2019 Band Productions

[MarchingBandLife]

thanks for the update - we don't get much info on Carmel - how is Avon's show looking this year - Just asking for a friend 

From what I have heard, Avon is going to have an awesome show this year.

[LeanderMomma]

From what I have heard, Avon is going to have an awesome show this year.

Their uniforms/costumes this year are REALLY outstanding. I can’t wait to see Avon live again!

[Magma31651]

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2awvZpAUJB/?igshid=odlopwhmexwo

 

These new KC uniforms look really good. Can't wait for the season to start

[BlueCircle]

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2awvZpAUJB/?igshid=odlopwhmexwo

 

These new KC uniforms look really good. Can't wait for the season to start

They look great! I like how they look from far away too because the colors are very similar to traditional KC. Definitely prefer them to the firefly ones they did in 2016

[Dog885]

I've heard that Avon has shrunk in members by a lot

[jmartin1056]

I've heard that Avon has shrunk in members by a lot

On video they dont look much smaller than last year if they are at all. The guard also looks phenomenal. Seems to be the strongest start from them in many years if not ever. Super excited to see how the season plays out for them.

[Rubisco]

On video they dont look much smaller than last year if they are at all. The guard also looks phenomenal. Seems to be the strongest start from them in many years if not ever. Super excited to see how the season plays out for them.

 

Agreed. This is an unusually strong start from a usually fantastic program. I'm wondering if Avon took a page from Reagan's show from last year with all the Bach. They play many of the same pieces, including the Fugue in G Minor, but it's not as playfully arranged as it was in Reagan's book. I'm loving the Chaconne in D Minor in the opener. Probably the greatest piece of music ever written. The drill writing is superb. Beautiful to behold and thrilling (and rather baroque). Avon also sounds better than they usually do around this time of the year. Unlike Texas bands, which come out of the gate really hot musically, Avon tends to take some time to reach their "final form." (Probably this is because their drill is extremely challenging.) I suspect their "final form" this year will earn them another top 3 finish at Nationals, if not their 4th Eagle. Obviously, there are many potential champions I have yet to see anything from, like Hebron or TWHS, and the shows at this point in the season are all incomplete, so I don't want to prematurely call it, but Avon's show is the best of the ones I've seen so far.

[LeanderMomma]

Avon’s performance Saturday...

 

[LeanderMomma]

Agreed. This is an unusually strong start from a usually fantastic program. I'm wondering if Avon took a page from Reagan's show from last year with all the Bach. They play many of the same pieces, including the Fugue in G Minor, but it's not as playfully arranged as it was in Reagan's book. I'm loving the Chaconne in D Minor in the opener. Probably the greatest piece of music ever written. The drill writing is superb. Beautiful to behold and thrilling (and rather baroque). Avon also sounds better than they usually do around this time of the year. Unlike Texas bands, which come out of the gate really hot musically, Avon tends to take some time to reach their "final form." (Probably this is because their drill is extremely challenging.) I suspect their "final form" this year will earn them another top 3 finish at Nationals, if not their 4th Eagle. Obviously, there are many potential champions I have yet to see anything from, like Hebron or TWHS, and the shows at this point in the season are all incomplete, so I don't want to prematurely call it, but Avon's show is the best of the ones I've seen so far.

What makes it better? I’m always confused by this from the Indy bands. When I ask it in other forums I usually get jumped on, but I feel safer asking it here. What is it that makes it better than what CTJ and Leander are doing right now? I’m trying so hard to learn what to look for this season so I can better understand what the judges are looking for when I am watching a competition. Is it a style that just resonates better in Indy? That classical style? Do they prefer the classics over contemporary? Is classical music more difficult to march to? More lovely to listen to in the judges minds? I really want to understand it all better!

[BlueCircle]

What makes it better? I’m always confused by this from the Indy bands. When I ask it in other forums I usually get jumped on, but I feel safer asking it here. What is it that makes it better than what CTJ and Leander are doing right now? I’m trying so hard to learn what to look for this season so I can better understand what the judges are looking for when I am watching a competition. Is it a style that just resonates better in Indy? That classical style? Do they prefer the classics over contemporary? Is classical music more difficult to march to? More lovely to listen to in the judges minds? I really want to understand it all better!

I think a lot of the reason why Carmel and Avon are consistently at the top comes down to more rehearsal time. No matter how good Texas bands get at managing their time, more rehearsal time always will give out of Texas band an advantage. And I think it’s most apparent in color guard. Middle school color guard is not exactly commonplace, so a restriction on rehearsal time really affects how ambitious guards can be because so much of basics learning happens in high school.

[FaultLineBlues]

I went to the Cedar Ridge v Vandegrift on Friday and got to see Vandy's show. Some crazy good sounds coming out of that band. I'm always impressed by the absurd amount of sound they can pump out, but I imagine having a band as massive as they do helps. Their ballad has a KILLER trombone soloist, definitely look out for him at BoA Austin. I also noticed that they were performing without Shakos. Likely just because it was a football game, but it seemed a little odd since it looked like they had the rest of their uniforms on. Didn't get to see Cedar Ridge since they had their senior night, but I've seen them plenty before this, and they're doing great things as usual.

[Warehouse314]

Interesting.... my son and I was there on the 50 and watched them live. We said the Eagle was flying to Texas this year after their show. Lots of long notes and another soloist, but the sound was not what we expected after an earlier class B smaller band actually surprised us more with their sound. Its all early with plenty of time to clean and change for everyone. Carmel's score was a 69.0 tonight, 10+ over 2nd.

I was actually thinking just the opposite of that... I was at Brownsburg last night as well and I thought this was the best Carmel has sounded, this early in the season, since 2012 (Oh What a Tangled Web).

 

Either way, I imagine that Avon and Carmel will be right there towards the top once Grand Nats rolls around. I also thought Brownsburg has the makings of a really good show... I could see them making it into Semi-finals this year.

[AvonDad]

What makes it better? I’m always confused by this from the Indy bands. When I ask it in other forums I usually get jumped on, but I feel safer asking it here. What is it that makes it better than what CTJ and Leander are doing right now? I’m trying so hard to learn what to look for this season so I can better understand what the judges are looking for when I am watching a competition. Is it a style that just resonates better in Indy? That classical style? Do they prefer the classics over contemporary? Is classical music more difficult to march to? More lovely to listen to in the judges minds? I really want to understand it all better!

 

 

I think a lot of the reason why Carmel and Avon are consistently at the top comes down to more rehearsal time. No matter how good Texas bands get at managing their time, more rehearsal time always will give out of Texas band an advantage. And I think it’s most apparent in color guard. Middle school color guard is not exactly commonplace, so a restriction on rehearsal time really affects how ambitious guards can be because so much of basics learning happens in high school.

 

I thought Texas bands generally started their music in May if not earlier for the fall season.  It seems that I saw quite a few YT videos of show themes and opening songs?  I think our kids started getting music mid June then added to it throughout the rest of the season when my kids were in band.  I know we don't have your 8 hour rule and they don't have to wait until Aug to start drill, but I thought Tx was ahead with music.   They do start our kids early with the cadet guard in middle school as does Carmel, then the A guard before the World guard to gain experience.  Texas bands seem to be bigger than the Indiana ones and provide a powerful sound.

[AvonDad]

I was actually thinking just the opposite of that... I was at Brownsburg last night as well and I thought this was the best Carmel has sounded, this early in the season, since 2012 (Oh What a Tangled Web).

 

Either way, I imagine that Avon and Carmel will be right there towards the top once Grand Nats rolls around. I also thought Brownsburg has the makings of a really good show... I could see them making it into Semi-finals this year.

Their drum line definitely was better than they have been in the past.  I really liked the 2012 show with the amazing flute soloist and how it all flowed together.  Last night didn't "grab me" as others have, but it usually takes a couple of shows for me to really get into one.  We were just blown away with Northview's unexpected sound I guess that I was waiting for Carmel to give it with all their horns.  They do have great low brass support with 18(?) tubas that fill out the chords behind the soloist.  Beginning of the season so most shows are still a work in progress.  I like seeing the early versions and comparing them to the finals to see how everyone grew throughout the season.  I can see Brownsburg and Plainfield making semis this year.

[LeanderMomma]

i do wish our guards could begin learning the basics earlier like they do in California and Indiana. Leander has come a long way in just three weeks time, but they could be so much further along if the basics were learned in MS along with more dance technique.

[bandtingz]

i do wish our guards could begin learning the basics earlier like they do in California and Indiana. Leander has come a long way in just three weeks time, but they could be so much further along if the basics were learned in MS along with more dance technique.

There are a few middle school guards in the state, but not a ton. Cedar Park MS is the only middle school with a color guard in Leander ISD. The program isn't that big on cost from what I know and would be very affordable for other LISD schools. Very odd.

[MarchingBandLife]

I went to the Cedar Ridge v Vandegrift on Friday and got to see Vandy's show. Some crazy good sounds coming out of that band. I'm always impressed by the absurd amount of sound they can pump out, but I imagine having a band as massive as they do helps. Their ballad has a KILLER trombone soloist, definitely look out for him at BoA Austin. I also noticed that they were performing without Shakos. Likely just because it was a football game, but it seemed a little odd since it looked like they had the rest of their uniforms on. Didn't get to see Cedar Ridge since they had their senior night, but I've seen them plenty before this, and they're doing great things as usual.

Heard that they’re still working on getting uniforms ready for this season

[Rubisco]

What makes it better? I’m always confused by this from the Indy bands. What is it that makes it better than what CTJ and Leander are doing right now?

 

I don't want to give the impression that I know how the scores are going to play out at the end of the season. It's still way too early. All of my opinions are based on video snippets of incomplete shows. I'd be delusional if I said I knew for sure who was going to beat whom at the end of the season. That's also why I (generally) try not to give placement predictions until we're halfway through the season, or, more recently, at the very end of it. And even then, there will be differences of opinion.

 

Early-season Avon impresses me this year for a few reasons. The one that stuck out right away was how much better they sounded than usual. That's not to say they sounded amazing. I think there are lots of TX groups right now that sound better, including CTJ and Leander. But knowing how Avon cleans up their music performance, I can see it being really excellent by the end of the season. Mostly, I prefer Avon's show for content reasons. In fact, at this early stage, that's really what people who want to make predictions should be looking at, since performances will get better and better as the season progresses.

 

So what "content"? A lot of what excites me about a band's show is listed right on the GE sheets that BOA's judges use. I like shows that have a strong sense of narrative flow. Do the music and visual evolve naturally, or is it some confused mishmash that doesn't make any sense? (And if it's a confused mishmash, is it done deliberately to fit in with a theme?) I like to borrow a word from the study of rhetoric: architectonic. A piece of writing's architectonic structure is the overall design of the writing (like architecture), but also how it moves from one idea to the next. In English class, your teacher might have given you a lesson on paragraphs and said something like, "If you could peel your essay off of the page, it should stick together and not fall apart." I feel the exact same way about marching band arrangements. It takes so much more skill to put out a product that holds together, and one that has a strong sense of theme and purpose.

 

Beyond flow, I love hearing and seeing creative things that I've never seen before. Creativity is kind of tricky in the marching arts, because some people have a lot more experience watching shows than others, so something that may seem fresh to one observer won't seem so fresh to a more experienced observer. Certainly, when I was a freshman in high school, I can remember loving a show about hurricanes, for example, with all that neat rotation in the drill. By 12th grade, I might have realized, "Oh, we see this sort of weather show every single year, and it no longer impresses me as much." BOA judges are experienced observers. They know when something sounds or looks familiar. They know when some drill move has been done a thousand times before, or if something is really different (or different enough, anyway). Related to creativity, I love it when a band uses a wide-range of effects and emotions and really sells these effects with their confidence and energy, without going overboard and losing control. This also ties into flow. Take me on an emotional journey.

 

What I really like about Avon's "content" relative to the TX groups I've seen is mostly visual. (This is where they usually have an advantage anyway.) The single most important thing a visual program can do is enhance the music. It should not only fit the music like a glove, but also somehow make the music even more interesting than it already is. Part of that is by having a drill writer with really original ideas, somebody who knows what has been done in the past and can subvert our expectations based on his or her deep knowledge of the past. Avon has a distinct visual style, but Hinshaw manages to keep the drill interesting year after year. I also personally like drill that excites with its difficulty and complexity, with the caveat that it never loses focus and has too much going on at once. This is a tricky thing to balance, but I think Avon usually does it well. Something I've realized is how much I also like the sheer beauty of a well-designed visual program. This goes beyond using pretty, colorful flags or whatever. It's more like, if you could stop time at this visual moment and take a picture, could you frame the photograph and hang it in your living room? Some drill forms are just so nice to look at -- perfectly balanced with the band and the props and the color guard, a sort of refined filigree made out of people and objects and flags. I don't know if anything in Avon's show this year quite approaches that level of beauty, but I think they're closer to it than the others.

[DeepEllum]

Rubisco, I always have to admire your commentary. Thank you for all of your wonderful insight—I always feel like I learn something every time I read your posts.

[LeanderMomma]

Thank you so much for that very in-depth and hugely helpful explanation. Now when I watch and listen, I will have much more to look for! You are always such a wealth of good information and I always highly value your input.

[justabandkid94]

That was iconic

[Rubisco]

Awww, that's very sweet from all of you. Thanks!

 

I'm just looking at my previous posts now and chuckling. Did I really just refer to Avon's "final form"? It's like they're one of those characters from Dragon Ball Z -- Frieza or Cell or whoever.

 

"It's over 9000!!!!"

 

[Rubisco]

Well, that attempt to include a YouTube video failed. Oh, well!

[LeanderMomma]

Well, that attempt to include a YouTube video failed. Oh, well!

There’s definitely a trick to including YouTube links here.

[LeanderMomma]

That was iconic

He’s pretty cool for an old guy.

 

(Love you Rubisco!)