littlejaw

I really want to see Dripping now...they had to have been amazing.

Cedar Ridge was just as good and energetic as they were out at Atlanta. Thought I have them in probably about 16th place and missing finals.

Cedar Park is a finalist worthy band in my opinion. It may throw off my predictions but that was visually impressive on a per-performer basis.

Seven Lakes was great, definitely unexpected for me. I could see them maybe breaking from the 20s and into 19th or so.

Didn't set an alarm this morning so I was up a little later than I had wanted to be. But so far I was surprised by Tompkins High school, could maybe make top half. Thought O'Connor was cool if you just ignore the visual part of the show, that will weigh them down from being in the 20s.

I made my predictions on the predictions page, but I figured I would post them here as well. Place 1 Flower Mound HS Place 2 Avon HS Place 3 Claudia Taylor Johnson HS Place 4 Hebron HS Place 5 Vandegrift HS Place 6 Ronald Reagan HS Place 7 The Woodlands HS Place 8 Marcus HS Place 9 Leander HS Place 10 L. D. Bell HS Place 11 James Bowie HS Place 12 Keller HS Place 13 Hendrickson HS Place 14 Round Rock HS Music caption Flower Mound HS GE caption Flower Mound HS Visual caption Avon HS

More time to get the rewrites cleaned and at a top level?

Round Rock is a definite oversight. I don’t really Cedar Ridge as better than Keller. Now a good question for me is how Hendrickson stacks up versus LD Bell and Keller.

Yeah I understand that. Simply Marcus would win UIL and LD Bell would win BOA. Enough so that rumors went around that LD Bell would pull out of UIL competitions altogether. I think my only solution is I will watch all of BOA San Antonio this weekend and try and rate the bands on Visual Proficiency and see where my numbers lie.

I was actually talking to the flo people about their service and what I would like to see improved. Lots of people complained about the audio quality last year and that has drastically improved. This year hopefully they improve on their Multicam shots. I can say it is nice that they are trying to frame smaller groups of performers, because when kids see themselves or parents see their kids the product has a more intrinsic value. Now they just aren’t reading the groups and making the right switching calls just yet. It’s easier in DCI where they are able to learn the shows and in WGI where the groups are way smaller and it’s easier to get it right. Over the years we will see some improvement, hopefully.

I’m just excited for music education in the Valley. Roma has a chance at Finals and Lopez is coming off Honor Band. It’s nice to see them in good competition on the state level. (I am DFW btw)

One thing I don’t get on the high school level is the Visual Proficiency subcaption. I’ve been a tech a few times while in college and after the drum corps seasons, but I can’t figure out how some groups are scored so well or so poorly. I’ll see top level schools where body alignment is a problem and timing is poor out scoring groups like Keller or Cedar Park that have a great presence from marcher to marcher and you’d be had pressed to find stickouts with poor technique. Is BOA really just based on GE carries a school to their placement?

5A Predictions: 1. Cedar Park - I think it’s theirs to lose. 2. Richland - Not getting enough y’all for how clean they are. 3. Waxahachie - I thought they were awesome at BOA Southlake, and their prelims placement doesn’t hurt that idea. 4. Dripping Springs - Can’t drop them too far from winning an Area finals over CP. 5. Wakeland - Really good band. 6. Prosper - Not huge on the show, but not enough other bands to push them down further. 7. Aledo - Usually a great band. 8. Roma - I think they have a shot of clearly making finals this year. 9. Tomball Memorial - Clearly won their area, so let’s see if the success translates. 10. Birdville - Though my next in would be Georgetown.

Still very surprised Cedar Park isn't running away in this contest.

Area D results: Dripping Springs Cedar Park Georgetown Rouse McCallum Austin http://www.uiltexas.org/files/music/5A_Area_D.pdf

http://www.uiltexas.org/files/music/5A_Area_B.pdf

Man, Area B was a judge's choice to go to State. Talk about outside of the spirit of the rules.

Area E results: Tomball Memorial Tomball Crosby Porter Lumberton Bryan Willis http://www.uiltexas.org/files/music/5A_Area_E.pdf

Doing that well, do we think there is a chance that a Valley school (Roma) may make state finals in 5A this year?

Area A advancing are: Bel Air Hanks Horizon Del Valle Lubbock http://www.uiltexas.org/files/music/5A_Area_A.pdf

Congrats to Haltom on taking Music GE 1 from Tarpon and Wando in finals. http://www.musicforall.org/images/PDFs/2017/Fall/Fall_Final_Packets/Atlanta/2017ATL-FinalsRecap.pdf

http://www.uiltexas.org/files/music/5A_Area_F.pdf

Congrats to Haltom on 3rd place and a score of 89.2!

Congrats to Cedar Ridge on 4th place and a score of 88.6.

Birdville should also be highlighted as 3 bands advanced to state.