LKendrick

I'm personally not associated with any of these schools, not even remotely from that area. But saying that Cypress Falls show is easy? That's pretty ridiculous, we don't have to go after another program to support our own!

I've watched a lot of these shows multiple times, and seriously? Annoyingly easy? It is nothing of the sort, they've struck a fantastic balance between what the band can achieve and what they can't. Nothing is more annoying to me than someone saying that someone should have done better because their show is harder. Ok, but is it clean enough for that difficulty to be given credit to the extent it overcomes another bands cleanliness or is it over a bands heads? Difficulty means absolutely NOTHING AT ALL if it isn't achieved to a high level, otherwise it's just dirty and hard for the sake of being hard. Is it not hard because there's not fast runs all over the place and the drill isn't 200bpm the whole time? The more I get into college the more my perception of what is truly hard is changing, drastically. CY Falls show is not easy. Is it the hardest show out there? No. It's not. But, it is built around a fantastic brass section and a pretty stunning color guard. The woodwinds have some great exposed moments, and the percussion is pretty solid as well. In UIL, clean is king, and CY Falls has the potential to be super polished. CY Falls has a fantastic ensemble sound, clear and consistent marching technique, and they march as an ensemble well. In UIL, that will get you pretty dang far. Not to mention their show is pretty stunning in a GE aspect as well, the field presence in their opening hit paired with the color guard spinning their metal equipment glimmering in the stadium lights......oozes effect. The ballad is absolutely beautiful. Let me put it this way, if you have two bands, one with a super hard show with some major dirt moments, and a show that's a little easier, better tailored to the ensemble's assets that is much cleaner, isn't it pretty obvious who wins?

Not concerning Texas Bands, but Broken Arrow looked pretty incredible on the St. Louis Webcast. Didn't they pick up a lot of LD Bell staff members recently? I feel like I can DEFINITELY see the influence in their show this year and the past 2 or so years as well. Disturbingly awesome tapestries that they utilize in a very uncomfortably good way. They're coming to play after 2012, I was shocked in a Reagan 2005, LD Bell 2006 kind of way they didn't win that year. Their brass was jaw dropping for a high school last year, and they're ramping it up another level this year, and the color guard is as breath taking as always. This show has Eagle written all over it, though we'll see. Back to Texas bands, I'm excited to see what Flo Mo has been up to, LOVE their show after the Denton regional, can't wait to see what they have done and still have to do with it, it's pretty breath taking musically and will look amazing visually with those uniforms and color palette once it has cleaned up. I think they can definitely make finals. Wakeland's really pushing as well, could definitely see them in the fight.

I would assume that's why they did the zoning thing, as I stated on another thread. It's like 600 miles from El Paso to Ft. Worth and 400 Miles from the top of the Panhandle to Midland. In a sense the theoretical areas you just listed are basically what they're doing, they're all still under Area A, but each has their own contest. I like the idea of sending a minimum of 2 from each, would give the Ft. Worth Area, for example, a chance to send more than 1 very deserving band, same with El Paso.

I agree, I thought Area A was fine until they did the zoning thing last year. The El Paso bands + the Keller bands was a good mix which always advanced bands from both Regions and the 4A contest was always very competitive, both years I was in high school 2 bands from Ft. Worth/Keller, 1 El Paso band, and 1 Lubock band always advanced, so it's not like there wasn't enough representation from each Region at State. I guess regardless of how or when you realign someone always gets screwed and someone always gets a better shot.

And in 4A, they just do it like they always have. Which I don't understand. So 3 are advancing. If I had to pick 3 they'd be Lubbock Cooper, Wylie, and Big Spring.

Central Zone, (Regions 1, 16, 6), East Zone (Region 2), and West Zone (Region 22). Central Zone contest has 10 bands that made 1s, if all of them attend, so 2 will advance. I think San Angelo Central's a lock and Frenship or Midland will be the 2nd. West Zone has 6 or 7 so only 1 will advance. My money's on Americas, maybe Coronado. East Zone has 8 bands, so only 1 will advance.....which is unfortunate considering that includes Timber Creek, Keller, and Keller Central. If the contest was held as a whole area, I'd have all 3 of them advancing, I think they're all on clearly a much higher level than the bands in the other Zones, no offense to them.

Also, really enjoying Cypress Fall's show on the MFA Fan Network.

I went to school south of Amarillo, and I'm going to college up here. I'm not sure why they ended up doing this, and haven't heard an explanation of why. I don't know if it's because of the distance of what the area was (El Paso, The Panhandle, Midland/Odessa, and Fort Worth), but it doesn't make much sense to me. If it's because of lack of representation and directors complaining, there's been plenty of bands that have advanced, and I guess they need to get better......because there were no politics keeping bands from up here advancing to state, they're just not as good. And over the past few years we've had plenty of representation at State: 2013: AAAA) Frenship AA) Bushland 2012: AAA) Lubbock Cooper 2011: AAAA) Frenship AA) Littlefield A) Sudan, Tahoka, Canadian 2010: AAA) Lubbock Cooper 2009: AAAA) Frenship A) Canadian (Bronze Medalist) 2008: AAA) Andrews, Seminole 2007: AAAA) Frenship 2006: AAA) Canyon, Andrews And the list goes on, I guess if they want to make it to state, they need to get better. I guess though it'll be about the same bands advancing that always do anyway, just at different contests. In AAAAA) It was always El Paso Coronado, Hanks, Americas, Keller, and Central. In AAAA) It was always Boswell, Frenship, Azle, Saginaw, and El Paso Del Valle. Regardless of which way you split the area, it's the same amount of bands advancing and the same bands will probably go on. Not much different honestly, there's not any more bands advancing than before, they are just being determined by smaller contests that just send 1 or 2 a piece. With El Paso, Panhandle/Permian Basin, and Fort Worth, that's still 4 - 5 bands. I'll have to ask my old high school director the next time I see him, before we start making up unofficial assumptions that we don't know are true. I'd bet some money that the size of the area might have had something to do with it. The old area was a good 1/3 of the entire state, it's 600 miles wide east to west and 400 miles north to south. That's QUITE a bit bigger than what the other areas are, it's just more spread apart up here.

Leander, Flower Mound, and Cedar Ridge are my top 3 right now. Hebron's up there too. Leander's whole show is very well designed. Great pacing, awesome visual package, and the musical intensity is undeniably awesome. Flower Mound's is just luscious in every aspect. The horn opening is amazing, love the Javelin, and the ballad is just beautiful. Love the purple/lavender/pink/yellow color scheme, looks pretty stunning against their white uniforms. Cedar Ridge's integration of a singer more so every year is awesome. She's EXTREMELY breathtaking. She's a very integral part this year, and she brings what would be an okay show without her to a whole other level.

Don't worry, I'm not counting out the Austin/SA schools, just haven't seen anything this year from them yet aside from Bowie, who's looking VERY strong. And I have to say, Flower Mound has my favorite show at the moment, is pretty stunning, especially musically, the ballad is just absolutely gorgeous, and I'm excited to see the rest of the closer. I'm excited to see how they progress all the way to nationals.

Watching the Music For All videos posted, I think Marcus and Hebron are a top 2 lock at state, though you never know. Each has HUGE variety and demand in a huge spectrum musically, and sound just absolutely gorgeous. Visually, I thought that from the box Hebron looked a little stronger, but who knows. James Bowie seems to be taking that approach this year as well, they seem hugely improved visually and sound just as good as always. How many bands is Area B advancing? If it's 4, then I think Hebron and Marcus for sure and Flower Mound and LD Bell are pretty likely. If it's 3, Hebron and Marcus plus either Bell or Flo Mo. I think Flo Mo has the huge advantage at the moment musically, the show is gorgeous and has tons of variety like Marcus and Hebron, but LD Bell has the same advantage musically. Given that Music has more emphasis than Visual, I'd pick Flo Mo for #3 if they take that many. Then there's Richland, Haltom, Plano East as well, 2 of which advanced in 2012. You never know though, was pretty shocked in 2012 that Flower Mound didn't advance, and Round Rock didn't even make area finals, so you have to take into consideration performance order and that kind of stuff as well.

Yup, Liberty would have been over Lewisville without theirs if Lewisville still had theirs, Keller would have been over Legacy without theirs, Martin's kept them out of finals. In finals no placements would have changed, but still quite a few penalties.

I do these after every regional, thought I'd share considering how dang crazy this one was. The recap from prelims is all over the place. For instance, Waxahachie was 2nd overall in Visual Individual and 22nd in Ensemble. From 6th - 6th there's 3 points seperating several bands. 1 judge could basically kill you or get you all the way up to 6th. Wakeland was consistently around 10th across the board in prelims, but since they were consistent and weren't really low in any particular caption, they ended up in 6th. The top 5 are the only ones not all over the place. Finals was a little more tame, the GE judges agreed on just about everything. Recaps are very interesting if you're a numbers person. That spread from 6th - 16th is insane: 6th - Wakeland - 77.5 7th - Aledo - 77.1 8th - Mansfield - 77.0 9th - LV Berkner - 76.9 10th - Richland - 76.15 11th - James Martin - 76.05 12th - Keller Central - 76.0 13th - Legacy - 75.45 14th - Keller - 75.4 15th - Haltom - 74.9 16th - Waxahachie - 74.25 I listed the placement in each caption, numbers doubled in a column equal a tie. Prelims Recap Breakdown: Finals Recap Breakdown: