king_leonides

Which is strange. The Houston Chronicle article clearly states that they were.....Presumably the Chronicle got their information from the folks at TWHS. The event is still sad and disturbing. As the HC article alludes to, this has happened before, and conceivably could happen to any band program.

The sad thing is this: Two years ago, they were disqualified from the state UIL contest, because of an ineligible marcher. After that, they decided not to compete in the BOA super regional, or nationals. The parents who spent all that money, to send that band to Indianapolis, had to see it all go to waste. Needless to say, the parents were extremely angry when that happened. Imagine takeing several hundred thousand dollars, and flushing it down the toilet.....all because of the irresponsible actions of one kid. Here is the article from that event from the Houston Chronicle: http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2008/11/...twhs_band_1.txt That is one of the saddest and most disgusting events in Texas marching history. But you do have to give the director there some credit, for admitting to what happened, and voluntarily taking themselves out that contest. That man showed a lot of moral courage for doing that.

No, it wasn't a playoff show. It was a UIL regional competition. It was 5A program, and there was no 5A state championship that year. It was an odd-numbered year. (I strongly suspect that the director of that program put together a simplistic show for that year. His outfit does not perform at BOA, or other contests that involve GE. His attitude seemed to be: With no area or state competition this year, why bother?) Look, this is one of just a series of complaints I have against UIL. But this is the one that irritates me the most. I can undersdand the rationale for much of what I also don't like with UIL: 1) Holding the championships on a weekday. They apparently can't rent out a suitable facility on the weekend during football season. The probably could, but it would be extremely expensive. They would have to pay some athletic director not to hold football games in their own stadium on a Saturday. Plus the bands would not be able to march their own football games that weekend, which would be very unpopular. 2) Holding the champinships indoors. Accoustics in the Alamodome stink. We all know that. The echo effect in there is horrendous, especially for percussion. (They are even worse than in Lucas Oil Stadium, which is terrible. That place is practically an echo chamber.) But they want to hold their championship indoors, because they want to avoid rain-outs. So back to the "San Antonio Echo Chamber" we go..... 3) Holding the 4A/5A championships in alternating years. Again, it is grossly unfair to the marching band students, that they cannot compete for a state title every year. Imagine if this rule was in place in football? Dear God, there would be riots in this state! But because of economics, UIL can't afford to stage this event for all 5 classifications every year. The previous 3 complaints can all be chalked up to economic or scheduling issues. If those can't be fixed, then we just have to live with it. But the judging rubrics is something that can be fixed. That is entirely under the control of the UIL, and there is no economic justification for that situation. I do suspect that the situation will be rectified over time, however. I think that UIL will eventually move to the national standards that BOA/DCI employ. I just hope that it happens before my grandchildren are ready to march....in the year 2035 or so!

GE is not simply created by the band director, or the music arranger, or the drill designer. It must be expressed by the performers on the field. The performers need to take the charts from the arranger, and the drill book from the designer, and convert those into a performance. If they have a creative show, and can express it with emotion, flair and dynamism, then you have general effect. If you lack either of these elements, then you don't. Then you end up with the Jingle Bells show. I've seen more than one show with great design, but poor interpretation by the band who marched it. Look at what takes place on the athletics side at UIL. Do all the football, basketball, and soccer coaches design the same schemes for their players? Of course they don't. They create different offensive and defensive schemes, for their student athletes. The coaches have to create a scheme that their players can execute, and then the athletes have to execute it. And oftentimes, the most creative coaches are the ones who win. I've seen more than one game, where one coach simply out-coached the other, by creating a better scheme, and showing their student athletes how to execute it. So no, by adding GE explicitly to the mix, we are not merely "judging the director." The judges really should judge the complete product on the field, because both the directors and students have to play their respective parts.

I once watched a band win a Superior rating at a region contest with a show consisting of Jingle Bells and Take Me Out to the Ball Game. No, I am not exaggerating. It came from a prestigious program, from an elite suburban school district, with a huge budget and tons of resources. Honestly, if I were judging that show, I would have given them a 3 or 4, and told the band director to take a hike. If I were a student in that program, I would have been offended at the mere thought of performing that show. Imagine if your a senior in that program, and you were told that instead of performing some magnum opus show for your last performance, you were going to do Jingle Bells. You've practiced your butt off for 7 years, and now, as a finale, all your band director is willing to trust you with is Take Me Out to the Ball Game. (That's when I started learning about the UIL, and some of the deficiencies in their competitive and judging methods.) So creativity and innovation should not be part of the judging metrics? Then what are we teaching our youth in these programs? Are we teaching them not to be creative? Or are we simply teaching them to be androids, who are completely incapable of expressing their creative abilites? No wonder so many of the student musicians simply walk away from music, on the day they get their high school diploma. To them, it's nothing but practice, practice, practice, with no expression whatsoever. Maybe after 7 years of this, they can play excellent scales and chromatics, and can sight-read like a genius, but do they have any real appreciation for the music they are playing? And could any of them actually create or improvise anything themselves? Sorry, this discussion has left me even more convinced that creativity and innovation need to be part of the judging package. Now, regarding the military vs. corps marching style: there must be very, very few marching bands in this state that use military. I have been going to shows in Texas for years now, and I haven't seen it used once. (When I was learning to march, it was still called "showband" style, but hey, that was before the invention of cell phones. Literally.) I would like to see greater variations in the marching styles, but I have to be realistic and pragmatic. Drum corps style offers far less exposure to individual performance errors. There's much less possibility for alignment, phasing and carriage mistakes. It is simply easier for young marchers to learn. (I should know, because I have marched both styles, and drum corps style was far simpler.) Most directors today are going to stick with drum corps style, even if the rules don't give it an implicit advantage. Most bands in Texas today even use the low mark-time, which is the easiest form of marching that I know of.

Is it impressive, because you have "Tall Tuba Players" and "Pretty Flags"? Sheesh, that guy is legendary. What is he up to nowadays? Is he still working as a court bailiff?

Sorry, I really think they should use the same scoring system and rubrics at all contests, and at all levels. Why? Because unless they do that, there is no way for them to establish relativity. This is another gripe that I have about the UIL and adjudication system - I could go on like this all night! Seriously, how many bands in Texas earn 1's at the district level? How do you know after the district contests, how you stand versus the other bands in other areas? You can't. Maybe the UIL should keep the 1-2-3-4-5 system, but still force their judging to put down a raw score on the 100 scale, even at the district level. Then at least the band directors will have some idea how their bands performed vis-a-vis the other programs in the state. And if they do this, then the judges will have to back up what they write on the sheets, with what they write on the tapes.

Well, that's another point. Why on earth would they use different rubrics for different levels? Why change the judging sheets at all, for the district/area/state rounds? That makes no sense whatsoever! I understand why they may have different advancement rules for each level, since they can't squeeze 50 bands into the Alamodome on one day, but why change the rubrics? The district competitions are typically the week before the area competitions. Can the band directors change the shows around, in less than a week, to change from the region rubrics to the area rubrics? Nope. So why change the rubrics? Again, their entire judging process is messed up.

Seriously....If you are a band director in this state, why even concern yourself with GE, unless you intend to compete in BOA? If you are just going to compete in UIL, why bother? Why go out and spend a fortune on a show designed by Key Poulan or Mark Higgenbotham or Richard Saucedo or Doug Thrower? Why not just pay for a simple show, that your band can march and play cleanly, even if it lacks GE? It doesn't have to be a creative masterpiece, under the UIL rubrics.

Maybe a portion of the rubrics have some GE components in them. But I would really prefer to see these broken out into a separate category. I really would like to see 40 points reserved for this, just like the other scoring systems around the country, at both the band and drum corps level. There's nothing in the existing rubrics about aesthetics, creativity, or level of emotional/intellectual impact. None whatsoever. p.s., if you've never read the rubrics that UIL has, they are available here: http://www.uiltexas.org/files/music/region...descriptor.pdf Ironically, many of the best shows in Texas have high levels of GE - but I strongly suspect this is because of the BOA system.

Here is a list of the state/region marching band associations, that use general effect, in their adjudication procedures: Michigan Competing Band Association Mid-States Band Association (Serves Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky) Florida Marching Band Coalition Tennessee Marching Band Championships Ohio Music Educators Association Western Band Association (California) Kentucky Music Educators Association And, of course, the Indiana Association uses it as well. Their state and regional competitions are preparation for BOA nationals, of course. In fact, many of the independent contests in Texas (not part of UIL) use GE as well. I know it is used at Lone State Preview, for example. So why is the UIL so far behind the times? What is their rationale or excuse for this? It simply makes no sense.

I re-read the UIL Adjudication procedures today, just to be sure that I wasn't hallucinating, when I first read them. General Effect is not considered as part judging procedures. What is up with that? That's whack! The adjudication rules are outlined here: http://www.uiltexas.org/music/marching-inf...ement-procedure Marching and music are the only 2 categories that are to be evaluated - not GE. Why is that? That makes absolutely no sense. In theory, under this system, you could play "Mary Had A Little Lamb", march around in a big square for 9 minutes, and have perfect score - and make Finals. Ridiculous. And technically, if you look at the actual comment sheet, color guard is not part of the scoring system at all! Why is that? I guess you could show up to a contest without a color guard, and still win.... Why doesn't the UIL use the BOA/DCI/DCA scoring system? Why isn't GE included? Is the leadership of UIL aware of this omission? Do they even care? Or are they just doing things this way, because "this is the way we've always done things?" And more to the point: has this hurt the ability of Texas bands to compete at BOA? If GE is not part of the UIL procedures, then what do you do, if you run a Texas band? Do you design a bland show, since GE is not part of the UIL tabulations? Or do you design a show with plenty of GE, so you can compete in BOA? (I know, several Texas bands have competed well, and even won, BOA Nationals. That still does not mean that Texas bands are at a disadvantage, because of this absurd disparity, in the scoring rules.) Of course, there's plenty of other UIL rules that put Texas bands at a disadvantage, when competing nationally....such as the 8-hour a week rule.....don't get me started on that one....