We did this thread last year and it was really fun, hope the new players since then join in too!

Discussion thread for show themes, competition, your band's videos, band camp, whatever.
I graduated this year but here's my hometown band's schedule:

(We compete in NYSFBC, all cities in NY)
9/14 Mohonasen
9/29 Auburn
10/5 East Ramapo
10/13 Arlington
10/20 Home Show
10/27 State Championships in the Carrier Dome (Syracuse)

My Southington Blue Knights schedule
(we compete in US bands, runned by The Cadets)
9/14 Meriden CT
9/21 Naugatuck CT
9/28 Trumbull CT(our other Rival but we like each other A LOT)
10/5 Chesire CT
10/12 Lyman Hall(Wallingford CT)
10/19 Home show Music of the Knight Southington CT
10/26 State Championships in New Britain CT
11/2 Regionals Danbury CT
11/9 National championships East Rutherford NJ Metlife Stadium

Its funny Norwalk doesn't go to our competition and we don't go to theirs, but Trumbull(our other rival) goes to both, so they are neutral, but they are A LOT nicer than Norwalk.

There's very few marching bands in my city, so we only have a few shows in town and one out of town show. If we have a competitive tour we'll do 1-4 shows on tour.

But we hosted WAMSB World Championships in July, where we won our 6th Championship! We hosted bands from Canada, Mexico, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, and Taiwan.

I'd post a video but they've all been taken down for a copyright violation.

OH MY GOSH!! Southington is usually in 6 open (the biggest class) but since some people quit and seniors left we are in 5 open, which is usually harder to compete with since there are many 5 open bands, well my other 2 6 open bands in Connecticut are also moving down a division to 5 open with us, so if you guys know anything about New England and US bands we are going against a TON of people. Norwalk, Trumbull(the 2 that moved down)Southington(i am in) Dartmouth MA(the musical school that ALWAYS wins nationals) Chesire, naugatuck, pasaic NJ. So its going to be a VERY hard year. But we just got drill for 1st mvmt on wednesday and already finished it Friday, off to a good start

Well, here we go! 2019 Marching Cougar Band presents: Flux

Our show is all about life changing but we are using water as our medium to convey this. Our opener is based off of the concert piece Shenandoah. I’m not sure what our ballad is based off of but it is gorgeous.

We have a new pregame this year, consisting of not only the new NP 50 Formation but also the original block NP. We added in a patriotic transition into the anthem as well as a Star formation. The entrance tempo was also increased to 220 steps per minute! It is simply amazing!

A few weeks ago our new uniforms arrived! They are gorgeous! This Saturday is our Blue Debut and we will post pictures and videos on the Band Booster Facebook Page.

All this for not only my senior year but the start of the next half-century of NP Bands.

Oh, we will also be competing at 5-7 shows this year. ISSMA OPEN CLASS B

Goshen Invitational

Concord Invitational

Penn Invitational

ISSMA Invitational @ Plymouth

ISSMA Regionals @ Lafayette Jefferson

AND HOPEFULLY:
ISSMA Semi-State @ Pike

ISSMA STATE FINALS @ Lucas Oil Stadium

Who else just sits through classes feeling like every class is a waste of time except band?

I'm new here, but I'd just like to say this is really cool!

Well, just finished up our first competition last night at the Goshen Invitational.

Not bad... the competition was good, we were competing against the better bands in our class. Having as many rookies as we do our director was ecstatic. How did anyone else do this weekend?

My marching band's show season runs May-July (actually it's being extended to August this year), so our director hasn't even selected a theme yet. But he's been asking for suggestions.

It's also my band's 50th year, so to celebrate, our parade and standstill music will be all songs we have played in the past. So far we have Hey Pachuco!, Get On Your Feet, and Confident (those last two are throwbacks to just last year), we'll be getting You Can Call Me Al as it's our signature song, and I know we're playing 30 seconds of Radetzky March as a joke.

And this hasn't publicly announced yet, but at our first rehearsal our director announced to us that we will be competing in DCI International Class this year. This means we will get to perform our field show at Open Class Prelims and Finals in Marion, IN, as well as World Class Prelims in Indianapolis, IN for sure, as well as we will be participating in the Drumline Battle and Soundsport the day of World Class Finals.

Just won yester day at Maloney meriden CT 82.125 in 5 open 2nd place got 77.125(oh boy!!) But our other rival went to another comp and got 84.721 CRAZY. So we need to work HARD this week since we are competing with them

Hey Stampede, does that mean you’ll be wearing red marching shoes this year?

I’ll be happy to see you in my home state of Indiana next season then.

No we wear black vipers for field shows.

We used to wear the boots for the field shows up until the 90s. When the director changed the shoes for the show, everyone initially was very angry, but once they saw how much complex they could make the show without boots, everyone was on board.

We should be wearing boots for Soundsport, though!

here is the link to my comp on saturday
82.125 best at Maloney from us usually get 80 something

Crazy we got 89.750 or .850 we did so good at Trumbull best right for now even against Dartmouth the music school here is link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CBhnpp0rqI&feature=youtu.be

It snowed over the weekend, now there's 6 inches of it on the ground. Thank god we have our competitions in the spring/summer...

Haven't been on the website in a long time! But my home band is doing really good this year. They're currently ranked first in their class 3 points ahead of second and their score on Saturday is the second highest scored by any band this season.

The New Prairie Marching Cougars finished the 2018 season with a run at Semi-State, while a good run they did not advance to State Finals at Lucas Oil Stadium. Heading into the 2019 marching season, veterans who marched last year had high hopes of returning to Semi-State and advancing on to State Finals.

The graduating class of 2019 saw 18 Marching Cougars enter into the world as college students and some in collegiate marching bands or Drum Corps, including: IU Marching Hundred Drum Major, Ball State Marching Band, Notre Dame Marching Band, Purdue Marching Band, IU Marching Band, and Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps. The 2019 Season saw 46 new rookies join the Marching Cougar ranks which boosted numbers up to 102 total members.

Rookie camp was rough. Section leaders were seeing, for the first time, students taught entirely by the new middle school director, and a bunch of students with a different mindset than had been present in the band before. Many couldn’t or could barely play their instruments and were not at a musical level capable of playing parade music which had been easy to rookie classes before.

Much credit is due to the leadership team of the 2019 Marching Cougars, many of whom were honored to be 5 year marchers, as they persisted in attempting to catch up and get rookies at an acceptable level. Some sections resorted to having section camps outside of scheduled band rehearsals in order to achieve progress. The dilemma was this: for the first time we were dealing with students that simply didn’t care, they were there to have fun. They did not care about playing their instruments or how good the band looked. Nonetheless, section leaders persevered and still taught all through the season.

The Marching Cougars struggled through parade season, not quite as good as years before. Many students were absent, either out of ignorance or deliberately they just didn’t want to show up. Band Camp came, and we were still at the middle school as there was no highschool band facilities of any kind (due to construction). Camp was difficult… some were still lackadaisical at best. Others were driving harder than ever in hopes of another semi-state run. And miraculously the season went so much better than expected.

October and, finally, the band had a band room. Moving in took awhile and still the room is in somewhat of a disastrous state. The new rehearsal lot at the highschool also helped aid rehearsals.

Sept. 14- Goshen Charger Invitational: 4th Place
Sept. 21- Concord Invitational: 2nd Place
Sept. 28- Penn Invitational: 6th Place
Oct. 12- ISSMA Invitational: Gold (exact scores are illegal to publish under ISSMA Rules)
Oct. 19- ISSMA Open Class B Regionals @ Lafayette Jefferson…


My fifth and final competitive high school season came to an end late Saturday night. Looking back over 5 years, it became so much more… so much more than I could have ever hoped or dreamed. It truly has changed me into who I am now. It has given me hope for what I am to do later.

Standing on the turf, it is hard to perform those familiar strains of the Alma Mater. Memories flood back from five years. You never expect that. But, it’s a truly humbling moment. I remember distinct moments from each year, snapshots and short moments of time. Phrases that were said, and jokes that were made. Mostly I remember the laughter and smiles but, there were occasional tears. May 31st, as I walk out those doors for the final time as an NPHS student, I take with me these memories and they will be cherished. Every occasionally, one of these will return and a tear will glace down my cheek. Though I will miss these times I cannot wish that I never had the, for if I never would have had these moments, I would have no memories to treasure.

Tears are good, they are a good thing, they show that you care about what you do. I do care about what I do, and what I did was good. But, being with everyone else is what made it great!

I have states today WOOHOO Going to GET THAT BANNER. We didn't got it for 4 years now but we have an UNDEFEATED season, so I hope everything runs smoothley!

YES GUYS I had nationals our last and final comp for the season and we got 2nd AGAIN!! AMAZING!! We are in 5 open this year not 6 meaning a lot more bands 9 actually and we got 2nd! We thought we were going to get 4th but Trumbull did then Passaic got 3rd. Dartmouth always wins when we heard their score we just laughed a 98. We were like they have NO DYNAMICS. But anyways I'm happy we got 2nd. here is the link,we went to metlife stadium
https://yea.org/usbands/scores
Go to the 2nd from top im southington.