TexasStrangers

I think I saw Mineola going to this contest.

Oct 4th in Mineola. Looks like they have 25 bands competing.

It may already been out just not given out to the public yet. I have seen some competitions that get tweaked a week or two before if a band drops and then a band gets added because a spot gets opened up for some various reasons.

I expect this week or next you should start seeing some screenshots of the lineups for the first competition at the end of the month and maybe the first one in October.

It's the first week, like I said alot of shows you can't expect a full run yet. Most bands only did the first two movements and some only did 1.

Never heard of the Yellow Board. However, I'm almost certain that most of the band directors all know well ahead of time who is judging all the Non UIL Events and UIL Events and if they have judged before they probably have something that tells them how they judge and what they are looking for. I know there are some judges out there that have been doing it for a long time so I'm sure there is a playbook out there probably on them.

Spoke with a friend this afternoon and she told me she saw Mineola last night. From what she was saying it looks like the band is bigger then last year and they are well ahead of where they were last year.

Okay, I also for one don't want to hear the metronome but I understand why it's being used. It's the first week of the football season and some bands have only had the full band together for 2-3 weeks. Most bands last night probably only did movement 1 and/or 2. Also, you can image some of these kids marching are Freshman and probably nervous. Give bands a week or two and you will see the metronome's disappear.

I can't argue with you on that one. I think they could give Mineola/Redwater/Atlanta a threat this year. I think there is a chance they might go back to 4A next year.

Snapshots are basically the school district sending in a total roster count of everyone enrolled at the high school every year and then UIL taking that information and deciding on what the classification cutoffs are. So, if there is a new school that doesn't have a Senior or Junior Class it doesn't matter which is why you see several schools that are 4A's and will soon be 5A's once they have a students in all grade levels.

I think most Non UIL contests also do the Bottom 5 or 6 Perform in the Top Half of Finals and the Top 5 or 6 Perform in the end.

It's probably been done just not posted anywhere for people to see. So, if you draw a 1 does that mean you will perform 1st in Prelims at Area if you qualify where as China Spring would go last at 49?

Do you have a 4A Area C and 3A Area C draw?

I know for one, I am tired of trying to find where all the bands are going to compete at for each NON UIL Event which is usually 3-4 contests. Some of the band calendars are not updated and I noticed some have conflicting information. I thought maybe this could simply it where everyone knew where bands were going to be at. So, if you got a band or know of a band and where they are going each week drop it in the comments. For example Band - Sept 27 (insert contest), Oct 4th (insert contest) Oct 11th (insert contest) Oct 18th (insert contest)

I would love to see any 4A or 3A State Level band join this one especially you already have 3 4A state bands from last year Farmersville, North Lamar and PG and 3 3A state bands as well in Redwater, Winnsboro and Queen City.

Hopefully you can get that spot filled, looks like several good bands will be there. A good chance for a 3A/4A/5A band to join up.

I guess the drill. Yes, a good majority of schools probably are playing all of their songs but they are don't have all the drill down to put it on. I remember last year there were a few schools the first and second week that did nothing but stand in place and play.

I trying to remember so if I am wrong please correct. Isn't the Don Hanna the contest in Mesquite where most bands perform get a rating and leave. I think the last several years there were several bands that performed there and left to go play at another competition later that day.

Figured I would put my two cents in. It's okay to have predictions, we can all agree to disagree if we choose to do so. Yes, I'm sure most of us that are frequent visitors to this page have favorites for one reason or another. I think the problem that people don't understand is there are numerous bands in 4A that are good and potential state shows. However, until I see Celina get beat by a 4A at a competition it's hard to go against them because they are on another level. I think what some people don't understand is that in 4A there are probably 3-4 schools that you could argue could compete in 5A for a State Title. Just like in 3A there are probably 2 schools that could beat most 4A's at the State Level. Unfortunately in 4A Area C it is probably one of the toughest Area's to get out of especially with the realignment that took place last year. There is simply not enough spots for all the bands to advance to State so that leaves some bands on the outside looking in that in the past could of had a chance to make state. I think if all of us went to a musical judge training session we would all probably understand what separates "great" bands from "good" bands and understand that there is a huge gap between bands that are "Great" and bands that are "Good". To this day to be honest I still don't know the scoring difference between BOA and UIL. Yes it looks great on the field but do we all truly understand the scoring system and how some band's music is considered to be difficult and some bands with a good show have music that is not that difficult but it looks good. If you went to Area and watched all the Finals performances you could tell there was a huge difference in the schools that advanced to State. However, to the casual fan you don't see the little things which then lead to bigger things that prevented schools from getting where they wanted to go. Yes, we can all sit here and predict the usual suspects to make it to State because the odds say they probably will but it's a long way to go and everything is moved up a week this year due to state competition held the first week in November instead of the 2nd week like last year. The first several weeks most of the shows will be lucky to maybe have their 1st/2nd movement ready to play. Most schools don't have their shows fully ready until the last 2-3 weeks before Regionals and even then they are still tweaking it. I know Farmersville, North Lamar and PG and Pine Tree are all gonna battle in Mineola on Oct 4 in the Iron Horse Classic which I am leaning on going to that over the "Sounds of the Fall" in Princeton so I can get a preview.

It looks like Rivercrest, Tenaha, Valley Mills are all going to meet at the Mineola Iron Horse Classic.

I wish I can watch big schools too but for me there is too much going on at times and some of the schools go from end zone to end zone and I end up missing stuff. The smaller schools is more my style. I do try and see some big schools but for me sometimes less is more.

I don't know why schools like Commerce and Whitesboro go to this event when they could go somewhere else and compete with schools more on their level especially since scoring is completely different then UIL which is what their shows are geared for.

You probably won't see much until the first weekend of contests which is usually the last week in September. There are a few people who will upload a halftime show before then on Youtube typically. A lot of the good programs usually like to keep things close to the vest on stuff like that though.

Never been to the one in Aubrey, I thought about going myself but think I might go to the Sounds of the Fall in Princeton or the Iron Horse Classic in Mineola.

Exactly, most shows especially State shows are maybe 50-75% done by the time the Melissa contest kicks of. The week of the Melissa contest is when most bands start the competition season and then for the next 3-4 weeks go to other competitions where they add on or tweak what they have before Regionals. I was shocked as well about Canton not making it to State but with the previous realignment it made 4A Area C a gauntlet to try and make it out of there to State. I got a feeling a couple of schools are going to move up to 5A next year or quite possibly 1-2 or 2 schools get moved to Area B.