1) tradition-a lot of our programs have been really good for a long time and people want to continue to see that so they make things happen for us
2) oil money-our programs do have more money and staffing (usually) than staffs in other states.
3) great university training-I know there are great music education schools all over the country but we are blessed with great music schools from community college (see schools like TJC) up to The University of Texas and North Texas and also at the D2 level in places like West Texas A&M.
4) geography-you can travel 10 minutes here and be in another amazing band town. Just drive through the metroplex and look for names that you recognize at the national level....there are a lot of them. Competition creates success.
5) UIL-they really do a great job of creating a competitive environment that promotes all of the activities under their umbrella. They go fight for us in places like the state capitol.
6) Football-it's huge here. Nobody wants their community to look bad on Friday night. Gotta have a great team, great band, great cheer, great drill team.....
7) private lessons-for the larger small schools and of course the big schools, they are game changing. There are bands that require their students to take private lessons in order to be in their program at all.
This list is more of a set of bullet points than a ranked order of importance. Without any one of these things, Texas schools would not be nearly as powerful in the band world as we are. If you want to see if you can make it in the band world, come down here and give it a try. We're having teachers quit every day just as much as the rest of the country. We could use some additional great minds to help teach the future of our bands.
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