brigantes

^I hope the band in question is not who I think it is. I know two of the directors from that program and I've never known this behavior to be their style. btw...Cy-Falls was at USSBA with Cy-Fair on the night of the Sam competition. And both bands were cheering for each other. Life's too short for negativity.

Wow...this is the second thread I've seen with some pit criticism. I don't get it. Our battery and pit get along great and hang out socially after games and competitions. My child is one of the battery captains, but has also played in the pit (marching and indoor). In fact, many of our percussion students transition back and forth between battery and pit during their four years. It is encouraged because it makes for a very well-rounded musicians. Contrary to popular stereotyping, at our school, the percussion students who have made region band have all marched battery....and the pit percussion students all do very physically demanding work and more than earn their PE credit. They are always the first to arrive and the last to leave when trucks are loaded which is really tough when buses roll in from an event at midnight or practice ends late in the evening and everyone has a big exam the next day. At every single practice, they move a massive amount of equipment to and from the practice field. Bottom line, a great show needs a great front ensemble. And because I'm a proud parent, I'll link our percussion section's performance at last year's "Drums at Falls". They won best percussion unit and best pit (and best tenor line I believe). (They also won best percussion unit at SHSU last year). Point is not to brag, but to point out that the best drumlines have a battery and pit who respect and value each other and who work well together. (Okay...point is also to brag a little...I admit it. ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv0t14hiFUQ...=1&index=24

I agree...be very proud of 7L's performance. It was wonderful. I remember settling in to watch finals and after seeing their performance thinking 'this is gonna be a good night for spectators and a tough night for competitors'.

Judge 4's scores were radically different (>4 places) from Judge 5's scores in 4 instances. Now...that is not saying Judge 4 was wrong and Judge 5 was right (or visa versa). But this is where more judges and tossing of high and low scores could be helpful.

I wish King Leo would have seen fit to quote my last paragraph as well as my first paragraph...for context. I do agree, no subjective scoring system is perfect, but there are ways to mitigate issues like disparity. (The 1 and the 8 was not the only remarkable gap.) Consistency should be the goal. It takes nothing away from the advancing bands to state this obvious fact. btw...I will say this. Subjective judging in band competitions has nothing on competitive cheer. Went down that road with my eldest daughter. I'll take band judging any day of the week. Bottom line...any of the ten finalists would have represented Area E well at State....and only the best wishes for those who were selected to do so. May they go to state and bring some glory home for us all in Area E.

Thanks for the link princess. Interesting. As a career number-cruncher, I am always amazed at the disparity between judges when I look a band scores....especially when I see a 1 and an 8.... or any gap of more than 2 places. Even more interesting is when you look at each judge's rankings individually and when prelim scores are compared to final scores. Elimination of statistical outliers could be greatly improved with more judges in each category and throwing away high and low scores/ranks....but I'm sure that's a dead horse. btw....I do think all four schools who earned a trip to State deserved it. We should wish ALL band programs success and accomplishment at all levels of competition. After all, in Cy-Fair's case, had two more schools received just one more 1 each at Regions, there would be 5 schools advancing to State from Area E rather than 4.

"I agree that area should be like regionals. There should be a bar set (albiet a bar thats really hard to achieve), and if you achieve it, you should go. The elephant in the room is that everyone knows that some bands leaving certain areas this year wouldn't have even made finals in others. Thats not "Fair" if your in a really hard area (like e ) The entire point of this thing is to promote excellence, not "excellenter". If a band is excellent, it shouldn't matter who is in their area." -------------------------- Yup...I hear ya. Here's a link to Fair's final performance in Area E. 5th place...sadly no trip to State for this solid performance. (Hopefully links are allowed) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jykiw26wYV0 Btw...I love the sentiment that a great performance far outshines a great result. Nothing could be more true.

This is what I can tell you about the Area E Finals....every single band was excellent! What a great night. I'm a Cy-Fair parent and I can tell you there is nothing worse that 5th place when 4 bands are moving on to State...lol! I did think our band had earned one of those spots, but I also commend the bands who were selected by the judges to progress. Clements was fantastic and I loved Langham's clever show. Very happy to see Creek and JV and so many other CFISD programs in the finals. All of the Katy programs were very strong. There were no slouches in this very elite top 10 group. Most of all, I'm proud of Cy-Fair band kids who gave Clements a 'standing' when they entered to perform at Finals and who screamed in support of their fellow CFISD schools (especially Creek and Woods). And they carried on the Fair tradition of crazy stand cheers ("tiki tiki ta ta") while waiting for judging results. (This cheer was something we had to explain to some of the parents from other schools sitting around us. I think no one disputes Cy-Fair is the wild and crazy Animal House of Area E. ) This is it for us...our youngest is a senior. It's been GRAND!