The Danpodcast - September 28th

[Danpod]

http://www.txbands.com/podcast/

 

Brand new episode!!! I'll give you my picks for the BOA Arlington Regional and talk about the art of the local contest. Go listen and enjoy! Thanks for the support!!!!!

 

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[rpd]

Wow, I wasn't expecting any sort of finals predictions for us. But if it came from anyone, I figured it would be from you because of your ties with Mr. Hildreth.

 

And I definitely agree with the local contest. We went to the East Central Contest this weekend and placed 4th and won the Colorgaurd caption, definitely not a position a "Possible maybe finalist" should be at first glance. But watching the shows of our district rivals, there's not much more room for them to grow. Competing versus these bands for the past 4 years, I know that they all fit they're prototypical show and there wont be much more evolving from here to Area. But with us, our drill and music is at such a higher level than the other NISD bands, I'm not worried about this competition.

 

I was talking with Mr. Hildreth on the way back to the bus, and he feels the same way I do. His main goal was to get rid of the first competition jitters out of the freshmen (freshmen actually make up around 30-40% of our band) before BOA Arlington.

Edited September 28, 2008 by rpd

[treyj]

I enjoyed this podcast.

And the point you make about bands getting "overconfident" from local contests was spot on. It's so hard with the younger kids when you win 1st along with all captions at every local contest you go to then have to explain to them we have much more work to do, for UIL and such.

:]

[Danpod]

  rpd said:

I was talking with Mr. Hildreth on the way back to the bus, and he feels the same way I do. His main goal was to get rid of the first competition jitters out of the freshmen (freshmen actually make up around 30-40% of our band) before BOA Arlington.

 

The local contest is a great way to get the nervousness of the first performance out of the way. Hildreth is a smart guy when it comes to this kind of stuff.

[takigan]

Interesting picks for finals. The 6 locks (*ahem*.....possible locks ) I expected, but the 7 possible maybe finalists threw me off a bit:

 

Leander - expected this....this band does consistently well across the board.

 

Marshall - didn't expect this....I've honestly never even heard of Marshall and I find it interesting you'd pick them over schools that have an established reputation at BOA like Martin or Lewisville. What about them earns your confidence?

 

Fossil Ridge - I didn't expect this one either, but I imagine your reasons are the same as the kids from Fossil Ridge and the few who have seen their show so far....a lot of people are hoping for a good showing from Fossil Ridge this time around.

 

Georgetown - I would say I expected this, until I listened to you explain your method for predicting finalists. If you're going by past BOA performances and leaving local contest and UIL placements out of the picture I wouldn't expect you to have them up at all, lol.

 

Connally - Expected. Connally will do great, some members think Connally is better than ever and they almost always do well (well, except at Westlake last year, but local contests are local contests).

 

Newman Smith - Wasn't Newman Smith the band that broke into the bubble of an extremely stacked early season regional a year or two ago after very few people had heard of them? If that's true this school is also in the running for finals....so, "expected".

 

Mansfield - Expected....they've done well in the past when Arlington was stacked, they're a great candidate for finals.

[Danpod]

Haha. I'll be happy to give you a little justification. There are all sorts of criteria I look at when making these picks. Yes, I like to focus mainly on BOA contests if I'm picking a BOA event, but I think it'd be a little irresponsible of me to completely ignore past accomplishments. I really didn't make that too clear on the podcast and I really do apologize for it. With that in mind, here's what I was thinking:

 

Marshall - I threw Marshall into the mix because think the kids are ready to reclaim the success they once had back in the 90's. The staff is great and I think the kids have started to really buy into the philosophy that was introduced last year. I'm hoping for a good performance from them this year.

 

Georgetown - I feel that with an impressive musical performance, they can "play" their way into Finals.

 

Newman Smith/Fossil Ridge - I put these two groups together because I feel that there is a fundamental thing that has held them back the past few years. I feel that both bands need more quality volume in their shows. The reason I use the term "quality volume" is because last year, the two categories that held these programs back were Music and Music General Effect. I think these programs can be in the mix with some full sounds and nice dynamic range.

 

Now, let's talk about Music General Effect. For some reason, people think that the only way to create Musical General Effect is to have eight synths and a ridiculous sound board. Not true! The Music General Effect sheets asks the judge if the program "demonstrated confidence and understanding of the musical program." If you can barely hear what is being played or if the music doesn't have any dynamic contrast, then you can't create General Effect. However, if musical fundamentals such as phrasing and tuning are followed, you can score big General Effect points.