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AllenBandDad
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Posts posted by AllenBandDad
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This story is from last May. My son is the new assistant band director at this school now, and is excited to be working with both a terrific head director and at a school where the administration supports and really understands the value of music education:
- gregorydf01 and MikeKyu
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6 hours ago, Dave609 said:
Ok thank you! I was asking because the school I graduated from, Melissa HS, turned in 1312, and so I was wanting to know if there was a high chance they would move up since Argyle is most likely moving up as well. Thank you again!
Considering that the previous 5A range was 1230 - 2219, I think it is very likely Melissa goes 5A. It just depends on how much the current 5A schools have grown.
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7 hours ago, Dave609 said:whats the cutoff for 5A?
The UIL hasn't announced it yet. After getting all of the enrollment numbers, they will then follow this process:
1) 6A will have at least 220-250 schools (historically always close to 250) + opt ups
2) 5A will be at least 200 schools, with the biggest school being no more than 2X the size of the smallest school
If I remember correctly, the UIL will release the school enrollment numbers and conference cutoff numbers in early December, but they can be revised up until the new district alignments are released in January/February.
My best guess is that 5A will be around 2250 (since Highland Park turned in 2245.5 😉) at the top end, and around 1125 at the bottom.
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16 hours ago, ViewFromTheBox said:
To throw a bit of a more interesting twist into this, apparently at the October UIL Legislative Council meeting, the Music standing committee at least started to look into creating a Division I and II for marching band similar to how it is with football. I will be honest and I have no idea if it will advance past a "just look into it" stage and if it will even be voted on, but that might be a tool in the tool belt to relieve some of the pressure as so many bands become more and more competitive, especially in the DFW and Austin regions.
https://www.uiltexas.org/files/policy/Music_October_2021_Agenda.pdf
Just to state the obvious and that we're all on the same page, this won't happen until the 2024-2026 cycle at the earliest and there's still a long way to go. Still, it's something interesting to think about for the future.
If (when) the UIL creates 7A, they will also have to decide if 7A will be separate division for marching band. I assume they will do so, and potentially create Division I and II for the lower classifications as well. I think the 7A classification will be at most 125 schools (i.e. roughly half the size of other classifications), and maybe even smaller.
I wonder, though, if only school size is the best way to classify for marching band. The UIL has already added a state contest for military marching bands. USBands held the inaugural "Show Up and Show Out" contest this year for Traditional/Showstyle marching bands (which was won by Cedar Hill, who are an outstanding showstyle band. They got a standing ovation from the Allen crowd after their halftime show when CH visited Allen this year). Maybe it would make sense for the UIL to have three marching style state champion contest tracks (Corp, Show, and Military) instead of creating 2 divisions in each classification. I'm betting there are a fair number of high schools that are currently doing corp style shows that would change to show style if there was a UIL contest path that supported it. Like military, show style would have it's own rules/rubric. For example, the military band rubric specifies no props or electronics are allowed in the show.
- MilBandDude and OldBandNerd
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12 hours ago, ViewFromTheBox said:
Also, Allen's number of 7102 would rank as the 184-most populated county in Texas, coming in between Dallam and Brooks County (bonus points if you know where those counties are without looking it up).
The more I look at these numbers, the more I'm convinced we'll see a 7A next realignment cycle. By my count there are 50 schools with enrollments over 3,000, and I'm not sure that list is complete.
A historical aside about Allen High: Back in the late 1990's, the old Allen High building was beyond capacity and the district had to decide on building a second high school or stay with a single high school, just really big. At that time, Lovejoy ISD did not have a high school, but instead paid Allen ISD to send all of their 9-12 students to Allen High. As Lovejoy was growing, there had been talk about building their own school, but nothing concrete. Allen couldn't plan on Lovejoy students coming to Allen High permanently, which made the decision about number and size of a new high school building impossible. So, Allen basically told Lovejoy ISD that they either had to permanently merge with the Allen ISD or build their own high school. They decided to build their own school, which then allowed Allen to stay with the one (giant) high school model.
If the districts had merged, Allen would have built a second high school. Considering the current enrollment of Allen High is 7102, and Lovejoy High is around 1500, the two Allen High schools would each have enrollments of ~4300 students, making them both in the top 10 biggest schools in Texas.
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It's not going to happen this round (22-24), but the UIL is most likely going to create a 7A classification in the 24-26 realignment round. This is necessary to relieve the 4A and 5A classifications where most all of the new high schools opening every year are going. Since 6A is limited to a max of 250 schools, larger and larger schools keep getting pushed down into 5A and 4A. I would expect 7A will include the 100 or so biggest schools (about half the size of the other classifications).
The interesting thing will be how TMEA/UIL handles the addition of 7A for band. Will they treat them completely separately, with their own marching band region/area/state track, or lump 6A and 7A together? With more schools growing out of ATSSB (4A and below) into TMEA, will they add an additional All-State band? If so, will it be a 7A track, with the option for 5A and 6A students to opt up?
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1 hour ago, slowbrass said:
Have to respect Allen for what they can do with so many members (600+!), they sound really good. I shudder to think about what they could do with a smaller competitive group.
You know, with all due respect, I'm really tired of these kind of back-handed complements for the Allen band. There is no reason why they can't be competitive at the size they are. They are putting shows on the field with designs that would be impossible for a smaller sized band. Instead of trying to do what everyone else does, just at larger scale, they are using their size as an asset.
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On 10/22/2021 at 5:27 PM, ViewFromTheBox said:
What does that mean for band? Well, the biggest affect this will have is who is in what classification. Will somebody move up or down a class. And depending on which schools move around, it could impact that Area for marching band. I want to say that TMEA will also be realigning the regions and areas once the UIL realignment comes out, but I don't remember for sure, so don't quote me on that.
Yes, TMEA reviews the music region/area alignments every two years, after the UIL updates school classifications. The music regions are realigned based on all-region/all-state participation numbers, so that there is a more even spread of participants across regions.
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On 11/5/2020 at 9:51 PM, Gustavo Woltmann said:
as you know singing is like a language, a body language.
what can you do if you don't have a good voice but want to sing?
How can you improve your singing voice?
What are the best singing tips out there?Don't think of it as not having a "good voice". Your voice is a musical instrument, just like any other, and unless it is somehow damaged, you just need to learn how to "play" it. The best way to learn proper singing technique is through voice lessons. You can also find a lot of vocal tutorials on YouTube. Granted, just like in with any other musical instrument, some people are going to be more naturally talented than others. But proper technique and practice count a lot more than innate talent.
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I'm just hoping that my daughter gets to have some semblance of the college marching band experience this fall during her freshman year at Stephen F. Austin. My son had already decided to not be in the Texas Tech Goin' Band this coming fall before all the COVID-19 mess hit. I'm really glad he still has two more years left before having to find his first band director job. I'd hate for him to be looking for a job right now.
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On 4/15/2020 at 2:49 AM, dhornmtx said:
Are the number of participants in all-region bands going to change or is that region specific?
I believe that is Region-specific, but the numbers that advance from Area to All-state is set by TMEA, and varies by Area. It is based on the historical number of participants by instrument in each Area.
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On 4/22/2020 at 11:11 PM, BanderThanYou said:
Sorry to bring back an old topic, but I noticed that all of you parents were primarily discussing college marching band.
Have any of you had experience with concert band in college? I don’t plan on majoring in music but I would like to continue playing my instrument in college in a concert band setting, how is that?
At Texas Tech (where my son is a Music Ed major), there are four concert bands, with band placement by open audition. Non-music majors are welcome to audition. The four bands are Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Concert Band, and University Band. The University band is generally made up of non majors. It is less demanding in terms of rehearsal and performance time commitment. At lot of marching band members do University Band in the spring semester. The other three concert bands are almost exclusively music majors because 1) the music majors place higher in the blind auditions and 2) non majors, even when they have the chops to make a higher band, don't have the time to commit to it. My son is in the Symphonic Wind Ensemble. It is a 1 hour credit class, but they rehearse 6 hours per week, have at least 3 performances each semester (with at least 1 hour of music programmed), and are expected to practice individually several hours per week.
My daughter will be attending Stephen F Austin this fall (not majoring in music). She is planning to be in the Lumberjack Marching Band in the fall, and the SFE equivalent of Tech's University Band in the spring.
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The Allen High School Symphony Orchestra has been invited to perform (announced last Thursday).
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Looking at the proposed 6A Area C (Regions 2, 3, 4, 21, & 25):
Region 2: v High Schools
Lewisville HS
Hebron HS
Flower Mound HS
Marcus HS
Denton Guyer HS
Braswell HS
Eaton HS
Byron Nelson HS
Region 3 High Schools
Horn HSMesquite HSNorth Mesquite HSSachse HSNorth Garland HSRowlett HSLakeview Centennial HSGarland HSNaaman Forest HSSouth Garland HSRockwall HSRockwall-Heath HS
Region 4 High Schools
(no 6A)
Region 24 High Schools:
McKinney HSMcKinney Boyd HSLittle Elm HSRegion 25 High SchoolsAllen HSPlano West Sr HSPlano East Sr HSPlano Sr HSWylie HSProsper HSRegion 24 (McKinney, McKinney Boyd, and Little Elm) are not in the proposed 6A Area C. They are in the proposed 6A Area B:
Region 5
- Arlington ISD (Arlington, Bowie, Sam Houston, Lamar, Martin)
- Grand Prairie ISD (South GP, GP)
- Mansfield ISD (Mansfield, Lake Ridge)
- Cedar Hill
- Fort Worth Pascal
Region 20
- Duncanville
- Dallas ISD (Skyline, Booker T Washington)
- DeSoto
- Richardson ISD (Richardson, Berkner, Pearce, Lake Highlands)
- Waxahachie
Region 24
- McKinney
- McKinney Boyd
- Little Elm
Region 30
- Keller ISD (Keller, Timber Creek, Central, Fossil Ridge)
- North Crowley
- Weatherford
- Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD (Boswell, Chisholm Trail
Region 31
- Coppell
- HEB ISD (Trinity, LD Bell)
- Irving ISD (Irving, McArthur, Nimitz)
- Southlake Carroll
- Haltom
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I have a concern regarding the realignments. So in the full list of all schools, it shows Lumberton being in 5A with an enrollment of 1222. However 1222 would make Lumberton still 4A. Just wondering. Might be a fluke.
TMEA will have to change that. UIL shows Lumberton in 4A. When the original cutoff numbers were released last November, Lumberton was going to move up to 5A, but then the cutoff numbers got adjusted after some other school population numbers (McAllen ISD) got adjusted down.
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I didn't even realize that some regions have a separate audition for 9th graders.
In region 25, they have a separate 9th grade All-Region band. Since Region participation is so high, they set this up so that more 9th graders have a chance to experience the region clinic and concert. 9th graders can also audition for regular high school All-Region, which happens a few weeks later. If they make 9th grade AR band, then make High School AR, they give up their chair in the 9th grade band, and everyone else moves up a chair. Typically, 9th graders who initially make top chair placements in the 9th AR band end up making it into High School AR.
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The way I understand it, it's All Region auditions that lead to Area auditions that count. For the regions with separate 9th grade All-Region auditions, those numbers won't count. If a 9th grader in that region auditions for high school All-Region also, then they would count.
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With UIL realignment, it looks like TMEA is realigning music regions/areas. https://www.tmea.org/divisionsregions-mm/regions-mm/region-alignment-mm/region-alignment-map-2022
The first big change I noticed was Plano ISD and Prosper ISD are moving out of Region 24/Area B into Region 25/Area C. McKinney ISD is moving out of Region 25/Area C to Region 24/Area B.
Looking at their guidelines, it appears TMEA will realign regions every 2 years based on All-State audition participation (number of students auditioning for All-Region that could lead to All-State, meaning, I believe, middle school and 9th grade audition numbers aren't considered).
It's a proposed alignment right now. It will be finalized later this year.
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Sounds to me like UIL has been doing everything they can to keep Highland Park out of 6A, which seems like a bit of a conspiracy to me.
Yep. The UIL broke with their precedent of always maxing out 6A at 250 schools plus opt ups. They originally had it at 248, which conveniently kept Highland Park out of 6A. Then when the McAllen schools were corrected, they set 6A to 245, again seemingly to keep HP out of 6A.
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For football yes. I don't think band is going to change. Everything is pretty stable right now in the top classes.
Correct. TMEA sets the region & area maps for band, using somewhat different criteria than UIL uses for district/region maps. TMEA looks to create regions with a good balance of historical participation in All-Region while being geographically logical and having enough schools of any particular classification to keep contests relevant. There may be some slight adjustments made if a school moving up or down a classification throws a region out of balance, but I doubt very many, if any, changes will be made. Also, I don't believe TMEA ever splits a multi high school district across multiple music regions. The UIL does split school districts across two UIL athletic districts when the numbers make sense (the Cy-Fair ISD, for example, has schools if two UIL districts in two different regions). TMEA will rebalance their music regions when the All-State participation numbers change enough to warrant it.
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Great story from Allen: High schooler with vision impairment marches with Allen band
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I found a short clip of them marching down the parade route. Impossibly huge band. I love it!
That video was shot from where all the parents were sitting in the grandstands, about halfway down the parade route. They reached us about an hour after they started.
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Here’s a question....WHAT IF the Allen Band went to the Rose or Macy’s Parade one year?! How awesome would THAT be?!
Allen has marched in the Rose Parade twice, in 2008 and 2016 (my son's Junior year). I'll post a link to footage from 2016 later. The NBC coverage with Al Roker was pretty funny.
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That was actually last year and lemme tell ya, hearing the announcer say "The Allen Marching Band will only be performing with 500 members" was a shocker to the whole band. The amount of people you had missing was the amount we have in our band (I know I talk about the size of your band a lot, but it's just insane)
It happens every year, I just didn't remember it being with The Woodlands last year at Baylor McLane also. The one I was thinking of was in 2013 at the old Baylor Floyd Casey stadium.
UIL 5A State Marching Contest 2023
in UIL: Upcoming Contests
Posted
Four Frisco bands in state finals if you include 4A Panther Creek.