Joeyz

Oh yeah! I almost forgot - Round Rock was great! I LOVED them! Just so much FUN to watch.

In contests with so many bands traveling to far, with days taken off school, they can't postpone. Which is why they DID cancel finals. But as someone said earlier - if you're a really great band, the reverb from the dome shouldn't affect you're performance. I like watching shows in domes better because the music tends to be more in-your-face, so I think Allen would sound awesome in one if they ignored to reverb. Plus its just more comfortable.

Bowie - I was captivated by their energy, I've never seen them look or sound so fantastic. If it were up to me, they'd have placed 1st. Marcus - Their music was incredible, as always. They were SO clean. Their shadows were so cool to watch, and they were so well choreographed. I got chills from them in the part that they were spread across the field in two rows, and then morphed into the waves. It was awesome. I only wish I'd felt emotion from them like I had Bowie. The Woodlands - When I fist saw it I was a little disappointed, expecting something as innovative and awesome as their Nats show last year - but the more I saw it, the more I loved it. They always have fascinating shows in my opinion, and this one was no exception. Hebron - I couldn't ignore their awesome clarinet section, personally. I felt as if they were the only band where I could actually hear the woodwinds, and they sounded beautiful. I was personally very disappointed with Bell's show this year. I usually LOVE them - perhaps because they're so different from everyone else. They're shows are so complex, dark, mysterious, and, above all, unique. But the military show idea is just to tiresome now. I feel like Nats prelims last year was just military show after military show after military show - and now here Bell is with yet ANOTHER military show. They performed it beautifully (although I thought their drill was dirtier than in years past), but just by nature of having the theme they did, I could not appreciate it fully. I also thought, having a family member buried there, that the building of Arlington Cemetery in the back of the field was in poor taste. Please, don't think I'm slamming them in the least - I'm a huge Bell fan. And I thought they executed it fantastically. It was merely the show design I have a problem with. Their guard was beautiful, incredible, and spilling with energy, though. THAT part, I loved. Good luck to them at Nats!

Well, State was moved into the dome a few years ago because they had to cancel finals due to severe weather - similar to what happened to two of the Areas this year. Although the really great groups, in many cases, could handle the weather, there were people getting really hurt - a sousphone bell even got taco-ed. So I'm all for the dome. A bit of reverb never ACTUALLY hurt anybody.

Personally, I think this is about the colorguard. I mean, I love the Bell band, but when I find myself watching them intently, as you said, I can focus only on their guard. It seemed to me, this year particularly, that their drill was extrememly confined to the front area of the field - probably because of the Arlington Cemetary being built in the back. I did not find their band visually effective at all - however I could not take my eyes of the guard. Perhaps this is very different from you, but I do believe it begs the question, "Is this visual impact concept you refer to really about the marching drill, or does it come from outside the horn line?" I do agree, however, that marcus lacks significant visual energy that Bell clearly has in most cases. I just don't think it's about the drill, I think its about the quailty of the auxiliry guard.

Completely agree - A band program that values competitive success over self fulfillment is setting its members up for lots of disappointment

I totally understand. I liked the list - I found it interesting. My rant wasn't dirrected towards you - sorry if it seemed that way. But I do find it interesting that Area G schools are consistently so low

Exactly. The judges are there to do a job - judge the MARCHING of the performers. Perhaps they might glace back for a moment or two - but they are far too professional to stay distracted long enough that it might make an actual score difference.

This is exactly what I was trying to say - I think you said it better

The UIL judges are some of the greatest experts and most respected people in music education. They have far more credibility than any of us, and based on that, we ought to trust them despite our own or the other judges disagreements. You can't say with real validity that in NO area were they 17th - if someone that experienced saw it that way, we have no place to agrue. Perhaps that judge looked more for musical impact than pure sonority - in that, I would agree they are downthe ladder somewhat. The difference in what the judges value helps to more efficiently seperate the best from the worst. The reason people find so much more problem in the judging in UIL than in BOA is less of what the judges choose, and much more of how the scores are counted. The discrepencies are more wide and easily spotted purely because of the ranking system over the decimal system.

People talk alot about Bell have very emotional, engeretic shows. Personally, I feel like every bit of their energy comes from their color guard, and not one ounce of it from the band its self. That's just how I feel - and I was wondering if anyone agrees. Or am I just missing something?

I didn't mean it that way - it just seemed worth reminding people that Marcus DID have hard parts. Some seemed to imply that the show was simply easy through and through, and I just dont see that.

Round Rock. I saw a streaming of their performance at Area - obviously that's not the saw as seeing it live, but I thought they looked great, and sounded good considering it was on a laptop speaker. I didnt have a chance to see them at state, or live at all, for that matter, so maybe that's not fair to say - but I thought they had a really good show

Okay, I guess that's fair. Why? Is it that you think my opinions are invalid, or is it the way I presented them? I'd like to know if it's the latter so that I could present myself differently next time. However, if you just completely disagree with me, there's not much I can do

Obviously I'm a Marcus fan, but I still whole heartedly agree with this. It's the reason I really liked their show last year above most others - because it seemed, to me, less simplistic. One thing I don't like about them is their painfully simple themes, and last years wasn't so much. Also, I thought their props from last year were ugly and didnt contribute to the show - so I didn't even see them as a factor

I though Bowie was incredible all around, and while I adore Marcus, I was rooting for them this year. When I heard Duncanville was third, I actually thinking maybe Bell or Marcus wouldn't medal and Bowie would. Obviously I was quite mistaken on that, but I still enjoyed Bowie far more than the top three. But still, HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to those three bands, they were definitely INCREDIBLE. Great music, impecable marching. And I have a special place in my heart for the LD Bell Color guard - their engery is phenominal

I don't see a reason to lose respect for Marcus because of something I've said. It's not as if I represent them somehow, I just find many comments on here to be unfair to them. And I never said Bell's show wasn't difficult, because it obviously is. I've loved their band for years and years, but I personally think it's ignorant to say their show is without a doubt more difficult than Marcus, because I saw parts in their show this weekend that were equally as difficult as Bell's difficult. And marching is not ALWAYS more difficult than visuals. I could possibly agree that difficut marching is more respectable than difficult visuals, but if you think marching is always more difficult, then I'd venture to say you just haven't done hard visuals. Again, it's ridiculous to lose respect for them based on a bunch of opinions of people online. It's quite nonsensical.

I'm sorry, are you saying that Marcus's double tongueing is easier than anything Bell or Duncanville did? Perhaps they weren't traditionally marching while doing all of it, but did that visual look easy to do all the while? I sure didn't think so. And I look down to see, in their fifth movement, the trumpets singing out difficult triplet runs at 176 with huge backwards step, managing to keep the form in tact and the music incredible. All the while, I see Bell, who has very difficult marching sets, and very difficult musical excerpts, but never at the same time. Their high brass has crazy hard sets while resting, mean while their clarients have incredible runs with tiny, easy sets. I don;t think you were actually watching the shows if you think Marcus's show was easy.

To say that Marcus is a program more fitted for BOA than UIL seems backwards, and quite obviously incorrect, beeing that they've been consistently more successful in UIL than in BOA. While I agree with finding props disagreable, I only find fault in it when the band uses it to distract from their band technique or easy drill. Marcus has neither, and therefore I find there props nothing but a very extravagant way to incorporate spots for their members who don't earn spots. I would also like to add that, while you COULD make the argument that their props are a weasley way to earn GE points in BOA, the two visual judges at UIL are specified very specifically as MARCHING judges, and therefore are not affected by prop effects. Just because you were too easily distracted by the props to notice marcu's pristine technique and difficult marching responsibilties beneath music far more challenging than most other bands does not mean that the judges were simiarly distracted. This reply was not exclusively for you, RedJoker, but more broadly to anyone faulting Marcus for their props.

Personally, I think complaining about judging inconsistencies is nonsensical. It just depends on what the judge is looking at druing a particular part of your show, or just in general. Say side 1 of your field in generally very clean, which the drill on side 2 has serious interval and geometrical problems. If a judge is more focused on side 1, you'll get a significantly higher score from them than from the judge focusing on side 2. Similarly, if one judge values form shape far over individual technique, the score could again be significantly different than one who values them inversely. The same logic applies to musical judges. One might value tone quality most, while another thinks articulation accuracy matters far more. It makes no sense to complain about it - you have to be excellent in every aspect to please those judges, and if you're not, you can count on atleast one of them to catch it. Some people might say it causes faulty inconsistencies, but I think it merely serves to cover all the bases better.

Not sure about '06, but I know their part 5 in '08 was 176. This year their top tempo is 178 which they have in two sections of their part 5.

You're right, I was mistaken. I was confusing my memories with placement announcements. So I suppose to real point is just the same as everyone elses - that for the past 10 years the winners have been from Area B

Yes, but two years ago when it happened Coppel was in Area B.

I think the free pass is a baddd idea. It's just like how everyone was surprised by Richland not making it - What if Marcus was was disaster in two years, they should still get a pass to state because they USED to be good? No, that doesnt makes sense. However, I do agree that the system is flawed. When all three top bands from state '08 came from 1 Area, there's obviously an imbalance.