Rubisco

They are renowned gap-shrinkers, that's for sure! Not unusual to see them close in on bands and overtake them as the season progresses. Their opening brass statement is so exquisite. Such warm, beautiful sounds. It might be my favorite music "moment" of the year. It's definitely in the top 2 so far!

Eh, I've been doing this for 30+ years. I've been hearing these criticisms -- mostly not from band directors -- for 30+ years. It doesn't matter what the band circuit is. Whichever one you choose, these criticisms will remain, lingering in the background like dark matter. Meanwhile, BOA keeps adding regionals in Texas, and they're chock-full of bands! 🤷

It absolutely does!

No, a little freewheeling as in a little freewheeling, which means "unrestrained" or "loose". In this context, it refers to the way the show sometimes flits from one musical idea to the next in an unrestrained sort of way. Similarly, the performance is a little lacking in control, based on the Webster prelims performance. Nevertheless, the show has many wonderful qualities as well, which will shine even brighter as the season progresses and they continue to clean. They may even make a big splash at this contest. Who knows!

This is such a great contest, even with the slightly weird weighting of the captions. TMC always gets a panel of really experienced BOA/DCI/WGI judges. Looks like they nabbed all 3 of the main BOA chief judge team this year. Looking at the lineup, it's easy to see why someone would be eager to judge this contest -- so many outstanding programs. Vandegrift will likely dominate. I don't think they'll encounter much of a challenge until late-season, when they meet the Lewisville ISD powerhouses and maybe a Houston band -- or 2, if we're really fortunate! The most interesting thing for me will be seeing if Reagan is challenged at all by Rouse and Vista Ridge. I also wish Cedar Park were competing, because I think they'd be another strong challenger. For the record, I think Reagan's show is very cool, with lots of effective moments. It's just that in prelims at Webster, for me anyway, it seemed a little freewheeling from a design and performance standpoint. Curious to see how much they've honed the show in a week. It may be more of a late-bloomer.

I understand the confusion around GE for those relatively new to the activity, but I also strongly feel like a lot of people complain about it without bothering to do their homework first. That partly explains some of the snarkier responses here. Anyway, here is the adjudication manual. It answers probably every question about the effect and performance captions posed in this thread. https://marching.musicforall.org/adjudication/ There are publicly accessible videos that can help to deepen your understanding as well. Here's one, in which experienced BOA/DCI judge Randy Greenwell interviews experienced BOA/DCI (and WGI) judges Richard Saucedo and Marie Czapinski. It's called, Creating Effect: From a Judge's Perspective. You'll notice that they hew quite closely to the points of consideration that are on the judging sheets themselves. Mind you, even when judges are armed with the same sheets with the same points of consideration, judging will always have a strong dose of subjectivity. That's true for every caption. I always say that what is strived for is more of a perfect subjectivity.

There's over a month left for cleaning, edits, and additions -- including full movements I have yet to see -- but I feel fairly confident about these ones based on what I've seen from the early regionals. Actually, my opinion hasn't changed at all in like 3 weeks. Maybe I'm a little inflexible. 😅 At the same time, I think these ones are kind of obvious, right? These are the shows with major wheels. Top Half (in alphabetical order) Flower Mound (P1 - Top 5) Hebron (P2 - Top 5) Marcus (P1 - Top 5) Pearland (P1 - Top 5) Ronald Reagan (P1) The Woodlands (P1 - Top 5) Vandegrift (P1 - Top 5) Others in finals: Cedar Park (P2 - Top 5) Coppell (P1) Rouse (P2 - Top 5) Vista Ridge (P2 - Top 5) I couldn't tell you who's winning yet. Essentially, these are the ones I'd be truly surprised to see miss finals. Based on this, there's more wiggle room in panel 2 than panel 1. 6 of my top 7 are from panel 1, but they will only take 5 of those straight to finals. That's a little concerning, and it makes me doubt that all of them will be top half, even if I think they belong there after watching the contest. Of that group, Reagan is the most vulnerable, I think, with Cedar Park, Rouse, or maybe even Vista Ridge bumping them into the bottom half. Still, I think all of these ones will be safely in finals. Other ones I like for finals include Cedar Ridge and Westlake, but I just don't feel that confident yet about them, mixed in with the ocean of others. I do wish Bridgeland were attending this, as I think they'd put up a strong fight for the top half again, even with the increased competition compared to last year. Alas, we will have to wait until Nationals to see them at a BOA contest again.

Yeah, nobody was paid off tonight. I think the shifts underscore two things. Firstly, how truly subjective judging in this activity is, especially when the bands are fairly close in quality. And secondly, that Music For All is in the process of training lots of new, or relatively new, judges. It's possible that some are not quite linked into the "hive mind" yet, so to speak. Of course, even more experienced adjudicators make some pretty unique choices from time to time. 😅

Wow! Way to go, Pearland! What a huge comeback! We were right to be hot on you! And Klein Oak! Overtaking Cy-Fair despite being 6 1/2 points behind them last weekend! That's gotta be exciting! I have to say, these recap shifts between prelims and finals are quite wild. And with the shifts between Shenandoah and here... this week's panel might as well have been aliens from outer space. 😅 Now, Bridgeland 1st place in visual effect in both rounds -- that, I can certainly get behind based on what I saw in prelims. It is interesting that Marie shifted from giving them a 14.9 in prelims in ensemble performance to a 17 in effect in finals. It makes it seem like they botched their performance in prelims or something, when they really didn't. There's usually much more overlap between those two captions, like we saw in finals.

Way to go, Churchill Fulshear! You made your comeback! 👍 Ditto for CTJ! Back in the top half! Clear Brook placing in the top half last week and missing finals here is a little surprising, but also fairly typical for early season BOA regionals. There's probably not much of a judging consensus right now. And there's still a lot of time left in the season. I wouldn't sweat it too much. I'm looking forward to seeing their full show -- everyone's full show, really. The top 3 in 4A are correct, I think, based on what I saw through the stream. I probably would have had them in a different order; however, that may just be because I had different levels of expectations for each of them. Lots of room for growth across the board today.

Yeah, Bridgeland kind of stunned me, actually. I thought they were outstanding. Of course, I wish the ending felt like more of a proper ending, but it's a work in progress. Overall, a really lovely visual program with some really fresh music choices.

Good luck, everyone! It will be a very strong event. Definitely curious to see how much the bands get shuffled around compared to last week.

I don't know if I've seen anything in this thread that reaches the level of "hater." I've seen disagreement with the results, as well as honest (and sometimes accurate) criticisms of some of the bands. Some of them are just general, personal opinions. "I didn't care for Band A as much as Band B." Okay, that's fine, whatever. This is a band forum. That's what happens here, along with questionable predictions. 😂 You read them, you roll your eyes, and you move on. If you want to read positive comments about every band, the TXBands LiveBlog is there for you! 👍 Unfortunately, we no longer get the Michael Boo write-ups at the end of the season, but that would have been another place to get them.

All three of the Lewisville ISD heavy-hitters look and sound awesome this year. I know that's kind of like saying water is wet, but still. 😂

The Woodlands lost 1 judge in each round, if I didn't miss someone. It was the same judge both rounds. TWHS won prelims by about 2 1/2 points. But maybe somewhat surprisingly got 3rd in music ensemble in that round! 👀 They created most (?) of the gap via music effect. It's that ballad, I'm telling you! I, too, am surprised by Dawson's placement, but I've been around long enough to know A.) Early results aren't always or even often all that indicative of late season results, and B.) BOA's approach to judging music performance will always cause confusion in Texas. 😂

Their ballad is, without question, the coolest thing I've heard this year so far. I think the build-up is fine, and will sound better when the soloists connect all the notes more. This is a marvelous arrangement of an overplayed piece of music. Lots of surprises here. But yes, some dirt in the flags at the end. They almost look a bit like everybody else does there! 😂

I know this thread will be buried shortly, but anyway: Winter guard units are officially signing up for the World Championships in Dayton, Ohio! The Texas contingent will be solid again. I think we could see strong medalist contenders in all three scholastic classes, if the ones listed maintain their trajectories. (Note: Some are still signing up.) The ones from Texas currently on the lists: Scholastic A Azle HS Dripping Springs HS Emerson HS Foster HS Garland HS Hendrickson HS Hutto HS Jordan HS Katy HS Louis D. Brandeis HS Melissa HS The Colony HS Tomball Memorial HS Veterans Memorial HS Wylie HS Scholastic Open Cedar Ridge HS Cy-Fair HS James Bowie HS Little Elm HS Pearland HS Round Rock HS Southlake Carroll HS Timber Creek HS Westlake HS Scholastic World The Woodlands HS Independent A Allure Independent Black Gold Eagle Mountain Independent Ether Redemption Guard RGV Winter Guard Independent Open Industry Independent Undaunted Independent World Invictus Ménage Mirage

Thanks for the clarification!

Perhaps it's more inspired by the original The Thing from Another World -- more like a typical humanoid alien, without all the extreme gore. 😂 If it is inspired by either film, I suspect we might see some Antarctica in the scenic design. Clear Brook often has quite elaborate sets.

The ones about general effect are ripe for this sort of reworking. 😂

I'm not a fan of excuses, but it's also true that not all schools act the same when faced with the same heat. 🤷

Remember when even just hitting an 80+ in early October meant you were destined for late-season success? Now, everyone expects mid-80s by the end of September! It will probably be a while before I'm astounded by anything both musically and visually, but even I think the ensemble music scores here were on the low-end in finals, at least for this new era of sky-high early season scores. Only an 81.5 for Vandegrift in that caption? They were quite technically dazzling, in my opinion.

But (!) wouldn't it be even more accurate to say, don't underestimate what a great dance team without any guard can do for your visual program, based on these prelims results? 🙃 Sorry, I couldn't resist. I shouldn't try to plant the idea that Round Rock's band director had in other directors' minds. The guards in Texas will vanish. 😂 And for the record, before people jump on me, I much prefer guards. Much higher risk from upstairs, and more interesting in the Z-axis, so to speak.

If that football game recording is any indication of how they sound live, they sound GREAT. They could be "entering the chat" shortly, at least musically. I'm quite surprised they didn't perform any of their ballad last night. Then again, I feel like this "slow crawl" show learning has been a thing for them since at least 2021, and they've dominated early season each season since then, so maybe it's not a big deal. I do think there's a window of opportunity for a band like Cy-Fair, especially with them performing last in prelims and having a more complete show, and if The Woodlands can't get that last minute or so of their opener up to their usual level of polish.

Yep! Face Me from 2014.