takigan

Yeah Final Fantasy for sure. Really anything by Nobuo Uematsu is just phenomenal music. The Chrono Cross and Trigger scores are also very powerful bits of music. Ah, who's the composer for those? Toshiro Masuda? ....*looks it up* Oh yeah, Yasunori Mitsuda. Yeah, he's awesome too.

Oh I hear ya there. I've actually been making plans for a group of friends as well as myself to go see the premier in Pasadena this summer....it's looking like a 50/50 chance though, it'll be a rather expensive endeavor. As for Fall shows....according to Georgetown's Myspace, they'll be doing ANOTHER Key Poulan show (Rise and Fall of Rome). I think out of the 9 Georgetown shows that I have seen/marched in, I think 4 or 5 have been Key Poulan.....it's kind of embarrassing. But Tyler Dempsey's Percussion parts can even make Key Poulan taste good....gotta love those gong/bass drum impact crashes.

Ok, so we all know Crossmen's relocation to San Antonio is a big mile marker for DCI and a huge mile marker for Texas-hailing DCI enthusiasts. Crossmen has just set up shop on top of a gold mine. We've seen what Texas musicians have done with Revolution; having set it apart as one of the top 5 Div III corps in the nation (and there's a LOT of them out there!). So I present to you the following talking points... Do you think, with full access to some of the finest talent in the nation, the Crossmen will eventually, sometime over the next few years, ascend to 'Top 5' stardom? If not Top 5 (this is almost wishful thinking I'll admit)....what about Top 12? And also...Could this relocation hurt Revo's ability to be competitive for championship titles as often as they are? ...As Crossmen could potentially take away a lot of the resources that allows Revo to be as competitive as it is (as they are sharing the same location), will this have any noticeable effect on them? When I look at it on paper, with the incredible amount of talented students they could pull in locally, combined with all of the staff that makes Crossmen as good as it is plus the addition of new homegrown staff talent, and a promising Summer Production for the upcoming season....Crossmen should have the tools it needs to be competitive as a Top 5 corps. But when I look at the recent developments (difficulty finding Baritones and Mellophones, etc.) I start to doubt that possibility. I don't know....what do ya'll think?

Hook a mic up to your saxophone and strap a stereo system to your back and some portable amps to your shoulders....that should give you the power boost you need to surpass even the most powerful brass players.

I don't know how they do it at my HS now, but when I was there, you could only tryout your sophomore year. You first submitted a letter of intent. All of the candidates would then have to meet for the tryout and would be interviewed by the directors. After that, their abilities would be reviewed individually then as the final test, all the candidates would stand behind the band as the conductor conducted the band as their task was to follow the conductor precisely as another conductor graded them....this measured their ability to stay together with each other I suppose. If you were one of the 3 sophomores picked, you were then named "Assistant Drum Major". Your job for the upcoming season (your junior year) was to do **** work for the band and learn from the Senior Drum Majors who actually conducted the shows, and fill in in case one of them got sick. You were expected to learn the show, but never got to actually conduct it. Then upon reaching your senior year you became a full-fledged "Senior Drum Major" and had all the hard-earned privileges contained therein. Band was very much a hierarchy at Georgetown.

Here's a question (probably a stupid one)....if the DVDs are just now shipping, how is it that we've all been able to watch LD Bell's (among others) Grand National performance on Youtube for like, the past 3-4 months now? The recording I watch uses multi-cam view...meaning it's definitely not an amateur recording. How is this possible if consumers don't even have the DVDs yet?

I believe I'm thinking of Martin HS, the '04 and '05 Lonestar Standstill champions. Marcus ranks up there as well.....and could just as easily claim the same title as best-in-state, but the subject was Martin and I was talking about Martin, so the point stands.

Especially ya'll's drumline.....possibly the best in the state.

Wow...talk about old school, lol. Leander really should be on this list though. I've had aunts and uncles that were in the Georgetown band 15-25 years ago and they would always talk about how year after year Georgetown and Leander would sort of "switch off" for the title of 4A Area as well as 4A State champion. Leander would pull out the Area title with Gtown as runner-up but then Georgetown would would win State with Leander nipping at its heels; and vice-versa the following year. It went this way for many years, but Texas gets bigger and more schools get built.....old legends (band directors) retire or die and new trends take over. By the mid-90s both schools had entered and disappeared into the massive sea of 5A schools. Rodney Klett stopped directing Gtown's marching band around '95 or so and Cedar Park was built in '98 which, in addition to other changes, virtually cut Leander's power in half....these changes heavily curbed each school's stopping power in their ability to remain competitive in the rapidly growing pool of 5A schools in Texas. [/ History Lesson] The schools are changing though. I know Leander's been undergoing heavy changes in its program recently, and it is the same for Georgetown as well. In the past 5 years alone Georgetown has: - upgraded its Euphonium section from Yamaha concert Euphoniums to King bell-fronts - swapped out its concert French Horns for silver plated Mellophones (up until 2002, Georgetown used concert Euphoniums and French Horns on the field) - purchased more "modern" looking uniforms - upgraded its weekly rehearsal schedule from 4 hours to 6-8 hours (just under the 8-hour rule...we actually went to 5A State in 2000 using only half of the 8-hour rule) - expanded its pit section, and purchased its first sound system - entered BOA for the first time in 2005 - hired the brass caption head for PR into its staff lineup - hired Tyler Dempsey for percussion arrangement, who truly makes Georgetown's pit and drumline shine. I forsee both of these schools jumping back into the fray within the next 3 or 4 years. It's going to be something worth watching for sure.

As directors b^tch from their aluminum towers.....

but threads like these are once in a blue moon....

Probably your computer.....The link works, and the video plays on my computer.....since it's a WMV, you have to be using Windows Media Player for starters (or if you are using it...I dunno....ffdshow maybe?)

Georgetown '06 Area D Finals (the performance which knocked them from 4th to 8th, denying them one of the 5 State seeds) http://www.georgetowndrumline.com/image/UIL_Final_48MB.wmv

I'd say I'm split between the 2 now leaning more towards concert season, but back in High School I gave serious thought to dropping out of band in the Fall and rejoining in the Spring bc I didn't like Marching Band at all. When I was an alternate and realized alternates get to sit in the shade the whole time and do nothing, I couldn't understand why everyone else wouldn't just say "screw marching" and come sit in the shade with the rest of the alternates. I had no idea they actually enjoyed marching. It didn't make much sense to me, but Georgetown was strictly a UIL band back then (you could count the number of "visuals" we had in our show on one hand--yeah) and most people didn't even know what a drum corps was....so yeah, marching band was never a "fun" experience to me.

Man I love Tempered Steel. It was the main theme for our field show in 2000 (the first and only year Georgetown has marched in the 5A State Marching Band contest). It's an awesome concert piece too, but only when played at a fast tempo....at the standard tempo it just sounds like any other piece with percussive brass (quite the compositional trend nowadays I might add). I don't know what Georgetown is doing this spring, but at Blinn we'll be doing Circus Franticus, Chiaroscuro by Robert Sheldon, English Folk Song Suite, either a Piano or Flute Concerto, some excerpts from Morceau de Concerte for Horn (with Horn soloist), along with either Four Scottish Dances or Carmina Burana I'm assuming. That's about it for our Spring Tour.

Aww, what's wrong with Galactic Empires? It's like the perfect show; percussive brass, a jazzy section, plus the piece itself clocks itself in at around 11 1/2 minutes....you could do an entire show around it. Didn't Poteet do Empires recently? Maybe I'm thinking of someone else....

Hmm....the PAC at Blinn kind of sucks but back at Gtown we have "The Rodney and Mary Ann Klett Center for the Performing Arts" (or just "The PAC"....or sometimes jokingly; "The Klett" lol). Renamed in 2004 afer the school district made it legal to name buildings after living people (since they ran out of reputable dead people to name it after, lol). Mr. Klett was the Philip Geiger of the 80s, brought Gtown to 5 consecutive 4A State marching championships and was the first recipient of the Sudler Flag in 1983. Built in 1998 on a $6 million Fine Arts endowment from Georgetown ISD, the limestone brick building seats 600 people in a clamshell upward-sloping interior. The RMAKCPA is currently the PAC of choice for the Region 26 bands. Sure, it's no Geiger, but it gets the job done EDIT: 'scuse me....Region 26, not 18....had the old alignment stuck in my head .

Those of you who have a local community college near your hometown that has a band program that you can also commute to, you should try looking into that. I go to Blinn College, which has the best music program out of any 2 year college in the state. The marching band program isn't that great here (about the same level as a Div II 4A school band), but our Symphonic band is pretty good (Blinn actually has 2 bands, a Symphonic Wind Band and a Concert Band). But the real advantage to being a part of a 2 year college band program is that the band scholarships are even more than what you'd typically get at a 4 year college, plus the tuition is exceptionally cheaper. My $2400/yr band scholarship (the typical scholarship which every member in the band who's taking 12+ hours and has above a 2.0 GPA gets--including non music majors) pretty much covers my tuition and fees, I just have to find a way to cover room and board and books (another $2000$2500/semester or so). The scholarship system is pretty much the same at any community college in Texas that's looking to build their band programs. Basically if I were commuting, I'd be going to school for free, and I have nothing about me academically that stands out at all. Blinn College, Tyler Junior College, Temple College, San Jacinto, Del Mar, South Plains, Wharton....all have band programs with substantial band scholarship offerings with the small class sizes and easier cirriculum that are typically associated with 2-year schools. It's a great stepping stone to a 4 year college, especially if you don't have much money or you slacked off a bit in HS. More and more people are starting out at Junior/Community College for their first 2 years....it really is a great alternative.

Results are posted: http://www.marcusdrumline.org/html/2006_lo...ar_results.html

Mpc: BB1 (Brian Bowman Signature) hands down Horn: Willson is most ideal for solo work but the best all-rounder is the Hirsbrunner....wicked awesome horn, but freaking expensive ($7000+).

Speaking on the topic of "John Williams and Dvorak" One thing I've noticed about the modern classical music ensemble nowadays is that it can only serve as a money-making entity if its concert is presented in one of 3 ways: 1. The music being listened to is by some great legend like Mozart or Bach etc. ("Studies show Classical music makes you smarter") 2. """" is from some Hollywood music score ("Star Wars is awesome!") 3. The people in the audience know someone in the performing group ("There's my little Johnny playing his Trombone!") The only exception to this rule would be the Dallas Wind Symphony. And that's only because there's enough interest in band repretoire in the Dallas area to sustain a private, full-time professional ensemble (Band is bigger in Texas dont'cha know). Why aren't there are as many professional "Wind Symphonies" as there are Symphony Orchestras? Because the average concert goer doesn't really care about Ticheli or Gillingham or Robert W. Smith etc.....it's just MuzAC to them; just another creation of the "Art House" crowd. The only professional performances you'll ever hear of these works will be by university funded Wind Bands; the only listeners in this setting being band/music students, parents, university attendees and patrons, and a small gathering of the general city public....Modern classical music these days isn't mainstream like it once was...it's "Special Interest". Eric Whitacre I think is breaking through this barrier with his music. Most of his current music (like all the other band composers nowadays) is only appreciated by the latter scene (which is one reason why he isn't writing for Strings--modern orchestra music--if it isn't from Hollywood...is even less popular than modern band music). But Whitacre studied with John Corigliano....a Pulitzer prize winning Juilliard composer who also bridges the gap between Academia and the average listener...and EW's compositional approach is of the same mold. 'Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings' has a shot at breaking into Broadway, and when he does that, it will be awesome...a name heard only at "Band Camp" will be a name seen in The NY Times and USA Today and that's something I feel like we could all be proud of.

"Blue Bells of Scotland" is about as hard as Carnival and I know it's on the PML. The Gordon Jacobs 'Fantasia' (a classic) and 'Eidolons for Euphonium and Piano' (a newer composition) are both original works for Euphonium and have no memory requirement for TSSEC certification....I'm not sure if they're as hard as Carnival or "Blue Balls" but they're definently one of the harder ones on there based on what I've heard about them (I've never played either of them myself though). It's sad though....99.9% of the hundreds of solos written and published exclusively for Euphonium over the past 50 years have never made an appearance on the PML. Partially due to the difficulty of alot of these solos ('Carnival' is a cakewalk compared to a great number of them).....but there are some really awesome solos out there that really do deserve to be on the PML, but for some reason they're not. And I've never been able to figure out why.

Tetris..... Obviously, the music would include the various themes from the videogame 'Tetris', but the visual kicker would have the colorguard (And probably some alternates/shadows/stand-ins) each equipped with cardboard tetrahead 'piece' and while holding the 'piece' above their heads, start assembling a Tetris game midfield as the band plays, moving the colorguard with the tetraheads down one at a time starting backfield and moving frontfield.....and when 4 solid lines form, have those four lines of colorguard fall down with the "TETRIS!" sound byte played throughout the Flutes or something.

Ok, so my comments about Leander were a little uncalled for, and for that I apologize. The Leander ISD (CP, Leander, Vista Ridge) is an exceptional band program built on a rock solid foundation that will keep them competitive for many years to come as the Austin area continues to grow and more schools are built. I am aware Leander's power was at it's peak around the time CP opened and for awhile they were able to run in the same league as CP, though lately they've just been in a bit of a slump..... But I will remind you in the most civil way possible just by looking at this year's scores so far, that there is a difference between being sister schools and being "rivals".

5A 1. A&M Consolidated 2. Bush 3. Stony Point Soloist: Stony Point Guard: Bush Drum Major: A&M Con. Drumline: ??? 4A 1. Brenham 2. Waltrip 3. Montgomery Soloist: Brenham Guard: Brenham Drum Major: Brenham Drumline: Brenham 3A 1. Giddings 2. Smithville 3. Cuero Soloist: Giddings Guard: Columbus Drum Major: Needville Drumline: Giddings? 2A 1. Rice 2. East Bernard 3. Somerville Soloist: Industrial Guard: Rice Drum Major: Somerville Drumline: ??? 1A 1. Flatonia 2. Iola Soloist: Flatonia Guard: Flatonia Drum Major: Flatonia Drumline: Flatonia These results may not be fully accurate, the official posting hasn't been made, but this is what I remember. We had 28 bands compete in this year's competition, congratulations to all bands who performed! -- Brandon Quam Blinn College Brass Lieutenant 2006