GreedyGreen

no LITERALLY and UNIRONICALLY these are goated whenever I sift through youtube for band videos, I always love the ipad/iphone recordings from a good spot. I feel like their recording quality is awesome, and seeing people react is always fun

I think Hebron has a shot at finals this year!

Hebron really said

I heard that Hendrickson was 40 seconds under the time limit; and if the .1 point per 3 seconds rule is accurate, that’s a 1.3 point deduction. Probably a lot of sadness if that’s the case

I get that this is just your opinion, but I am failing to see the point you are trying to make and I can say with certainty that what comes through (intended or not) is saltiness at a particular group. I suggest you go read the BOA/UIL handbooks for judges. (I did this while I was bored in one of my lectures oops) There is nothing that says originality is part of the judging criteria nor should it be. The marching arts has become such a large category of fine arts and as such has its own economic norms. Shows are bought and sold WAYYY more than you probably think and music is recycled 24/7 by composers. I want to make it clear that I don’t think vista ridge had anything but their kids hard work on the field. (Also I can tell this is probably a Hendrickson student; go listen to CTJ 2014 and I bet you will be pretty shocked lol) It just proves my point that the marching arts is more than just coming up with original ideas, because ultimately there is a limited selection of music to choose from and only so many colors you can put on the field. I suggest you go listen to the top 9 from San Antonio from 2012 onward and I bet you will find a multitude of similarities.

Hence the good fundamentals I mentioned. Someone that can play the whole etude with mediocre dynamics but super even fingers and a steady airflow will almost always place higher than someone who uses extravagant dynamic contrast but seems to lack fundamental technique.

Coming from an alumni who has had relative success in this whole process, I can say that region, area and state are different competitions. The region and area level competitions are MUCH more based on playing cleanly what is written on the page and rewards those who can practice efficiently and consistently. If you are able to get through every correct note and rhythm with a good sound and stable tempo (basically a clean performance with solid fundamentals) you will advance to the next round. For some of the more competitive rooms, area gets much harder and you can differentiate yourself by moving the tempo up to prove better technique. However when you advance to state, the competition changes in nature. Because you are given new music, (and a lot of it at that) and you have much less time to prepare it, this level of competition rewards those who can efficiently learn music at a high level. Having 3 weeks to learn between 18-30 cuts and to prepare them all well is TOTALLY different than spending 6 months on 3 etudes. I’ve seen it multiple times, the couple of kids who do really well at region and area, but then flop at state because they aren’t accustomed to quickly preparing that many cuts. But I’ve also seen the opposite; that the kids who consistently win or come close to winning are able to do well at state also, because in my humble opinion, state is a better determiner of great musicianship, whereas region and area reward time and repetition because of the sheer length of those audition periods.

Your main point about money; that’s why I personally believe that UIL the way it is should stay. Because there’s such a huge disparity between different schools in Texas not only in terms of ability, but in terms of resources, and no real way to fix it, UIL is one of the only things that caters to everybody. The goals are very clear, and for the most part, it is pretty consistent. There are outliers, but everyone has to deal with them from time to time, and if I’m being honest, no matter what changes are made, someone will always be left feeling cheated. Calling for reform would fundamentally change UIL and right now I personally believe we need to appreciate the difference that UIL has come to represent as the marching arts has evolved, and take it for what it is.

I believe Hendrickson’s show is “Blueprints for life” hence every aspect of the show being blue.

On the contrary, I think CTJ’s show has to be my favorite in terms of accessible emotional impact. Their show has a clear message and those kids sold it.

To me it seems like the simple solution would be to just not compete in BOA if you (or your school/band/district) are not a fan of the way things are run. BOA has classifications for smaller schools, but yes a large part of the scoring is based on visual impact and many smaller schools do not have the same resources that make visual impact as easy as large props or well designed shows. Instead of wishing that classic marching bands could be compared objectively in the same competitions as contemporary bands, just allow BOA to exist and allow UIL to exist as separate entities. There are also many competitions that are specifically for smaller schools who do not put on productions as much as marching demonstrations. Plenty of schools that compete in BOA THRIVE off it and grow their programs, and more importantly their kids love for music and the marching arts. BOA is doing an amazing job of impacting kids in the marching world, however schools that do not conform to the contemporary style for whatever reason shouldn’t be expected to. Just don’t go to BOA. UIL will recognize a military program if they perform at a high level.

I attached a picture of my predictions for finals. I find it funny because I’m pretty sure 1-14 could change at any given time. This is just based on what I’ve seen and the buzz I’m hearing.

I think another aspect in play is the judges personal opinions. They are given to band staff on tape and not always released to the public. Seeing really inconsistent scores should be followed up with questions like “what was that judge looking at?” Before things like “is that judge qualified to do their job?” In my opinion. I’m someone that wants to trust the process by default becaue everyone has to go through the same crap at the same time. I can absolutely acknowledge that there are outliers and flawed judges and whatnot, but I’d be willing to bet that 99% of the time the judges are being honest with their placements (which by the way are opinions) and seeing different things in different programs. We as “the public” are often left out of the loop when it comes to judges feedback and all we see are the final results. Why was that one music score 15 below the other two? Were they looking at balance as opposed to tuning? Or maybe they don’t like how high the mellophone line was the whole time. Or maybe they heard consistent tuning issues as the baritone section played anything but fortissimo. (Just random examples I know) I know I sound like I’m defending the old guys, but I’d also be willing to bet that the judges don’t get paid very much and I don’t see a reason for the judges to screw random schools over each other if they literally have to watch bands all day. It seems like a finger pointing game when it’s actually very complicated with only 2 captions and nobody on the field.

Can someone post the placements? I can’t find them

Hendrickson Alumni '18 UT Austin Music Major

On Hendrickson, I think they have a shot like any of the other bands in the last 3 potential spots. However, it always comes down to how well kids can pull off what they've been taught. The show itself I feel is wonderful for UIL, but there are many groups who perform at a level equal to or greater than Hendrickson in the 9-15 range. It will be a bloodbath. (of course all of this is assuming they make state, which I think they will)

I felt opposite about it. Hendrickson's show was more light-hearted and generally more applicable to me (personally) than RR's. And Hendrickson had the most "UIL" sound that I had heard that evening. RR's ballad was beautiful though and their low brass was killer.

And this is where we start to meet some of the problems with federally operated education. It’s an ugly cross between socialistic policies and capitalistic policies that create so many problems.

There is no “fair” way to help distribute different skill levels across a competition without looking at last years results. Nobody is saying that previous years results matter much at all, but it is one of the only things that can be used as reference. Nothing else makes any sense. Also just go look at programs like The Woodlands and Leander who are basically consistent finals locks, but their 2017 results had almost nothing to do with their 2016 results. If you didn’t spread groups out, then there is a chance (with how consistent the majority of finals is from year to year) that many groups who are really in the top 14 wouldn’t get to make finals because of how the panels have to pick finalists. I think using any kind of excuse like “judges have preferential bias” is nothing but that: an excuse. The goal is to provide groups with what they deserve and reward hard work. If a group deserves to make finals, the current system does its best to assure that they are recognized rather than swept under the rug.

WOW! I totally left out FloMo. Not sure how that happened, but i guess that just knocks Round Rock off my list of "pretty sure" finalists.

I personally believe it looks better on Texas to just have this one ranking system, but with over half of the top 30 and the next 10 from Texas. If there was a Texas-only system, it should not live with the national ranking system, as that might make us as Texans look a little... uhhh... prideful.

In mostly random order 1)Ronald Reagan 2)CTJ 3)Leander 4)Vandegrift 5)Hebron 6)Woodlands 7)Marcus 8)Vista Ridge 9)Bowie 10)Cedar Park 11)Keller 12)Hendrickson 13)Cedar Ridge 14)Round Rock The best I can do at this point is predict finalists, and I'm not even going to try to place them at this point. Many of these groups have only competed once so far, and with incomplete shows at that. I feel like the one or two on this list that could be considered bubble bands are Round Rock and/or Hendrickson, however both of those programs are traditionally late bloomers who have their best performances later in the season, so its hard for me not to see them in finals. I've heard good things about Timber Creek, but only time will tell if they can elbow their way into finals. Making it here is like trying to get a good view of anyone at ACL and consists of lots of shoving and someone always gets hurt.

Can’t forget Marcus

This way of thinking is just looking at one aspect of the problem with wealth distribution though. The part completely undressed discounts those wealthier schools and just sums up their excellence as money and nothing more. There is also a cultural difference that comes through family support and more specifically support of the band program. Just looking at the issue as a problem with lack of money is a dis-service to those bands that have money AND do well. If you compare the number of parent volunteers and how much time the kids form those top schools spend practicing their skills outside of practice I bet you would find a difference that reflects the difference in socioeconomic level as well. It is NOT all about money, but money does have a large part in the success of the program on a presentation level. Not all props are bought and costumes aren't required to change every year for success. The culture of the band and the families involved in the band are equally important, if not more.

Making the argument that students in smaller schools are more involved with student life makes no sense because they are just less involved with band. As an alumni of a 6A program, I can vouch for the COMPLETE time commitment to band. Like literally 6-8 hours per day. And at my school they wouldn’t allow kids who marched the varsity show to be in any other extra curricular activities. In those smaller schools you speak of where kids are a part of 3 or more activities, that it totally their choice. All it means is that less time can be given only to band.