Here is a video of a practice of my daughter's high school band. The sound quality isn't that great, but I hope the other band geeks here enjoy it. This is the show that they will be performing this weekend at BOA in San Antonio.

Very cool! Isn't marching band pretty crazy these days?

yeah, that set is crazy. The whole theme is French (Belle poke'?) As the band is taking the field there is recorded music. They set up their Eiffel tower (has to be leaning because they don't allow anything over 8' or anyone standing on towers higher than 6'). Underneath and behind the tower is a changing area for some of the colorguard to change (remove a layer) and for storage of other props. In the competition the light poles have lights on them that are lit.

There are four parts to the show, and my favorite is when they split up into the "day and night" scenes. The "street band" is trying to convey a day scene in Paris with the light hearted music, paintings and overall jovial feel. Then the balance of the band is Paris at night with the lights and the flowing tone.

The amount of time these kids has put into this is staggering. They started working on this during the summer with two and three-a-day practices and have been working on it up to 10 hours a week after school (they count Friday night games as an hour).

The last thing that I find really amazing is that this is just the competition marching band. The full Jaguar band is 350 students. Most of the students that are in just the full "Jag Band" are freshmen, so they are learning what goes into a performance and season. I know that is a benefit of being a large school, but the dedication to the arts is amazing.

Yes, most people don't realize what the time commitment is. Last year my students and I added up our practice hours and realized that we had put more time into our show then the football team put into "performing" for their games... it was crazy!

Yeah, the UIL, University Interscholastic League, is very strict as to the number of hours students spend in rehearsals and practice. They limit all activities (sports, music and other educational activities) to eight hours per week (with an extra hour for warm-up prior to a game or competition. That is only in effect during the school year.

Drum Corps, not marching band

Rock on!

Edit: Frib pwnage! lol, my mistake yes!

A real fan of Drum Corps would know how to spell it :p

From a blogger at the BOA festival:
"Flower Mound - Belle Époque - huge chord builds exude tons of resonant power in this beautiful, fun, and quirky paris show. They have a ton of fun and bring it through every part of the show. The guard really adds to both the majesty and the whimsy. But it is those last few chords that really push the show up. And I really liked the brief and subtle frere Jacques right at the end."

Of the 59 bands that competed at this contest (This is a BoA Super Regional that also is the State Championship), FMHS finished 9th. This is their first time to qualify for the BoA Super Regional, so everyone is very proud. The other High School in town, Flower Mound Marcus finished 4th, they were the defending State Champions.

I remember Flower Mound always having a really solid program ten years ago. I went to Arlington High and as a big 5A district the two top programs (Arlington and Martin) got robbed out of state qualification every other year. I think we were ranked 2-3 at our UIL competition and then didn't get to do anything with it because it wasn't a state year. It's amazing how much the rules have changed in a decade, and the kind of creativity that's allowed now. In my day any sound produced on the field had to come from the band, and no one would have dreamed of doing shit like that. Except Duncanville maybe, with their 400-piece band and ridiculous structures.

Welp guess I'm gonna spend the rest of the night watching marching band shit on youtube.

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Very nice! I like being able to hear the woodwinds.

I loved Drum Corps in school. I marched Quads (Tenors) through high school and college. Actually quit sports for Marching band my senior year because my body nearly couldn't take all of it. My senior year of HS my instructor was straight out of the army and it was brutal. A lot of people really underestimate what these guys go through. I heard it was much softer now but I would say if people marched in a DCI Corps it would still be pretty tough.

Awesome though... glad to see and hear the video!