The Yellow Board

Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?

Posted by Curious on 12/16/2020, 9:38 pm

Everyone can play music from one classification lower then typical (6a->5a, 5a-4a, etc.) How is that effecting your selections? Are you taking it easy and going with the minimum to survive? Trying to hold integrity and challenge your kids still? Starting with a typical appropriate program and having a backup in case? Context would be greatly appreciated with responses!

Re: Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?

Posted by Bippy on 12/30/2020, 1:15 pm, in reply to "Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?"

I am going to have to combine NV and V in order to have enough in person kids to compete with enough of a cushion to guard against last minute quarantine holes.

You bet your swett bippy that I'm taking advantage of the rules.

I'd really like to forego it this year, but that seems irresponbile to me in my situation given that we didn't get to go last year because of COVID. If I don't take my middle school, there's a significant swath of kids that won't have gone to UIL in middle school.

Re: Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?

Posted by YES on 12/17/2020, 8:57 am, in reply to "Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?"

Yes. I am trying to take the time to actually work on the things we (our staff) complain about the students "not learning in MS"
Now is our chance to correct it.

Re: Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?

Posted by Me on 12/17/2020, 8:42 am, in reply to "Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?"

4A NV here.

I have 45 kids in my band class. We're split A-L on Mondays/Tuesdays, and M-Z on Weds/Thurs, with Friday rotating every four weeks.

Band meets 1st period.

On average, I have 3 kids present on campus on Mondays and 4 kids on Thursdays. On Thursdays, 3 of the 4 are my percussionists, and then usually a clarinet player. Mondays, I get a trumpet player, trombone player, and a clarinet player.

Explain how I'm supposed to put together a performance with seven kids - two clarinets, a trumpet, a trombone, and three percussionists.

Yes, I can "get the music to my virtual kids" but they simply aren't doing the work in my class or any other. My campus has about an 80% failure rate right now. Last grading period we had over twenty thousand zeroes put in the gradebook campus-wide. We only have 1100 kids.

Re: Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?

Posted by banddirhdg on 12/17/2020, 8:00 am, in reply to "Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?"

My band is so "fluid." From one day to the next we have a different group of kids in the room. I think we are going to try to find something short, easy and something that is not dependent on any one person. We are just one Covid germ away from being a completely different band.

Re: Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?

Posted by MS director on 12/17/2020, 7:54 am, in reply to "Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?"

Yes, minimum to survive. Since in-person has started I have had 1 person at least once a week move to virtual in pretty much every class.

I have even gained a few kids, even this week! So I have students who could handle difficult lit but then I get kids who haven't played in 10 months in the same group.

I did start with full instrumentation but now I'm having trouble keeping my tubas in-person. So who knows what's going to happen with my group by the time we can record for UIL.

Re: Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?

Posted by Britt on 12/17/2020, 7:50 am, in reply to "Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?"

2C here
I am 100% taking advantage of this and am so grateful to UIL for throwing us a bone. My MS band was going to have a really tough time getting to a level 2 sightreading level in time.

Re: Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?

Posted by YES CCC on 12/17/2020, 7:44 am, in reply to "Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?"

Absolutely

I am a CCC middle school with more than 1/2 of my kids online. These kids need the performance experience. We will program very easy this year and will probably have many parts written out for other instruments. I can tell you that if I am a judge at your region contest, it would be very difficult to give any program lower than a 1. There is no way I could possibly know what you had to deal with to even put a group on the stage this year.

Re: Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?

Posted by STX on 12/17/2020, 7:39 am, in reply to "Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?"

With so many kids not showing, I'm having to combine both my varsity and NV into one group. With such a big variety of abilities, it's probably in the best interest of my group to tone it down a bit. They really need some success coming off of a non-existent marching season.
Here's to hoping we don't get quarantined again.

Re: Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?

Posted by DesertJazz on 12/17/2020, 7:12 am, in reply to "Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?"

As a 3A program we've been playing up above conference for a few years now a couple levels from our requirements. It's honestly not affecting us because we can already pull back. I'm planning on pulling back to a couple of 3's instead this year, but even that will be over the requirements of our conference. If we were a 5A or 6A I think this might affect our decisions more. Part of how we're going to continue pushing is we've forced everyone back face-to-face, so it's a lot different from schools in hybrid modes or still have a majority virtual.

More where the rule is going to help is this new grade .5 Sight-Reading for our 1C Non-Varsity. Looking forward to an easier piece for that group of kids who are behind still from losing last spring and part of the fall!

Re: Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?

Posted by Out in the woods on 12/17/2020, 9:12 am, in reply to "Re: Is your band taking advantage of the rules change for C&SR?"

As a 2A band, we've been playing grade 2 and grade 3 stuff for the past couple of years. We're still going to play grade 2 because I think it fits us well and sets us up for continued success now and into the future. That being said, I'm soooooo relieved to be able to read down a level this year as my younger kids would most certainly have an issue reading the Level 2 sight reading this year.

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