Drummantx

It's all good. A Kansas band, interesting. I have NEVER heard anything out of Kansas marching band wise.

Coulda sworn Edmond Memorial was an Oklahoma band?

I like a balance. Have a well established theme without it completely taking over the show. The focus should be on music and visual designs that reflect a theme. Not dancing, props, effects, ect that cover up the pure basics of "MARCHING" band. I prefer UIL. If you have to add a bunch of crap to get the theme across, get a better design team or chose something you can actually do.

I'll start doing a weekly report on panhandle region bands: Updated Region 1, 16 shows: Amarillo High School - Rhapsody in Blue, Blue Rhondo a la Turk, Blue Shades (Assuming it's a Blue Show...lol) Canyon High School - Ballet Sacra Frenship High School - Indivisible Plainview High School - Gateways Randall High School - Illusion Band I see progressing a bunch - Caprock High School, their new dirctor has taken them from getting 3s to Division 1s the last two years. Also traveling to New Mexico to compete at ZIA based on their band calendar along with Canyon and I am hearing rumors about Randall as well (not confirmed), that makes three panhandle bands potentially going to that contest.

Great rule........in my opinion.

If they would pull that off, that would be pretty #### awesome. lol

Some panhandle reps: Canyon - Ballet Sacra (Scott Coulson came and cliniced us last year and pretty much told us how to restructure our program so we could be more competetive, so expecting to see a lot of similarities to their 97 championship show) Randall - Some mirror type show, using mirrors I think. New director, heard things about how that's working out. About all I know. Amarillo High - Rhapsody in Blue, Blue Shades, and Blue Rondo a la Turk Frenship - Indivisible

I have one more to add! (Kinda for the beginning of the season in general) Don't think you suck! The first performance and contest is always full of jitters, forgetting parts, and just freaking out, especially for freshman! I remember last year, we had kind of a rough first run (roughest 1st performance when I was in high school), and you woulda thought it was late October and we were sunk! It was late August for heavens sake! We got to our first contest as well and kinda tanked. We got 8th out of 11th with a 60.something, and our in district rival 8 pointed us for 1st that day. That was late September. The beginning of the season is a starting point, not where you are going to finish! Don't let it set the tone! We ended up finishing third at a contest we had finished 4th and 9th the previous two times, got straight ones (again), made finals (6th) at a contest in New Mexico we had gotten 12th, 13th, and 12th at the last three times, and made area finals (Three way tie for 5th) when we had placed 11th the last round (our in district rival that clobbered us at that early season contest was last in finals). The first show is NOTHING like what will happen with the show. Just go out there, and do your job, and things will come together!

As far as Area A in 5A, I'd say El Paso Coronado and Keller are pretty much locks, after that, I'd say it's open game, some stronger than others, but after those I think it just depends on who is having a good year or a bad one.

Helmets kinda remind me of Bluecoats.

I'm in the same boat you are, it's weird hearing them announce it and knowing you won't be a part of it. My (old) school's doing a Ballet Sacra show. Heard the first version of the opener. It's fast (around 180 for about 5 and 1/2 minutes of the show). And the wind parts are harder than they've ever been. Show design is up to that of our 2004 3A bronze medalist show, so definitely on par with the hardest show they've done. Scott Coulson (retired from Mesquite Poteet) came and observed our entire program for 2 days in February in order to tell what we can do as directors, students, and as a whole program to become the best we can be. Probably moving to a 2 period format, 1 for each of our bands, and ect. Lots of other little things as well. They're putting EVERYTHING on the table next year, great risk. But that can come with great reward. Really looking forward to being on the spectator side. Oh, they also got new uniforms:

4A Area A. That's intense. 1. El Paso Hanks 2. Boswell 3. Saginaw 4. Azle 5. Frenship 6. Del Valle Those 6 are going to be TOUGH to break through next time around. Really tough.

Our top ensemble is doing Ogoun Badagrs by Rouse. Freakin. Awesome. I got the Timpani and Cowbell part (with the other stuff). Pretty fun.

Well you have Scheherezade and Incantation, two very widely used pieces by drum corps and marching bands.

I know our auditions in Region 1 are a little earlier than everyone else's but this was going to be made eventually. So......... I placed 2nd chair out of 52 percussionists, definitely planning on going to area.

All I'll say is we reset the standard for our school from an emotional and performance level standpoint. Very rough start, but all ended up VERY well in the end. Amazing way to end my high school marching career, we dug ourselves out of the hole we've been in for about five years. We made finals in New Mexico for the first time since 2006, and placed 6th for that metter. Finished 5th at Area, one place below advancing to state, but I wouldn't have traded going to San Antonio for anything in that season. Our show grew and grew throughout the season and ended as something absolutely spectacular. West Texas bands are getting better, we might not have been too much of a force to be reckoned with for awhile, but that's soon going to change. 11th place at area in 09 to 5th is a pretty big jump, next time around, you might be seeing Canyon High School in San Antonio knocking down the doors of some big players, and I'll be a very proud alumni watching. Season recap: Putnam City Marching Classic: 9/24/11 Prelims - 7th place, 60.2 (out of 11) Finals - 8th Place, 60.7 (out of 11) Really turned on the heat from prelims to finals, AMAZING improvement in one show. High Plains Marching Festival: 10/8/11 Prelims: 4th Place (out of 17) Finals: 3rd Place (out of 8) Percussion - 4th Color Guard - 3rd Region Marching Contest: 10/15/11 (Insane crowd reaction, first time the show started to sparkle). Division Rating - 1 (Advance to Area A Class AAAA marching contest) ZIA Marching Band Fiesta: 10/22/11 Prelims - 6th place - 71.4 (out of 27) (This kinda score usually wouldn't make finals, when they said 10th was a 63.8, we went NUTS). Class AA Champion, High GE, High Music, and High Visual (One of the two non 4A bands in finals, second consecutive year to win and sweep captions in this class). Finals - 6th place - 69.45 (out of 10 Amazing performing in that stadium, huge crowd!) Area Marching Contest: 10/29/11 Prelims: 6th Place (out of 24) UIL Score: 38 (This prelims performance was "that" show we haven't had for about five years). Finals: 5th Place (Three way tie, 7th after tie breaker, out of 10) UIL Score: 33

By that I meant that they didn't sweep, Cedar Park performed their very challenging show EXTREMELY well and definetely deserved to win, I was just saying they didn't have a perfect score, Dripping Springs put on an EXTREMELY clean finals run. Those 2 were definetely in a leagure of the own from a cleanliness standpoint. COMPLETELY agree with the results!

Cedar Park didn't run away with it. http://utdirect.utexas.edu/uilsmbc/lbw2_sc...;s_display_sw=R Them and dripping springs were very close. AMAZING bands, congrats to all!

Area A Prelims: 1) Azle 2) Boswell 3) Frenship 4) Plainview 5) Timber Creek 6) Canyon 7) Randall 8) Ryan 9) Del Valle 10) Springtown Area A Finals: 1 - 3) Azle, Frenship, Boswell 4) Del Valle 5) *three way tie* - Timber Creek, Ryan, Canyon 8) Springtown 9) Plainview 10) Randall

I know those top 4 aren't a lock necessarily, but if someone was wanting to break in, they'd have to be pretty good. I know which 4 I'd like to advance as well, but you gotta be realistic unfortunately.

Area A 4A I see going down like this : 1 - 4) Boswell, Frenship, Azle, Del Valle 5 - 10) Liberty, Canyon, Randall, Springtown, Ryan, Plainview 11 - 14) Riverside, Timber Creek, Brewer, Rider The rest I don't know, I'm pretty sure those top 4 are a slide in for state, but who knows, a few of those 5 to 10 ones could slip in.

Frisco Centennial, pretty good. Pretty good.

Based on what the results showed last night, looks like these guys will make some noise: Dawson - Beat Claudia Taylor Johson in prelims and 05, 07, AND 09 state silver medalist Friendswood. Boswell - Beat out Argyle in finals and Aledo in HEB prelims. Frisco Centennial - Beat Hebron, Sachse, Haltom and Rowlett. Vandegrift - Beat Cedar Park, Reagan, Round Rock, Westlake, and Lake Travis. Yes UIL is judged differently, but those are some pretty BIG victories.

I didn't know or not if a band that gets a 1,2,1 advances to area. There are 2 bands in our region that did, and was interested to know if they advanced or not. (We got straight ones. )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mv-dE1ifnY Not Texas, but Broken Arrow is looking and sounding REALLY good this year. Dang.