takigan

I love that there's an annual thread for St. Louis now as well as actual discussion about it. It didn't used to be that way....I remember some years there wasn't even a thread for it, there might've been someone who'd bring up the scores in a different thread or mention that a TX band or 2 was going, but no real discussion over it. Anyway, to make finals at the STL Super Regional you pretty much have to be at a level where you can make finals in the DFW regional (or really Conroe or Austin). Oklahoma bands like Bixby, Mustang & Jenks are among the Top 10 strongest bands in their home state and usually place in the 7th-14th area of finals at STL. Jenks got 9th at the DFW regional in 2015. I'd say a band like Jenks is similar in ability to a band like Westwood or Anderson, though Jenks may be slightly stronger. Westwood has been either 12th or 13th at Austin for the past several years. It'll be close for them. Same for Anderson. The quality of marching bands in Greater Tulsa is actually quite high compared to most of the US. Broken Arrow, Owasso, Union, Bixby, and Jenks are all from Tulsa and all of them are capable of making finals at the Conroe, Austin or DFW regionals. They'd probably hold their own at the UIL State marching contest as well.

It's generally better to wait till as close to the actual competition as possible while still giving enough time for people to get their predictions in. Obviously bands will still pull out at the last second which will mess submissions up. Generally a week before contest is best because by then pretty much everything is finalized and bands will only pull out for emergencies ....though we have left contests like BOA San Antonio up like a month in advance in the past.

Cy-Fair has about 350 students and marches I think ?-220-? of them in the competitive band while the remaining 130 are in the JV component that doesn't compete but marches at games. This is a common approach among some of the largest bands, but there are many other bands (like LD Bell) who march practically everybody and are still very successful.

FloMo had the final spot for the reason you stated. However, placement at preseason regionals doesn't dictate performance slots at San Antonio. Y'all just drew a really good time (that, or MFA gave y'all that spot as an apology for the weather debacle in 2015). Only those with media credentials can shoot from the field. I vaguely remember a policy in the past that didn't allow telescopic lenses in the stands, but the policy as it exists now does allow for them. Most bands have an official photographer that takes gazillions of photos for the band itself using good equipment. Seems like your luck ran out in having to sit next to their photographer .

More stuff from my research: Mansfield Legacy 2007 "The Extreme" (Music from FF7 "One Winged Angel", FF8 "Liberi Fatali" & "The Extreme", and the Main Theme from Halo) Richland's 2007 show "iShow" also used the main theme from Halo. Corps: Horizon D&BC 2016 - "Clash on the Big Bridge" from FF5 7th Regiment 2009 - "Lavos Battle" from Chrono Trigger Allegiance Elite 2000 - "Liberi Fatali", "Force Your Way", "Don't be Afraid", "Tell Me" (!) & "The Oath" (!) from FF8. Impulse 2007 - various music from FF7

I've always dubbed 180 BPM "Battle Speed". It's kind of the de facto "fast tempo" that you see a lot in BOA. It's not very practical to go much faster than this since it becomes more difficult to keep your cross counts uniform. There are generally a couple instances every year of bands going "Ramming Speed" though (190 or faster). Homestead (IN) 1994's closer is a good example. Their tempo is kind of all over the place in the recording but it floats between 195 and 210, and right in the last moments kicks it up to 215. starting at 6:12

Daniel and I have both been known to gush profusely anytime a band performs video game charts. Especially if it's Final Fantasy music. I remember sitting in my room at 9 years old "streaming" the music from Final Fantasy VI onto a casette tape so I could listen to it on my Sony Walkman (True 90s kid right here). Westfield 2004 has long been one of my favorites (as well as 2005 where they mixed Uematsu's work with Eric Whitacre). Other bands/corps that have done final fantasy music: Cedar Ridge 2010 (their 1st year open...they did music from FF8 and FF13) Blue Stars 2005 - Pixelation (mostly music from FF8) Colleyville Heritage 2016 (a selection from FF7 and FF12) A band from Indiana (It was either Ben Davis or Lake Central or something around 2010....they did music from FF7 as well) There have been a few others I've seen. I'd have to look over old blogs to find more. There was an open class corps that did a chart from Chrono Cross not too long ago as well. I think it was 7th Regiment or Lancers? I can't remember....

Just looked at y'all's school calendar. Very different than I expected, though it does resemble the way I think school districts should fashion their calendars (with shorter summers and more scattered vacations)....Is this a recent change? I've known for awhile Avon started school earlier than most Midwest bands but had no idea it was in late July. And comparing it to y'all's Charms band calendar, I also realized Avon does one more unique thing.....Y'all don't do the brutal 3-a-day 40-50 hour/week preseason grind that most other bands do.....rather instead you do several 3 hour rehearsals throughout May (4-6 hours/week) into the last day of school, then more rehearsals thru June and July (roughly 10-12 hours/week) with a 2 week break at the beginning of July. Then once the school year starts the schedule actually gets more intense (about 10-15 hours per week of rehearsal depending on the week). Kind of an interesting approach if you ask me. Makes me think of a slow cooker left on for 6 months straight from May-Nationals.

If so, that would be a first. I'm suddenly very curious.

First off, I believe the "always there" thing is a part of their success for the same reason it was for LD Bell in the 2000's. I don't think bands like Carmel or Avon would even exist at their current ability level in the state of Indiana without BOA at their front door. Though looking back at old scores it seems you may be right about the "Texas's best" thing. And now I'm doubling up on my research to atone for myself, lol. From 2002-2010, Texas was sending oodles of San Antonio medalists to Nats where they in turn would medal there as well (Ronald Reagan '03/'05, Bell '05/'06/'07/'08/'09/'10, Westfield '03...plus TWHS who never managed to medal then but came extremely close a few times), but from 2011-now for whatever reason that hasn't been the case with the exception of The Woodlands' Eagle in 2013 and Hebron's bronze in 2015. Marcus would certainly have medaled in 2012...they might've even won. The Woodlands?...probably not. It's easy to assume they would've because they won the next year in 2013, but with Carmel and BA right there at the cusp in scoring, TWHS could just as easily have ended up 4th that year. Especially after going from 2nd @ SA to 4th @ GN in 2011 with the exact same bands ahead of them (BA,Avon,Carmel).....--all bands that they'd never once managed to beat from '06-'11, placing 4th or lower behind them every single time. Hebron 2013...sure, I could've seen them pulling off 2nd or 3rd considering how well the Woodlands did. And with 6 TX bands in finals I'm sure someone else would've medaled, haha. Johnson 2014....yeah, I could see this in the winner's circle as well. That was a spectacular year for CTJ and probably one of my favorite shows by any band ever....but I don't think it would've placed higher than 3rd at Nats with Tarpon and BA both having similarly stellar years. I think those 3 bands would've been a solid 2 whole points ahead of the rest of the pack though. Flower Mound 2015...With the right shakeup/performance time, probably. I can't see FloMo pulling off the same November surge Hebron did that year, not with their recent reputation of peaking early....2015 was BA's to win...though I think it would've been Avon that FloMo outed for 3rd, not Hebron. Flower Mound 2016 - Oh most definitely. That show would've changed marching band forever had it made it to Nats.

The 14 Bands attending BOA San Antonio that have made GN Finals in the last 5 years along with their most recent placements: Avon - 2016 (2nd) Cedar Park - 2016 (5th) Claudia Taylor Johnson - 2016 (9th) Flower Mound - 2014 (6th) Hebron - 2015 (3rd) Bowie - 2012 (6th) Keller - 2015 (11th) LD Bell - 2013 (10th) Leander - 2016 (6th) Marcus - 2013 (5th) Ronald Reagan - 2016 (7th) Round Rock - 2015 (7th) The Woodlands - 2015 (6th) Cedar Ridge - 2013 (11th) Not surprisingly these 14 bands are also my own preseason "guess list" of finalists, except swap Cedar Ridge for Vandegrift. I believe this is the first time the San Antonio lineup has contained 14 bands that have achieved GN Finalist placements in the preceding 5 seasons. Biggest observation: Texas has become exceptionally good at developing GN Finalists, but has lost its edge compared to past years in winning GN medals. Avon on the other hand has medaled every single year for the past decade+ (In 2005 they got 4th)....based on that observation none of these bands should feasibly be able to touch Avon, except maaaaybe FloMo. I will say if FloMo continues their upward trend of outdoing their previous year yet again as they have each year since Biskup came aboard, I can't see Avon prevailing against such a band of unprophesied capability. I also have a hunch that Midwest bands are more effective than Texas ones in week 1 of November rather than week 2 (nationals). The Midwestern bands have more summer hours racked up at the start of the early season (since many start rehearsing in June or July and don't start school until after Labor Day) and the later you go the colder the weather gets and the less effective rehearsals become up north, while Texas keeps their momentum going and the summer advantage of the northern bands is made less effective the further into Fall we go. There's not enough evidence yet to develop much of a theory out of that though.

Moved to Upcoming Contests

This was your best one yet. Usually I've just been letting these run in the background as I do whatever, but this one had me enthralled from start to finish. I was in 10th grade. Our school didn't start until close to 9am as well, and I was eating breakfast in the cafeteria when a fellow band kid came up to me and told me what happened. My first period was Instrumental Ensemble (basically a free period where you just had to stay in the band hall and practice...My senior year I tried to take 2 of these classes but they wouldn't let me ). When I got there, there was already, like, half the class crammed in the band hall office sitting on the floor watching the old cart-mounted CRT that was in there tuned to a video feed of both towers on fire. That was where I saw the first tower fall. Pretty tense stuff.....The newscaster mentions that they received word that one of the planes was confirmed as coming out of "Dulles Airport"....One of the flute girls mishears this as "Dallas Airport" and starts visibly freaking out and the band director's wife (who was also employed as the band hall receptionist) is like "Ok guys, I think that's enough news for now, go ahead and get your instruments out and go practice"...much to our displeased grumbling. I really don't remember much else from that day...Either they ordered the teachers to turn off the TVs and keep classes moving, or my other 3 teachers that day simply chose to do that regardless.

Remember when 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' was about to come out and Disney was giving us practically ZERO info about it and was doing anything and everything it could to stop leaks? Why would they do that? Some people assumed "Because spoilers!", and though that's on the right track, that's not exactly it. Disney spent 4.5 billion dollars on the SW brand plus $250 million more for the cost of the first film....How well Force Awakens did in the theatres would set the stage for how their merchandising engine would perform, how well future movies would sell and determine whether or not Disney would make back their investment. And that's all dependent on emotional impact. The impact of seeing practical effects mixed with special effects. The impact of seeing that special twist ending you didn't see coming. And especially the impact of seeing certain characters on the screen for the first time since the last time...to trigger that all-important nostalgia factor that this generation of movie-goers place a lot of value on. That impact doesn't happen if you go in with all that knowledge ahead of time. And the impact lessens each time you see the film. Now take that back to marching band. GE is a heavily weighted score in many marching band contests and is the score most dependent on emotional impact of the music and visual. Schools invest a lot of money into appropriate show design to maximize this emotional impact and boost those scores. It's in the band's best interest for the judges to not have seen their show until the competition itself. Minimizing internet presence of their show is a part of that strategy.

Moved to 'Everything Music'.

College students won't do it for free. Most of the ones that are really qualified to do it are already involved doing things like teching, or lessons themselves, so they expect to be paid. It actually costs more to use college students because the band directors already do it for free and TMEA already puts limits on how many freelance judges they can use to cut costs.

As one of those private teachers who teaches roughly 40-ish kids per week in the Cy-Fair area, I will say when a kid drops lessons but doesn't drop band, it kind of is like a breakup. There are a couple kids that have dropped me that I'll still see around the band hall several years later and it's still awkward seeing them. I don't think she turned her grudge into your chair placement though, and I don't think she was the reason your chair placement was poor. In any room full of kids where ALL the kids can play the music very well, the judging becomes more arbitrary. Also region band also drops the highest and lowest rankings, much like UIL marching...and they use 5 judges. I definitely remember that feel of putting [what you feel like is] everything you have into the music from July to December, and still not getting as deep into the competition as you wanted. And that's Texas for you.....which is why there's a thriving private lesson culture here in the first place.....kids are looking for that word of advice, that new perspective,or guided practice diet to give them just that tiny extra bleeding edge to push their chair placement just a little bit higher....and that's great business for people like me, hehe. Great podcast Dan....that was a nostalgic listen.

Hmmmm....East Texas has some of the strongest small schools in the state, and a few 5A/6A schools that aren't that particularly strong against their competition but might still be stronger than these smaller schools. It's difficult to gauge them against each other. Maybe something like this? 1. North Lamar 2. Tyler Lee 3. Whitesboro 4. Farmersville 5. Lindale 6. Lumberton 7. Huntsville 8. Mineola 9. Queen City 10. Atlanta

Spring missed Grand National Finals by 1 spot back in 2011. That was indeed a while ago now, but even just this year Spring placed 1st at Area F 6A Prelims, above North Shore and The Woodlands; who both made State Finals. The Wind Ensemble was also at Midwest this year. I think people are putting a lot of stock in what they know Spring is capable of and not as much in what they've actually been achieving lately. Also, Spring got 20th at State in 2014, Clements got 22nd. Langham didn't advance. Clements....they're less competitive than a lot of bands but have a tendency to really impress when they show up. They were 1st at Area E Prelims this year out of a 40 band lineup.

Your point on "It would not be good if we tried to push more than 8 hours a week" was interesting, because I've recently realized I agree...but not for the reason I'd like to. I found "The Leaguer" (UIL's monthly periodical) archive and was reading an article from.....some year...'95? '96?--it was really close to when they implemented the "8 hours per week during the schoolyear" rule.....they polled various school administrators from that time and found a solid majority of them wanted to axe the SMBC entirely, at least for the largest size classification (5A)....and I think it was due to the insane "hours arms race" a lot of the most competitive schools had gotten into during that era. I don't forsee the TEA's rules surrounding the 8 hour rule ever being relaxed in the forseeable future.....if a rule ever does change it will be at UIL's discretion and will apply mainly to summer. But even then, that's unlikely....especially when I'd say at least half of the schools in the largest size classifications have maxed out every aspect of all rules and some of them are chomping at the bit trying to find loopholes around them even today.

Top 3 are obvious. NB at 4th because they tied Churchill @ 6A Area D finals and have several years of Area finalist success. Stevens in 5th because of their 13th place finish at BOA Austin. For the remainder it's very close; much closer than the Top 5. But since O'Connor, Seguin and Judson have enjoyed many years of competitive success while Madison has risen only recently I put those 3 ahead of Madison (O'Connor @6th because of their high Area H prelims placement and they've been successful in both UIL and BOA including having some great breakout years, and Seguin @7th because they've consistently been more successful than Judson @ UIL). Smithson Valley may have beaten Madison at Area H, but only by a tiny bit, and Madison also went to BOA San Antonio and ranked well, even surpassing bands that I ranked ahead of it....so I didn't see much reason to place S.Valley above Madison. Other bands that almost made the list were Brandeis and Taft.

Interesting....5-10 are tough because of how close it was at Area H as well as BOA San Antonio, and different bands beat each other at different contests but not at others. 1. Reagan 2. Johnson 3. Churchill 4. New Braunfels 5. Stevens 6. O'Connor 7. Seguin 8. Judson 9. Madison 10. Smithson Valley

1. Flower Mound 2. Hebron 3. Marcus 4. Keller 5. LD Bell 6. Coppell 7. Duncanville 8. Richland 9. Berkner 10. Waxahachie 11. Haltom 12. Timber Creek 13. Wakeland 14. Aledo 15. Plano East 16. Wylie 17. Poteet 18. Mansfield 19. Keller Central 20. Birdville

1. The Woodlands 2. Spring 3. Clements 4. The Woodlands College Park 5. SFA 6. Cy Falls 7. Cy-Fair 8. Oak Ridge 9. Pearland 10. Brazoswood 11. Friendswood 12. North Shore 13. JET 14. Klein Oak 15. Langham Creek 16. Glenda Dawson 17. Clear Brook 18. Katy Seven Lakes 19. Katy Tompkins 20. Kingwood

Top 20 1. Cedar Park 2. Vandegrift 3. Round Rock 4. Leander 5. Bowie 6. Vista Ridge 7. Hendrickson 8. Cedar Ridge 9. Westlake 10. Dripping Springs 11. Rouse (especially if we're going by "today" vs. last season) 12. Pflugerville 13. Westwood 14. McNeil 15. Anderson 16. McCallum 17. Lehmann 18. Pflugerville Connally 19. Temple 20. Georgetown East View