paradigm1220

I believe it really comes down to the judges. Texas UIL is Texas UIL and an out of state judge who is used to a different scoring system is going to rank the band HE/SHE thinks is best dependent on his own criteria. What Texas UIL really needs are highly paid, TEXAS judges who are familiar with the ins and outs of the contest. Btw, I heard that Marcus spent $12,000 on their props??? IF this is true, I see that as an advantage over other bands who can't afford elaborate props such as theirs. Perhaps maybe a spending limit should be proposed to UIL? After all, it is called MARCHING BAND, not dancing band, not 100% marching, not 100% music, not soloist band. It should consist of a well-rounded performance with eye-catching visuals, stylized marching, and an arrangement of music flexible enough to make all of these necessities possible. I'm not tooting my own horn (aha. punny...I play trumpet) when I say this, but Langham's show consisted of challenging drill, appropriate music, and some visuals, with the entire band marching and playing at the same time for about 7 minutes of the eight minute show. There's a short chamber ensemble. This is what I like to call a purely UIL show. I can only say this because I know about it; as far as other bands are concerned, I can only go on what I hear from other people. I do know that if any one of the 10 finalists were to compete in any other state, they would have easily won. Texas is very competitive and we should all be proud of that, because nowhere else in this country will you find a more diverse selection of marching bands.

What exactly do you mean by "play" the system? We (Langham) use our talent to the best of our abilities to achieve the best performance we can deliver. Our show Enigma was our best ever in my opinion; the arrangement of actual music, our extremely difficult drill, and some visuals/props (ick) are what place us among the State finalists. Btw, while we were in warm-up I overheard another band playing Nimrod, who was it?

yeah what he said. we ain't slaves, we know what it takes to be sucessful