Hey EMC! I’m the bass 1 player at Hebron and when I saw this reaction video I IMMEDIATELY watched it.😅 Thank you for all of your compliments, We all appreciate it!😆
fun fact, this is actually filmed at ronald reagan high school where i went to school. they needed a location to rehearse in between boa san antonio and state. im pretty sure reagan does this whenever it’s a state year. also, those yellow plus marks are parking spaces. fine arts kids park there during the school day lol
I’m seeing a TON of comments mentioning the student population, budget, and middle school experience being factors in this program’s success, but most people overlook the dedicated culture of the student body. Above all, this show was a product of visionary leadership. If you’re an educator or a student desiring to improve your program, invest in student leadership!
Take a look at Nishihara HS in Japan; compared to this program they have a tiny student population, insignificant budget, and students often have little to no experience before high school. To top it all off, most rehearsals are exclusively student-run. And yet they pull together performances comparable to top DCI shows. The main ingredient for any successful program is the work ethic of the culture. There is no substitute.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention! I agree that visionary leadership was a huge part of developing this show and I will make sure to bring it to my own band!
In actual practice in north texas, student leadership plays a part, yes. But within the broader context of massive investment by procured and well funded staff-and a lot of it. The dedicated culture of students is fostered first and foremost by highly supported staff. That’s just how it works.
I agree! Staff culture plays a HUGE role in every band program. Consider that student and staff leadership are not separate forces - they always work together. It’s well known that staff should hold students to a high standard, but the opposite is true too! In a resilient student culture, staff must work harder to meet the expectations of the students. Both push each other.
You know what? People keep mentioning budget and props and production. Honestly, these kids can flat out play. That is an insane amount of talent on that field, especially in the low brass. Trombonists are usually a bunch of goofballs. You know how hard it is to get more than two of them to be serious enough at rehearsal to get that good? That’s a small miracle in and of itself (source: am trombonist).
True. Across the board, these players got chops. From the pit all the way to the low brass I heard a feature that was clean, balanced, and musical. That in of itself is a massive achievement. Did these people not here that sax feature or that trombone solo? Budget isn't everything.
Yeah I play trombone and remember learning their multiple tonguing sections from this show and the amount of time it took to get it solid is insane. Level of focus is mad
I think one thing that is important to keep in mind to people who have to compete against these bands is that they clearly have a lot of budget. Of course you don’t “need”budget to sound good- but it definitely helps between the mic’s, better instruments, staff resources, etc.
I'm from the same district as Hebron. And when I was still in HS band, we got to see them perform at almost every competition we went to (UIL, BOA, etc.) There were some exceptional shows by them. But their band had the budget to get a new uniform every year! (Or maybe another school in the district) Like 3 of the high school bands in LISD get to Nationals level some years. But never my band, lol
@@NonTwinBrothers For real, our HS uniforms were 20 years old and we had to fight over sticks to muster a matching pair. On the rare occasion we got a new pair of sticks it was like Christmas lol. So wild to see a band of the same size with such nice equipment and even a surplus for buying go pros and stuff.
When cars parked in our rehearsal space... we moved them... literally picked them up and dragged them. Only happened a few times, but nothing stops a properly motivated marching band. :D
When we did that our Band Director got suspended for a couple of weeks because we "damaged the car." But hey, we had things to get done and we didnt wanna wait for a tow truck.
For those of you who don't know, Hebron Highschool had 24 TMEA All-staters this year. That's just in band. For reference, my school had 5 Total (3 in band) (2 in Choir). I got to talk with some of them at the TMEA convention and they talked about the support for music starting in middle school. Their Highschoolers would go to the middle school and get everyone hyped up about band even giving out private lessons. For those of you who know about the All-state process in Texas, you know how hard it is to make region band, let alone All-state. This is a group of highly dedicated kids and the hype isn't only found in marching band, getting to play with them in an orchestral setting was awesome.
24 All-Staters isn't anything to sneeze at, but I definitely wouldn't discount your program for "only" having 3 people make state. My hometown high school seems to crank out only one All-Stater every 20 years.
I’ve been around elementary school bands and I just wouldn’t be able to do it. Even the other kids knew it sounded bad. I had to scold them and tell them that it’s harder than it looks and everyone starts out from somewhere. But inside I was like “yeah they sound like garbage.” In my private lessons, I was in a program where kids of all ages would play together and be held to the same standards for each song they could play, which I think is better.
These Texas Bands Go Hard, Dude! I Remember Having To Go To Competitions Against These People, Along With Flower Mound, The Woodlands, Etc., And Damn Was It Difficult. 😅👍🏼
That's no joke. Not only corp style, but there's also a large military style presence in Texas. They use to not be allowed in UIL finals, but last year they had a pilot program specific to military style bands. There's also the NAMMB competitions, which I had the pleasure of marching in. Heck, the band at my school was more celebrated than the football team, and that's another thing Texas is big on. Lol
@@Nareimooncatt hey I had military themed show this year and marching band in Texas is as big as football I go to Brewer High school and the football team is as supportive to us as us to them I loved our show it was called Medal of Honor I’m pretty sure it’s on UA-cam the area video of us
@@wrekka8348 I guess I should clarify. I didn't mean military themed, as in a tribute. Military style marching is rank and file type precision maneuvers and music focussed on classic military songs (I.e. From John Phillips Sousa). The best example would probably be the Texas A&M marching band.
at 9:10, the wonderful little detail of "Hebron" just added a magnificent touch to the choreography and overall big picture of the show. hebron portrayed the theme of 'calligraphy' very well. major props to them, can't wait to compete against them one day!
Ikrr one of my favorite parts and u will love the day u compete against Hebron it’s amazing to sit in the stands and watch them I’ve been competing against them for as long as I could remember and every time I’m in awe. The only time we’ve made top 3 is when Marcus didn’t show up 💀
The show has a bit of a piece called Blue Shades in it. Especially from 9:10 to the end of the show. It’s made by Frank Ticheli. Amazing piece of music!
Eric, it would be cool if you reacted to Hebron's 2021 Drumline show. I noticed you were looking for more features from the battery in this video. Their Drumline show is all battery and pit, would be great if you checked it out.
About that practice field, my high school built a dedicated practice field for the band in the late 90's. That may sound great, but it was still asphalt like the parking lot we had used, and we were a military style marching band. Every. Turn. Was. A. Snap. Turn. Plus a kick off that drags the ball of your foot on that first step. You needed a rather high budget just for all the shoes we wore out.
my hs competed against them at BOA Dallas in finals, and as a 5a band, those 6a bands in our DFW area are insane. if not for vandegrift, we couldve seen a lewisville medal sweep at the texas state finals.
@@ethan9793 Yoo im a Highland Park band kid. Honestly, Aledo's show was one of my favorites. Good stuff! Also, HP is moving to 6a next year so we are kind of scared lol
The fact that they played "Amen" is legendary. Just recently played the piece in Wind Ensemble and that is NOT easy stuff to play - the xylophone part is ridiculous so I can only imagine the front ensemble book.
Got to see and compete against this band. Their skill is inspiring and they are awesome people. They have a big budget that helps them that is hard to compete against, but I think it's awesome they have an amazing opportunity to showcase their talent
Those woodwinds really showed up and showed out, great ensemble, solo, and section moments. Hebron’s had some great woodwinds for a long while now so they really know how to use them
Those props are fountain (probably calligraphy) pens. That's why you'll see droplet shapes every once in a while and a lot of drills are the really flowy rounded patterns. Plus every shako has the fountain pen tips on them
I'm pretty sure that the feature at the end of the show was based on Frank Ticheli's Blue Shades, an awesome piece for symphonic band, which Santa Clara performed in 1999.
I was thinking this too, one of my favorite pieces back in my band days (played the bass clarinet solos, lots of fun), was trying to get confirmation in the comments and glad I'm not the only one who thought of it
Holy crap! This is a high school marching band!?? They are tremendous!! They sound like a DCI marching band! The band is as good as their teacher. You can tell they had one hell of a teacher from grade school to Senior class! Bravo for the hard work & love of music their band teacher showed them. Congratulations!!!
It's hard to believe how well these kids march. All of them are in time and they all have the same technique. My school missed out on state by one spot and our marching as compared to these kids was an entire world apart.
From a kid at L.D. Bell who played with Hebron recently at San Antonio for both BOA and UIL, I can say that their win is deserved. The show was amazing to watch, captivated, and moved me. Glad to have a great first marching season with yall.
We have a parking lot. It's called the grid. We have no endzones. It's also a no park zone after school during the fall. Anyone who parks ON the grid part of the grid gets a violation (same as the kids who dont have a parking liscense). Though, it was originally painted by band kids. I don't know where we practiced before though, probably the middle school field since there were two at one of them.
My school got to see them at BOA SA and they are CRAZY. It was so cool to watch in person, especially coming from a 5a band which is quite a bit smaller than this one.
I think it would be fun for you to react to championship shows from the 2000s and compare them to championship shows of the 2020s. Between the increased use of props, Bloo completely redefining what a uniform can be, and the huge increase in production/sound quality, it should be pretty wild going back and seeing what was considered the best of the best two decades ago. A great (biased) example would be Michigan state champions 2008, who won with basically no production and 0 props.
To be fair, EMC used to be in Commandant's own, which is about as conservative as it gets in terms of props and drill. Hell they didn't even have a proper pit until a few years back (they only had 3-4 guys on mallets, and now they have synthesizer keyboards)
Oh my gosh!! My band director showed us this band after our state competition (we placed 6) and they were AMAZING!! I loved every second of their show. Plus, there’s a little surprise in cursive towards the end of the show
Their opener was Impressions of Church Windows Mvt. 2 "Saint Michael Archangel" which Carolina Crown also used in their 2009 production "The Grass is Always Greener"
High School programs where many of the students who take private lessons, have access to quality instruments will help a program immensely. I assume (key word, assume) that they are able to pay for top quality coaches in all instruments and a marching coach who is probably a former DCI member. Just my guess, but indeed they sound incredible for a high school marching band.
Hebron band dad here! One of our assistant directors (Alsaffar) is rumored to have performed in the only "perfect" DCI show, the only one to ever score 100.0%. Not positive, but that's the rumor.
I marched at Keller for 4 years… I decided to go to San Antonio as an alumni and watch all the schools perform (it was nice being in the audience for once) and I was 100% rooting for Hebron. That show was just mind blowing. I have a few videos of the show that I took if anyone wants them!
Hey EMC! I'm in Hebron hs colorguard and we have our practice field in a parking lot towards the back of the main campus, so the one you're seeing us practice in is at a different location. Thank you for all the complements! one of our flags had a calligraphy pen tip on it and the "pencils" are pens and the hats are also pen tips!
Hebron had a great show and it sounded great in person when I competed against them during BOA. Glad I get to hear again when I’m not exhausted at midnight.
This is one of the bands that non band-kids will never ever truly understand the work, talent, and dedication put into it. This band literally has more physical capability then probably most HS sports teams, and the talent is at a professional level. This does not just go for Hebron, but really any consistent box 5 band
The highschool parking lot shown at about 5:00 is actually my highschool!! We no longer use the painted field on the lot but I thought it was cool to see something like that on as big of a channel as this!
I remember when they performed at our field during a halftime show at a football game and they are outstanding. They also waited for us to perform our show after the game! To this day, people in our band program play parts of their show because it was SO AMAZING. We love Hebron
Alright, here's an explanation. It'll be edited. The show is entitled Pen Striped, and the theme is caligraphy. The shakos are meant to look like the ends of calligraphy pens. The plume is just a simple feather meant to make it seem like a quill. The props are calligraphy pens. The droplets up front are ink drops, bc, you know, you need ink to write with a calligraphy pen.
Ah, the comment I was looking for. Otherwise I would've had to write it as I thought the prop design, theme, and overall effect was very cool. I also enjoyed that they spelled out Hebron in cursive in the drill. Right at 9:09
The ballad/sax feature was a piece called “Oblivion” by Astor Piazzolla. I’ve seen it used a couple of times for marching groups including my band last year.
We rehearsed on a very lopsided middle school soccer field with a bunch of sprinklers and gopher holes. The football and soccer players acted like they needed the turf so they got it. Even though falling with an instrument in/on your mouth or shoulders is far more dangerous than falling with shoulder pads and shin guards
Everyone that has been to State finals know this starts with the middle school programs. We even had the high school band directors teaching our middle school brass and helping us improve.
Such a good show, the level of skill for every single section of this show is insane. And btw in the Opener they had a "Church Windows" arrangement. Carolina Crown also had the same piece in their opener in 2009, with a splash of it before their closer
I remember going against this band at the Alamodome for state, one of the best ones there, still have no idea where to find the recordings of the different shows from State tho🤷🏽♂️
I was in one of my state's (Hawai'i) top band programs and we had to play on instruments held together with rubber bands lol. Band programs here aren't very competitive here though since going to BoA or doing state wide competitions is way out of budget. These kids are amazing but it just makes me wonder how good our bands could be if we had the funding and support.
i got to see them from behind at i think mesquite marching competition at the very beginning of our season after we had performed, absolutley incredible show, and seeing them at area finals a second time was even better
I went to rival school Creekview back in the early 2000s (class of '04). Hebron was always the fine arts department to beat in every competition (along with Plano East). Mad props to their fine arts team!
I got the opportunity to see Hebron live at one of my comps. As sad as I am for not making finals in BOA that was an electric performance. We also have a practice grid.
First of all, the High School itself is pretty huge (at least 2,200 in the student body), and the middle schools that feed into that high school have dedicated programs. I can all but guarantee that the middle school varsity band is playing grade 5-level music.
@@dogestep64 Mhm, ex flutist here, now a sophomore in Hebron High school. Came from Killian Middle school- one of the 3 middle schools that feed into Hebron- and we were learning to play grades 4-5 music by 7 and 8 grade. Plus, Hebron was involved with the middle schools a lot so we learned from the best lol
The individual demand on the performer is very high. What’s more, that demand is met with insane levels of musicianship and incredible physical control. I was fortunate enough to be in a high school band that won a grand national championship and I bet if you ask these kids about any of these performances they would immediately give you a list of things that they themselves or the band overall could have improved on. That’s how the great ones operate, they are always reaching for a higher level of performance, never being satisfied with where you are and always reaching for another level. That is why they are incredible, that is why they are great. Congrats Hebron, you are setting an amazing standard that is moving the art forward.
Multiple of my friends have moved to Hebron to play, we have to compete with them at some competitions and it never feels even remotely fair lmao. At least we can point out the people we know like they’re celebrities
Props, budget, etc. are all well and good, but it takes a ton of dedication to make the most out of the limited time students are allowed to practice. These kids can really play! This is my 6th year as a "band dad" and our son's high school band is very very good. But these guys are phenomenal.
I was at boa Dallas hearing them perform for the first time this year rather this past season I should say but holy cow sitting in front row I got blasted in the face with sound instantly it makes sense why they won state and why they did so good in Nationals
The Dallas regional is fantastic, always sitting right near the front, and with Pennington being an outdoor venue, there’s only one way that sound is going. Watching Hebron was awesome
Texas marching bands are a different breed, I’m in prosper high school and our first time going to the boa St. Louis competition this year we placed 4th over all out of the bands there, there is a hierarchy of Texas bands, Hebron is the kings tho, try Marcus or flourmound they are also great bands and part of the “Texas titans”
EMC!! please react to the Marcus High School Drumline show! they placed 1st in the state at the state marching band contest and their stuff is amazing! their show terminal velocity, itll blow you away!
Objective response from a parent in the area: My kid went to one of Hebron’s rival schools and graduated pretty recently. Of the 5 high schools in the district, three have elite programs: Hebron just won state, then Flower Mound and Marcus were 5th and 6th at Grand Nats after being 3rd and 4th at state. Think about that for a moment. Flower Mound and Marcus are closer geographically than Carmel and Avon. Hebron isn’t much further away. (I’ll also say that the other bands in the district, Lewisville and The Colony, would be top competitors in most other states) Put simply, this doesn’t happen in a vacuum. While Texas bands are above and beyond any other state, I would venture a guess that they are also better resourced, better supported and better managed than those in other states. I was on the percussion staff at a very well funded school that is the top band in another state, and I can say without a doubt- the comparison is laughable. Take a peek at the staff pages from the band programs in Lewisville ISD (the district these bands are from). On the district level, they have a Director of Fine Arts who was elevated to that position after 17 years as the Director of Bands at … Marcus High School. She is an unbelievable advocate for these programs and knows intimately what it takes to be successful. On the local level, many of these bands have directors who also teach DCI, or at mininum teachers who spent many years in the activity. On the staff of the school my kid went to, the directors marched with Cadets, Blue Devils, Madison, Blue Knights and Cavaliers. I’m not saying you have to March with DCI to be excellent, but it’s a decent barometer I think. When you hire top talent, fight like hell to give them the money they need to be successful and support them to the fullest extent possible, the results speak for themselves.
I see people making the argument of “well sure they have money but they’re just good players.” While they are both true statements, I do believe that in the world of band, orchestra and music education, one does need to come from money in order to be much more successful. When I was in high school for example, every student who was successful in band, whether it be state UIL soloists, marching band section leaders, people in wind ensemble, all came from money. (And were the popular band kids too). I then realized that none of the lower income students had little to no recognition or help. Additionally, all of the marching bands who made finals at large BOA competitions, all came from high income communities. (Simply look up any San Antonio/Grand Nat finals list, and then look up the median income from which those high schools are located in). This is because, when students are successful, it typically means they had parents who were well off financially, and were able to support their children from the start. And put them in private lessons at a young age, extracurricular activities, and band. Which all cost money. Now, if you have a community where that is a commonality, many of the higher quality musicians and music educators will gravitate towards that area, creating programs where students are successful. An environment in which students are informed, they know what to do, they’re told how to do it from a young age. (I am no excluding or downplaying hard work). It’s very difficult to grow up from a low income background and become a successful musician. Especially as a student, because there is nobody there to guide you. Unless you work very hard, and exhaust all resources to your own sacrifice, then it’s unlikely you’ll be successful in the world of band, or music education if you come from a low income upbringing. And I know from my own life experience and from others.
Spot on. 👌🏾 I came from living in public housing in Mississippi to being a band director, but marching in WGI or DCI was never a legitimate option simply because I couldn't even afford to get to the camps for auditions, forget about actually being able to pay the cost of actually marching with them if I made it. Could never afford the 30 minute drive to get $40/hr lessons every week neither, so that limited me also. I persevered and did a lot of honor bands and was usually one of the best in any percussion section that I was in, but it was a lot of work and not a lot of resources. It's impossible to legitimately compete against kids that are getting lessons every week from when they're 12 to 18. So yeah, high level musicianship, as seen here, normally derives from communities that are high middle class or rich. It's not really even about skill or talent honestly. It's more about who can put in the time and get professional instruction and guidance along the way.
This year was my first year in drumline and we went to area and this year was a state year for us and we tied with another band and we were one place away from going to state our show was entitled Medal Of Honor and it was written/transcribed from JOHN MEEHAN the Blue Devils director and Brian Youngblood who used to be a percussion director at Argyle Highschool then was the band director at my school for a while before working at TCU he made our sets and visuals (note: We march Straight legged which means we don’t bend our knees for cleaner looks) but we got beat by Aledo who was first in my area
The "field" they're playing on is a parking lot. In the top right you can see the curbs for parking spaces, and The yellow +'s are parking spaces as well. More importantly, all the hard work and effort these kids put in shows in their performance, they were absolutely amazing to watch and listen too.
Hebron has been on my radar since the Sculpt show, which is one of my favorite BOA shows. It's a really neat look at how every single variable has been thought about and worked on . . . we rarely see this nowadays as mediocrity has permeated almost everything, especially post-Covid now. The public education system is rife with problems, but band in Texas isn't one of them. It has to start at the Board level as they are the ones to hire a superintendent. I know Texas breaks down in "Independent School Districts" but the same concept for county level districts in states that have those. They set the allocation of funds and prioritize what funds will be available. The electorate have to choose board members who care about music education. We'll come back to this, but this is incredibly easier to do in a district that is middle to upper class. Money is the grease that keeps everything moving. I can't speak to the validity of the online resources/real estate sites, but it shows Carrolton, TX (and the surrounding areas of BOA names we've heard of) as an average household income of ~$104,000/year. That's roughly 30% higher than the US average. The football stadiums that look like college fields speak to this IMO. So you have a tax base capable of supporting "marching-band only fields" and instrument allocation to start with. Board hires a Superintendent who champions this cause, and in my anecdotal evidence of Cobb County, GA, hires someone who's sole job it is to field music education applicants and sort through them for the Super and MS/HS Principals to make the best choices they can. Didn't do a ton of digging but I'd imagine the Texas ISDs are like this as well: the hires for band directors are being guided by someone at the district level with a vested interest in music excellence and knowing where to plug the right people in. It's not the HS principal listing the job and asking applicants if they like the existing fight song and if they like football (seen it happen). A local-ish HS to me passed on an applicant with BOA regionals experience and hired a guy who went to the same college as the principal. The new hire had never taken a band to BOA, had few students competing in All-State, and his marching bands placed mid-pack at the local contests. You can't do that if you want to be at the level of Hebron. So you have to guide these hires and then make sure the middle school directors and the high school directors understand they are on the same team. Seen this plenty of times as well. The middle school director is either not asked or doesn't want to work with the HS. Not even talking season marching rehearsals here: just plain old marketing to 8th graders, doing an 8th grade night at a minimum, and plugging BOA/DCI. The least you could do for subs is give them the most recent DCI finals instead of what normally happens: silent time doing homework for other classes. You can do that AND plug marching arts. You could always tell the HS marching bands headed in a good direction when the middle school director would be on staff or hanging around for a game or county exhibition. So you've got electorate > board > super > mued district head > MS/HS principals who understand their role > good hires. THEN you get to the kids themselves. Anyone on this page understands marching band requires discipline. To compete at the level of Hebron??? An incredible amount of practice/rehearsal. You're talking 8+ hours a week just in full ensemble (Hebron's calendar shows) with the idea that rehearsal is the culmination of the work you did at home. I've worked at plenty of HS bands where the ONLY time music was looked at was in full ensemble rehearsal. 'Pass offs? What are those?' That can't be the expectation if you want to be at Hebron's level. The HS band director is probably the hardest teaching job in any given HS. It's way more than just showing material and explaining it. That person has to cultivate a leadership culture of students and work with the BPA. Seen plenty of examples of inability to do either or both. Basically you need someone who's memorized works like "Good to Great" and "Extreme Ownership" and can funnel that into HS students and then, oh yeah, knows a little bit about playing instruments and rehearsal protocol. THEN you need a BPA (again, the money deal) that understands the need for staff given one person (or two if you're lucky enough to have an assistant band director, Hebron has 3 assistants) really is only proficient at one, maybe two instruments. Hebron's page has 22 people they've vetted that are available for private lessons. My MS and HS never did that and we were routine BOA regional finalists. While I started taking private lessons in 5th grade, that was NOT the norm. I'd say only ~20% of my fellow MS band students were taking private lessons. My parents just happened to know a guy who was a recording session saxophonist in the area so I started there. Lastly, the private lessons part hit on it, you need the local infrastructure to support this: namely music shops. The internet has cut down on the need for brick and mortar supply houses for reeds, mouthpieces, etc but you still need someone on call to do instrument repair and you won't find those out in the middle of nowhere. I worked at a rural HS once and the director was THE instrument repair guy. He started doing it because he had to, then started doing his feeder MS repairs, and then the next HS over started sending his stuff to him. The guy needed to teach, not be the on-call repair guy. Like anything else like this, it's not any one single thing. It's the entire network understanding their role which is why examples like Hebron are so rare. They are the extreme end of the bell curve and it's amazing to watch.
Glad you enjoyed the Sculpt show! Our middle son was the trumpet soloist in the ballad for that show (HS sophomore at the time). He’s now at UNT in his 3rd semester of being in the one o’clock lab band, while being just an undergrad junior. Also, our youngest is the center snare for Penstriped (this show… you can hear him shouting “dut dut dut dut” at the beginning of the video). What you say about the programs/structure/support is very true. We sacrificed a lot of $$$$ to have 3 kids be part of the Hebron band each for all 4 years, and it was well worth it largely because of the infrastructure.
My daughter was watching this, and I came in at the first big hit. I asked her what corps it was because I didnt recognize the uniform..then I saw woodwinds and was confused Then she told me it was a high school. BoA bands man, they go hard. Of course now my daughter wants a gopro for her Mellophone as a way for us to spread the Soundsport Corps love.
Everyone go to 5:04 That’s miamisburg hs. I go there. Our percussion are the only ones who use that for when they can’t use the turf, that’s what our marching band uses. Only our jv soccer team uses the soccer field. Mb and everyone else is turf
I watched my old HS's recent show, it's insane how good they are now. Going to boa every year, placing very high. Back in my day we were only getting 2nd or 3rd at states.
I go to Brennan High School and they practiced at my bands lot. I wasn’t able to see them because I had to go to class but I could literally hear them from my classroom. They also used our band pad for state in 2018.
![Hebron Band 2021 - PENstriped | 8-bit Cover [0CC-Famitracker; VRC6 72hz]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7AIDdYc86qM/mqdefault.jpg)
Hey EMC! I’m the bass 1 player at Hebron and when I saw this reaction video I IMMEDIATELY watched it.😅 Thank you for all of your compliments, We all appreciate it!😆
You sound great, and so does the rest of the band!
Hi Tristan
Hey buddy
Your band is unreal
hey cringelord 😍😍😍😍
fun fact, this is actually filmed at ronald reagan high school where i went to school. they needed a location to rehearse in between boa san antonio and state. im pretty sure reagan does this whenever it’s a state year. also, those yellow plus marks are parking spaces. fine arts kids park there during the school day lol
Hi Ethan
@@shawnmcconnell2354 Hi Shawn, cya at rehearsal
Hi Ethan!
Ethan Palafox
See ya in less than an hour Ethan
I’m seeing a TON of comments mentioning the student population, budget, and middle school experience being factors in this program’s success, but most people overlook the dedicated culture of the student body. Above all, this show was a product of visionary leadership. If you’re an educator or a student desiring to improve your program, invest in student leadership!
Take a look at Nishihara HS in Japan; compared to this program they have a tiny student population, insignificant budget, and students often have little to no experience before high school. To top it all off, most rehearsals are exclusively student-run. And yet they pull together performances comparable to top DCI shows. The main ingredient for any successful program is the work ethic of the culture. There is no substitute.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention! I agree that visionary leadership was a huge part of developing this show and I will make sure to bring it to my own band!
In actual practice in north texas, student leadership plays a part, yes. But within the broader context of massive investment by procured and well funded staff-and a lot of it. The dedicated culture of students is fostered first and foremost by highly supported staff. That’s just how it works.
I agree! Staff culture plays a HUGE role in every band program. Consider that student and staff leadership are not separate forces - they always work together. It’s well known that staff should hold students to a high standard, but the opposite is true too! In a resilient student culture, staff must work harder to meet the expectations of the students. Both push each other.
Unlike, with no offense intended, flower mound, where even some of the marchers say their main success is from money funding their show
You know what? People keep mentioning budget and props and production.
Honestly, these kids can flat out play. That is an insane amount of talent on that field, especially in the low brass. Trombonists are usually a bunch of goofballs. You know how hard it is to get more than two of them to be serious enough at rehearsal to get that good? That’s a small miracle in and of itself (source: am trombonist).
If this isn’t the truth 😂😂
True. Across the board, these players got chops. From the pit all the way to the low brass I heard a feature that was clean, balanced, and musical. That in of itself is a massive achievement. Did these people not here that sax feature or that trombone solo? Budget isn't everything.
Yeah they can play because budget. When you have a lot more resources, it makes learning and teaching a lot better and easier
Yeah I play trombone and remember learning their multiple tonguing sections from this show and the amount of time it took to get it solid is insane. Level of focus is mad
Played tenor sax, can confirm. Stood next to the tromboners for 4 years…
Hebron 2021 center snare here. Glad you enjoyed the show!
Hi Hayden
@@shawnmcconnell2354 HI SHAWN!!!!
Classic Hayden moment
Hi Hayden
imma be center snare in 2027 trust
Hebron bass 2 here. Had a blast playing this show. Tons of hard work, and tons of fun. Thanks for reacting :)
How difficult is the music technically?
@@cletusj.johnson1850 tuba transcription didnt seem too hard
I think one thing that is important to keep in mind to people who have to compete against these bands is that they clearly have a lot of budget. Of course you don’t “need”budget to sound good- but it definitely helps between the mic’s, better instruments, staff resources, etc.
I'm from the same district as Hebron. And when I was still in HS band, we got to see them perform at almost every competition we went to (UIL, BOA, etc.)
There were some exceptional shows by them. But their band had the budget to get a new uniform every year!
(Or maybe another school in the district)
Like 3 of the high school bands in LISD get to Nationals level some years. But never my band, lol
@@NonTwinBrothers For real, our HS uniforms were 20 years old and we had to fight over sticks to muster a matching pair. On the rare occasion we got a new pair of sticks it was like Christmas lol. So wild to see a band of the same size with such nice equipment and even a surplus for buying go pros and stuff.
@@NonTwinBrothers you might be thinking of the wrong band. At least currently Hebron’s uniform has been used for the previous 5-6 years
@@the_good_fam7873
Probably FlowerMound or something
@@NonTwinBrothers possibly
When cars parked in our rehearsal space... we moved them... literally picked them up and dragged them. Only happened a few times, but nothing stops a properly motivated marching band. :D
Dam
When we did that our Band Director got suspended for a couple of weeks because we "damaged the car." But hey, we had things to get done and we didnt wanna wait for a tow truck.
Why not practice on, idk a field??
@@drummersnare6276 kind of expensive to just build a football field specifically for band why don’t you use idk, maybe your brain??
lol that's how it's supposed to be. I had some lines move some cars because they knew what time we had practice and where.
For those of you who don't know, Hebron Highschool had 24 TMEA All-staters this year. That's just in band. For reference, my school had 5 Total (3 in band) (2 in Choir). I got to talk with some of them at the TMEA convention and they talked about the support for music starting in middle school. Their Highschoolers would go to the middle school and get everyone hyped up about band even giving out private lessons. For those of you who know about the All-state process in Texas, you know how hard it is to make region band, let alone All-state. This is a group of highly dedicated kids and the hype isn't only found in marching band, getting to play with them in an orchestral setting was awesome.
Word.
24 All-Staters isn't anything to sneeze at, but I definitely wouldn't discount your program for "only" having 3 people make state. My hometown high school seems to crank out only one All-Stater every 20 years.
Santiago amieva
Yeah region and all state was a pain in middle school god those being back so many memories.
My band has 2 all staters, orchestra has 3, choir has 1
I played with their tenor section leader at All-State and he was absolutely insane
How insane?
what state I gotta know
@@flummy1692 texas
This is literally the best high school performance I've ever heard. Like everyone is actually in time, it's amazing.
I’ve been around elementary school bands and I just wouldn’t be able to do it. Even the other kids knew it sounded bad. I had to scold them and tell them that it’s harder than it looks and everyone starts out from somewhere. But inside I was like “yeah they sound like garbage.”
In my private lessons, I was in a program where kids of all ages would play together and be held to the same standards for each song they could play, which I think is better.
From Texas, and I saw Hebron at BOA. What a band, literally shook the stands
I went to Hebron and graduated in 2019, I was also part of the color guard and all I can say is that I am extremely proud of how far they have come
These Texas Bands Go Hard, Dude! I Remember Having To Go To Competitions Against These People, Along With Flower Mound, The Woodlands, Etc., And Damn Was It Difficult. 😅👍🏼
That's no joke. Not only corp style, but there's also a large military style presence in Texas. They use to not be allowed in UIL finals, but last year they had a pilot program specific to military style bands. There's also the NAMMB competitions, which I had the pleasure of marching in.
Heck, the band at my school was more celebrated than the football team, and that's another thing Texas is big on. Lol
@@Nareimooncatt hey I had military themed show this year and marching band in Texas is as big as football I go to Brewer High school and the football team is as supportive to us as us to them I loved our show it was called Medal of Honor I’m pretty sure it’s on UA-cam the area video of us
@@wrekka8348 I guess I should clarify. I didn't mean military themed, as in a tribute. Military style marching is rank and file type precision maneuvers and music focussed on classic military songs (I.e. From John Phillips Sousa). The best example would probably be the Texas A&M marching band.
@@Nareimooncatt yeah I was just saying I had one and yeah the military type of marching and A&M have a really good marching band because of it
Arrowhead too
at 9:10, the wonderful little detail of "Hebron" just added a magnificent touch to the choreography and overall big picture of the show. hebron portrayed the theme of 'calligraphy' very well. major props to them, can't wait to compete against them one day!
Ikrr one of my favorite parts and u will love the day u compete against Hebron it’s amazing to sit in the stands and watch them I’ve been competing against them for as long as I could remember and every time I’m in awe. The only time we’ve made top 3 is when Marcus didn’t show up 💀
The show has a bit of a piece called Blue Shades in it. Especially from 9:10 to the end of the show. It’s made by Frank Ticheli. Amazing piece of music!
Eric, it would be cool if you reacted to Hebron's 2021 Drumline show. I noticed you were looking for more features from the battery in this video. Their Drumline show is all battery and pit, would be great if you checked it out.
He should watch all of the H.E.B drum line contest instead. There’s a lot of great lines
@@maurathree8317 agreed
Hi Garrett yes he needs to watch it
I think Marcus' 2021 drumline too. They are all fantastic
About that practice field, my high school built a dedicated practice field for the band in the late 90's. That may sound great, but it was still asphalt like the parking lot we had used, and we were a military style marching band. Every. Turn. Was. A. Snap. Turn. Plus a kick off that drags the ball of your foot on that first step.
You needed a rather high budget just for all the shoes we wore out.
Yoooo hello fellow furry in the comments. :)
@@UhKimboze *gasp* furry?!?! Where????
@@Nareimooncatt ooh it’s me! I’m a furry too. :3
@@UhKimboze lol, same
@@Nareimooncatt floofy! :D
my hs competed against them at BOA Dallas in finals, and as a 5a band, those 6a bands in our DFW area are insane. if not for vandegrift, we couldve seen a lewisville medal sweep at the texas state finals.
Same. I played for Aledo, and that was the only time I got to see that show. Hot damn
@@ethan9793 Yoo im a Highland Park band kid. Honestly, Aledo's show was one of my favorites. Good stuff! Also, HP is moving to 6a next year so we are kind of scared lol
@@Sportkid-wi7zw y’all got this! Area B will be challenging but y’all are amazing!
@@Sportkid-wi7zw Y’all always do fantastic at state so I bet you’ll do just fine in 6A
@@ethan9793 lone star member here
Saw these guys live at State in Texas. They are easily the best sounding HS band I’ve ever heard. We Stan Hebron at my school.
The fact that they played "Amen" is legendary. Just recently played the piece in Wind Ensemble and that is NOT easy stuff to play - the xylophone part is ridiculous so I can only imagine the front ensemble book.
Amen by Frank Ticheli? And if so where?
@@davispogor4460 No, Amen by Carlos Simon. Should have specified
Got to see and compete against this band. Their skill is inspiring and they are awesome people. They have a big budget that helps them that is hard to compete against, but I think it's awesome they have an amazing opportunity to showcase their talent
So great to hear dci level marching that incorporates the woodwinds in such a flawless way.
Those woodwinds really showed up and showed out, great ensemble, solo, and section moments. Hebron’s had some great woodwinds for a long while now so they really know how to use them
Those props are fountain (probably calligraphy) pens. That's why you'll see droplet shapes every once in a while and a lot of drills are the really flowy rounded patterns. Plus every shako has the fountain pen tips on them
Yep - as a former band director who now makes fountain pens, you’ve got it.
I'm pretty sure that the feature at the end of the show was based on Frank Ticheli's Blue Shades, an awesome piece for symphonic band, which Santa Clara performed in 1999.
I was thinking this too, one of my favorite pieces back in my band days (played the bass clarinet solos, lots of fun), was trying to get confirmation in the comments and glad I'm not the only one who thought of it
@@StrykerD Yes it is Blue Shades
I was just abt to comment on that
It’s super difficult for my band because I have flowermound, hebron, and marcus in my region……
Have you considered reacting to Hebron Highschool's marching band show from 2021?
@@IanCannonPiano Imma let you figure this one out
Okay hear me out though, what if he reacted to the show from the 2021 season of the Marching Band at Hebron Highschool
That's cool, but imagine this. He reacts to their 2021 show
nah i’d rather he reacts to hebron’s show from 2021
Holy crap! This is a high school marching band!?? They are tremendous!! They sound like a DCI marching band! The band is as good as their teacher. You can tell they had one hell of a teacher from grade school to Senior class! Bravo for the hard work & love of music their band teacher showed them. Congratulations!!!
It's hard to believe how well these kids march. All of them are in time and they all have the same technique. My school missed out on state by one spot and our marching as compared to these kids was an entire world apart.
would have loved to see how they scored against broken arrow this past year, that was also an incredible show
They definitely play better than Broken Arrow. Without question.
@@DeeboComing no lol
@@SylusL Hebron would probably win bro. Broken Arrow’s GE is insane tho
@@SylusL bruh what are you on
@@calvinnotklein6368 it would be the ultimate battle between music main and marching main
From a kid at L.D. Bell who played with Hebron recently at San Antonio for both BOA and UIL, I can say that their win is deserved. The show was amazing to watch, captivated, and moved me. Glad to have a great first marching season with yall.
We have a parking lot. It's called the grid. We have no endzones. It's also a no park zone after school during the fall. Anyone who parks ON the grid part of the grid gets a violation (same as the kids who dont have a parking liscense). Though, it was originally painted by band kids. I don't know where we practiced before though, probably the middle school field since there were two at one of them.
My school got to see them at BOA SA and they are CRAZY. It was so cool to watch in person, especially coming from a 5a band which is quite a bit smaller than this one.
Hi! I was the trombone cam and thank you so much for watching. I’m glad you enjoyed!
OMG 😮 that is so cool.
Amazing performance Hebron Highschool! I loved it. They are so talented 🤩. I got chills at the end.
I think it would be fun for you to react to championship shows from the 2000s and compare them to championship shows of the 2020s. Between the increased use of props, Bloo completely redefining what a uniform can be, and the huge increase in production/sound quality, it should be pretty wild going back and seeing what was considered the best of the best two decades ago.
A great (biased) example would be Michigan state champions 2008, who won with basically no production and 0 props.
To be fair, EMC used to be in Commandant's own, which is about as conservative as it gets in terms of props and drill. Hell they didn't even have a proper pit until a few years back (they only had 3-4 guys on mallets, and now they have synthesizer keyboards)
W
Oh my gosh!! My band director showed us this band after our state competition (we placed 6) and they were AMAZING!! I loved every second of their show. Plus, there’s a little surprise in cursive towards the end of the show
you go to tc?
@@grantboyer3529 4a 6 place. China spring
@@grantboyer3529 you should check out the show. We had a really good area run
Their opener was Impressions of Church Windows Mvt. 2 "Saint Michael Archangel" which Carolina Crown also used in their 2009 production "The Grass is Always Greener"
Thank you. I thought it sounded familiar
Thanks for ur support EMC means a lot to find this video on my b-day 10:27
High School programs where many of the students who take private lessons, have access to quality instruments will help a program immensely. I assume (key word, assume) that they are able to pay for top quality coaches in all instruments and a marching coach who is probably a former DCI member. Just my guess, but indeed they sound incredible for a high school marching band.
Nowadays, most marching programs in Texas require that their staff have DCI experience. Double-plus bonus if you were in a "top 12" corp.
@@nickbell8353 interesting! I had no idea….
Hebron band dad here! One of our assistant directors (Alsaffar) is rumored to have performed in the only "perfect" DCI show, the only one to ever score 100.0%. Not positive, but that's the rumor.
@@hebronbandchaperone Brock is a legend!
@@hebronbandchaperone Sealy was in color guard with Carolina Crown if I remember correctly.
I marched at Keller for 4 years… I decided to go to San Antonio as an alumni and watch all the schools perform (it was nice being in the audience for once) and I was 100% rooting for Hebron. That show was just mind blowing. I have a few videos of the show that I took if anyone wants them!
Did you watch the harlan band perform
Hey EMC! I'm in Hebron hs colorguard and we have our practice field in a parking lot towards the back of the main campus, so the one you're seeing us practice in is at a different location. Thank you for all the complements! one of our flags had a calligraphy pen tip on it and the "pencils" are pens and the hats are also pen tips!
Hebron had a great show and it sounded great in person when I competed against them during BOA. Glad I get to hear again when I’m not exhausted at midnight.
This is one of the bands that non band-kids will never ever truly understand the work, talent, and dedication put into it. This band literally has more physical capability then probably most HS sports teams, and the talent is at a professional level. This does not just go for Hebron, but really any consistent box 5 band
Mind exploded all over the place when I saw and heard this incredible group of students play their asses off!!!! Wooooooo!!!!! 🤯
Excited to be joining this band this band next year!
YEEEAAAAHHH
LETS GOOO
You gonna be a chad on snare trust me
I’m jealous
my hs was part of the UIL state finals in San Antonio Alamodome and I actually saw Hebron perform. It was the best thing ever.
texas has some friggin amazing bands, glad to be able to see a lot of them in person
The highschool parking lot shown at about 5:00 is actually my highschool!! We no longer use the painted field on the lot but I thought it was cool to see something like that on as big of a channel as this!
I remember when they performed at our field during a halftime show at a football game and they are outstanding. They also waited for us to perform our show after the game! To this day, people in our band program play parts of their show because it was SO AMAZING. We love Hebron
Alright, here's an explanation. It'll be edited.
The show is entitled Pen Striped, and the theme is caligraphy. The shakos are meant to look like the ends of calligraphy pens. The plume is just a simple feather meant to make it seem like a quill. The props are calligraphy pens. The droplets up front are ink drops, bc, you know, you need ink to write with a calligraphy pen.
Ah, the comment I was looking for. Otherwise I would've had to write it as I thought the prop design, theme, and overall effect was very cool. I also enjoyed that they spelled out Hebron in cursive in the drill. Right at 9:09
AHHH I GOT HEARTED BY EMC AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The ballad/sax feature was a piece called “Oblivion” by Astor Piazzolla. I’ve seen it used a couple of times for marching groups including my band last year.
We rehearsed on a very lopsided middle school soccer field with a bunch of sprinklers and gopher holes. The football and soccer players acted like they needed the turf so they got it. Even though falling with an instrument in/on your mouth or shoulders is far more dangerous than falling with shoulder pads and shin guards
Everyone that has been to State finals know this starts with the middle school programs. We even had the high school band directors teaching our middle school brass and helping us improve.
Such a good show, the level of skill for every single section of this show is insane. And btw in the Opener they had a "Church Windows" arrangement. Carolina Crown also had the same piece in their opener in 2009, with a splash of it before their closer
I'm watching this from England, and I absolutely love this. ❤Maybe 1 day I will visit America just to see these brilliant musicians ❤.
I remember going against this band at the Alamodome for state, one of the best ones there, still have no idea where to find the recordings of the different shows from State tho🤷🏽♂️
Great finally with them playing Frank TiChelli's Blue Shades. Awesome group. Nice to see the next generation playing at this level. Cheers to them.
Another band that I think you would enjoy is Vista Ridge 2018!!! It’s such a great show all around!!!
For anyone wondering: The saxophone solo at 5:40 is from Oblivion by Astor Piazzola
I was in one of my state's (Hawai'i) top band programs and we had to play on instruments held together with rubber bands lol. Band programs here aren't very competitive here though since going to BoA or doing state wide competitions is way out of budget. These kids are amazing but it just makes me wonder how good our bands could be if we had the funding and support.
i got to see them from behind at i think mesquite marching competition at the very beginning of our season after we had performed, absolutley incredible show, and seeing them at area finals a second time was even better
Dude that’s crazy. I’m like 5 minutes away from that high school and was in the same school district.
I went to rival school Creekview back in the early 2000s (class of '04). Hebron was always the fine arts department to beat in every competition (along with Plano East). Mad props to their fine arts team!
I got to here them live a couple times in San Antonio in November and they are incredible
Not to mention blew our own band out of the water.
Very true very true
will forever be jealous of hebron’s woodwind section. i wish the woodwinds in my band could be heard like that 😭
I got the opportunity to see Hebron live at one of my comps. As sad as I am for not making finals in BOA that was an electric performance.
We also have a practice grid.
How do you have that much interest in music and talent at your school? My high school marching band had like 40 kids. This is incredible
Great music programs starting in each of the 3 middle schools
First of all, the High School itself is pretty huge (at least 2,200 in the student body), and the middle schools that feed into that high school have dedicated programs. I can all but guarantee that the middle school varsity band is playing grade 5-level music.
I'm just gonna assume their middle school program is nuts which leads to cracked high schoolers
@@dogestep64 Mhm, ex flutist here, now a sophomore in Hebron High school. Came from Killian Middle school- one of the 3 middle schools that feed into Hebron- and we were learning to play grades 4-5 music by 7 and 8 grade. Plus, Hebron was involved with the middle schools a lot so we learned from the best lol
The individual demand on the performer is very high. What’s more, that demand is met with insane levels of musicianship and incredible physical control. I was fortunate enough to be in a high school band that won a grand national championship and I bet if you ask these kids about any of these performances they would immediately give you a list of things that they themselves or the band overall could have improved on. That’s how the great ones operate, they are always reaching for a higher level of performance, never being satisfied with where you are and always reaching for another level. That is why they are incredible, that is why they are great. Congrats Hebron, you are setting an amazing standard that is moving the art forward.
i remember these guys at my UIL area (in texas) and thought, huh. they have pens as their props. never realized how good they actually were lol
Multiple of my friends have moved to Hebron to play, we have to compete with them at some competitions and it never feels even remotely fair lmao. At least we can point out the people we know like they’re celebrities
Props, budget, etc. are all well and good, but it takes a ton of dedication to make the most out of the limited time students are allowed to practice. These kids can really play! This is my 6th year as a "band dad" and our son's high school band is very very good. But these guys are phenomenal.
The main musical selection that I recognized in the show was the opener which is from the second movement of Church Windows by Respighi
I was at boa Dallas hearing them perform for the first time this year rather this past season I should say but holy cow sitting in front row I got blasted in the face with sound instantly it makes sense why they won state and why they did so good in Nationals
The Dallas regional is fantastic, always sitting right near the front, and with Pennington being an outdoor venue, there’s only one way that sound is going. Watching Hebron was awesome
Texas marching bands are a different breed, I’m in prosper high school and our first time going to the boa St. Louis competition this year we placed 4th over all out of the bands there, there is a hierarchy of Texas bands, Hebron is the kings tho, try Marcus or flourmound they are also great bands and part of the “Texas titans”
EMC!! please react to the Marcus High School Drumline show! they placed 1st in the state at the state marching band contest and their stuff is amazing! their show terminal velocity, itll blow you away!
It's going to be hard to find a Marcus show; IIRC, they are VERY protective of their shows because of copyright issues.
I am so glad our school made it to state last year to be able to watch this amazing performance
Objective response from a parent in the area:
My kid went to one of Hebron’s rival schools and graduated pretty recently. Of the 5 high schools in the district, three have elite programs: Hebron just won state, then Flower Mound and Marcus were 5th and 6th at Grand Nats after being 3rd and 4th at state.
Think about that for a moment. Flower Mound and Marcus are closer geographically than Carmel and Avon. Hebron isn’t much further away. (I’ll also say that the other bands in the district, Lewisville and The Colony, would be top competitors in most other states)
Put simply, this doesn’t happen in a vacuum. While Texas bands are above and beyond any other state, I would venture a guess that they are also better resourced, better supported and better managed than those in other states. I was on the percussion staff at a very well funded school that is the top band in another state, and I can say without a doubt- the comparison is laughable.
Take a peek at the staff pages from the band programs in Lewisville ISD (the district these bands are from). On the district level, they have a Director of Fine Arts who was elevated to that position after 17 years as the Director of Bands at … Marcus High School. She is an unbelievable advocate for these programs and knows intimately what it takes to be successful. On the local level, many of these bands have directors who also teach DCI, or at mininum teachers who spent many years in the activity. On the staff of the school my kid went to, the directors marched with Cadets, Blue Devils, Madison, Blue Knights and Cavaliers. I’m not saying you have to March with DCI to be excellent, but it’s a decent barometer I think. When you hire top talent, fight like hell to give them the money they need to be successful and support them to the fullest extent possible, the results speak for themselves.
I see people making the argument of “well sure they have money but they’re just good players.” While they are both true statements, I do believe that in the world of band, orchestra and music education, one does need to come from money in order to be much more successful.
When I was in high school for example, every student who was successful in band, whether it be state UIL soloists, marching band section leaders, people in wind ensemble, all came from money. (And were the popular band kids too). I then realized that none of the lower income students had little to no recognition or help.
Additionally, all of the marching bands who made finals at large BOA competitions, all came from high income communities. (Simply look up any San Antonio/Grand Nat finals list, and then look up the median income from which those high schools are located in).
This is because, when students are successful, it typically means they had parents who were well off financially, and were able to support their children from the start. And put them in private lessons at a young age, extracurricular activities, and band. Which all cost money. Now, if you have a community where that is a commonality, many of the higher quality musicians and music educators will gravitate towards that area, creating programs where students are successful. An environment in which students are informed, they know what to do, they’re told how to do it from a young age. (I am no excluding or downplaying hard work).
It’s very difficult to grow up from a low income background and become a successful musician. Especially as a student, because there is nobody there to guide you. Unless you work very hard, and exhaust all resources to your own sacrifice, then it’s unlikely you’ll be successful in the world of band, or music education if you come from a low income upbringing. And I know from my own life experience and from others.
Spot on. 👌🏾 I came from living in public housing in Mississippi to being a band director, but marching in WGI or DCI was never a legitimate option simply because I couldn't even afford to get to the camps for auditions, forget about actually being able to pay the cost of actually marching with them if I made it. Could never afford the 30 minute drive to get $40/hr lessons every week neither, so that limited me also. I persevered and did a lot of honor bands and was usually one of the best in any percussion section that I was in, but it was a lot of work and not a lot of resources. It's impossible to legitimately compete against kids that are getting lessons every week from when they're 12 to 18. So yeah, high level musicianship, as seen here, normally derives from communities that are high middle class or rich. It's not really even about skill or talent honestly. It's more about who can put in the time and get professional instruction and guidance along the way.
This year was my first year in drumline and we went to area and this year was a state year for us and we tied with another band and we were one place away from going to state our show was entitled Medal Of Honor and it was written/transcribed from JOHN MEEHAN the Blue Devils director and Brian Youngblood who used to be a percussion director at Argyle Highschool then was the band director at my school for a while before working at TCU he made our sets and visuals (note: We march Straight legged which means we don’t bend our knees for cleaner looks) but we got beat by Aledo who was first in my area
These kids sound amazing, wow!
i got to see this in person. it was even cooler. also i would recommend reacting to flower mound hs 2021.
Hebron is such an amazing band. I was always jealous of how good y’all were. I graduated from Haltom back in 2016 and was a snare player.
The "field" they're playing on is a parking lot. In the top right you can see the curbs for parking spaces, and The yellow +'s are parking spaces as well. More importantly, all the hard work and effort these kids put in shows in their performance, they were absolutely amazing to watch and listen too.
Hebron has been on my radar since the Sculpt show, which is one of my favorite BOA shows.
It's a really neat look at how every single variable has been thought about and worked on . . . we rarely see this nowadays as mediocrity has permeated almost everything, especially post-Covid now. The public education system is rife with problems, but band in Texas isn't one of them.
It has to start at the Board level as they are the ones to hire a superintendent. I know Texas breaks down in "Independent School Districts" but the same concept for county level districts in states that have those. They set the allocation of funds and prioritize what funds will be available. The electorate have to choose board members who care about music education.
We'll come back to this, but this is incredibly easier to do in a district that is middle to upper class. Money is the grease that keeps everything moving. I can't speak to the validity of the online resources/real estate sites, but it shows Carrolton, TX (and the surrounding areas of BOA names we've heard of) as an average household income of ~$104,000/year. That's roughly 30% higher than the US average. The football stadiums that look like college fields speak to this IMO.
So you have a tax base capable of supporting "marching-band only fields" and instrument allocation to start with. Board hires a Superintendent who champions this cause, and in my anecdotal evidence of Cobb County, GA, hires someone who's sole job it is to field music education applicants and sort through them for the Super and MS/HS Principals to make the best choices they can.
Didn't do a ton of digging but I'd imagine the Texas ISDs are like this as well: the hires for band directors are being guided by someone at the district level with a vested interest in music excellence and knowing where to plug the right people in. It's not the HS principal listing the job and asking applicants if they like the existing fight song and if they like football (seen it happen). A local-ish HS to me passed on an applicant with BOA regionals experience and hired a guy who went to the same college as the principal. The new hire had never taken a band to BOA, had few students competing in All-State, and his marching bands placed mid-pack at the local contests.
You can't do that if you want to be at the level of Hebron.
So you have to guide these hires and then make sure the middle school directors and the high school directors understand they are on the same team. Seen this plenty of times as well. The middle school director is either not asked or doesn't want to work with the HS. Not even talking season marching rehearsals here: just plain old marketing to 8th graders, doing an 8th grade night at a minimum, and plugging BOA/DCI. The least you could do for subs is give them the most recent DCI finals instead of what normally happens: silent time doing homework for other classes. You can do that AND plug marching arts.
You could always tell the HS marching bands headed in a good direction when the middle school director would be on staff or hanging around for a game or county exhibition.
So you've got electorate > board > super > mued district head > MS/HS principals who understand their role > good hires.
THEN you get to the kids themselves. Anyone on this page understands marching band requires discipline. To compete at the level of Hebron??? An incredible amount of practice/rehearsal. You're talking 8+ hours a week just in full ensemble (Hebron's calendar shows) with the idea that rehearsal is the culmination of the work you did at home. I've worked at plenty of HS bands where the ONLY time music was looked at was in full ensemble rehearsal. 'Pass offs? What are those?'
That can't be the expectation if you want to be at Hebron's level.
The HS band director is probably the hardest teaching job in any given HS. It's way more than just showing material and explaining it. That person has to cultivate a leadership culture of students and work with the BPA. Seen plenty of examples of inability to do either or both.
Basically you need someone who's memorized works like "Good to Great" and "Extreme Ownership" and can funnel that into HS students and then, oh yeah, knows a little bit about playing instruments and rehearsal protocol.
THEN you need a BPA (again, the money deal) that understands the need for staff given one person (or two if you're lucky enough to have an assistant band director, Hebron has 3 assistants) really is only proficient at one, maybe two instruments. Hebron's page has 22 people they've vetted that are available for private lessons. My MS and HS never did that and we were routine BOA regional finalists. While I started taking private lessons in 5th grade, that was NOT the norm. I'd say only ~20% of my fellow MS band students were taking private lessons. My parents just happened to know a guy who was a recording session saxophonist in the area so I started there.
Lastly, the private lessons part hit on it, you need the local infrastructure to support this: namely music shops. The internet has cut down on the need for brick and mortar supply houses for reeds, mouthpieces, etc but you still need someone on call to do instrument repair and you won't find those out in the middle of nowhere. I worked at a rural HS once and the director was THE instrument repair guy. He started doing it because he had to, then started doing his feeder MS repairs, and then the next HS over started sending his stuff to him.
The guy needed to teach, not be the on-call repair guy.
Like anything else like this, it's not any one single thing. It's the entire network understanding their role which is why examples like Hebron are so rare. They are the extreme end of the bell curve and it's amazing to watch.
Glad you enjoyed the Sculpt show! Our middle son was the trumpet soloist in the ballad for that show (HS sophomore at the time). He’s now at UNT in his 3rd semester of being in the one o’clock lab band, while being just an undergrad junior. Also, our youngest is the center snare for Penstriped (this show… you can hear him shouting “dut dut dut dut” at the beginning of the video). What you say about the programs/structure/support is very true. We sacrificed a lot of $$$$ to have 3 kids be part of the Hebron band each for all 4 years, and it was well worth it largely because of the infrastructure.
Someone finally puts it all into words.
My band director showed this band to us and we were amazed at this.
No one even faced the screen when my director showed me it 😭.
Marcus Drumline show 2021: Terminal Velocity 😳
i live a couple minutes away from Hebron and their marching band is absolutely insane
Love being in their region it’s really fair 🙃but they are awesome it’s amazing to watch them blow everyone out of the water
My daughter was watching this, and I came in at the first big hit. I asked her what corps it was because I didnt recognize the uniform..then I saw woodwinds and was confused
Then she told me it was a high school.
BoA bands man, they go hard.
Of course now my daughter wants a gopro for her Mellophone as a way for us to spread the Soundsport Corps love.
Everyone go to 5:04 That’s miamisburg hs. I go there. Our percussion are the only ones who use that for when they can’t use the turf, that’s what our marching band uses. Only our jv soccer team uses the soccer field. Mb and everyone else is turf
I watched my old HS's recent show, it's insane how good they are now. Going to boa every year, placing very high. Back in my day we were only getting 2nd or 3rd at states.
Y'all aren't ready for next years show!! It's going to be awesome!
I wish I could like this a few more times, this band really was incredible! #henronheros
Keep the youth music industry alive guys !
I go to Brennan High School and they practiced at my bands lot. I wasn’t able to see them because I had to go to class but I could literally hear them from my classroom. They also used our band pad for state in 2018.
The last movement of the show was an arrangement of Carlos simon’s “Amen”
This is one of the best high school shows in the last 15 years. Hebron is doing amazing things right now.
Man, goosebumps the whole time! Bravo!!
I think I can speak for a lot of schools when I say this….
THATS A BIG BAND
My school played the same ballad in 2017, these guys are insane.