We are also at a huge disadvantage for All-Region. My students are very low-income, most of our region is very high-income. Most of the students in the All-Region band have taken a weekly private lesson since 6th grade. I've tried to start private lessons here, but I can't get enough paying kids to keep lesson teachers around. There are not enough hours in the day for me to provide that level of instruction.

Just about everything that you teach and kids learn from All-Region you can do with Solo and Ensemble. S&E lets you pick music suitable to your students' ability level and removes the head-to-head competition aspect. We assign solos right after UIL Marching and kids get to work. We dedicate some class time every week to solos from that point until the S&E contest in February. My students do very well at Region, most advance to State. They can be proud of their accomplishment, they "made State," and it's great PR for the band to list all of the kids who advanced. Some years it's tough to balance solo prep and UIL Concert prep. If UIL Concert is early then you have to start solos even earlier. We've consistently made Div I ratings at both marching and concert, and take busloads of kids to TSSEC every year.