State High School Marching Band Competition

Yesterday we went to the Colorado Bandmaster's Association State 4A/5A High School Marching Band Finals held at Falcon Stadium at the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs.

First I have to say how amazing each and every band performed! I'm very impressed by the level of performance shown by all of these kids. I think that are far above where I remember my high school band, and possibly college bands at the time as well.

I was planning to take pictures of Arapahoe's band and color guard during the semi-finals, since it was during the afternoon when there would be plenty of natural light. We got a phone call from one of the color guard parents asking for help moving the large props that are used during the performance, as not all of the volunteers that they had arranged for had been able to make it. We were happy to help out, but it was a lot of work to wheel them down the hill from the parking lot, and into the tunnel leading to the field. It turned out that the tunnel wasn't quite as tall as they expected, and the candy cane tubes were slightly taller than they thought, so they were a few inches too tall! We tipped a couple of the at an angle to get them through, but decided that was taking too much time. We discovered that removing one of the tie-down straps that attaches the tube to the base allowed the top tube to drop down just enough to clear the top of the tunnel. A quick re-adjustment on the other end of the tunnel, and everything worked out just fine.

Unfortunately, that meant that our vantage point for their afternoon performance was from behind the end zone, instead of high up in the stands, and without my camera...

Arapahoe placed fifth in the semi-finals, so they moved on to the finals in the evening. We were told that there should be plenty of volunteers for the evening, so that we could return to the stands to watch. Even though the 4A finals were first, we wanted to watch, since we've seen some of the 4A bands at some of the other competitions.

During the Loveland High School Band performance, the woman sitting directly behind me was constantly "cat-calling" and "hooting and hollering" so loudly that I couldn't hear the band at all! I tried moving over into the empty seat next to me so that i wasn't directly in front of her, but it didn't really help... At the end of their performance, as the women was gathering her things, she hit me in the head with her bag! She muttered "sorry" and I turned around to tell her "that wasn't as bad as all of the screaming..." She then told me that "if I didn't want any noise, that I shouldn't have come." I told her that I came to hear the bands, not the parents... She then had the gall to tell me that I "should have sat somewhere else..." as if I had some choice about sitting in front of her... What a b****... I guess there isn't much "love" in Loveland... ;-) This is as bad as Little League, where the parents behave worse than the kids, and are more competitive. You know, I think that if she had said "sorry" that she "just got excited when her kids were performing" I probably would have gotten so irritated... But when she turned it back to become MY fault, it really made me angry!

Loveland ended up in second place, behind Air Academy High School, who are very impressive with their speed and precision in their formations. Loveland's show incorporates spreading several enormous tarps on the field in the shape of a crescent moon, one of the elements of their show. It takes an inordinate amount of time to lay out all of the pieces, which have to be taped together in places to hold them down. Last night, two of the kids fell on them. A trombone player seemed to have tripped over one of the edges, and one of the color guard girls seemed to have lost her footing on the slippery surface. I hope that both of the kids are OK...

Arapahoe had perhaps their best performance of the season in the finals. Since they are a smaller band than most of the other 5A bands, they don't seem to project as well as the other bands. They have a great show, though, and did very well. The color guard did a great job, with only a couple of little slips. Overall, the judges marked them 0.4 points lower than Douglas County, so they finished in fifth place in the finals as well. They were rated fifth in the state going into the competition, so really they did as well as expected. See all of the scores here.

Being somewhat new to this, I have a few observations about band competitions in general.

One of the things I find interesting is that the bands are lead by student drum majors, not by the band directors... They do an awesome job of directing, and have amusing salute routines when they start and finish, and during the award presentations. However, I guess that I object somewhat to them being spotlighted so much more than the rest of the band members. Most of them are in different uniforms than the band, which seems unnecessary to me... We can tell that they are the drum majors when they climb onto the stand. Also, some of the bands have their drum majors, who are predominately girls, dressed in evening gowns. While elegant, it doesn't seem to fit in with a "marching band."

Another thing that surprises me is that all of the bands have a "percussion pit" that seems more suited to a concert band than a marching band. Lots of bells, marimbas, and xylophones, chimes, timpani, gongs, etc. Some of it seems like gratuitous use of as many percussion pieces as possible, whether warranted or not. Some of the bands also have electric bass and guitars, and synthesizer keyboards, which are hardly classic marching band instruments. I also notice that none of the bands use handheld cymbals in the drum line, only in the percussion pit. The exhibition performance while the judges tabulated the results was by the University of Northern Colorado band, who didn't use any percussion pit, and had four cymbals in the drum line that worked very nicely.

I also think that some of the elaborate scenery pieces, particularly the tarps spread on the field, like Loveland uses, are both unnecessary and dangerous. Having to step on and off of different surfaces while marching backwards seems like too big of a risk to make it worthwhile. Douglas County High School uses tarps, too, but much smaller than Loveland, and only in one corner of the field. I think that they start out on the tarps, but I don't think that they return to them during the performance.

Again, though, I was very impressed with all of the bands, and congratulate everyone who participated, as a performer, parent or staff. Its obvious that everyone puts a tremendous amount of effort, and lots of practice time, and it all showed on Saturday.