2019 BOA Austin

[Rubisco]

I haven't seen everyone's full show, obviously, but I'm leaning toward a third CTJ championship for this contest, which would be the first time a group has won the same regional three years in a row in TX since SFA last did it in '02-'04 at the Houston regional. But, CTJ will have some VERY stiff competition from groups like Leander, Vandegrift, and Vista Ridge.

[natertater21000]

The LISD south trio is going to have to be pretty clean to beat ctj. It's really hard to compete against a full show in the GE caption simply because they're going to be the only ones presenting a completed idea to the judges. Still not sure how I feel about the amount of musical callbacks in the opener. They do sound great though.

[LeanderMomma]

I do wish it wasn’t based so much on show length (so long as a minimum six minutes is achieved and the ending doesn’t fizzle), but I understand the reasoning, and you simply must give kudos to CTJ for the huge undertaking it must be to get an entire production on the field so early in the season. Those kids may as well be in DCI because that’s how they practice.

 

I don’t see any of LISD South changing our practice based on this, though. Every program does what is best for them, and if that means we peak later in the season, then so be it.

 

There’s still three weeks before BOA Austin however. Anything can happen.

[CTJBandPops]

  On 9/8/2019 at 5:12 PM, LeanderMomma said:

I do wish it wasn’t based so much on show length (so long as a minimum six minutes is achieved and the ending doesn’t fizzle), but I understand the reasoning, and you simply must give kudos to CTJ for the huge undertaking it must be to get an entire production on the field so early in the season. Those kids may as well be in DCI because that’s how they practice.

 

I don’t see any of LISD South changing our practice based on this, though. Every program does what is best for them, and if that means we peak later in the season, then so be it.

 

There’s still three weeks before BOA Austin however. Anything can happen.

I do not think it is about the length of the show, the 6 minute minimum does not close the loop - every band builds their show to have a climax in the closer - take away the climax and the early shows just stop, and at times a bit awkward at that. it is a bit short with no happy ending.

 

Keep in mind, Marcus used to routinely win with 2 productions on the field over programs that had a complete show

[LeanderMomma]

  On 9/8/2019 at 5:39 PM, banddad84 said:

I do not think it is about the length of the show, the 6 minute minimum does not close the loop - every band builds their show to have a climax in the closer - take away the climax and the early shows just stop, and at times a bit awkward at that. it is a bit short with no happy ending.

 

Keep in mind, Marcus used to routinely win with 2 productions on the field over programs that had a complete show

I’ll agree and disagree with you. I disagree on a completed show not scoring more favorably with the judges than an incomplete one, but I’ll TOTALLY agree on those awful awkward endings early in the season. Leander’s just up and died on Thursday night. That’s probably why a lot of bands don’t even perform their competition show this early during football games.

[CTJBandPops]

  On 9/8/2019 at 5:47 PM, LeanderMomma said:

I’ll agree and disagree with you. I disagree on a completed show not scoring more favorably with the judges than an incomplete one, but I’ll TOTALLY agree on those awful awkward endings early in the season. Leander’s just up and died on Thursday night. That’s probably why a lot of bands don’t even perform their competition show this early during football games.

2017 Austin, Everyone made a big deal that CTJ had their entire show on the filed - but the bigger impact was not that it was complete but it was clean that early. A longer show is more to judge. a longer show that is dirty can hurt you - hence the reason that so many focus on cleaning a smaller part of the book.  in 2017 CTJ and  Vandy tied for Music, CTJ to Visual over Vandy by .30 and took GE over Vandy by 2.5 points.  it was not because it was a longer show - it was a cleaner show that told a whole show that was cleaner.

 

2018 Austin was the same - the win came from Visual and GE - like every BOA event GE is King - though 2018 the scoring was tighter and I expect it to be the same in 2019.

 

Just my thoughts... that and $10 will get you a latte and Starbucks

[LeanderMomma]

Edit: deleting my possibly snarky comment. Apologies. Carry on.

[natertater21000]

Even more from GE since Vista took the visual caption.

[CTJBandPops]

  On 9/8/2019 at 9:59 PM, natertater21000 said:

Even more from GE since Vista took the visual caption.

Correct - VR took visual by .05 over CTJ - and CTJ have VR by 2.5 in GE

[Visitor2020]

  On 9/8/2019 at 9:59 PM, natertater21000 said:

Even more from GE since Vista took the visual caption.

but GE is the largest part of the scoring...Right?? - so bands want to play to that aspect? still new to this but trying to catch up with the season coming.

[natertater21000]

  On 9/8/2019 at 10:41 PM, Visitor2020 said:

 

but GE is the largest part of the scoring...Right?? - so bands want to play to that aspect? still new to this but trying to catch up with the season coming.

Correct but it's all tied together, good performance quality is required for the GE to have its full effect.

[CTJBandPops]

  On 9/8/2019 at 11:11 PM, natertater21000 said:

Correct but it's all tied together, good performance quality is required for the GE to have its full effect.

so a GE win is still tied to having a good quality performance and thus dictates to overall winner. this is regardless if their show is 6 minutes or 10 minutes long

 

Just asking....

[josephbandfan]

I've always thought about it as a double-edged sword. You have a completed show with more to judge on but you also risk being less clean earlier in the season.

[natertater21000]

  On 9/9/2019 at 1:05 AM, banddad84 said:

so a GE win is still tied to having a good quality performance and thus dictates to overall winner. this is regardless if their show is 6 minutes or 10 minutes long

 

Just asking....

Well in the early season being the only one showing a complete idea for the judges has a huge GE advantage. That's what makes the extra rehearsal time worth it.

[LeanderMomma]

  On 9/9/2019 at 5:01 AM, natertater21000 said:

Well in the early season being the only one showing a complete idea for the judges has a huge GE advantage. That's what makes the extra rehearsal time worth it.

They should win GE just for those incredible uniforms this year. Who creates those suckers anyway? What a fun job.

[TWHSParent]

  On 9/9/2019 at 2:14 PM, LeanderMomma said:

They should win GE just for those incredible uniforms this year. Who creates those suckers anyway? What a fun job.

 

Of course 2/3rds of GE is music - do the uniforms make sounds too?

[TWHSParent]

And by the way, I think they look awesome from the one photo I've seen. Have to really see how they present on the field, but I bet it is really good.

[LeanderMomma]

  On 9/9/2019 at 2:41 PM, TWHSParent said:

Of course 2/3rds of GE is music - do the uniforms make sounds too?

I still have so much to learn! I didn’t know that. I figured GE was overall combination of theme, how the music and props (and costumes) relate to the theme, and how it made you feel as an audience member. Yeah I totally came up with that on my own. Obviously I have no clue.

[LeanderMomma]

  On 9/9/2019 at 2:43 PM, TWHSParent said:

And by the way, I think they look awesome from the one photo I've seen. Have to really see how they present on the field, but I bet it is really good.

They’ll have the younger crowd eating out of their hands along with the millennial crowd who were young children the first time Lion King came out. This show will be a HUGE crowd pleaser.

[TWHSParent]

  On 9/9/2019 at 6:54 PM, LeanderMomma said:

I still have so much to learn! I didn’t know that. I figured GE was overall combination of theme, how the music and props (and costumes) relate to the theme, and how it made you feel as an audience member. Yeah I totally came up with that on my own. Obviously I have no clue.

 

There are 2 music GE judges, and 1 visual GE judge, and each score is additive to the total so GE is 60% of the total, with music GE being 40% and visual GE being 20%. The performance judges (individual and ensemble) scores are averaged, so visual performance average is 20% and music performance average is 20%.

 

If you haven't, reading through the adjudication part of the official BOA rulebook is informative on how BOA defines these things.

[LeanderMomma]

  On 9/9/2019 at 8:02 PM, TWHSParent said:

 

If you haven't, reading through the adjudication part of the official BOA rulebook is informative on how BOA defines these things.

Sounds riveting.

[TWHSParent]

  On 9/9/2019 at 8:26 PM, LeanderMomma said:

Sounds riveting.

 

Cure for insomnia!

[JeremiahW]

If you talk to Jarrett, he'll tell you the change to putting the whole show on early is all about endurance. CTJ's shows are uniquely extremely physically challenging, and waiting until October to put on a closer doesn't give your students enough time to be able to pull it off. Performing just 3 minutes for a month, then 6 minutes for a month and finally 9 minutes for the last three weeks, doesn't set that particular program up for success like having the kids push through an 11 minute show for two months straight. Now, it also is a huge reason why CTJ never cleans. As everyone knows, early in the season most of the students are still learning how to learn drill, and the cleanest drill they know is whatever they learned last. So when you learned all your drill two months ago, and learned some bad habits into it, that makes it much harder to clean.

[LeanderMomma]

  On 9/10/2019 at 2:43 AM, JeremiahW said:

If you talk to Jarrett, he'll tell you the change to putting the whole show on early is all about endurance. CTJ's shows are uniquely extremely physically challenging, and waiting until October to put on a closer doesn't give your students enough time to be able to pull it off. Performing just 3 minutes for a month, then 6 minutes for a month and finally 9 minutes for the last three weeks, doesn't set that particular program up for success like having the kids push through an 11 minute show for two months straight. Now, it also is a huge reason why CTJ never cleans. As everyone knows, early in the season most of the students are still learning how to learn drill, and the cleanest drill they know is whatever they learned last. So when you learned all your drill two months ago, and learned some bad habits into it, that makes it much harder to clean.

That’s the best explanation I’ve heard yet. Totally makes sense for a CTJ show which is usually more of a Broadway production than a Marching band show. Other bands can make a temporary ending work as they slowly add drill to a show that tells a story, but the CTJ productions/stories really do need to be fully told every time.

[BrewersGrill2319]

  On 9/10/2019 at 2:43 AM, JeremiahW said:

If you talk to Jarrett, he'll tell you the change to putting the whole show on early is all about endurance. CTJ's shows are uniquely extremely physically challenging, and waiting until October to put on a closer doesn't give your students enough time to be able to pull it off. Performing just 3 minutes for a month, then 6 minutes for a month and finally 9 minutes for the last three weeks, doesn't set that particular program up for success like having the kids push through an 11 minute show for two months straight. Now, it also is a huge reason why CTJ never cleans. As everyone knows, early in the season most of the students are still learning how to learn drill, and the cleanest drill they know is whatever they learned last. So when you learned all your drill two months ago, and learned some bad habits into it, that makes it much harder to clean.

It's a huge endurance thing, and you having marched drum corps and I at least making it through spring training before having to get surgery and pull out, we both know that repetition breeds excellence. The more reps you get on a full product, the more normal and comfortable it will feel on the field. I will say having marched '15-'18 at CTJ, the difference in comfortably performing '17/'18 as compared to '15/'16 in earlier comps like Austin and McAllen (other than my experience difference at the time) was huge, and I can still remember the shock of the kids' faces including mine when the score gaps at Austin were announced. I'll be speaking out of my bum for a second but I do recall VR winning visual at Austin in '18 and that goes to show that the cleanliness of vis/mus can very well go to a program with an incomplete production, however there are the sub captions like mus effect to consider as well, so I do think completing the show early can do only good in terms of early season results. That said, having just graduated from Johnson and watching other programs and corps rehearse, it is evident that bad habits are prone to form when the program is quickly put on the field.