takigan

Just watched Lake Ridge. Clocked their closer at 185-190 BPM and their drum feature at 190-195 BPM. The last 2-3 minutes HAULS!

Someone missed the BOA DFW Live Blog "Haltom - Endangered - This show goes from really dark and scary to awesomely triumphant as a heard of what look like Zerg Ultralisks migrate their way across the field; chronicalling the journey of the baby of the pack as he interacts with all the different sections of the band. The flute/clarinet ensemble was gorgeously light, feeling like we were in a fairy forest. Lots of very cool design here and well brought out too."

My bad. Those results were from memory. Guess I'm getting a bit rusty :/.

The band director may conduct the band if he/she chooses. This is actually very common with 1A bands, who not only give the drum majors instruments, but also make the 7th and 8th graders suit up for additional numbers.

Yep.....13 is the most they've had attend Area. There will always be at least 2 that advance, but you need 15 to show in order to reach the magical 3 slots (unless you advance to state on an ordinal exception, like Galena Park did in 2009). Also, this could be the first year in awhile that we see a 4A military style band at the SMBC. Friendswood and Dawson have had the monopoly on the 2 Area F state-slots for quite awhile. Area F 2011 went: 1. Friendswood, 2. Dawson, 3. Clear Falls, 4. Huntsville (miltary), 5. Willis (military). Since Clear Falls is now 5A, and Area F is sending 4 bands, one of the multitude of military bands could take the #4 spot if Tomball Memorial nabs the #3 (which I'm sure they will). 4A Military style bands in Area F that got a 1 this year: Huntsville, Willis, Montgomery, Vidor, Nederland, Crosby

Was at Region 9 earlier (they're still not done yet, though 4A finished awhile ago as Rocketfan stated). Keep an eye out for Tomball Memorial as a dark horse this year.....by far the best band of the 4A block, even earning a standing ovation. This is their first year with a full 9-12 class since splitting from Tomball HS. I have little doubt they'll make it to state, and could potentially make a push for finals. Both Magnolia and Magnolia West will make their first appearance at Area since Magnolia split in 2006. Area F has only sent 2 bands each state year for at least a decade. This year they will send 4.....exciting times for this Area!

Keep in mind most of the people you're playing alongside have likely been playing since 5th or 6th grade (depending on where you go to school), so you probably have the least experience out of just about everybody, even the freshman. And since you started in 8th grade, you probably didn't receive the same level of daily specialized instruction your peers got in 5th/6th grade that enabled the building up of solid fundamentals. Starting in 8th grade kind of throws you into the fray, and 1 private lesson a week can only do so much...especially if your peers are also taking lessons and/or the PL teacher isn't the same quality of teacher as your band directors. I too would recommend asking your director to try out Euphonium or Tuba. Some people's lips just aren't suited for Trumpet, and the Tuba & Euph mouthpieces are suited to a wider variety of lips (since they're larger). The fingerings are the same as long as you're reading Treble clef music. Honestly, I think the directors would love you for it if you decided to switch (bands tend to be short on Tuba/Euph players). Also, you may end up making a higher band either way since the tuba and euphonium sections are generally a little less competitive (not all the time). As a private lesson teacher I've had a few students who, shall I say "the Force wasn't strong with them". They're smart, and they tried hard, but there's just nothing there to work with. A couple of them were what I could call "tone deaf"....their brain simply couldn't imprint a correct auditory image in their mind's ear of the sound they needed to create. Sing a concert F to them and they can't sing it back to you, even with years of experience. No connection. Music takes at least some small degree of talent to be successful at it... I was really bad at math....I wanted to do well at it, I just couldn't figure out how. People are different.

[bOA Dallas Results thread moved from 'Events' forum to 'Upcoming Contests' forum, and merged with this thread]

Great review, J. Thanks for sharing

Bingo. First impressions carry extra impact. If a judge has seen the show before, they lose that edge.

I will be Liveblogging this contest all day, as I have the past few years. live.txbands.com

Ed Stein was at Round Rock back when I was in school (he'd been there for quite awhile before that as well). He was there in 2007. He's no longer there anymore. Once upon a time Round Rock won the State championship. I don't necessarily think Round Rock got weaker during the 90s....I think CenTex just exploded in population and so many new schools entered the fray. Spikes in school success generally boils down to staff changes...not necessarily the HS head director, but every component of the staff...even the middle school staff and the high school principal. A community of students has a certain level of potential based on many many cultural factors (family occupation, district administrative priorities, income level, single parent households, availability of private lessons, parents who've been in band etc.)....it's the teachers' job to understand how the students think, know what they're capable of and draw that potential out. Teaching is only a small part of that formula. Some students can only be pushed so far before they decide that's as far as they want to go...some will follow their teachers even into death, and with the right staff, can achieve many great things. I've seen schools with tons of potential...they have numerous resources available to them, but they have directors who simply view their position as an 8-5 job..."Band is all about fun and it's no big deal if we win or lose as long as we enjoy it". I've seen schools that do incredible things despite a mountain of disadvantages because they had a handful of visionary directors who literally transformed their students' lives to where many of the kids would rather be at the band hall all the time than go home to their families. They stay there til the band director kicks them out....8, 9pm, whatever....because there's nothing really waiting for them at home. Kids like these can make magic. TL;DR - Level of teaching and the vision of the head director (first and foremost), the vision of the administration, the values of the students and their families....those are what affects the competitiveness of a High School band. The 3 bands mentioned have had very recent changes in these areas that have contributed to this newfound success.

Seems like all eyes are going to be on Leander ISD this season, with so many of its bands having the capability to make a splash at state.

Start by reading these blogs. They're by John Mackey (who occasionally visits and posts here sometimes). They're a wealth of knowledge: http://ostimusic.com/blog/how-the-setup-works/ http://ostimusic.com/blog/picking-a-school/ http://ostimusic.com/blog/music-publishing/ http://ostimusic.com/blog/self-publishing-part-2-audio/

Baritone is the easiest instrument to learn (brass&ww). Bassoon is the hardest (followed by Oboe, then French Horn). Most Brass is pretty straight forward....it's harder to make the horn do what you want, but it's usually your fault and not the equipment's.

There are over 1,000 HS bands in Texas. We have 379 of the most active ones cataloged in our Directory , and we have trouble even keeping that up to date year after year . If we gave every school a thread that wanted a thread, we'd have a huge cluttered mess. For shows that really left an impression on people, you'll often see a thread pop up about it....if people feel inclined to post a video about it, they do that too (same with show titles/trailers). Also, if you put the name of a school in the search, it'll pull up every thread where that school is mentioned since the site launched. That's a pretty easy way to organize everything about a certain school in one place. Probably not a good idea with the video thing....if we make media too systematized, it puts us at risk for copyright-related stuff. Posting videos of bands is allowed in the general sense ("video threads" are allowed too), but we can't make it too organized because then we become a "hub" and thus a target.

I think Cedar Park will be in the running, as will Friendswood. Aledo is having a great year and may surprise.

I've been meaning to buy a lot of the 2005-2007 sets (some of the best shows out there imo), and I would totally buy these if I had the money (even at the original price of $200), I just don't have money for hardly anything right now. Maybe in a few months. Your price offer is not the problem. I think if you individually price them, run some 30-day ebay auctions and bump your threads every couple weeks, someone will eventually buy them at an appropriate price. Your target buyers are a very small group of people, so it'll take awhile to find a buyer who's willing to buy, but I think you'll eventually find them. I think you might experience more success selling them if you advertise in October when more people are visiting the site.

Friendswood had 17 make it in 2005. That's the record for them.

Roma HS had 22 students make it into the 4A & 5A All-State bands in 2007. I'm not really sure if that is the record, though. Coppell having 19 could be a record for a 5A school though (Roma is 4A). J.J. Pearce had 19 make in 1982 (including FIVE Trombones!) and 17 in 1988 (including FIVE French Horns! must've been some intense concerts at home)....not sure what class they were back then, though they were 5A at some point in the 80s. Digging through the database; Marcus and Coppell both had 16 students make All-State last year (16 is a school record for Marcus). Duncanville had 13 make it in 2002 (school record). Langham Creek had 15 in 2002 (school record). Spring had 13 make it once or twice during their heyday in the mid 90s...Westfield regularly placed between 10-12 during this time as well, which is quite a feat considering it was hard to place that many since all classifications were combined and competed against each other. Westfield did have 15 in 2001 (school record). Westfield was also the 5A Honor Band that year. ...I think 19 is the most, though, at least for 5A.

Bam! Who called it?

"Fix You" by Coldplay. ...well, there's a little bit of their other selections interspersed, but Fix You is the central idea in the closer.

Earnhardt was at Bell until Spring 2009.

It's tough to say....I mean first you have to establish what you mean by "Reagan 2003". Are you referring to the show that they put on the floor of the dome in Finals of that particular day being copied and pasted onto this years GN Finals field? Reagan 2003 is what it was on that very last performance in GN Finals in 2003 on the night it was held. The show might not have worked as effectively with the 2012 calendar (by that I mean how many days between day 1 of Summer Training and Finals Night @ GN), in terms of when the show would peak and what's being added/taken away with how many weeks are left. I mean the differences between the bands in Finals are that small to where something that simple could make a difference. If we're talking more generally though, I would say yes, it is possible. I think Spring 93 would have a little more trouble winning...though I do believe they would still make finals and maybe even Top 5. I don't think design has evolved too much since '03, but a LOT since '93. I don't think kids are working harder now than they did 10 or 20 years ago. Or let me say this...I think the bands at the middle of the pack are working harder and the shows we see even from the weakest bands are more elaborate, are more engaging and have gotten better at hiding their weaknesses. Not so much at the top. I think there's only so good you can get with the time that you have and the bands that have been winning it are kind of at a point of diminishing returns. I do think teachers have gotten better at cultivating results. Teaching staffs are larger for the majority of bands than they were 20 years ago...Schools are larger and wealthier, the bands are larger and there's more resources available to them; instructive and other-wise. More bands are outsourcing their show design to specialists than they were 20 years ago. Every aspect of teaching the band has gotten more specialized...much like drum corps. And those specialists know how to design towards the bands' strengths and have gotten very good at hiding their flaws. I do think show design has gotten very formulaic....Most of the exciting innovations started to crop up in the mid to late 90s and were in full force by 2001. 2001-2007 saw some of the greatest leaps in what marching band shows can give to the audience. 2008 til now....those great innovations have been few and far between. It's like everybody's decided to jump in on the screaming match, and now our hearing has dulled and we all sound the same, regardless of the fact that everyone is screaming REALLY loud! Marching Band contest circuits are relatively new....A lot of the people who were teaching when the first UIL State Marching contest was held and when the first GN contest was held are STILL teaching today (though most are nearing retirement). Those old guys at the forefront have aligned with the designers who've been in this since the beginning (or close to it) and they've pretty much got the system pegged....and the younger guys are getting mentored by these older guys, getting in on the circle and they too have the design pegged....It's all gotten very systematic. I think I remember reading on the Facebook of one of the BOA forum nerds that they laid out the waveforms of a bunch of 8-12 minute mp3 files of marching shows and realized they all pretty much look the same: Rise and fall, rise and fall....quiet in the middle, rise and fall rise and fall, INSANELY loud finish....or something pretty close to it. And the shows don't stop. They used to stop 2 or 3 times and the drum major would reconduct an entrance for each movement. Not any more. No time....you need all the time you can get to convey your element and concept....they've even extended the shows into both the field entrance and exits. I'm jealous of the parents who are just now getting in on this evolving culture with their children getting to play a role in it. Especially the ones who were in band themselves during the 80s and early 90s. It must be absolutely insane to go to a BOA show for the first time and see how much everything has changed.