BOA American Canyon Regional Results

Topics and polls that cover the overall marching band activity

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6yr.bandvet
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Re: BOA American Canyon Regional Results

Post by 6yr.bandvet » Thu Nov 19, 2015 2:06 pm

The point of musical education and growth was not referring to band size (although it something that is measurable) as to more the amount of people that get to experience music, thus Music for All. The quality is then left to the directors, and producing that quality with the means they have available.

"Would southern CA’s music scene suddenly expand and flourish if we required the Los Angeles High Schools to compete head to head with the Ayalas? I don’t think so."

-Would Tarpon Springs suddenly expand and flourish if we require them to compete head to head with the Ayalas? I think so. Heck they might just win Grand Nationals one day, why not.

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Re: BOA American Canyon Regional Results

Post by Hostrauser » Fri Nov 20, 2015 6:48 am

6yr.bandvet wrote:"Would southern CA’s music scene suddenly expand and flourish if we required the Los Angeles High Schools to compete head to head with the Ayalas? I don’t think so."

-Would Tarpon Springs suddenly expand and flourish if we require them to compete head to head with the Ayalas? I think so. Heck they might just win Grand Nationals one day, why not.
Tarpon Springs is also the performing arts magnet school for the Pinellas County Schools district. The music program at Tarpon Springs has flourished even further while the music programs at other district schools have been scaled back or eliminated.

For many years, Broken Arrow INTERMEDIATE High School had 9th and 10th graders and Broken Arrow SENIOR High School (the one that competes at BOA) had just 11th and 12th graders. Intermediate is now the BA Freshman Academy, and the Senior HS has 10th-12th. They get 400-500 kids who audition for the marching band, and every year they're competing with their best ~300 players, primarily juniors and seniors (only a handful of sophomores and no freshmen).

On the other hand, Marian Catholic High School has only about 1,100 kids and marches everyone who wants to march, even freshmen. Both Broken Arrow and Marian Catholic have achieved ENORMOUS competitive success with very different circumstances and backgrounds.

But it's important to remember that every school is a unique individual (so to speak), with its own set of strengths and weaknesses. I'm not a big fan of FORCING bands into higher competitive classes just because of size (school or band). Los Angeles HS's band shouldn't be put into the same class as Upland and Fountain Valley just because the schools are massive. Likewise, the 300+ member Reedley HS band shouldn't be put into the same class as Amador Valley and James Logan just because the band is massive.

In Minnesota, YIM (Youth in Music) offers three classes, A, AA, and AAA, and suggests band directors choose their best fit based on competitive desire, band ability, and resources. It works pretty well, if not flawlessly (the lowest, A, and highest, AAA, classes tend to have the majority of bands, while the middle division, AA, is almost a "transition" division that no one seems to stay in very long). USBands has six classes based on ensemble size, but breaks each class down into an A (beginning/intermediate) and an Open (advanced/competition) division.

I'm not sure there is one "best option," but I think allowing band directors some flexibility in choosing the level of competition they want to face is key.

6yr.bandvet
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Re: BOA American Canyon Regional Results

Post by 6yr.bandvet » Fri Nov 20, 2015 8:24 am

Yes, but then you'll get the band director that wants to just win so he/she will put them at a lower level to get the high placement.

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Re: BOA American Canyon Regional Results

Post by SuperAction80 » Fri Nov 20, 2015 10:03 am

I think the band size classification works best for California bands. If all the bands were in one massive association with equal funding I can see the enrollment based classification working...but since we're not, different music programs have different challenges, so competing against bands your own size makes sense to me.
Anyways California is unique in that we have several associations or circuits to select from...Whether it be SCSBOA, SCJA, MBOS, WBA, BOA, or others I may neglect to know exists. So Cal directors are given such a broad choice to select where and how their band will compete that all this talk about scores and classification seems moot. However I'm all for opinions and discussions so......

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