<p>What is your show this year?
My band is doing A Ron Nelson Holiday by Ron Nelson. It is sick.</p>
<p>My band is doing Fathoms by Gary Gilroy but we added things to make it fit its current title: Elements.</p>
<p>Great tune, now if only we can execute it… smh</p>
<p>Instead of doing just one show for competition, we are doing three which is supposedly how colleges do it. First show is motown/r&b consisting of Thriller, a Stevie Wonder song, and Forget You. Also doing a Latin Jazz show and a Queen show.</p>
<p>That will be hard to perfect shows for competition. Do you do TOB or USSBA? Or some other band league?</p>
<p>We’re doing The Gates. It’s alright, but the original was too slow so we bumped it up to 176 BPM. We compete in USSBA.</p>
<p>How much of your drill have you guys already set for your show? The staff in my school has gotten SO slow and we’ve covered seven pages in two days after going six in one day -___________-</p>
<p>And we’re in TOB. It’s worse because we switched this year from USSBA after the band director thought the judging was ********, so we have NO idea what the competition is like.</p>
<p>We’re almost done with the opener. Also, USSBA judging is not ********. If you want to see that, go to BOA or Cavalcade…lol…</p>
<p>Lol I don’t even know what BOA and USSBA even are 
my school fails
We’ve done all of the drill for the first show though.</p>
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<p>I know right! But last year was his fourth year and compared to his first three years we were doing much, much more poorly because literally half the band was first-years, so visuals naturally won’t be as good. But the staff blamed it on the judges because of certain things they judged us against.</p>
<p>It just rained here so no new drill (likely). Honestly I’m VERY worried about the season.</p>
<p>Yea. Having a bad senior year season is a worst nightmare…</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know what to make out of this season yet. I think we are doing well, but looking back at our old videos we are always weak musically. I haven’t a clue as to why we are ranked so high…</p>
<p>My school has always been weak in some way in, like, every area. Musical expression, spacing, cover downs, MARCHING, color guard… I think battery’s the only part of the band who’s been 100% consistent for several consecutive years. There’s a lot of individuals who can do all of the above, but everyone else… tough.</p>
<p>Anyone here in TOB and living in New Jersey? There might be a chance we compete against each other.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, are there any limitations on practice times for you folks?
In Texas, UIL (University Interscholastic league - handles tons of the competition things in the state, athletic/fine arts/academic) has a 8-hour limit per week; that does not include performance, travel, etc, and does not include practice on performance days. </p>
<p>In fact, sometimes schools just don’t compete in any UIL competitions (note: there are several divisions based on school size, 5A is the largest, then 4A, 3A, 2A, 1A) because one year 5A and 3A bands have a state competition, then 4A and 2A, then back to 5A/3A, etc. So occasionally they just ignore any of that stuff and go past 8 hours and do BOA stuff. (there is a super-regional competition the same weekend as our state competition in the same stadium (Alamodome) anyway)</p>
<p>While I’m here: [Avon</a> Marching Black and Gold BOA Final 2009 - YouTube](<a href=“Avon Marching Black and Gold BOA Final 2009 - YouTube”>Avon Marching Black and Gold BOA Final 2009 - YouTube) - this is one awesome show; I absolutely love its music.</p>
<p>We don’t do shows for competition. </p>
<p>We just perform the same damn songs over and over at the games. Then we might march on the field, if the other school even lets us. </p>
<p>I hate everything about it. The jump-suit/uniform. The late Friday nights when I get home at 12 PM. I quit :).</p>
<p>^
Ouch, that sounds pretty awful. How many people are in the program? (and how big is the school, I guess)</p>
<p>That show from the YouTube link was ridiculously good…</p>
<p>^
Well, it did get 1st place at the grand-nationals for BOA, so I’d hope it’s good. (I think that school has 3 years in a row now?)</p>
<p>I honestly wish doing shows like that was more feasible with smaller bands. But… it’s hard for a smaller band to match that sound, and not to mention the degree of drill difficulty there.</p>
<p>^
Yep, I always feel awful for smaller bands. They just don’t have a chance… I believe our marching band has around ~200 members. The top bands at any competition almost always have numbers from 250-300 it seems. (LD Bell and Marcus have enormous bands, I think one of those two actually has two marching bands because of that, which means only experienced/good members are in the top one…)</p>
<p>There’s just no way for a band with < 150 people to really fill up the football field, so those private schools that have 30 marchers don’t have much luck.</p>
<p>It’s just as bad when you try to play a piece suited for 150+ member bands - as a 35 member band.</p>
<p>Or if you’re playing a grade 3 piece and there are some grade 2 musicians -_-</p>
<p>^^ I really have to disagree with that and ^that
[Governor</a> Livingston Highlander Marching Band 2005 ACCs - YouTube](<a href=“Governor Livingston Highlander Marching Band 2005 ACCs - YouTube”>Governor Livingston Highlander Marching Band 2005 ACCs - YouTube)
[Pocono</a> Mountain West Marching Band 2005 ACC - YouTube](<a href=“Pocono Mountain West Marching Band 2005 ACC - YouTube”>Pocono Mountain West Marching Band 2005 ACC - YouTube)
A group 1 and 2 band that sound and look boss.
Also bands compete in size groups because it would be like comparing grapes to peas and apples. Bigger bands means judges probably won’t get a good look at everyone in the band. </p>
<p>Our show is grade 5 and our director is adding the Cadet rips into our show’s opener. [Rocky</a> Point Holiday - Holy Name Cadets (2009) - YouTube](<a href=“Rocky Point Holiday - Holy Name Cadets (2009) - YouTube”>Rocky Point Holiday - Holy Name Cadets (2009) - YouTube)</p>
<p>I love my show this year.</p>