hsbandnerd212

Add in the fact that, next year, UIL 6A State will be taking place as the same week as Grand Nationals (with BOA San Antonio presumably the weekend before 6A State), and I would imagine that that would be beyond exhausting if they were to go to all three contests.

I'm going to sleep soon, and I hope y'all get some sleep too. 🙂

For the record, I'm sighing at the amount of recent negativity in this thread, and nothing else.

Prelims recap: https://recaps.competitionsuite.com/c3425990-4616-4cc1-9b0d-0dab57238f20.htm

*Sigh*

Not true. Performance order goes by top 6/bottom 6, then by draw order. From the BOA Adjudication Handbook (Sec. 15.03 on page 16 here -> https://marching.musicforall.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/07/2025-BOA-Rulebook-05.15.2025.pdf ) "The top 6 scoring Bands from Semi-Finals will be assigned the last 6 Performance times in numerical order according to the Finals pre-draw that took place at Band Check-In. The next 6 will be assigned the first 6 Performance times in numerical order according to the Finals pre-draw that took place at Band Check-In."

Please send frustrated emails to Box5's email: support@box5.com

I never hoped more for a non-Texas band to get top 6 than I am hoping right now for Bentonville to get top 6 in semifinals (because that'd be cool for an Arkansas band to get top 6 AND so that Flower Mound will hopefully not get the cursed 9th performance slot in finals). 😫

Technique-wise, it's a tie between Smetana Fanfare by Karel Husa and Asphalt Cocktail by John Mackey. I played both on 1st Bb Clarinet in college. For all clarinets parts (and I think all woodwind parts), Smetana Fanfare just had a boatload of tongued sextuplets at quarter note = 88-96ish. The most infamous passage contains tongued sextuplets that have awkward fingerings running between the altissimo and upper middle registers. I could tongue not that fast for the LIFE of me. 😭 I'm sure the rest of the woodwinds (minus flutes and piccolo) were struggling with those tutti sextuplets. Brass might have been chilling with this piece, IDK. This performance by the North Texas Wind Symphony takes the piece at a very modest tempo (slower than the tempo that the conductor for my ensemble took it at). Link starts at 3:07 (the aforementioned infamous passage): https://youtu.be/wymK6sAXw-k?si=G5726GiQIboEjHB7&t=187 For Asphalt Cocktail, it's fast (quarter note = 168ish+) and has very awkward runs (music theory nerds like me would find octatonic scales in those runs), including the worst three measures I've ever played technique-wise (picture below; pardon the cluttered pencil markings!). I think I felt like I nailed this passage only once, and it was in rehearsal. Again, I don't think this was as hard for the brass as it was for the woodwinds. Performance from the Michigan State University Wind Symphony here: https://youtu.be/knGTeMQpdL8?si=__fNA2JARjs9pf5o

So real. I never played this piece myself, but I heard it performed in college and was dumbfounded by the technique in it. Also, you find a full score of it on IMSLP. The amount of black on some of the pages is wild, to say the least.

With another marching season in the books for the vast majority of Texas high school bands, concert band season is upon us (with UIL Concert/Sightreading around the corner)! This makes me wonder what are some of the hardest full band pieces that people have ever played. Here are some starter questions to consider: 1. What is the hardest piece(s) of band music you've ever played? What instrument(s) did you play it on? 2. Did you play the piece(s) in high school? College? Or marching band (*cough* Hebron)? 3. What made the piece(s) hard for YOU? What made it hard for the whole ensemble? How was your part significantly harder (or easier) than other parts in the ensemble? 4. Was the piece(s) musically difficult? Technically difficult? Or both? What made it that way? Feel free to link example videos as well!

The spread from 1st to 14th in BOA San Antonio finals usually isn't as tight as it is in prelims, and this is a good example of it. For reference, in prelims, Bridgeland was only 0.35 points away from Moe & Gene Johnson.

For you nerds like me out there, here's the full prelims rankings and scores: 1 - 96.275 - Flower Mound (Panel 1) 2 - 96.250 - Hebron (Panel 2) 3 - 95.225 - Vandegrift (Panel 2) 4 - 93.525 - The Woodlands (Panel 1) 5 - 93.350 - Rouse (Panel 1) 6 - 92.600 - Ronald Reagan (Panel 2) 7 - 92.575 - Pearland (Panel 2) 8 - 92.400 - Keller (Panel 1) 9 - 92.125 - Vista Ridge** (Panel 2) 9 - 92.125 - Cedar Ridge** (Panel 1) 11 - 91.700 - Cedar Park (Panel 2) 12 - 91.150 - Dripping Springs (Panel 1) 13 - 90.800 - Moe & Gene Johnson (Panel 1) 14 - 90.450 - Bridgeland (Panel 2) ———Finals Cutoff——— 15 - 90.375 - Wakeland (Panel 1) 16 - 89.600 - Westlake (Panel 2) 17 - 89.300 - James Bowie (Panel 2) 18 - 89.000 - Seven Lakes (Panel 2) 19 - 88.825 - Claudia Taylor Johnson (Panel 1) 20 - 88.650 - Leander^1 (Panel 1) 21 - 88.350 - Round Rock (Panel 1) 22 - 87.750 - Wylie East (Panel 1) 23 - 86.925 - Cy-Fair (Panel 2) 24 - 86.475 - Dawson^2 (Panel 2) 25 - 86.450 - Argyle* (Panel 1) 26 - 86.450 - Wylie* (Panel 1) 27 - 86.425 - Aledo (Panel 1) 28 - 86.325 - Timber Creek (Panel 1) 29 - 85.425 - Midlothian (Panel 1) 30 - 84.975 - College Park (Panel 1) 31 - 84.875 - Cinco Ranch^3 (Panel 1) 32 - 84.750 - Westwood (Panel 2) 33 - 84.450 - McNeil (Panel 2) 34 - 84.325 - Grand Oaks (Panel 1) 35 - 83.925 - Cypress Woods (Panel 2) 36 - 83.350 - Braswell (Panel 2) 37 - 83.050 - Liberty Hill^1 (Panel 1) 38 - 82.850 - United (Panel 1) 39 - 82.575 - Keller Central (Panel 2) 40 - 82.500 - Winston Churchill (Panel 1) 41 - 82.300 - Friendswood (Panel 2) 42 - 82.000 - Lake Travis (Panel 2) 43 - 81.750 - McCallum (Panel 2) 44 - 81.700 - Roma (Panel 1) 45 - 81.125 - McKinney (Panel 2) 46 - 81.100 - Weiss (Panel 1) 47 - 80.600 - John B. Alexander (Panel 1) 48 - 80.025 - A&M Consolidated (Panel 1) 49 - 79.200 - Pflugerville^1 (Panel 2) 50 - 79.150 - Glenn (Panel 2) 51 - 78.400 - Brazoswood (Panel 1) 52 - 78.300 - Shadow Creek (Panel 1) 53 - 77.475 - Pieper (Panel 2) 54 - 76.750 - Austin (Panel 2) 55 - 75.800 - Jourdanton (Panel 1) 56 - 74.750 - San Antonio Veterans Memorial (Panel 1) 57 - 74.450 - Conroe**^1 (Panel 2) 57 - 74.450 - Long Creek** (Panel 2) 59 - 74.425 - Pioneer (Panel 1) 60 - 74.400 - Sharyland (Panel 2) 61 - 74.125 - Waller (Panel 2) 62 - 73.100 - Magnolia West (Panel 2) 63 - 72.550 - Burbank (Panel 1) 64 - 72.050 - Smithson Valley (Panel 2) 65 - 71.450 - Industrial (Panel 1) 66 - 69.050 - Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial (Panel 2) 67 - 67.150 - Cornerstone Christian Schools (Panel 2) 68 - 66.950 - John B. Connally (Panel 2) 69 - 65.950 - Gonzales (Panel 1) 70 - 65.150 - John F. Kennedy (Panel 1) 71 - 62.600 - Crockett (Panel 2) *Tie broken by higher general effect score **Both bands are listed as tying in ranking on the recap, despite one band having the higher GE score ^1 - Conroe, Leander, Liberty Hill, and Pflugerville each received a 0.3 point penalty ^2 - Dawson received a 0.4 point penalty ^3 - Cinco Ranch received a 1.5 point penalty

Fun fact: the closest that 1st and 2nd place came to tying in finals at this contest before this year was in 2013, with The Woodlands narrowly winning over Hebron in finals that year by 0.05 points.

It was indeed in 2001: https://www.hornrank.com/2001/11/grand-national-finals-nov-10-2001.html

And yep, there is something (BOA Adjudication Handbook, pg. 34, Sec. 28): "Any tie for an overall championship (Regional Champion, Super Regional Champion, Grand National Champion) will not be broken but rather be awarded to the two or more bands with a tie in their final score. The recap will display two Bands in 1st Place and no Bands in 2nd Place."

There might be something in the BOA adjudication handbook that addresses this. And, I mean, Dan Potter even clearly stated before he started announcing scores that the tiebreaker-by-higher-general-effect-score rule does not apply for breaking a tie for 1st place.

And Pearland got top 5! 👀

BOX5 stream just started for me.

Is there anyone at the Alamodome that can verify if the drum majors have started walking onto the field for prelims awards? Just wanting to make sure that BOX5 isn't acting up for their YouTube livestream, as I'm still waiting for the awards livestream to start.

Looks like Keller Central's performance time moved from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., according to the MFA webpage for this event.

Never mind, I found the post on their Band Boosters' Facebook group. Looks like the Vista Ridge Band Boosters helped amplify their call for help and Pflugerville now has "more than enough funds to feed the students this weekend. Any funds not used on food for this weekend will go directly to the students to help with unpaid band fees and future meals." I love the band community. 🥹

Where did you see this? I want to donate if this is the case, but I'm not seeing anything on Pflugerville's socials about this.

Well, there is a rule, but it's only for the 5-judge system (which the 6A contest does not use) and it applies in very specific circumstances: "If there are 40 or more bands in a state contest the top 14 bands will advance from the preliminary round to the final round. In addition, in the five-judge system only, any band below fourteenth place that receives a ranking of three or higher from at least two of the music judges and one of the visual judges will also advance to the final round." From https://www.uiltexas.org/music/marching-band/marching-band-scoring-and-advancement-procedure

I think we should be checking on how Hebron is. 👀