takigan

I've actually considered from time to time of going back and *bumping* a bunch of old topics that I think would be interesting to rekindle discussion for. We encourage users to resurrect old topics if they feel they have a new perspective to offer to the thread. As TxBands is an archive just as much as it is a community we will never delete dead threads unless there's valid reason to (SPAM, inappropriate content, uncalled-for conduct etc.)

The Woodlands, TX - October 9, 2010 Woodforest Bank Stadium SCHEDULE: Hudson H.S., TX 9:15 AM Texas City H.S., TX 9:30 AM College Park H.S., TX 9:45 AM Alvin H.S., TX 10:00 AM Pasadena Memorial H.S., TX 10:15 AM Spring H.S., TX 10:30 AM Cy-Fair H.S., TX 10:45 AM Clear Brook H.S., TX 11:00 AM LUNCH BREAK 11:15 AM Dekaney H.S., TX 12:00 PM Winston Churchill H.S., TX 12:15 PM Pearland H.S., TX 12:30 PM Westfield H.S., TX 12:45 PM Cedar Park H.S., TX 1:00 PM McNeil H.S., TX 1:15 PM Johnson H.S., TX 1:30 PM North Shore H.S., TX 1:45 PM The Woodlands H.S., TX 2:00 PM BREAK 2:15 PM Comeaux H.S., LA 2:30 PM William B. Travis H.S., TX 2:45 PM Elkins H.S., TX 3:00 PM Vandergrift H.S., TX 3:15 PM Cypress Falls H.S., TX 3:30 PM Ronald Reagan H.S., TX 3:45 PM Leander H.S., TX 4:00 PM Friendswood H.S., TX 4:15 PM Stephen F. Austin H.S., TX 4:30 PM 5:00 PM - PRELIMS AWARDS 6:45 PM - GATES REOPEN FOR FINALS 7:45 PM - FINALS 10:30 PM - FINALS AWARDS For reviews and live scores, follow us on the Live where I'll be blogging all day: http://live.txbands.com/

The discussion of SFA 2004 made me go watch their GN show on Youtube for reference. I now will add this show to the "personal favorites" part of my list. Very few shows out there give off this level of sheer "aura" of emotion. The drumline slamming their drums so hard they look like they're about to pull a muscle, and the dance team looking like they're all on the verge of tears during the entire show...brilliance!

I don't feel schools add props to gain some kind of special advantage at competitions. Some props will help the General Effect score if they serve some purpose in the show, but having "backdrops" doesn't grant you additional points on their own. If the backdrops compliment the colors of the flags and the guard uniform, you might get a tiny amount of points for visual GE, but nothing that's going to affect your score drastically. These props mainly only exist for the purpose of themselves. It gives the show more life to it, it gives it personality. The importance of props to students is really hard to explain but let's try this; I've seen many schools' props sitting in their respective band halls during the post season after they've been used, and they've found themselves attaining many uses. Students put stickers on them, paint them, write all over them, they wrap christmas lights on them, they assign them nicknames and even name section leaders for the group of students who move/utilize them during the season ("Trees" section leader). Georgetown HS using their airplane prop from 2008 as a stage for a band banquet. The props add fun and excitement to a show, and also serve as an identity for that school during that season "Oh, Brazoswood? Yeah, they had those cool props that looked like rainclouds." That identity still holds with the band even after marching season has ended and the props are stored in the band hall, no longer having any use. I don't think they're trying to impress anybody with cool props. They're just THERE.

The Firefox Sarcasm-Detector add-on works better IMO.

Don't you write the shows for 2 of those 5?

November 2nd, 2004 - Stephen F. Austin places 22nd out of 31 at the UIL 5A State Marching contest (including something like a 30th place ranking from one of the music judges), then 4 days later at Grand Nationals they place 4th in Finals and net the music caption becoming the best sounding band in the entire nation.

I prefer dome through and through. There's nothing like a vocal synth, which is already loaded with harmonics so it shimmers, that's packed with additional electronic reverb which makes it shimmer even more, then fed through powerful amplifiers in the Front Ensemble where it's shot off the 10-second-reverb acoustics of the dome walls and washes over the audience in an ocean of shimmering sounds. Mixing this sound with a full-size Tam-Tam being rolled on with large soft mallets and 200 brass musicians with bright-sounding equipment playing stacked major chords....then the sudden cutoff and the resulting RING! Yeah....domed stadiums all the way!

Ahh, my mistake. I remember reading something that sounded similar to that but assumed they were taking the add-a-class-each-year approach. I put 2 and 2 together and thus came to a false conclusion. In any case, it'll be interesting to see how far they go as 5A, after being one of the state's top 4A bands.

This is Legacy's first year with all 4 grades 9-12 right? Sould be a good year for them. I love the creative ideas Legacy has done with electronic instruments these past couple years. I'm hoping to see more of the same this year. sdrawkcab loochs hgih ycagel, ycagel....

Hehe.....Got ourselves a little game goin' . Rollingwood - $129,098 Westlake Hills - $138,670 Barton Creek - $185,156 The thing is, the smaller you go in population the less likely you'll have lower income subdivisions interfere with the mean. Some "country club communities" are so small, all it takes is a few multi-millionaire business owners to skyrocket the typical average. I was making my point with 50,000+ being a good benchmark for an actual "city" and not just an elite subdivision. I also tried to name various communities that many people consider "Rich" that also housed schools with band programs that most on this site would be familiar with to use as a comparison. I'll give you points for Flower Mound though. The Woodlands and Flower Mound are pretty similar in size and socioeconomic status (I didn't mention them because city-data's numbers kind of contradicted my schpiel, haha). Different studies that look at the data differently rank Flower Mound above the Woodlands in the 50,000+ category, while others rank The Woodlands higher. You usually see both communities on the various "Top charts" out there. An interesting sub 50,000 community to mention would be Friendswood ($96,881). They have 34,106 people but almost the entire city is zoned to the 4A Friendswood HS with little interchange with outside communities (unlike Westlake Hills, which only makes up a small fraction of the Westlake HS student body). I suppose you could call Friendswood a "mini-The Woodlands" .

Np....but just for good measure , According to City-Data.com Average annual household income: Leander: $60,973 Cedar Park: $76,954 Pflugerville: $85,387 Spring: $69,670 Katy: $62,844 Pearland: $81,842 North Richland Hills: $66,381 Richardson: $70,641 Lewisville: $56,138 Plano: $85,003 Carrollton: $71,865 Hurst: $61,355 Mansfield: $81,326 The Colony: $80,952 The Woodlands: $110,113

Here are the Woodlands's band dues for this year (I remember they were something like $1200 for Grand Nats last year) http://www.twhsband.org/2010_BandFees.shtml I don't really know what Avon's are, but I know a huge amount of their fundraising comes from booster dues and parent-run fundraisers. I don't have the enrollment numbers for the Woodlands but it's probably somewhere in the 300 range. So we're talking a $350,000 pull just from the students. I somehow don't think the fundraising efforts of the parent program could make up for that other $450,000, but when you consider the fact that the Woodlands is THE most financially affluent city in the state of Texas with a population of 50,000+ and the property taxes and housing costs in this area are ginormous, and combine that with the positive image band programs have in Texas, especially a band bearing the success that the Woodlands enjoys, you can bet the amount of money the school district pulls in is considerable and the cut that the band receives from that massive pool of money is also considerable. But I have built theoretical band budgets before and something tells me this is the Gross Cost for EVERYTHING the program had budgeted for the year; meaning paying the band directors, capital outlay costs (this would scheduled costs like repairing and replacing old instruments/equipment), possibly the costs of the band's Spring Trip, and of course the yearly operating expenses for the marching band show design, all part-time instructors, travel and hotel expenses for all contest including Nationals, contest fees, the supply budget (paper, ink, postage, books, sheet music) etc. $800,000.....if it's not the gross costs, it must at least include the costs of a major spring trip or something (maybe a bond infusion that included a major purchase like new uniforms or an inventory overhaul). Man, that's a lot of money for 1 year's worth of expenses!

Perhaps UIL isn't "behind the times". Maybe the rest of the country's systems have disintegrated into something that's not worth modeling. When you look at concert band competitions and standards, UIL was and still is the model that everyone else follows. I haven't done enough research into other states' contests to determine their rationale for creating their judging standards for marching bands, but I can guarantee you they were at least somewhat inspired by DCI. But really I think the DCI judging system is part of the reason the corps have deteriorated into its current lackluster level of musicality. UIL is also about music education achieved through pursuit of competition. BOA is about pageantry and experiences....it's more about fun and games than real "meat and potatoes" learning. Why should UIL judge the creativity behind a show's design? That aspect has absolutely nothing to do at all with what these high school students have learned in an academic environment. That would be acknowledging the achievement of designers; full grown adults who are not students at that school. For UIL, everything ties into the school. At competitions they announce the names of the principal and superintendent. BOA separates the band program from the school...this fact is most obvious in the way the announcer announces the band. In UIL the school name and the word "High School" are linked together [The Westfield High School Marching Band].....in BOA the announcer hangs on the name of the school for a moment, then blurts out "HighSchoolMarchingBand" (It's the L.D. Bell........HighSchoolMarchingBand!). With BOA you're watching a High-School-Marching-Band that wears the name of an organization. At a UIL contest you are watching a marching band that belongs to a particular school.....and the school is what gets recognized. BOA values competition for sake of experiences, UIL values competition for the sake of learning. What would reformation for the judging system mean for the many military marching bands in Texas? Would they still be able to be competitive under your new standards? (they already have trouble as it is...would your system help them or hurt them?) I could go on a completely different tangent about the attitude and contempt that contemporary (heh...) band directors have for the military style and how its somehow inferior to corps style (it's not). UIL has a duty to accomodate ALL band programs in Texas, regardless of their philosophy towards the activity. I don't like UIL's system as much as the next person. But I don't think their problem lies in their failure to separate captions...You can still have an insightful judging perspective by just having "Music" and "Marching" generic captions (though I think the term "Marching" should be changed to "Visual", though I know they have specific reasons for not calling it that). I think the problems come from their ordinal format, lesser number of judges, their insistence on not hiring specialist judges and instead just having generic band instructors judge both captions at various points of the contest (some of these judges, although notorious in name, don't really know anything about the discrete idiosyncrasies of marching band and gained their reputation through their successes with a high quality HS varsity or collegiate wind ensemble....concert band directors, if you will). I think GE judging trends have caused us to judge ourselves into a corner. When competition success is dependent on being creative, I think it encourages forced creativity. You also, for the sake of fairness, have to start defining what is "creative". This creates very contrived expectations from judges which in turn has the show designers creating a very contrived product in response....this predicament is plaguing marching band and drum corps alike. We're losing our musical perspective, but again....that's a whole other topic.

http://www.boahistory.org/BOARecaps/2002/txsaf.pdf

You could always take a greyhound....set an alarm and sleep on the way back .

2010 Contest Results Class AAAA 3rd Place: Floresville H.S. 2nd Place: Vandegrift H.S. 1st Place: Calallen H.S. Class AAAAA 3rd Place: Klein H.S. 2nd Place: Pflugerville H.S. 1st Place: Round Rock H.S. * Overall Awards (Captions): Best Snare Line - Pflugerville H.S. Best Tenor Line - Pflugerville H.S. Best Bass Line - Round Rock H.S. Best Cymbal Line - Lake Travis H.S. Best Front Ensemble - Round Rock H.S.

The English Horn solo in that show is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard in my life. The soloist plays with such incredible musical sensitivity and restraint.

Hard to pick. I like various shows for different reasons. I'll just name off some criteria I look for and name of some shows that best exemplify that criteria. What I think are the most well-performed HS marching shows (more from the perspective of music, but mainly as an entire package) [What speaks well about these shows is that they were well scored by every single judge on the panel (receiving mostly 1st place votes and no drastically deviating scores outside the top 3)] Spring 1993 Lassiter, GA 1998 Plymouth-Canton, MI 1999 (What's impressive about this show is their receiving unanimous 1st place ordinals from all 4 music judges in both semis and finals at Nats...some of the score rankings being way above the 2nd place band in that particular category) Lassiter, GA 2002 Honorable Mention: Marcus 2007. After winning BOA San Antonio with virtually a full caption sweep (including 6/7 judges in finals giving them a 1st place ordinal, plus not receiving lower than a 2nd place ordinal in any caption in prelims), including beating the eventual 2007 GN champion LD Bell, you have to wonder "What If" they had gone to Nationals. Shows that make you go "Is this marching band or musical theater?" LD Bell 2005 LD Bell 2006 LD Bell 2007 Broken Arrow 2009 PCEP 2009 Other "personal favorites" Homestead, IN 1994 ( ) - Fastest show I've ever seen! First movement is in the 180-190bpm range. Closer at 6:19-END clocks between 200 and 225, averaging about 210bpm. Hebron 2006 - Another band with slick drill. Tops out at 190bpm, with cool DDR-style dance moves in the closer. Tarpon Springs, FL 2008 - Some of the most dazzling drill ever. Richland 2005 - Just love this show Pomona, CO 1996 ( ) - Belshazzar's Feast, LOUD! People who saw it live swear its the loudest thing they've ever heard, Drum Corps included. This show would likely have medaled at GN instead of placing 5th had they not decided to rewrite half of the show 2 weeks prior. Harrison, GA 2009 - Extremely well written show. Ronald Reagan 2002 - Love the concept of this show....even though it's dirtier than their more famous 2003 and 2005 shows. Plus, it's where they plume changes made their debut

Exodus is 2004. And I'm just the opposite. I think it's cool when programs find a show type that gives them an identity. Sort of like how Reagan got into their classy original Drum-Corps style shows early this decade, how Cedar Park does 20th century classical composers, how SCV does Russian composers, how the Cadets and Westfield HS are progressive with design ideas.....when everyone and everybody is mixing it up year after year, everyone starts to sound the same.

For starters, traffic is pretty slow for most of the year except when it picks up a little bit during June-August (DCI) until fully blossoming from Mid-September to Mid-November, then going back into hibernation for the Winter . I've been keeping an eye on the traffic data and forum activity over the past few years. The 2008 season had WAY more site hits than 2007 (like 100,000-200,000 total site views with nearly a million separate page views) and 2009, if I recall, was pretty close to 2008's numbers. The conclusion I've come to is that this site continues to get more and more known every year, but the actual forum activity has dropped. The site has more lurkers than ever who read more but post less. A typical thread in the off-season has 5 or 6 posts and 500-1000 views. Basically, there's a smaller number of total threads/posts but they're pulling more viewers than in past years. Everyone's getting older as well. There's a userbase of post-HS users on this site that constantly increases the older this site gets....In addition to a small constituent of parents, directors and other adult members we gain, we get a flux of new HS-age users every new season, and after they graduate from band, 80-90% of them will rarely ever read this site again. It's difficult to tell if the wave of HS students has been increasing or decreasing over the years, though if I were to guess, I'd say it's been increasing....slightly, but mostly staying about the same. Not to mention a large chunk of our traffic comes from a mass of non-members who check the site on weekends for Competition scores but don't actually post here otherwise. There's another issue that's common with forums that have been around for a few years and that's where you run out of things to talk about. Look at the archive of topics that have been posted since 2005. There's a LOT of threads here (close to 3,000 topics)....pretty much every subject having to do with band has been discussed in detail at some point or another. Of course, someone could resurrect a dead thread and start up a whole new discussion, but there seems to be a stigma against this on just about every forum you visit on the web. We don't have anything against resurrecting dead threads though (usually). I've often thought about just rezzing a bunch of 'General Discussion' threads myself just to spice things up a bit. 2010 is a 5A State year; the third 5A State year in this site's history. It's also a 5A State year where Texas will also have a strong showing at BOA Grand Nationals, which is unusual to have in the same year. We haven't been around long enough yet to be able to tell if it being a 4A or 5A State year significantly affects traffic or not. This will be a very exciting season...it could very well be our greatest yet!!

Yamaha Xeno has always been one of the "in" Trumpets to own (their C Trumpets are stock for orchestral playing), though Bach Strad seems to always have been the CHOICE Bb for most pros. That's been changing lately though.....I'm seeing a LOT more people with Xenos these days. The Xenos are slightly cheaper....I wonder if that may be part of it. I'm not a Trumpet player so I don't really keep up with this as much as many of ya'll Trumpeters do....but it's something I've noticed.

Someone did. But it was awhile ago. http://www.txbands.com/forums/index.php?s=...ost&p=75611

Such a classy organization. What a great gesture to the community. http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Band-member...-100659799.html

That's nice. Indiana has a stronger drum corps culture than Texas does, so these discussions are much more ripe for internet communities containing members primarily from that part of the country. That said, your post contributes nothing to this thread.