aaron067

I won't share the recap, but I'll say that if you remove the content and design caption, Waxahachie jumps up to 2nd place behind Hebron. - The average of music captions creates the rankings of: Hebron, Keller, Waxahachie, Wylie, Carroll, Rockwall - Visual would have been Hebron, tie between Wylie and Waxahachie, and a tie between Keller, Carroll and Rockwall. That should give a slightly better sense of how bands might stack up at Area.

Yes, finals performance order at DMI is reverse order of prelims. The correct placements were communicated to some directors through the contest host. It's unfortunate for the students in the Wylie, Waxahachie, Carroll, and Keller bands, but I'm sure they'll ALL go out and perform their very best tonight regardless of any issues with announcements in prelims.

The announcement of 2nd and 3rd was not correct. Just fyi. The performance order is. So Hebron, Wylie, Waxahachie.

At least one of those bands you mentioned will be leaving after their prelims performance to go back to school and returning in time for the announcement of finalists.

From a BOA perspective, effect is often generated by execution. That's why the same bands are at the top of BOA and UIL. Plus, Visual Ensemble is looking at how the show is constructed and whether or not the vision of the designer/drill writer is showing through the performance. Again, that depends entirely on how well the band is performing the drill. So, if he's saying something isn't effective, then a band should look at why that might be the case. Maybe forms aren't locking into place, or marchers aren't hitting their dots, or maybe they just don't look the same. Visual clarity creates tons of points in all 3 visual captions. Same is true for music.

I imagine the most important aspect of the USBands contest at AT&T stadium is that it's at AT&T stadium and not that it's USBands. It's also an opportunity for top groups to explore a potential end of season contest in a dome that is local instead of always having to spend so much money and time traveling to San Antonio for 4-5 days for two back-to-back, massively competitive contests.

There were 14 bands originally, all of which would be performing in finals (top 7/bottom 7). Prior to the contest, one band communicated that they would not be performing in finals (top 7/bottom 6). At prelims awards, another group communicated that they would not be attending, and at that point there was no time to change anything (top 7/bottom 5).

It's 100% possible for schools within the same area to have different environmental factors affect the heat index and the wet bulb, in particular. For instance, Flower Mound is much closer to a lake than Hebron is, which means humidity will be higher and consequently the HI and WBGT will also be higher. If the temperature and general humidity put the readings close to the limit, Hebron might be able to go outside while FM is stuck rehearsing indoors at the same time time of the day. Also consider whether or not the band has easy access to shade for breaks at their practice field. That's another aspect of the new UIL recommendations thet can affect a band's ability to be outside for any length of time. It's important to be safe when dealing with high temperatures, but bands have been making it work for years without issues. To now put such strict limits on what we do is reactionary at best, unfortunately. The fact that bands are rehearsing as early as 5:30 in the morning or consistently finishing rehearsal at 9:30 at night to work around the restrictions makes it all that much worse on the students.

This is more common at smaller schools. In most competitive 5A/6A programs, the guard tech/instructor/director is a separate position from any band director role, but I'm sure there are larger programs out there that don't have the funds for a separate guard instructor.

It wouldn't let me edit, and I meant to add that all recordings in this room had some truly exceptional moments, and students and staff of each program should be *very* proud of the recording they put out.

Zone 2 order: was Coppell by majority rule Dawson Waxahachie The Woodlands Lake Travis

Vandegrift's music was one of the hardest books on the field this year. Period. Their dance team exhibits the same level of skill in dance that the best guards exhibit in equipment work. It's different, not lesser than. Props have exactly no place on any rubric in any competitive circuit. If a group chooses to use props and they're integrated into the design in an interactive manner, then that can contribute to design/ge points. Otherwise, they don't add or detract. Especially at UIL.

Unfortunately, this is only part of the score. The days of just having a Music caprion at UIL State are over (though Area still uses that). It actually functions much more like the BOA caption of the same name, which takes into account the construction of the arrangements (from an effect standpoint) and how well the band executes that. "You could really have more range of expression" is a comment heard on these tapes that just means "I want you to play louder here".

Fixed! Dang autocorrect.