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So, for those of you that have been waiting with baited breath on the Texas Bands that have enrolled. Provided is the link: http://www.musicforall.org/what-we-do/marching/grand-national-championships/gn-enrolled-bands Here is the TX Bands only: Cedar Ridge H.S., TX L.D. Bell H.S., TX Marcus H.S., TX Round Rock H.S., TX The Woodlands H.S., TX This list is the current one and their may be more bands from TX, but this is what was posted just today.

Good Luck to our Texas family of Bands and be safe and show them how it is done in the SOUTH!

I will try to give my 2 cents from the perspective of a parent since I feel we are part of the equation. Strong Middle School Infrastructure for Music - One of the things I noticed is that they did not just teach my child to play their instrument, but to understand and instruct on the music theory first and than addressed the instrument with proper care, handling and simple maintenance. Private Lessons - if you cannot afford, than work with the other students who do get it and learn from what their private lesson teachers provide them. Parental Support of the children, programs and directors (Both at the Middle and High School Level) - As many parents who have the ability to donate their "time" and "resources" is critical. Resources does not mean just money, but also talents. Believe me, I have provided help in areas where I felt I had no ideal what I was doing so talents can be hidden by effort! Practice, Practice, Practice Winning or placing is not the goal, performance excellence is the reason you do this from an individual and ensemle. It shows love for your craft and not the need to be recognized. The children taking personal responsibility for their actions and respecting their student leadership as well as parental leadership. Respect for other winning programs and learning from their successes. I am sure if you interviewed a band director and the kids in their programs, in most cases they are more than willing to provide their insight. This is about humility and not thinking you know the way, the winning directors and kids I have met are full of humility. A system based on competition can thrive as long as everyone understands in our culture of subjectiveness that life is not fair and if you know you did a great job and did "ALL" you could do, than you are successful. I am sure their is much more, I just gave my perspective as a parent.

Always interesting to see peoples opinions on the bands...especially the ones who are consistently recognized. We all have opinions on who marches a harder show, or has better visuals...etc etc.... Bottom line is that all these kids work their tails off and reading things like who is better than who from most people who are neither judges or instructors is annoying. These kids from all of these schools who work tremendously hard and unfortunately have to be judged by others on how well they did. In my book - they have all won just getting through this HOT summer and all have exciting shows. I am wowed and amazed by at least one if not more elements of every show I see on the field because of the hard work and determination of these kids! So let the judges who hopefully are objective decide here - not us - we will always be on the side of our favorite band or director - that is just the way we are built, subjective and not objective. As for the comment of the person looking down at their watch during one of the bands above - really? Everyone has a right to an opinion and I guess that is what forums seems to be about, but remember that the kids are the ones who really matter.