takigan

Ha! Can't believe I missed this. Yellow Rose huh? Hehe....me and that piece go way back, and I think I can venture a guess as to how you came across it . And you're trying out for Falcone too? You, my friend must be a badass! lol. Most High School Euphonium players don't even know that competition exists...much less know it is extremely high level and one of only a couple International Euphonium competitions in the world. Irving's really pushing you to do some pretty great things. You planning on being a music major in College? Your generation is lucky. It's only been within the last 5 years that the PML has started including original works for Euphonium (10 years ago the list contained nothing but Trombone, Tuba, Trumpet and Bassoon transcriptions). Just this past year close to a dozen new works were added to the list. It makes me want to cry *sniff* ;_; . 2 solos of note that were added this year are "Rhapsody for Euphonium" and "Fantasy for Euphonium" by Curnow and Sparke respectively. I performed Fantasy with the Blinn College Symphonic Band on a solo tour in Spring 2006, Rhapsody on another solo tour with the band in 2007 and performed Fantasy again at the TMEA convention after winning the TJCBDA Concerto competition.....both titles were added when the PML was updated in 2007. Considering both of these composers have much more exposed works than just these 2 (especially Fantasy, it supposedly went out of print in 2006 and was really not a well known work to begin with...it's a gem of a piece that I discovered purely by chance) yet these are the only 2 works by those composers on the list....I kind of wonder if my performances might have been witnessed by someone on the selection committee and played at least a minor role in their inspiration to include them in the list. .....I like to THINK that at least (doubtful though) lol .

Why exactly do we have strings on here considering this is a "band" forum? The only string instruments I think should be up there are Piano, Bass and maybe Harp (since a lot of Wind Band composers score for harp)

High Clarinets 11 Low Clarinets 11 XXX-Saxes 0-XXX (-) HAHA! DIE!!! Bassoons 12 Trumpets 11 Horns 12 Euphonium 11 (+) The one instrument designed EXCLUSIVELY for band! The rest are just posers from the jazz and orchestral world. Trombones 15 Tubas 10 Mallet Percussion 23 Drums 12 Auxiliary Percussion 10 Piano 17 Violin 10 Viola 5 Cello 9 Bass 10

High Clarinets 10 (-1) Because they get in the brass's way! jk, just not a fan of their sound (or sax) Low Clarinets 11 Saxes 5 Bassoons 12 Trumpets 11 Horns 12 Euphonium 11 (+1) Trombones 15 Tubas 10 Mallet Percussion 21 Drums 12 Auxiliary Percussion 10 Piano 15 Violin 10 Viola 5 Cello 9 Bass 10

mmm, 'Hungry'....makes me want to make a sandwich *goes and makes a sandwich*

Can we at least mention which band performances have recently shown up on Youtube/Google/Myspace, just don't link to them?

Also keep your tongue forward. The Paris Conservatory championed Arban's method for Trumpet tonguing and this treatise was originally written in French.....in his treatises he explains that the tonguing must be performed with a "too" syllable. The kicker here is that in French they don't have a concrete "T" sound (as in "Tantalizing")....it's more similar to, though not entirely like the "th" sound (as in "thong") in English (those of you who've taken French can probably better explain what I'm talking about). But either way, the tongue placement is more similar to what you'd do when articulating a "thoo" sound rather than a "too" sound.....your tongue is so far forward it's practically in-between your teeth. This method has created some of the finest Trumpet virtuosos the world over so it's probably a pretty reliable suggestion. The "th" sound isn't necessarily as important as just keeping your tongue as far forward as possible. I find there's much more flexibility to be gained from this type of articulation though it does take a while to get used to.

Cheerleading is a sport Golf is a sport Track and Field is a sport Gymnastics is a sport hel_l_, FIGURE SKATING is a sport! If freaking Figure Skating can be considered a sport, MARCHING BAND is a sport! And so is Ballroom Dancing...

Julie Giroux IS a great composer. I played Circus Franticus by Giroux last year in the Blinn College Wind Ensemble.....it was my favorite piece we did that year. ARG! You played Tempered Steel!! You know how many times I asked Aguillon if we could do that piece back when I was there? The last time Gtown did it was in 2000 (we were 5A Honor Band finalists that year), I was in 8th grade and heard the concert with it and thought it was the most awesome piece EVER!! (I still do, and I've heard a lot). Gary Wylie arranged it for marching band that Fall (2000-my freshman year) and we took it all the way to state (got slaughtered--dead last, but at least we went).....man, I love that piece! lol, anyway since I'm already here might as well do this. Here's what we did in the Sam Houston State Wind Ensemble this Fall: Variants on a Mediaeval Tune - Dello Joio Renaissance [something] - Susato Lincolnshire Posy - Grainger Strange Humours - Mackey Fanfare for the Common Man - Copland Florentiner March - [forgot the composer] Fanfare [something] - Gabrielli [some other piece] - Foss [another piece] - Tower [and another piece] - Fisher Tull lol....our conductor would never call out the names of our pieces in rehearsal....he would always call them out by composer (except Florentiner, probably because it was a march, and the only march we played that semester), and we always referred to them as such among each other, so I never really learned the titles, haha.

Incubus Korn Casting Crowns Metallica Reliant K L.D. Bell HS Marching Band Phantom Regiment D&BC UNT Wind Symphony Eastman Wind Ensemble Cincinnati Wind Symphony ...most of the stuff I like are singles by various single artists or composers so it's hard to find favorite "bands" I like.

From my experience I have to think that you're thinking of the Creston Concerto. I only say this because everytime I get to talking with Sax players about concertos, the Creston always seems to pop up. It's definitely one of the hardest solos on the list but you'd think a solo of that kind of reputation would be on the virtuoso list.....since it doesn't, then maybe it's not the Creston. Having heard it in recital I know it's a very awesome piece and I recommend it to any talented Sax player considering working it up.

I think they look pretty freakin awesome! Personally I'm a fan of the Woodlands current uniforms......All-black is pretty awesome as well.

One of the reasons he's gotten so huge is BECAUSE of Turbine being performed by the All-State band. Not to mention it's a great piece, but when really good music gets exposure at TMEA, it almost guarantees said composer a catapault into notoriety. I've known about Mackey for a few years now, but it wasn't until Turbine's performance at TMEA that I've started to hear lots of other people start talking about how great he is. Drum Corps and Marching Bands and major Wind Symphonies have started picking up his works and Mackey will continue to enjoy much success from it. He's a great composer.

My mistake....that would actually make MORE sense because it would be a good idea to get the music out to the qualifiers ASAP....my assumption came from personal experience talking to a clinician one year about it (he mentioned to me he hadn't picked out the pieces for State yet even though he only had a couple more weeks to do so). Since his workshop that I regularly attend is held in early January, I assumed that I had the conversation then, but I forgot the conversation I had with him about it was actually sometime in early December....just a miscalculated memory gap :/.

This past Spring, I had to play a Euphonium solo on stage with a piano player I just met that day in front of the Tuba and Euphonium professors from practically every major university in the State of Texas (UT, Texas State, Baylor, SFA, Sam Houston, UNT--all of them were there!). I tell you what, it's one thing to play in front of 30-80 HS players who know just about as much as you do about playing, but it's a whole other level of nervousness when that same number of people in that audience consists of old people who are masters of your instrument, who've been around the world, played in the finest Symphonies, sampled the finest wines and all that jazz, lol. And not only that, since I was the representative from my school for that recital (each school sends their best players to perform) my performance would be a measure of the collective strength of my school's Euphonium studio! There was a lot riding on this performance! I had nerves of steel in HS, I could always put out a performance in the region room that equated to about 90-95% of what I was truly capable of.....but wow, when I walked out onto that stage I was shaking like a little **** !! The trick I always used was psyching myself up by talking to myself inside my head, like a boxing coach or something. Like; "All right, you're going to knock the socks off of every person in this room! You're a bad@$$! This is nothing! I know you're nervous but when you get through with this etude, THEY'RE the ones that are going to be nervous! Ugh, I never made state though....there were roughly 60 Euphoniums in my region competing and they only took 2 to Area.....I made the top 8 my sophomore, junior and senior years, but I'd always miss one of the 2 spots by just a couple chairs. EDIT: Oh come on....p.ussy isn't a bad word! Stupid language filter >_>.

The clinicians don't have to select the music until like, after Area competitions, so we probably won't know for awhile.

*bows to the queen* There's nothing more to be said.

Low brass players who might be competing at 4A Region 9 tryouts on December 3rd at Huntsville HS.....I might be one of your judges so beware! lol

I remember in HS we did the "Eyes with pride" chant right before we exited warmup to go out to perform in competition.....most of you are probably familiar with it (it's pretty old-school) but it goes something like this: Drum Major: Attention Band! How are your FEET? Band: TOGETHER!!!! DM: Legs? Band: STRAIGHT!!!! DM: Shoulders? Band: DOWN!!! DM: Stomach? Band: IN!!! DM: Chin? Band: UP!!! DM: Eyes? Band: WITH PRIDE!!! DM: Eyes?! Band: WITH PRIDE!!!!!! DM: EYES?!!!! Band: WITH PRIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we'd go out to perform, pumped as we could be.....I thought that was the coolest thing.

Didn't Bell also use one of those in their '05 show? I don't see the point in it if you can just press a button to get the same sound.

Is really good looking..... ..... ....no, I mean it says that in her profile. If I actually thought that it would make me a pedophile.

I don't think Area D is any harder than it used to be. I mean yeah, Reagan and Churchill are in the mix now but at least the Area D bands don't have to compete with Spring or the Woodlands anymore. It was an even trade-off for those 2 schools I think. And Area D IS the most stacked area with B a close 2nd. 4 of the 5 Area D bands that competed made the finals at State last year (the one that didn't make it was Cedar Park; ...the Area D champions). B has a small handful of "juggernaut" schools and a large pool of "solid" schools. While Area D may not have any "juggernaut" schools (ex. L.D. Bell, Marcus, Duncanville) you could drag the ranking list down into the teens and you'd still be dealing with bands that could hold their own at the State contest. As for who's going, it'll be the same story with 90% of the schools, just with a different ranking. The exciting part is always the upsets...underdogs who beat bands with a good reputation and bands that don't always get recognized finally getting the recognition they deserve (like Colleyville making finals at BOA for just 1 example). And of course, the incredible programs that slip up from time to time and don't do as good as you expect (Reagan not making National finals, Langham and Cy-Falls not making Super-Regional Finals, Cedar Park not making State finals)....it's saddening but it's exciting in that it's something you don't expect. Then you have the new schools, and the anticipation for how good they'll do against the establishment. But otherwise, it's mostly the same story year after year..... Nationals is always exciting too, because not the same bands go every year and it's interesting to see how those schools will do against the rest of the nation.

Heh, and not just inside of you. But inside of each and every one of us. A little piece of LD Bell exists inside of all who believed in them to win Grand Nationals..... .... Lol, sorry....your comment just sounds like something a spiritualist or someone would say .

hehe...the beauties of Firefox ..... Many a time have I encountered people who've made the switch over to Firefox and think they've finally been saved and they have been accepted with warm arms....They open their browser and give me this smug grin, but upon observing all I see is the good ol' barebones setup that the initial installation gave them.....and then I want to cry, because they don't realize that they've missed the entire point. Download extensions! Download lots of extensions!...My Mozilla Firefox is skinned, has an instant page translator (for just about any major language), built-in download manager, built-in weather doppler and 3-day forecast, Flash downloader (for saving Youtube videos on my HD), an Internet Explorer tab converter (that way if the page doesn't load in 'Fox I can just click an in-window icon instead of opening up IE), an iTunes control console and a line of instant bookmarks all lined-up under my address bar (Facebook, Myspace, Yahoo! Txbands ) for instant access to those sites. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/ Go wild! [here's what I use for video extraction: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006] ....Course this saves the file in FLV.....you can download an FLV convertor but you often have to put up with a reduction in quality and huge filesizes to get it into the format you want.....So to solve that problem, I use Media Player Classic, which is a hack of the old-school 6.4 version of Windows Media Player....it recognizes all the non mainstream formats like .mkv and .ogm (and .flv)....I couple this with ffdshow (basically a universal codec emulator/switcher) and VLC Media Player (which has its own codec emulator/switcher but a whole different open-source setup) and I have yet to run into a video online that I can't play, regardless of format.

They must have someone up at BOA HQ keeping on the lookout for copies that might pop up on Youtube. I don't get why they didn't get on that last year with "the Remaining". Speaking of which, that video has clocked in 31,000+ views on Youtube since it was put up!