takigan

Poor Whitesboro. They were really close to being the first Texas BOA Class 1A band to make Semi-Finals. They missed it by just 1 class placement (1.7 points). They had a great timeslot too (I mainly mean they didn't have to compete against Adair County, KY). I think if Argyle had gone and been in the same prelims block as Whitesboro, I think they would've squeaked into Semis via class placement. There are several years however where I don't think Argyle would've made the cut, even with such a good slot. As for the other bands, Abilene Wylie would likely be 2A. Their 2015 10-12 enrollment was 743, which puts them over the 1A cutline of 600. Kennedale was 747 so they would likely be 2A as well. North Lamar is super close (633)....though I've seen schools that I could of sworn were over the limit, but managed to skirt the line...I think part of it depends on the year and when the data is reported/turned in.....there might be other tallying "loopholes" as well since BOA's methodology is required to be more vague (sort of like how Tarpon, despite being a large school, can get into Class AA because they're allowed to count their Fine Arts dept as a separate "school" because of how the campus is incorporated). It's possible North Lamar could be class 1A, and they would certainly be a force to be reckoned with in that category as well. Argyle is actually unusually small for a top-ranked UIL 4A school (528 in grade 10-12, 742 in grade 9-12)....most of the stronger 4A schools are up near the cutline for UIL Class 5A (1,100).

Moved to Drum Corps...where it belongs...because it's about Drum Corps.

Hutto's also in a high-growth area. They could become an Area finalist in the near future as the community changes and new talent move into the area.

Y'know.... it's kind of really tacky to start a thread under the pretense of talking about "rising/underdog bands" (even though there's already another thread about it literally 2 lines down), then basically use the opening post to hype your affiliated band (but not actually claim it as a band you're affiliated with, despite the fact the band name is in your ID) as the prime and only example. Then afterward, closing the post by redirecting the focus of the topic from "rising/underdog bands" to "please say nice things about my band?...pretty please?". It wouldn't be so tacky if you owned up that it was your band, made a casual mention of why you thought they were rising, and then maybe name off 3 or 4 other bands that you've noticed are in fact rising and talk about them in detail.

I definitely think we'll see Rouse rise to power over the next few years. Not trying to be prophetic (well, no....I totally am).....but I'm just going on record right now before the fact.

A couple of points 1. Saturday rehearsals can be VERY useful. Broken Arrow (OK) rehearses 1-9pm on Saturdays during the season. Harrison (GA) does 8am-4pm Saturday rehearsals. Tarpon Springs (FL) isn't above doing 10am-9pm. Avon (IN) has been known to do this as well. That's more hours than most Texas bands rehearse in an entire week in many cases. I'm fine with TEA's 8 hour rule (8 hours during the week, unlimited weekends), it's UIL's weekend restriction that I'm not a fan of. 2. I also agree with the point that, visual aside, Texas bands sound way better than BOA rubrics give them credit for. I think the Midwest Clinic could attest to that (Texas has had more middle school wind orchestras invited to Midwest than every other state combined). That considered, I do think bands like Carmel, BA, Avon and Tarpon Springs got tired of losing the music caption to us, and have gotten a lot better at preventing us from taking it. I think it was us that showed them how they should sound.

We used to have them... I made sure to post them in the '13 Area thread.....but I think the forum upgrade gobbled them up somehow.

British marching band can be whatever you want it to be. Marching band didn't exist at all in Japan before World War II, and they didn't have a competition circuit for it until I think the late 80s. Even though much of what their marching band scene is today was copied/borrowed from the U.S., and much of their competition rulebook copied from 1950s/1960s era UIL Marching guidelines.... they still made it their own. Some Japanese bands use concert band instrumentation with marching percussion, some follow DCI style instrumentation (brass and percussion only). Japan also doesn't have very many university marching bands. You wanna march violins? March violins! lol. But what attracted the Japanese to this peculiar cultural idea was the discipline and uniformity as well as the patriotism of that era....they liked the military-like structure of the institution and thought it would be a good tool to instill that in their nation's youth. And who says you need a drumline? Many of the best bands don't use one. Considering that your an inaugural group, I would maybe go for a Tarpon Springs or Jackson Academy approach and have like a "WGI on the Field" kind of setup. Basically a backfield drumset, synth, bass guitar and a couple percussionists and have all your marching winds in front of them. But if you feel your kinsmen would really dig the drumline flair and culture, then I would start with a single Bass 3 or 5, a single set of quads and 1-3 snares for a group up to 50. For 50-75 I'd add another Bass (though I couldn't tell you for certain which one....you'd want a drumline guy's opinion on that). 75-100 I'd up it to 4 basses and one more snare, and at the 100 marker I'd add a second quad. The Japanese also march indoors on wooden gym floors. Americans march on a grass or turf gridiron field divided by yardlines. WGI Winds and Soundsport groups from both America and Japan march on dance-floor style mats on gym floors. You should consider what would be the most appropriate place to stage your performances to best capture the excitement of the activity.....maybe a floor level theater stage with stadium style seating. As for where to go for help....I could help you as I've worked with band directors in schools before, I've taught marching fundamentals, I know how budget-speaking a good approach to take to get started....I have good friends who've started tiny band programs from scratch before and have offered help in that regard. But you'll definitely need help from percussion and colorguard specialists in the activity to really bring that "something" to what you're trying to do. I'd definitely look to the DCI community before asking band directors as a whole (I'd avoid the Yellowboard). You'll find more people who have a specialization in marching arts and who are also used to working with smaller programs. First person I'd contact? Jonathan Doerr at Guardians. Mainly because he has one of the most outside-the-box approaches of anyone in the activity, is quite young and has built a corps up from scratch himself with a very tiny budget. You kind of remind me of him actually. He might be too busy to help, but if he responds, he might be able to point you to people who can help.

Best 6A Symphonic Band performance in several years. Sedatole knows how to make an honor band clinic truly memorable.

'The Remaining' really was what lit the spark for me as well. I had gotten into the "fandom" a little bit before that, but if a show like 'The Remaining' hadn't happened, I might have just dabbled in this "BOA thing" for a bit and then moved on with my life. In the 90s drill techs weren't running around the field telling kids to "get in character" and "embrace your role". That was unheard of. 'The Remaining' wasn't the first show to "characterize" the band, but it was the first show to introduce everyone to what was truly possible with that kind of storytelling. I believe it's the show that changed the tide to where eventually everyone's show had to have--not just a theme--but some kind of characterizing element in order to be considered relevant.

The issue I see with picking the "best" shows out of the San Antonio contests is that they don't have that additional week or two of time that the Grand National medalists get. Marcus '07 had a clear edge over Bell '07 and likely would've won the Eagle had they been at nationals with a game-changing product....but Bell is still the show because the final product they put out is still better than the final product Marcus put out. "Best" is such a fluid term. I find it really hard to compare a show like Flower Mound '16 to Spring '93.

This ties the record for the most ever in the largest size classification (6A).

Probably Takaoka, Inagakuen-Sogo or Seika Girls. Also '99-2006 Nishihara, especially if we're talking marching exclusively. Couldn't pick a show. My ear doesn't discern very well with bands at that level, and Japanese bands are extremely similar through and through, both in concept and ability. Oh....'TX' Band huh? LD Bell 2007. But I wouldn't say it's my favorite....It's actually gotten kind of stale to listen to over the years. But the show is extremely fun...broke new ground in concept and design, and Texas won pretty handily that year with it and against a group that weren't exactly slouches. Plus, Finals was November 17th that year....just 5 days before Thanksgiving. August 1st - November 17th....probably the most prep time a Texas band has ever gotten for a show since the 8 hour rule. Super long show; went over the time limit and had several different endings that actually tied together the story. As for any show in the country? Gosh....I mean both Lassiter (GA) shows ('98 and '02) are legendary. Both have a similar level of the winning formula, but '02 was more exciting, and I think might be just a little bit better. Avon '09 also won out against a strong Texas showing and had an AWESOME concept. I'm going to go with Lassiter 2002 though.

I can't help but wonder if this might also be a contributing factor to the less than stellar performance of #teamtexas this year.

Oh gosh, all these years run together now with how long I've been doing this. I think that was the year Carmel won, except basically every fan not from Indiana thought Broken Arrow should've won because either the ME or MI judge hijacked the score table with an unorthodox deeper spread...In other words, they increased the value/weight of their caption by widening the breadth of points top to bottom while ranking BA uncharacteristically low at the same time. It dropped their score by something like half a point lower than what most people assumed it should've been, which, with how the close it was between 1st and 2nd, ended up costing BA the Eagle. I still forget that Carmel actually won that year....I had to remind myself when typing this that BA didn't actually win (.....but they totally did).

Friday Prelims Class 1A 1. Williamstown, KY - 70.90 [ADVANCED TO SEMIS] 2. Milton Union, OH - 67.80 [ADVANCED TO SEMIS] 3. Whitesboro, TX - 66.10 4. La Salle, OH - 65.05 5. Indian Hill, OH - 64.00 6. Licking Valley, OH - 60.95 7. Monrovia, IN - 60.90 8. Murphysboro, IL - 60.60 9. South Point, OH - 60.55 10. East Clinton, OH - 56.15 11. Herscher, IL - 52.90 Thursday Prelims Class 1A 1. Adair County, KY - 83.25 [ADVANCED TO SEMIS] 2. Archbishop Alter, OH - 71.35 [ADVANCED TO SEMIS] 3. Crestwood, OH - 67.10 4. Carroll, OH - 65.05 5. Norton, OH - 64.00 6. Triton Central, IN - 60.20 7. Logan Elm, OH - 57.05 8. Bishop Fenwick, OH - 52.95 9. Carlisle, OH - 51.95 10. Ada, OH - 51.30 11. Southwestern, IN - 48.05

That IS a really good question. I wonder how the split rule assigns a time to the 7th place band when there are 13 finalists. Obviously you'd still follow the pre-draw, but would they be included with the earlier 6 or the late 6? I imagine if you were following the wording as closely as possible, the bottom 7 would be their own group.

I follow the Japanese band scene pretty closely and would have to disagree with this. Still.....in North America, and really the entire western hemisphere, Texas is where it's at for scholastic competitive marching bands.

Cy Falls's 2006 show used I think like a 20-piece electric string orchestra in the front ensemble. I tried to find the show on Youtube; found their '03, '05, '07, '08, '09, '10, '11, '12, '13, '14. '15 and '16 shows, but not that one. It used to be on there.

Oh, and adding another to the list. Glenda Dawson's "Sound of Silence".....love the Flute work on the main theme from that show. Colleyville Heritage was titled "In the Clouds" and had the Final Fantasy music. The Prelude to Final Fantasy, Aerith's Theme (from VII) and another piece I couldn't place from XII along with some other tunes I can't remember. SFA - They did a show with lots of Rhapsody in Blue (starts with the infamous Clarinet solo). Can't remember the actual title from Area (I always end up sitting next to the parent groups that completely flip out for 30 straight seconds right into your ear while the announcer is announcing the show). No real staging element/props but the Angels donned banana colored dance dresses which they wield almost like flags.

CTJ. What do I mean? TWHS came in 3rd at Conroe. Behind Reagan (#1) and Johnson (#2). Johnson also came in 3rd at Austin behind Leander (#2) and Vandegrift (#1). The Plano regional also had Hebron (who came off a #2 finish at Nats last year), Marcus (who's Marcus), and then you have Flower Mound, who basically is rewriting what American marching bands are capable of this season. All of these bands will be at SA, and if all things stay equal, logically speaking every single one of these bands is slated to outrank TWHS. I would rank The Woodlands 8th....the only justification I have to rank them higher is that they have a history of peaking late-season....but then, so does a band like Leander.

Well, this worked for the show designer thread, why not try it here? I'm curious as to the membership sizes of the following bands: North Shore The Woodlands Duncanville Lewisville Klein Oak Each of these High Schools have over 4,000 students and are among the Top 15 largest High Schools in Texas addition to having a succesful band culture. Not just field marchers, total 9-12 band membership.

I heard Round Rock had over 300....I didn't know they were in the 400-range though.

350 isn't uncommon to have in your entire band (well I mean it is uncommon, but I can name quite a few that have it) but it is rare to have that many on the field. Cy-Fair has 330-360 (don't have exact numbers atm), but they use a Varsity/JV setup, where they march about 240 on-field and the remaining 100+ are in the JV group. Everyone knows Allen and their 800 or however many members, but I'm kind of curious who the 2nd largest HS band is....Are there other bands with more than 400 out there enrolled in marching band 9-12?