whitewing09

I thought this would be a fun exercise: pick a band and name what makes them special. It can be design choices, section sound, section phrasing/technique, visual book. I’ll start with a throwback. Cedar Park 2016: their edge was the purest chords I’ve ever heard.

Title is self-explanatory. Obsessed with this ballad. Anyone know where it’s sourced from?

Very much this. I think it also goes beyond scored sheets, but also just culture around performing arts. I have a vague recollection that at one point many years ago on this forum, some made contrasts in how Texas bands sound vs other states. Something to the tune of Texas bands focusing on timbre, tone quality, ensemble balance, whereas many non-Texas bands focus on phrasing and technical precision. Nowadays I think top bands are playing at such a level of execution that the differences aren’t as stark, but last Saturday I did find myself saying, “wow I think this Vandegrift show would score better at nats than San Antonio,” before placements were even announced. And I find it telling that only time Avon has placed below 3rd in the past decade was when they came to Texas regional (obvi more factors at play too). I also find it funny that for years there’s been a running joke that BOA judges hear with their eyes because of the perceived higher correlation between visual demand and MGE scores than musical demand and MGE scores. I think that analysis would be a fun data project to take on 😂

Can someone explain to me why cedar park music scores seem deflated? They (18.60) were .35 away from both bridgeland (18.25) and tarpon springs (18.95). Id assume execution wise they play a level closer to tarpon who was another .35 from the next band. is it a musical demand issue? A design issue?

Really wanna see Rouse at nats soon!

Does this mean flower mound and Marcus are due next year?

Very much enjoying watching the livestream for this! Have a lot of notes, but will share only the spiciest takes. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but this seems to be the first time since 2014 that the top three weren’t all medalists in prelims. Love the unpredictability. This year was such a good one for show design. A lot of bands putting out shows a wide range of shows. it was honestly so hard to guess placements each band performs at such a high level, each with their own flairs. A lot of musical flexing in these shows! Very exciting. FloMo’s show is a GE bomb and they execute it so well. With all the colors, it evoked memories of Pop! Really really loved pearland’s show. I think it’s my favorite take on themes from Respighi. overall they’ve really glowed up in the past few years. I feel like Rouse is the new Marian Catholic in some ways? Their ensemble size seems relatively small, but their musicality and movement are -chefs kiss- I hope that we see them at Indy soon. It’s so cool to see new bands in finals!

This is why there are always conspiracy theories. I agree the sentiment that Hebron was far behind in visual performance and GE, which cost them, but Hebron really pushes the envelope with its music book—it has the wow factor x10–it’s hard to understand how they could get one-pointed in music ge.

I totally get Hebron not winning because this scenario seems so reminiscent of 2015 when Hebron brought an immaculate musical book and execution with a… not winning visual, but I’m gonna need to see where that 2 pts came from this year.

I felt like the 6A finals feed was much better than the prelims feed

The musical demand of that show is intimidating!

Someone once told me that BOA judges hear with their eyes. I get the joke now.

Which judging format are they using for state?

These new rubrics make for such interesting results! CP basically won on percussion, content, and visual!

If any has finals videos… sharing is caring! Would love to watch a high res version of CPs performance