natertater21000

Rouse is also primed to make their first trip, though I doubt it’ll be next year with 5A state taking place after SA. they won’t be 5A for long though 👀

Poor wording on my part. Everything being considered equally is more what I meant by saying “leveling the playing field”. As for the DCI comparison I agree, although I wish GE was 40 and not 60 to better match DCI.

Okay, Long-ish post incoming. I have a lot of different thoughts and feelings about this subject, and they have only expanded as I have progressed in my time as both a student and music educator. In Texas, tone (and by proximity intonation) is king. This is a direct result of an advantage Texas has that I would imagine most people don't consider. The average beginner band experience in Texas involves a homogeneous (everyone is playing the same instrument) class every day of the school week, and this is not something that can be said for a lot of the continental United States. There are lots of places that have homogeneous classes that only meet every other day, or they see their students everyday but it is some form of a combined class (all woodwinds, all brass, or everyone all at once). In situations like this, it is virtually impossible to devote a large amount of time to developing a characteristic and mature tone. Playing more notes so the class can learn more music together becomes the main goal. BOA, as it's name sake would suggest, is trying its best to put forth a rubric that can fairly judge students who have had wildly different musical journeys from all across America fairly. For the most part I think they have done an excellent job, though I do think the GE panels need to be doubled as currently I think one GE judge holds too much ability to tank/raise a band's score. TL:DR If you think Texas bands sound better, you're correct. But BOA has designed it's sheets to help level the playing field for places that do not have the systems or resources that we are lucky to have in Texas. For clarification I am not saying this is true for every non Texas band. Plenty of out of state schools allow for homogeneous classes, and play with great tone and intonation (even though Texas is still the best at it 😉).

Speaking of "not so little" I was trying to count and see if Tarpon may have even had more winds on the field than Leander tonight. Leander may have fielded the smallest band in finals.

It wouldn’t be a Leander finals run without a technology issue, but the kids took it in stride as they always do! SO happy for the students! It is a privilege to know when your last performance is, and they ROCKED it 😎

They have 4 each not counting spares. white for mvt 1, yellow/orange for mvt 2, heart shaped pink/red for mvt 3, and blue for mvt. 4. Each person wears a different previous color in mvt 5.

short answer: At Area occasionaly yes, at State no.

No, I would have argued the exact opposite with the old UIL sheets but these are much better. The BOA sheets putting GE as 60% and giving three judges full unaveraged say on 20% of a bands score is something I have never liked much. Leander this year is a good example as to why, 10th in music, 14th in visual, but that 28th in vis GE dashed any hope of a finals appearance. I actually think that TMC and state marching have the better sheets at the moment. I think if BOA added three more GE judges and averaged the scores for each sub caption (maybe at supers and nats only?) that could help.

There is no one who plays with better tone than Vista Ridge.

Yeah that would be only the second time ever that a band made SA finals and then missed GN finals. I really don’t see that happening.

Not sure, tarp related if I had to guess.

Am I missing something here? bowie after a .6 penalty is an 87.25. Adding .6 is 87.85, Leander was an 88.3. Leander was first out either way.

Bias is not a prevalent factor, let’s not diminish others.

Henry middle school band. If you haven’t listened to them, I highly recommend it.

Yeah, we should probably try to make sure a moderator is watching forums during big events in the future.