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FEDude

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Everything posted by FEDude

  1. FEDude
    Very happy for Harlan here. Only the seniors would know me from their time in the Taft Front Ensemble. I was pretty harsh as a section leader, but I was impressed with the group's growth over that first season. I'm very happy to hear how good they've gotten in a couple years. I'm excited to see if an SA band (I'm praying Harlan) can make it into state. I'd be there, but Judson is a bit farther than I'd like to drive.
  2. FEDude
    You're right, legendary shows aren't made until BOA SA/State/Gnats. When was the last season with more than 1 super legendary show revered the same as FM '16? I think 2015. But it's rare to have a show so good.
  3. FEDude
    I'll admit, I'm biased toward Reagan because of the friends I've made from there and their rich band history has my favorite shows. It's an all around strong show. I'm not a fortune teller, so I can't actually say they'd be 1st, it's a hypothetical prediction. Not even a super controversial one either. If they were going, we'd totally be discussing a potential Reagan victory in the same way we're discussing Avon or Hebron right now. I predicted Reagan 1st at SA last year and was obviously wrong. I think they'll be very dominant at SA. I could be wrong too.
  4. FEDude
    Dang, everybody wants the last word as if that makes them any more right. I agree, if Reagan would go, they'd dominate at nats. Get the eagle. I think they're due to attend next year. I'm hoping for a Harvey Fully Loaded show. You can't deny it'd be the funnest show ever.
  5. FEDude
    Very proud of the Taft percussion for getting 2nd in that caption. I haven't seen the show for about 2 weeks now, but I assume it's starting to come together in that closer now. I have a really good feeling for Taft at BOA SA. Perhaps they might even break into the top 40.
  6. FEDude
    Reagan 2003-2005 is the main reason I became so obsessed with band in high school. I theorize that if LD Bell or Reagan had gone to grand nats in 04, Texas would have 5 eagles.
  7. FEDude
    It's funny to me that as a freshman, the only thing you want is competitions every weekend. Then, by your senior year, a weekend of nothing is a gift from God. I can only imagine this is true times 50 for band parents.
  8. FEDude
    That's what I'm saying! I didn't get a chance to see the show, but if the closer was as messy as the recording I saw from a week ago, it doesn't surprise me that they didn't make it. That's part of why I never predicted them higher than 9th or 10th. Very fun show though. The music and visuals are so fun!
  9. FEDude
    Oh well, that sucks for Taft. Hopefully they use this as motivation moving toward BOA SA. Really exciting lineup though! It'll be awesome to see who comes on top between Weiss, DS, and LT. Also congrats to Brandeis on the percussion win. Most consistent line in NISD!
  10. FEDude
    I'm really impressed with Taft this year. Something that has been holding NISD bands back for a while is that they don't implement their props in an effective way. Props are a backdrop and nothing else. They also don't bring it so much in the visual package. Taft is really starting to improve in that aspect. Though 100% the doors should be red. It's just a fun show to watch as well. The closer was quite messy from the recording I saw, but they'll clean it nicely I'm sure. Still not predicting them higher than 10th, but this is their best show since 2015.
  11. FEDude
    Mics on soloists (especially woodwinds) is a necessity. I'd assume mics on the whole band won't mask a bad sound or weak players. I like what Richard Saucedo said once, that the best bands have a good dynamic range and that Loud =/= Forte. It's all relative.
  12. FEDude
    It was directed at a post that has since been deleted. I meant to delete this one as well, but couldn't figure out how (stupid mobile browser). Not gonna say who the poster was. Don't recommend they come forward either. You can gather more or less what the post said from my response.
  13. FEDude
    I did get a chance to see the BYU Philharmonic do Scheherazade a year and a half or so back. They're quite talented. As much as I loved the school, I decided not to fork over 150 on a ROC pass so I never got to see the marching band.
  14. FEDude
    Sincerely, for your sake, I'd be careful about directly calling out your band director and comparing them to a past one. They don't tend to like that too much. Negativity on social media or forums about ones own program directly undermines your own director and is normally nipped in the bud immediately. Being a section leader is also a cool thing to bring up in college interviews so don't throw that opportunity away. Now if you wanna help change the culture of the band, that requires a very courageous conversation with the director.
  15. FEDude
    ^currently-ish attending the same school (it's complicated at the moment). I really wanted to do music up until halfway through my junior year when I found out I really wanted to be a lawyer. I finished a year in the civil engineering program and started my mission. Thanks to soccer, I'm here briefly before finishing my mission.
  16. FEDude
    When I was 14, I asked someone from Austin what the most dangerous part of the city was. She swore it was Westlake. I went on believing her for 3 years. Then my sister moved to Austin and I asked her about Westlake. She started laughing at me and said it's a relatively nice part of town.
  17. FEDude
    Another factor in success is Middle School bands. I hated being in band in middle school, but I loved loved loved it in high school.
  18. FEDude
    Nobody doubts the hard work and individual talent that goes into producing a memorable show. It would be interesting to see a spreadsheet of every band participating in BOA SA and the income. It's mostly public knowledge. It would give me something to do while I wait to go back to Peru.
  19. FEDude
    That was really interesting. I didn't know Stoneman Douglass was a top band either. I'd wanna see the list for all the SA bands. It should be public info so it would only take an hour. An interesting subject to study and an angle I never considered my senior year.
  20. FEDude
    Of course, the programs that have success and don't have the funds are inspirational. And of course not all who are part of an award winning program are trillionaires.
  21. FEDude
    Money deciding a band's success. As much as I don't want to believe it, it's largely true. A lot of bands will talk about community support and hard work in their fundraising. They work hard, and nobody doubts that. There is no doubting, however, that the "top groups" are from the nicer neighborhoods in their cities. Of course there are exceptions, and boy do people love to talk about those suddenly whenever this topic gets brought up. If anyone wants to talk about it, my senior year, I did a big project on why the infrastructure and drainage systems in San Antonio are bad everywhere minus the Northside and how that contributes to the very serious segregation problem in San Antonio.
  22. FEDude
    Congrats to Brandeis! Especially on that guard victory. I expected Warren to take guard and Brandeis to take percussion, but it's awesome to see each school's respective caption winners got that recognition. NISD sweeps feel good.
  23. FEDude
    Anything is possible. I saw Hanna there on the list too. They could possibly be in the top 3 or 4 as well. Warren has a powerful percussion section and an inspiring color guard. Of course, they lost their percussion director (but seem to keep doing great with their new one). USBands looks at both of those captions pretty closely.
  24. FEDude
    I remember this comp from my freshman year. Hendrickson blew my mind and then Johnson came with Enigmatic and I learned how deep Texas talent can run. I think top 3 will be 1. Alexander 2. Warren 3. Madison After that, I don't know the programs competing enough to predict where they'd place.
  25. FEDude
    When I was in HS I'd anonymously read the boards but never participate. I know there are plenty of others. I'd assume a large part of the cause is that most band programs have their kids on strict lockdown when it comes to social media. Even saying one program will beat another in a competition is seen as hating on the group in the eyes of some directors. At Taft, if you were seen as being negative too many times, they'd just go ahead and kick you out of band. I don't blame them honestly, the good name of the band is more important than any one individual, no matter how talented. There are plenty of band directors on here, and I'd be scared of accidentally crossing the line. I know if I saw anyone currently attending Taft crossing the line, I'd send a screen shot to one of the band directors I'm Facebook friends with so they could deal with it. Side note: I haven't seen any high schoolers be mean on the boards for a while. In fact, it's been a lot of band parents, which I assume the directors can't do much about.
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