vincentlee1220

Started working on a site for vista ridge inspired by the LD Bell one (www.dfife.com) https://www.vincent-lee.net/vrhsband/ All the major things are covered but there's a lot of smaller contest results and unfortunately a lot of video missing too. YouTube's compression has also not been very kind to these older videos -- those 2007 and 2008 look suspiciously crustier than I remember them being.

If you're brass/percussion/guard, you can see if there's a DCA corps near you (or learn one of the aforementioned instruments if you're a woodwind). Otherwise, I'm not sure there's anything else besides convincing a school to take you on as staff. Some positions might not need a music degree -- I know an old classmate of mine was the cymbal tech at vista ridge for a quite a bit after she graduated.

This has been something that's been on my mind for a while, and I don't closely follow band anymore, but a comment thread on a video of Vista Ridge 2023 at LISD Festival of Bands got me ready to type :P. I've observed a recent(-ish?) trend among band programs to "hide" their in-progress shows over the course of the season, only starting to show them once the competitive season gets into the groove and it's impossible to stop people from taking videos at UIL Region/Area/State. I do understand some of the common concerns: Copyrighted music Rough early-season runs may deflate "hype" or negatively affect the opinion of prospective judges that watch them A desire to present only one's "best self" But I do miss seeing week-to-week progress and think it's a loss. Back when I was at VR (2011-2014), we uploaded public videos every single week after each football game (sometimes on the night of! I'd stay up til like 2 AM refreshing YouTube for the video). I also don't buy the common concerns: Most marching band music is either out of copyright, or falls under fair use. Unless the arrangers and drill writers don't want them posted, but they usually wind up being posted at the end of the season anyways so ?? Realistically, no adjudicator with credentials has the time or attention to spend creeping on programs on YouTube. A problem with our modern society (social media, etc.) is that we're too eager to only present our best, polished, often edited self, without reflecting or showing the hard work that led to that point. It's a delightful trip down memory lane for me to look at janky old videos of the shows I marched in (Including one football game where I started the show 10 yards away from where I should've -- miraculously made it back on track somehow). Seeing an awful visual moment just slowly iron itself out over the season (closer diamond set in vista ridge 2013 Scheherazade comes to mind) brings back lots of good memories of working hard for something and getting it just right. I do know that students probably get shown week-to-week videos privately, but they lose access them rather quickly unless they make their own copy. Thoughts? Is this a recent trend? Did it come from DCI? (probably) I know some other schools did it even when I was in high school, but I was happy we didn't.

As an alumnus, would love to see high quality videos of Vista Ridge 2003-2010. 2007, 2008, and 2010 exist on YouTube in varying qualities, but the earlier years don't. I'd love to make a "fan site" for my school like the Bell one above.

it's on the MFA website https://marching.musicforall.org/boaresults/

Not having full retreat is a travesty.

Second this idea. UIL's website has been terrible for unearthing old results. I imagine we'll have quite a bit of work cut out for us if we want a complete archive, but I'm very interested in contributing what little I know. I agree, I think a good place to begin is simply a Google Drive with folders by-contest. Within each contest we can subdivide further by class, if necessary, then people can upload results or full recap pdfs (images if no pdf's can be found) that they have. If I remember, I'll actually get started on this soon.

Super proud alum of vista ridge. Wasn't really a big fan of the design this year but the level of execution has been nuts, not to mention they're literally writing program history. Congrats all and best of luck in finals!

same here

Go LISD! Haven't really kept up with anyone this season but glad to see everyone still crushing it.

When was the last time a school district in Texas held both top class state titles and the Eagle all at the same time? (I'm guessing never). Leander ISD really is the place to be for marching band right now, wow. Congrats Vandegrift and go LISD band!

Hi all, Wondering if anyone has high(er) quality videos of the following shows - I try to keep an updated archive of videos from my alma mater and I'm missing a few: Vista Ridge 2014 (SA Finals) - This was my senior year, and the very first time vista made SA finals, so it's special to me. For some reason I've lost track of the youtube link I had for it (but it wasn't a very good link anyways). This one is the one I'm mainly looking for Vista Ridge 2016 (State prelims) - The high cam on youtube of SA prelims is a bit too zoomed out, and it's also not their last performance, which was at state prelims Vista Ridge 2017 (SA prelims) - Only run I can find on youtube is the SA sendoff run Vista Ridge 2003-2009 (state finals for 2007, state prelims for 2008, whatever you have for the rest): kind of a shot in the dark, but if you have any videos from the prehistoric past of vista ridge I'd love to see them. I've seen a fuzzy 2007 state finals run, 2008 region run, and 2009 SA prelims run, but something higher quality + the other years would be great. Hi-cam preferred, but I'll definitely take multicam too. PM me if links are "too sensitive", and I'll cross out whatever I've gotten. Thanks in advance!

wow, I wish I could hear some of these tapes. this is like the time a judge exclaimed "holy brass" at our first hit at 2013 Area D finals, but at a whole 'nother level.

Not to mention that the Areas are definitely not evenly balanced with each other (for better or worse). Results at Area have little bearing on state in light of this fact, since the Area champion may be competing with bands at state they haven't even competed with all season. In a weaker area, taking the championship can definitely result in a finish in the middle of state prelims, and that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Ordinals are up:

I wish UIL would announce full placements, it's kind of pointless to have a full retreat for medalists only

Speaking of the announcer, they started the announcement for vista super late for some reason. thankfully it worked out finishing before the first big hit

yup, it was fine for all of the second block thus far then decided to start stuttering for vista ridge

Is the stream still down?

should we be posting the recaps in public like this before finals is over?

it's a new panel

omg vista ridge in contention for a medal among the giants of the state, this is something I could never have imagined in my years there, but never doubted they could achieve. I'm a very proud alum and can't wait to see their last performance tomorrow.

I would disagree that it's the same groups year after year; success isn't guaranteed to any band, even the top groups. It's a combination of staff dedication, design team vision, parent support, and of course student work that ultimately makes a good show and season. Any band with these can find themselves at the top (unfortunately, many of these are correlated with funding, but that's another topic). Case in point, if someone had told me in 2011-2014 that Vista Ridge is now contending for a top 5 spot at 6A state finals I wouldn't have believed them.

From Vandegrift's facebook page, the performance order is: Stevens, Lake Travis, Brandeis, Westlake, Leander, Vandegrift, Vista Ridge

I'm so proud of vista ridge. We've really come a long, long way since I was a freshman there.