So I saw that the forums seem dead, so I wanted to start a discussion. Anyone willing to share some of their experiences in high school marching band? Anyone get to see any awesome bands? Anyone part of any really awesome bands?

Personally, I performed at a competition hosted by Tarpon Springs High School (they got 4th place in Grand National Finals this year) and got to see their amazing exhibition show in person. My band also went to an MPA and got overall superior. (I'm a freshman so I don't have many experiences to share)

(anyone in a Florida band? I might have been able to see your show this year if you were)

Post your experiences down below!

I march(ed) with the East Coweta High School Marching Band and had the honor of seeing Tarpon Springs perform at the Atlanta Super Regional for the last three years. They perform on a whole new level!

East Coweta has kinda been on the verge of breaking out for the last few seasons but we aren't quite there yet. Last season we placed 2nd at the Jacksonville Regional and this season we placed 3rd (should have placed 2nd in my opinion...). Placing second at a BOA was probably my favorite band memory. It was my program's highest BOA finish ever.

I'd say a close second was stepping out of the tunnel onto the field at the Georgia Dome for the first time my sophomore year (I didn't march my freshman year :( ). The Dome is just so big! It was a lot to take in. It's a shame they're already tearing it down, though I'll admit the acoustics in there are pretty garbage. Never got to perform at a Dome finals...maybe I'll get to perform at Mercedes-Benz for DCI? One day...

Thanks for starting up this topic, maybe it will help get the forums a little more active!

Also, nightfury, I sent you invites to FLAG and PERC, if you are interested!

It was a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away..

Well... not a galaxy, a city/area, like, far away, from where I am now, and high school for me was about, five or six years ago,

Middle Tennessee area has several good ones, some were like, always good, since the beginning of time, others are like, coming out of nowhere, suddenly winning a bunch of things.

can we just say how Tarpon Springs got screwed this year since we are talking about them in several posts? I certainly had them pulling the upset and wining, then they drop to 4th...Leander who I had 2nd got SIXTH! None of the division winners won the overall! Not sure how often that has happened. Dont get me wrong, Carmel had a good show, but I didnt see it winning.

I'm not an expert, but I was thinking Tarpon Springs/Leander 1st and 2nd, followed by Avon/Carmel. I thought that at least the scores would be a lot closer if Tarpon Springs and Leander didn't get in the top 3. Tarpon Springs and Leander had really impressive shows (not that the others weren't impressive, but those two really stood out to me)

I think this season I got a bit more cynical of BOA judging, probably mostly because this was my last year and I wanted to place really well.

But really, I noticed it at Jacksonville and it continued at Atlanta: there were questionable placements and scores at both. Bands that should not have made finals at Dome made finals at Dome. Not gonna name specifics, but you can make guesses.

Tarpon performed really well at Dome but only won a single caption.

Maybe I'm just jealous or angry or whatever, but judging did seem a little wonky this season.

My high school band was alright.. for a local crappy circuit. I really hated marching band after marching drum corps.

I said right after BOA finals, can you imagine if corps flipped around at DCI like BOA. I do have to agree Cire...I enjoy marching band passing time, but it ain't drum corps lol

Anyone else have any other high school marching band experiences they would like to share? There's got to be more people with interesting marching band experiences here! This is a fantasy marching arts website, this is meant for people who are or were in marching band! Share your experiences down below!

look up oak mountain high school marching band amazing for a high school band!

Not sure how interesting my marching band experience was. I spent three years (10th through 12th grade) at Robinson in Northern Virginia, where marching band (at least then) was something we only took so seriously. I mean we wanted to do great, but concert band is much more what we were in to. There is no state championship in Virginia, so we just wanted to get a Superior rating at VBODA Assessment so we could make Virginia Honor Band and go home. There were competitions and we usually did pretty well, two of my three years there we were undefeated.

My freshmen year was a little different. I lived in South Carolina, went to Wando High School. This band I'm certain the BOA fans are familiar with. I was there before Wando became what you'd think of as Wando, my year there we finished 4th in South Carolina... and in literally every competition we were at. The year after I left, Wando won their first of nine consecutive South Carolina state championships. The only reason they didn't win ten is because they went to a different competition, I think BOA Grand Nationals conflicted with it that year. They went back the next year and won though, even with a new director!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFIw9H7o__U

Here is the band, this was my sophomore show. "The Music of Gustav Holst". Band size: 212! This is at the Annapolis competition (three weeks before the end of our season), before USSBA became USBands. It's hard to tell until late, but it was raining the entire show. Really cold day in mid October. We won Grand Champions at this show!

If you look at the front line on the far right side of the field, I'm the first person in the line!

My high school marching band experience was alright. It seems like my class was a curse because we never recieved a superior rating for overall band all 4 years of my high school career. The closest we got was at Midland Valley High School in Aiken, SC. (3 hour bus ride) We recieved an 84.975 and 6th overall out of 14 bands. Played a show themed "The Storm" with Stormy Weather as the Opener and as reprise in the closer, Thunder Rolls by Garth Brooks as the 2nd movement and a super long 5 minute 3rd movement which contained It's Raining Men, I Can See Clearly Now, Blue Skies, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, The Storm by Robert W. Smith, and Stormy Weather again. It is my 2nd favorite show I performed behind my junior year show The Beatles simply in which I had a trombone solo playing The Long and Windy Road as I was also drum major. My sophomore and senior year show was horrid as we had a School's Out theme which included School's Out, Another Brick In The Wall (horrible arrangement), and Smoking In The Boys Room (another horrible arrangement). Richard Wright was turning in his grave while we performed that show because he passed away that September (2008) so my band director made it a "tribute". My senior year we played Kiss. My most memorable moment was placing 4th overall as drum major my senior year .05 points from tieing with 3rd. I didn't have gloves on at the competition and I got grilled for it from the judge. It urkes me to wonder what my score would have been with gloves. I had a nose bleed before we went on and bled all over them.

What's messed up about the music we played is that all of the arrangements were done by the band director of our cross town rivals and there was no secret to why our shows sounded so crappy and theirs actually sounded competitive. My band was small simply because our band director usually drove people away and he really didn't care to fix our problems. After band camp, we would only run our music, focus on fixing the drill and that's it. There wasn't any running drills to fix marching techniques not adding emphasis on visuals. I was able to contribute one idea my senior was and that was about it. It was pretty much the same for me in college too. I only marched my freshman year.

At a competition standpoint, we went to two major competitions that typical BOA bands would attend. Lassiter Showcase and Hoover Invitational. I got to see Lassiter perform their 2nd attempt at Abram's Pursuit in 2008 when their band was freakin' massive. 180 wind players i believe. I envied their 18 trombone players and our marching band only had me and 3 others.

At Hoover, I got to see Petal High School. I don't understand why they don't marching BOA. They win so many state titles in Mississippi, it's bonkers. They placed 1st and beating out a very cocky Central-Carroll from our County in Georgia who normally win grand champions everywhere they go, but they placed 4th at that competition. Every year their show envolves Mr. Potatoe Head. They're loud and can play reallt well, but their marching sucks, that's about it.

If I could do marching band all over again in high school, I would wish that we would play more competitve shows and that we could weed out the people who didn't care about band. That was our main problem. We had people who marched that didn't care to play at all during competitions.

I went to Marple Newtown High School in Pennsylvania, about 30 minutes west of Philadelphia. We competed in Cavalcade of Bands, the local circuit, and won our division my junior and senior year. We got our butts kicked in practice, we had very aggressive drill, difficult music, and a ton of visuals. We've never competed in BOA or USBands or anything, but we've reached the top of the competition for where we are. My sister is 2 years below me, and she just was part of their third consecutive championship. I wouldn't be who I am or where I am today without high school band, it taught me so many values, as well as teaching me great skills of musicianship.

My high school marching band is strictly traditional; this is what makes us unique. No props, no speakers, no microphones;- just pure, unfiltered music. I'll link a few field shows of ours, although I cannot link this years (due to competitions.)

Last years field show, Celebration of a New Day. We did use a single prop (it was a veil.) We placed first but did not go to nationals due to a scheduling conflict.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqDzsRZawYw

Field show from the year before last, Vortex. We won second place at nationals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK0hL8nMjjQ

We also have the distinction of doing parades on the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, Austrlia's Royal Easter Parade, Japan, all six Disney's in the world, and we are performing in the Rose Bowl / Tournament of Roses parade this December.

I hope you enjoy what we have to offer :)