their entire show early in the season. We shall see!

So....was I right about this, or what? I bet we see quite a few nearly complete shows on Saturday! The CTJ Effect is real, baby! :D

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Ahhh, what's old is new and exciting again. Installing the entire show is how we learned in high school, and we were a grand nats finalist twice. I was shocked when we moved to Texas and the first show I saw was 1/3rd done.

 

I really wonder how greatly GE is affected in early season contests overall scores when the show cannot build to a conclusion. GE should not be just a collection of moments, but the entire effect of the show in it's entirety on the audience/judges. 

I prefer seeing bands have the entire show installed and refined on a weekly basis. That being said, I fully understand and see the results of building a show over a season, and it's hard to argue against. 

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I was surprised to see the Music and Visual go to CTJ and not the GE in prelims - but then they came back with GE only in the finals to win it all

 

Vista Ridge and Bowie - both impressed me with their shows and their growth over last year.

 

Call the CTJ effect or whatever - that show is going to grow between now and BOA SA

 

#whataband

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Also something new from CTJ this year with the Sponsor mention on the front Props.   Saw the "Whataburger" sponsorship mention on the Props and wanting to get others thoughts on this.  Do and think bands should include sponsor names as part of the shows (on the field)?  Is this going to be a new CTJ effect? 

I think that can is more from Hendrickson 2016 with sponsor names on the 3D glasses.

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Also something new from CTJ this year with the Sponsor mention on the front Props. Saw the "Whataburger" sponsorship mention on the Props and wanting to get others thoughts on this. Do and think bands should include sponsor names as part of the shows (on the field)? Is this going to be a new CTJ effect?

Hopefully not, I thought it was kind of tacky. Every band has sponsors, but they shouldn't be advertised on the field. It wasn't a really big deal but I don't want it to get to the point where bands look like Nascar drivers.

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Also something new from CTJ this year with the Sponsor mention on the front Props. Saw the "Whataburger" sponsorship mention on the Props and wanting to get others thoughts on this. Do and think bands should include sponsor names as part of the shows (on the field)? Is this going to be a new CTJ effect?

It might become the new norm - not sure about elsewhere, but in our district, the funding is not keeping up with the growth of the programs. with a number of our schools taking on 120+ new freshmen each year the district cannot keep up with new instrument requests. my middle school child started learning Tuba in 6th grade - he had a practice tuba at home and one at school, in 7th grade they could not provide a practice tuba for home, now in 8th grade, they share the instruments during classes. there is just not enough funds to go around.

 

The CTJ program has done well - Saturday was their 5th consecutive BOA Championship and 8th since 2014. Like any athlete or franchise, - when you are winning, your value as a spokesperson goes up due to the visibility of that program and they are trying to market that value. (see Jerry Jones)

 

I don't want to see logos on uniforms like NASCAR - But the whole back side of Kelley Reeves had the BOA/MFA sponsors as does every stadium - for a number of years the Texas BOA events were sponsored by Dairy Queen. The CTJ website states that they have 2 presenting sponsors for the season - HEB and Whataburger. Is there any more appropriate sponsor of Texas bands than these 2 Texas bred institutions with a history of local charitable support.

 

Now, naming the ships in the show after ships from Carnival Cruise lines or had the guard waving flags with the logo from Joe's crab shack would have been a bit much.

 

I have talked to other parents, in other programs and we are all doing the same fundraisers. I have no idea of the other programs cost or what they charge their kids or their level of school or district support - but a BOA focused show needs a BOA event and other than SA and Austin all other BOA sites require charter buses (policy) and in some cases hotels for 350+ people. when it takes $400K or more to run a program, you have to find new means to pay for it other than raising the fees that the parents have to pay. This is before you decide to make a trip to Grand Nats that can nearly double the cost of that years program and is 100% on the parents to cover.

 

again - I am simply stating that sponsorship of a certain years show by a large company with a charitable foundation can provide all programs with a means to lessen some of the burden that the parents currently carry. That financial cost is in addition to all the hundreds of volunteer hours that they are already committing to.

 

if the sponsorship's are done tastefully and allow the program to include more students to participate and gain the value of the marching band experience that will help them later in life - I say bring it on and #whataband

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I have to admit, we all got a big chuckle out of it when we saw the Whataburger logos on the front drops. I didn’t have any negative feedings about it at all. No, I definitely don’t want to see logos all over the props in the future, but it was very tastefully done. Ha....tastefully. Mmmmm.....burgers....

 

Remember last year at DFW when that band made a big W on the field? And the parents wore dark T-shirt’s with a big orange W on them. It was someone like Waxahachie or Wakefield. It made everyone want to run out and buy a Whataburger.

 

Seriously though, more power to these bands if they can get sponsors. That’s great. And next fall, when Leander takes the field, you might hear something like, “This first movement is brought to you by Bush’s Chicken.” :D :D :D

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I have to admit, we all got a big chuckle out of it when we saw the Whataburger logos on the front drops. I didn’t have any negative feedings about it at all. No, I definitely don’t want to see logos all over the props in the future, but it was very tastefully done. Ha....tastefully. Mmmmm.....burgers....

 

Remember last year at DFW when that band made a big W on the field? And the parents wore dark T-shirt’s with a big orange W on them. It was someone like Waxahachie or Wakefield. It made everyone want to run out and buy a Whataburger.

 

Seriously though, more power to these bands if they can get sponsors. That’s great. And next fall, when Leander takes the field, you might hear something like, “This first movement is brought to you by Bush’s Chicken.” :D :D :D

I agree - if tastefully done - this could be a benefit to these programs and infuse funds that would otherwise not be available - the school districts are selling rights to stadiums 

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