NSUMusician

You do nothing unless it's positive. As a director, I'd be more upset if you as a so-called leader were to tell someone that they COULDN'T do something instead of trying to help them be a better leader. Now don't take my quote out of context. I'm not condescending on you. Just saying that as a leader you job is to lead and help those around you become better. If someone else wants to be a leader but aren't very good at it, don't tell them that they are bad, but give tips on how they could possibly be a better leader.

Yay for being a director! I'm leaving right after I do rehearsal on Wednesday and am not coming back until late Saturday! OH YES!!

Bell

Back when it was still held in Waco... When it was a 4A/2A/1A year, the 2A's and 1A's had state at Waco ISD with the 4A's at Floyd Casey here in Waco. During a 5A/3A year, 3A's went to Waco ISD and 5A's to the Case. I like the format now with the days staggered. As a band director, if I don't have a band there, it's nice to be able to see 2 or so days of great bands from this state.

I went to college with Todd Mason, the son of Blast! Producer Scott Mason. I don't know about any Blast 2!, but I do know that they did produce a show called Shockwave!. Maybe that's what you're thinking of? Todd played a few shows on tour of Shockwave during the summer when we werent in school.

Blue Devils - a tie between 97 and 99. Bluecoats - 2002 (I'm a bit biased towards that year) Boston Crusaders - 2004 (I love O Magnum Mysterium) Cadets - 2000 Carolina Crown - 2005 (amazing hornline) Crossmen - 2002 (Pat Matheny's Heat of the Day was AWESOME!) Glassmen - 2002 (Scherzo and Javelin were just gorgeous to listen to) Madison Scouts - 95 Phantom Regiment - 89 (One of the main reasons why Dvorak is one of my fav composers) Santa Clara Vanguard - 99 The Cavaliers - 2002 (One of the most complete shows of all-time!)

Nope. Couple of reasons why. 1. It takes a ton of money from the school districts to foot bills for some of that stuff. 2. Yes, I know that the UIL can be an evil thing and yes it is a money trap, but it would take a ton of money to foot the bill for every year thus upping the amount it costs the ISDs to participate. 3. TOO MANY PARTICIPANTS!! Someone earlier said, "It's not like all the bands would be at the dome on the same day." They're right. HOWEVER, think about how much it costs to use the dome. Then how about judges? How many different panels are you going to have? Then add into the equation the amount of kids in San Antonio. Ever been to San Antonio during TMEA? Yeah, try tripling or quadrupling the amount of people there. How about hotels? All in all, just too many folks in SA. Those are just three of my reasons why it shouldn't be every year. Yes, competition is good and it helps push ourselves, but logistically, it's not a very good move. I, on the complete flipside, would love to see this happen. In UIL Honor Band, a State Champion cannot repeat as Honor Band. For example, in 2004 Canyon High School won 3A State Honor Band. They were not allowed to repeat as State Honor Band in 2006. What I'm getting at is this. The reason for this rule is to allow recognition to deserving schools. I'd like to see the same rule applied to SMC. If you win, two years later you perform as an exhibition group will finals scores are being tallied. This way, one school doesn't win every year. BUT, since they are an exhibition group, they wouldn't want to be shown up so they would work just as hard to look even better as the exhibition group. I suggest that they still be allowed to compete at the Area level (another incentive to continue the excellence that they had already done). Furthermore, it gives incentives to the school district to continue greatness in their music program. Just my two or three or four cents.

1. Bell 2. Marcus edit: Let's not forget too quick that this Marcus show is OUR STATE CHAMPION show.

Does anyone have a recording of Carolina Crown's 2003 show title "Bellissimo?" I WOULD REALLY LIKE IT!

I've got three tied (how ironic) for my "Best show to not win the gold/come in second." In no particular order: SCV 1988 PR 1989 and The Cadets 2001.

1. LD Bell 2006 - "The Remaining" (96.35) 2nd Place Grand Nats Finals 2. Spring 1993 - "The Music Of Paul Hindemith" (96.55) 1st Place Grand Nats Finals 3. Ronald Reagan 2003 - "Beyond Perimeters" (94.30) 2nd Place Grand Nats Finals 4. Marcus 2006 - "The Choral Reef" (94.70) 3rd Place San Antonio Finals

I've seen a few schools out in West Texas use them, just can't think of the names. Carmel and Avon use them. I can't really think of any other ones. Trust me, I've carried one; A Contra is one bad Sucka! A ten-minute wall-stand holding a 45 pound instrument with 3/4 or the weight above the center pivot is NOT FUN!

Depends on which "cheater" you use. I can play a full Dub-G on my 6 (yes no C just a number 6) mouthpiece on my 60 year old Conn cornet better than I can on my Schilke and Warburton pieces on my marching horns with the tiny backbores. It's really all about air. The only thing a cheater mouthpiece does is with a shallow cup and flat rim it flattens out your lips allowing them to vibrate a little faster because they are less thick. But that only gets you so far. You've still gotta have the air to play that high. I just generally takes a little more work to go from a "cheater" to a "concert" piece. I suggest using the concert mouthpieces in marching band. With the musicality in todays marching world, it's just easier to play with that symphonic sound on the field when using a concert mouthpiece. I switched all of my students to concert mouthpieces on the field this year. It made a huge difference from what they sounded like at the beginning of the year to what they sounded like at the end. With all of that said though, I truly feel that one should be able to play on a diversity of mouthpieces and should own quite a few different ones. Play around on them, but know what to use in a performance setting.

When do we move out of Prelims?

So I just quickly scanned over that article and would have to slightly disagree with the comments about gold plating. Gold is a soft metal, and to me it feels softer and is more comfortable on my lips. I also feel that it gives a slightly warmer tone to your playing. Also, if I'm reading my information correctly, gold holds heat better than silver. Thus, in my opinion, it allows you to warm-up and feel a bit more comfortable quicker. Gold also is more resistant to rust that what silver is, not that that has any real bearing on instruments though. Just a few of my opinions. I like a gold mouthpiece better than a silver one. I also just found this article by Phil Smith of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. It's pretty good. http://archives.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/trends...mpet/index.html

AH! Good. It was quite confusing to me. Having to adjust back to getting up early to go teach you kids is enough without haveing to read random posts at 6 in the morning! haha.

Huh?! What site?

1. LD Bell 2006 - "The Remaining" (96.35) 2nd Place Grand Nats Finals 2. Westfield 2003 - "Because We Are" (94.35) 1st Place Grand Nats Finals 3. Ronald Reagan 2005 - "You Never Know" (95.65) 2nd Place Grand Nats Finals 4. Richland 2005 - "Inside Out" (90.65) 7th Place Grand Nats Finals 5. L.D. Bell 2005 - "Ascension" (95.60) 3rd Place Grand Nats Finals 6. Ronald Reagan 2003 - "Beyond Perimeters" (94.30) 2nd Place Grand Nats Finals 7. Marcus 2006 - "The Choral Reef" (94.70) 3rd Place San Antonio Finals 8. L.D. Bell 2004 - "Blue" (87.70) 1st Place St. Louis Finals

Is there a vid of this show somewhere?

When I was a senior low those many years ago, we did Tom Sawyer. I acted in it. Then in the Spring, I performed a senior recital. It was fun. I sang three songs in three languages: German, English (sang spirituals), and Italian and played a piece on trumpet by a corresponding composer; i.e. did the first mvt of the Hummel to go with the German section. It was a ton of work, but loads of fun in the end. And yes, this was when I was a senior in High School not college!

There is much much much more music to Imogen Heap's repetoire beside Hide and Seek. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

The only thing cautionary that I would say about 2-year institutions is that if you are planning on going the route of a future educator, you MUST check into seeing what education courses will transfer when you leave. For example, a good friend of mine spent his two years at a JUCO, when he transferred NONE of his courses in education transferred thus delaying his graduation a year and a half. So you MUST check into that before deciding where to go to school. I managed to graduate from Northwestern State in four years and I was the ONLY one in my freshmen class to do that. It's very difficult to graduate in four years. So you need to plan everything out before hand. It may seem tedious now, but it the long run it'll help EVERYTHING out and make college that much more fun. Also, as just a small plug, if you are undecided on a college, go check out NSU. They have one of the top Music Ed programs around. All students on scholarship have out-of-state fees waived and they give very generous scholarships. Go to www.nsula.edu/demonband/ and just search around. You might like what you see.

In my opinion, playing in the center of the lips doesn't necessarily make one's tone better. Playing with the correct amount of top lip to bottom lip ratio is ideal! The way that some players teeth are shaped doesn't allow them to play in center, BUT you can play with a correct top to bottom lip ratio regardless of teeth. If I remember correctly, the guy who played the top lead for the Cadets from 2002 to 2004 was missing a front tooth and didn't play on center. I play a little to the right of center. Hope that helps out some. Edit: Playing with an incorrect top to bottom lip ratio can result in damage to the muscles of your lips.

He was asking about the hornline. And in just about most cases, that's the truth. Guard and percussion are different. Edit: I'd add this to tips for between camps. To strengthen legs and arms do wall-stands. They are different from your wall-sits. What you do is get your horn in carriage position and then stand on your toes up against a wall with your heels on the wall. The only other part of your body that should touch the wall should be your butt. Try this for two minutes starting out and then gradually build up until you can do it for 12-15 minutes. Also, switch between horn in carriage position and playing position.

My tip is one of the best tips EVER given to me when I was going through the audition process: YOU HAVE TO HAVE A GREAT ATTITUDE!!!! If you just think about it, it's a pretty easy concept. You play so much that they'll make you play the way they want. You march so much that you WILL have technique down. However, you do need to have some already good marching skills. BUT if you're a jerk, that's something the staff can't change! You have to live with members of a corp for 2 1/2 months. You've got to have an attitude of willingness to learn. If you're too good for the staff to teach, you don't belong. Go in with a great attitude and it will make a HUGE difference!