takigan

I love the idea of an 850 member band. And I disagree with the common opinion out there that they should split into a varsity competing band and a non-varsity athletic band. Band isn't just about competitiveness after all. I think it's interesting how there isn't a band in the nation that comes close to rivaling this band's size. I can only think of a couple college bands that have had over 400 members in the whole program (and zero high school bands), and not a single band at all that has even hit 500. The idea of a single band program being bigger than any other 2 band programs blows my mind!

http://www.txbands.com/predict/public_addevent.php

Can't forget the drum break from The Cavaliers' 2008 Samurai show. Took 2nd in Drums, but it's such a wicked cool book! Bluecoats' 2012 feature from finals warmup. Love the writing in this one....and of course the bass drum heads .

I really wish I had a better quality video of this 2006 book. It's a repost of the original (which had over 10,000 views before it was taken down). The Georgetown Drumline won the Fred Sanford award at PASIC that year (top score out of everybody in all competitions), and they won Standstill at Lonestar and at CenTex. I can't pinpoint where it is in the show but the Marimbas have some six-mallet work at one point. I love all the different deep and metallic crashes in the pit, and how the whole front part of the line really gets into it with body visuals. Dempsey's 2005-2007 Georgetown percussion books are all really cool. Round Rock 2007. They won Lonestar this year. What I really like about this one is the SICK drum work....nifty stick visuals, the cymbal-chick feature (which they must do like every year).....but really where the Georgetown vid was all about the pit, this is all about the drums. I also like Round Rock's 2010 book "The Dragon".....but you already know that .

Already a thread on this: http://www.txbands.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4710-marcus-2013-charmed/

[This topic came up in the "Best 4A State Contest" thread. It was off-topic, but seemed like a good topic for a new thread so I split it from the original and made a new thread out of it.]

2013_AreaD_4A_Results_Finals.pdf

McCullough is actually the spiritual predecessor of The Woodlands HS. McCullough was the high school that served The Woodlands community from its founding in the mid-70s until The Woodlands High School was built in 1996. The student body of McCullough was moved to TWHS, and McCullough became a middle school.

Thanks a bunch!

Considering they've never attended.....Blue Springs (MO) :-) They'll probably make Finals. I think the last time we've had an out-of-state band perform in Finals at the Alamodome was when Carmel (IN) came down and won the whole thing in 2002. EDIT: Nope. Owasso (OK) placed 3rd in 2004.

^THIS This has got to be some of my favorite percussion writing in a marching show.....and it is VERY well performed (They had the highest score out of both Red 1 and Silver 1 that year).

Added a bunch of results. If anyone has results for the following festivals, please post them here: Paluxy Valley Plano East (PEMI) Midlothian Gator Band Invitational

Connally made Semi-Finals at GN in 2006 (placed 26th? Or 29th? Can't remember). They also won the 4A Silver medal at SMBC in 2007.

This depresses me. This site was originally created by high school kids for high school kids....there used to be lots of banter and rivalry between kids and rival schools. I think one year there was even a Txbands relationship and the guy actually went with the girl to her prom...I think there was even a thread about it. As our original users got older, 7-8 years laters the site slowly got replaced by die-hard bandos (and directors) in their 20s and 30s (and more recently, band moms--which I think is super-cool). But you should never feel reluctant to post here if you're a student (unless your director tells you not to). The site was originally meant for you. EDIT: yup, found it. http://www.txbands.com/forums/index.php?/topic/2259-hot-date-what/

Although the premise of this thread has some merit, it spreads out the state discussion too much. http://www.txbands.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4671-uil-4a-state-marching-contest/

I'd like to try to avoid having a thread for state predictions, a thread for post-area, a state thread for contest day, a state thread for results and then another state thread for analysis of those results. Let's just keep it all in one spot. http://www.txbands.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4671-uil-4a-state-marching-contest/

[Merged the 2 'Area D' topics together and stickied the new master]

Wasn't sure. Thought they might have been 5A at some point (hence the ?).....it's hard to keep track sometimes.

[Merged Percussionization's BOA SA topic in with the main BOA San Antonio master thread]

6:45 - 8:52

I didn't get the impression from watching Vidor's show that they were their usual exemplary military selves (Vidor has had one of the more consistently impressive military shows in East Texas for awhile). I just don't think this is their year. This is Tomball's first year as a 4A now that Memorial has all 4 grades. They consistently get first divisions at UIL, even when they were 5A, which is more than I can say for many of these new faces at Area. So I think they're on the bubble. Montgomery also consistently makes 1s, and they had a very good run at Region. I think they'll be in finals and on the bubble as well. Lumberton placed 3rd in class 4A at Galena Park behind Friendswood and Tomball Memorial (and ahead of many of the bands that will be at this contest)....I think they are on the bubble, and also my personal pick for #4.

I worry about Bell, Marcus and TWHS having the capability to make the same splash they did in 2009...especially with the product Carmel (IN) and Avon (IN) having been putting out the past 4 years. They won't have to deal with Broken Arrow (OK), Tarpon Springs (FL), Union (OK) or Kennesaw Mountain (GA) and Marian Catholic might not be as big of an obstacle as they often are, so things could work out for them. It'll be interesting to see how Round Rock and Cedar Ridge do. I think Cedar Ridge's low placement at Austin and high placement at Conroe is a good indicator that their show likely has enough depth to peak at nationals and get them into finals. Though last year they made Top 5 at Conroe, but got 25th at San Antonio, so it's difficult to tell how they will do. I think Round Rock can make finals...especially if judges viewed their show to be on the same playing field as Bowie @ Westlake.

They have potential. They got 16th at SA last year, so they barely missed out, but it could happen for them this year.

I think 4A gets better every year, even more so than 5A. It's kind of amazing how many bands there are that have won a medal in the last 2-3 SMBCs that could likely get phased out of Finals (or even booted out at Area) entirely due to the competition being so high! I've been seriously following this activity since 2005, and it's only been since 2009 that there's actually been a committed interest in the 4A contest on this site. I think this is because the quality of the finalists has gone up....and I think the quality has gone up due to the aggregate of 4A schools slowly acquiring the same socioeconomic and cultural landscape of the 5As. What I mean is more and more rural 4As are dropping down to 3A as the enrollment barline gets raised, and they're purposely building new schools in the cities that have a capacity that's barely within 4A limits (the slowing economy likely has prevented them from building larger schools with a 5A capacity.....and since growth has slowed down in said economy, they don't have to build as large of schools to accommodate that growth, thus we get more 4A schools in wealthier socioeconomic areas than the usual 5A schools). So what we're getting is a flux of Max-Size 4A schools (especially in South DFW and North Austin) whose capacity is barely within 4A limits. You also have several schools (Cedar Park, Vandegrift, Leander, Connally, Mansfield Legacy, Mansfield Lake Ridge, Mansfield Summit Waxahachie, Friendswood?, several others...) who've either spent time as successful 5As, or have split from a school that was successful as a 5A. For all intents and purposes, these schools have the same resources and perform at the level of some of the best 5A bands....except that they're 4A. The number of schools who fall under this category is extremely unusual this year, thus making for a more competitive contest. TL;DR - The contest will be the best ever because there have been tons of rich 4A High Schools with maxed out enrollment getting built in the "epic band districts" (Leander etc.) instead of the usual 5A ones....because economy.

Some Area predictions are up....though at the moment they're kind of janky. We're working on it. Don't vote in the one that says it's in November (whoever posted that one accidentally put 11/26 instead of 10/26, and I didn't catch it before I approved it). Also, there are 2 Area Bs, that was an accident on my end. So vote in the Area D that says THE CORRECT ONE, and vote in the Area B that shares the same naming format as the rest of them (or just vote in both to be safe).