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The LC band directors are most likley more than aware of what went on, I mean, there is no way they COULDN'T be. I'm sure they are going to have a word with that schools directors, if they havent already. And if they choose not to, that's their choice to make. I'm pretty positive that if any kids from the school in question are reading this forum, they know who they are, and they know all the people involved know who they are, and are hopefully embaressed enough by that fact alone. No need to put names and incite more hate. On another note, congrats to Dripping Springs! After watching the contest, they were my favorite to win, and I'm glad they did! It looks to me like Cy-Woods, Clements, and Langham are pretty evenly matched this year, it will interesting to see how they place at state.

If I answer this question it will probably give away who the band was, and I don't want to call out the school by name on such a public site and cause something. That would in a sense make me just as bad as they are. They do well enough on their own getting caught up in their own hype and embaressing themselves, that they don't need anyone else doing it for them. I was just really really upset for the kids at LCHS, and believe the issue of bullying at a contest by another band is something that cannot be ignored. It happens, and people need to be aware that it happens. It's also interesting to note that the LCHS band directors were within ear shot of all the bashing and their students seemed well aware of what what being said about them all night by a certin band. Yet they never retaliated, or displayed anything other than good sportsmanship the whole contest. You can place high at all your contests but if you dont have the humility and class to back it up you will NEVER be a champion.

and it wasn't Langham Creek, just to verify that, because I dont want anyone thinking that it was. They were the band being subjected to the taunting, and still remained a class act, humble even after what I'm sure was a disappointing finish. I know every band has that one idiot, freshman, kid who might make an offhand remark to another band given the opportunity, but no school deserves to be heckled on such a large scale, especially not WHILE THEY ARE PERFORMING. And even more disappointing were the band directors not stopping their students from engaging in such behavior. This is the second time I've seen a large group disrespect the LCHS program at SHMC, the last time being in 07 when they were boo'd (and got 2nd place!). I feel furious for those poor kids! They lost their director of 16 years only a couple of years ago, and are, noticably, not what they once were, yet they still manage to put out high quality shows, even placing 13th at state the last go-around. No band deserves to be treated the way the kids at Langham were tonight, especially not this band who has been through so much in the past couple of years.

WOW, saw some of the most disrespectful behavior ever at this contest. Lost ALOT of respect for a certin band that I wont specifically name, whose directors were allowing their kids to laugh and ridicule another band while they were performing, even going as far as to talk loudly about how said-band didnt deserve to be advancing to state ahead of them at area and ect... The band engaging in this incredibly immature activity placed surprisingly well as the contest, but they are definatly not champions. Totally classless.

This topic is extremely frustrating to read. No judging system on the face of the earth is perfect, because people are not perfect. That being said, the thing that seperates a good band program from a GREAT band program is it's ability to display modesty and class, win OR lose. So please, think before you post. Trying to make excuses for why your band of choice didn't make it only reflects poorly on you. Congrats to Clements, Langham Creek, Cy Woods and Cy Falls for advancing to state! You guys truly deserved it!

lmao, on youtube there are like 6 videos of our percussion section's jam sessions last year, and i guess someone saw them, and wrote on ensemble based on them i guess. and then put it on youtube. the ensemble is called "Langham Creek" http://youtube.com/watch?v=bsoIfUkDyBY heres one of the jam sessions for reference:

If the rumors are true, our show (langham's) is called "Masquerade." I think the music is going to be all bartok, arranged by key poulan i assume. New drill writer though, and out of our three band directors, two of them will be new.

they show marching band on ESPN. And that is the sports channel...so it is a sport !

im pretty sure it is.

Thats what im doin, or going to TRY to do. If i cant restrain myself, im playing everything at half tempo, no faster. Yeah Area in January 5th for me as well. I think its the same for everyone? Anyone going to Area E at Judson ? : D

CARNIVAL OF VENICE ! ^thats what it sounds like, except the solo is accompanied by piano, not band. IT IS SO AWESOME.

Holy cow. I know what you mean! I made Area and ever since, when i practice, i feel like im getting worse. My lesson teacher told me to completley put my region music away for a week, and then start it up again at half tempo. But not practicing it makes me feel like im falling behind!

yep.

We think he's fired. He still hasnt come back to work, and noone is telling us ANYTHING. They wont say he's never comming back, but they arnt saying he is either. Apparently its a big deal, because all the teachers know why he's gone, but theyre careful not to let anything slip to us. If he doesnt come back, we are totally ruined. He was the one who built our program up from this "party" band that got 2's and 3's at UIL, to one of the most successful programs in the State. Without him, we can never be anything remotley close to what we were. Its really....depressing.

Merlin Patterson has transcribed Leonard Bernstein's "Three Dance Variations" for us. We were supposed to play it at TMEA, but couldn't get the rights to it in enough time. So we're getting to play it this year. Im excited. Merlin Patterson transcribed Don Juan for us as well, and it was a total blast. So i expect this peice will be really great as well.

AH we always have collisions running to get water. Because our water breaks are basically, sprint to the side, get as much water in your mouth as possible, sprint back, and drink your water in your spot. No exageration. So we have a couple collisions a year, typically a brass bulldozing a woodwind down, and they eat cement. People trip eachother alot during diamond drill too (fundementals) with the whole entire band (the props/alternates and everything) in one huge block going in a diamond shape path with 6 to five steps at 180 for part four of the exercize. Usually flutes and clarinets are the ones to trip over eachother when we start going backward, and they likewise, eat cement. Ha, we even tell the freshman, "Be warned. You WILL fall at SOME point during marching band." And i heard stories, about how a several years ago LC did a show where they used masks (?) They didnt practice with the masks, so the first time they ever used them was at some contest (or maybe a football game? i cant remember), and basically the whole band could hardly see out of them... I think you can picture what that might look like, lol.

OMG I KNOW! i hate that piece. We had to do memory passoffs on that one last week. It was so ridiculous. I have to completley take that one apart over christmas break if i want to at least place decent at all-state auditions ):

Langham Creek's Finals performance @ SHSU Err, please take note we finished our show 2 days before this. So this is before we really got into cleaning. And we added a bunch of transitions, an extra set to the end of the show, and completley changed the ending of the ballad (mostly visually) for san antonio.

Well, when your marching in a straight line, your doing more than simply just that. Your also guiding spacing, files, company fronts, diagonals, all that good stuff. I know when Im doing fundementals, even though we're all going in a straight line, it requires ALOT of focus to maintain all the spacing and such, one moment of distraction can put you half a step being your company front, messing up the whole form behind you. Straight lines and blocks in a straight path may seem easy, but they're very exposed. The smallest error is visible. So when your playing, that distracts away from that sort of focus. The less you have to focus on the music, the more you can focus on those things, and vice versa. haha, does that make sense?

eh, I dont know. From my own personal experiences, playing hard music definatly makes the marching harder, regardless of how difficult the actual drill is. In my band, we do run throughs of our shows where we just count the show, and sometimes run throughs where we just sing, no playing. After we do those types of runs, and then we do a run where we play the whole show, the marching is a about ten times more difficult. Of course, the same argument could be made on the opposite side of this issue: If you march really hard drill, doesn't that make the music ten times harder? this, i also see as a yes.

Ya, we though he must be sick at first, until the head of the music department started comming to school, and people saw the principle searching his office. We're told he's out for "personal issues" and they're CRAZY rumors flying around (which are just ridiculous and not even worth naming), but noone knows what it is for sure. Not even his son, our DM, will say. But we don't get to have a sub, so its basically one director doing all four bands right now. Its so crazy.

dont forget Clements. and cy-woods did incredibly good this year, considering they have no seniors and their school was just opened a few years ago. It'll be interesting to see how they do. But i still don't think this area is as hard as some of the others in Texas. Right now though, our band director (at lchs) has been basically m.i.a. for a few weeks now, and noone knows if he's comming back, or why he's not allowed on school property right now. If he doesnt return, next year will be a very interesting Area E contest. I don't think we'll be able to sweep it like we usually do without him.

I heard Avon has music from Eric Whitacre's "Equus"? Is that true?

it didnt. lol. it rained at the game, so we werent able to perform at halftime!

I hate when people do that. At SHSU, during our finals performance, Duncanville kids were pointing and laughing at us during the whole duration of our show (Their drum majors also said some really rude things to our piccolo soloist after our performance, because she cracked the first pitch of her solo) The worst thing about it is our director and one of their main directors are really good friends, and both our schools are taught in a very similar manner, especially when it comes to music. So my school has personally always really liked Duncanville. Basically, its really sad when the audience isnt respectful of all performances, and even though the disrespectful things someone does arnt representative of the whole band program, it still causes you to lose some respect for them either way.