Parent’s Guide
A Parent’s Guide to Band
Texas is blessed with a tremendously strong curricular music program in the public school systems. Our music programs have survived every curricular innovation, every scheduling impediment, and every budgetary crisis in the last 75 years. A large part of this longevity may be attributed to the well-organized and maintained competition system in Texas that is the model for the rest of the country. Band competitions in Texas are sponsored by two very different organizations: the University Interscholastic League (UIL) and the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA). The UIL is an organization of schools that governs extra-curricular academics, sports and music. TMEA is an organization of music teachers, including band, choir, orchestra, and classroom music teachers at every level through college. Marching and concert competitions are sponsored by the UIL, while TMEA sponsors the Region Band Contest and selects the Honor Bands in each class through recordings. Aside from these competitions, the band members participate in a variety of other school-sponsored activites throughout the year.
Pep Rallies (CMS)
(3-4 pep rallies on various days throughout the year)
On Pep Rally days the school is on Activity Schedule and the Pep Rally occurs during school, from 3pm to 3:40pm. Band students wear their band t-shirt with blue, blue jeans to school and perform in this “Spirit Uniform”. Students from all band classes combine to perform as the CMS Dragon Pep Band. Students will sit with the band during the entire Pep Rally and will perform the school Fight Song, the Star-Spangled Banner, the Alma Mater and 1 or 2 other spirit songs. Parents are invited and encouraged to attend!
Carroll ISD Community Homecoming Pep Rally (CMS)
(The Wednesday night of Homecoming week at Dragon Stadium)
The CISD Community Homecoming Pep Rally is a district-wide event that encourages parents and students from all CISD campuses to come out and support all CISD Dragon programs during the week of Homecoming. The event is held at Dragon Stadium on Wednesday evening the week of Homecoming. The Carroll MS Band joins forces with the Dawson MS Band and the Carroll HS Dragon Marching Band to perform the Fight Song for the start of the Pep Rally. This is a great chance to see your MS band student under the lights of Dragon Stadium and it gives them a chance to experience the joy and exhiliration that comes with performing as a future member of the Carroll HS Dragon Marching Band! After the performance of the Fight Song, CMS band students will watch the HS band perform their competition show and are then dismissed to enjoy the rest of the Pep Rally.
Fall Preview (DIS)
(End of October)
A “show and tell” style concert to demonstrate to 6th grade parents the progress the beginner band student’s are making on their instrument. Each instrument class at DIS will prepare a few short pieces to perform on stage. The concert is held in the Cafetorium at DIS. All DIS Band members are required to attend.
Carroll ISD All-City Band (CMS)
(Audition End of October, Perform in December)
An individual contest for 7th and 8th grade band students in Carroll ISD. Each student learns two short pieces of music (etudes) as well as nine scales. Students perform for a panel of 2 judges in a blind audition where judges are placed behind a screen from sight so they do not know which students are performing. Each judge ranks each student in comparison with each other and the lowest total of rank points is first chair! If a student ranks high enough, they make the All-City Band and perform in a special concert in December. First Band members are required to learn the etudes and Second Band members are encouraged to speak with a director about trying-out. All students are encouraged to learn and study the etudes to aid them in their musical development.
*Lessons are strongly encouraged to experience maximum success with these challenging pieces!*
TMEA Region 24 All-Region Band (CMS)
(Audition in November, Perform in January)
An individual contest for 7th and 8th grade students from Carroll, Grapevine-Colleyville, Lewisville, Little Elm, Lake Dallas, Carrollton-Farmers Branch, and Frisco ISD. Each student performs the same two etudes and scales that they preformed for the Carroll ISD All-City contest for a panel of 5 judges in a blind audition. If a student is ranked high enough, they are placed in one of three performing bands made up of the top students from the competition. This is the highest individual honor a student can achieve in middle school band and the Region 24 bands are considered one of the top region bands in the state of Texas. Many members of the All-Region band go on to become members of the Texas All-State band in high school! Members of the All-Region band rehearse and perform a challenging concert in January. First Band members are required to learn the etudes and Second Band members are encouraged to speak with a director about trying-out. All students are encouraged to learn and study the etudes to aid them in their musical development.
*Lessons are strongly encouraged to experience maximum success with these challenging pieces!*
Solo & Ensemble Contest (CMS & DIS)
(Middle of May)
An individual and group contest for all Carroll MS & Durham IS Band students. For the Solo portion, students select and rehearse music with the help of the band directors and/or their private lesson teacher. The week before the contest each student has a rehearsal with their accompanist (an adult, professional piano player who plays the accompaniment, or background music, while the student plays their solo). For the ensemble portion of the contest, students organize into small groups, called ensembles, made up of 2-8 members and select a piece of music to perform, again with the help of the band directors and/or their private lesson teacher. Each solo and ensemble performs for a judge who gives them a rating on a scale of I – Superior to V – Poor and also gives comments to help students improve. Solo and ensembles do not compete against each other, rather they are judged against a set standard. On the following Monday students are given a copy of their judges comment sheet and a patch whose color is based on the rating they received and the difficulty of music selected.
UIL Concert and Sight-Reading Contest (CMS)
(End of March/Beginning of April)
This is the staple competition for UIL, occurring every year in the spring in all 28 regions of the state. Each band prepares a concert program of two pieces chosen from the Prescribed Music List and a concert march, then performs in front of three independent judges. The band is given a rating from each judge: I – Superior, II – Excellent, III – Good, IV – Fair, V – Poor. The judges cannot confer about their rating and the FINAL rating is a consensus of the three, not an average. Theoretically, EVERY band can get a I – Superior or a V – Poor. The competition is not among the bands, but against a standard of excellence that has been established through the many decades of this competition.
Immediately following the concert performance, the band moves to another room for Sight-Reading. The band director has a set amount of time (usually seven minutes) to teach the band a completely new song that the band has never seen or played before. The students have only one opportunity to perform the song in front of three judges. The judges give ratings on a scale of I – Superior to V – Poor like the Concert Contest. Besides taking the bands’ performance into account, the judges also consider the directions given from the band director during the explanation period and the students’ response to the director’s instructions.
If a band receives a I – Superior Rating in both the Concert and Sight-Reading portions of the contest, they earn a Sweepstakes Award. Since almost all middle schools in the state of Texas participate in the Concert and Sight-Reading Contest, it is considered the equivalent of a statewide achievement test for Band. (think TAKS for Band). Therefore, earning the Sweepstakes Award is the equivalent of being named an Exemplary Band Program in the state of Texas.
**Interesting Note** – All of the bands at CMS received the Sweepstakes award last school year!
TMEA State Honor Band (CMS)
(Summer)
A TMEA sponsored completion every two years to find the “State Honor Band” for each classification. All Middle School band are divided into three classifications (C, CC, CCC) based on school enrollment (Carroll MS is considered CC). Bands across the state choose to record as many as five different performances of their concert programs and submit the best of these for consideration at the region, area and state levels. At each level a panel of five judges hears the recorded performances without knowing the school identification. The judges rank the performances from top to bottom and the top 2 at each level advance. Fourteen performances are heard at the final level to select the finalist and the State Honor Band in each class. The Honor Band performs the following year at the Texas Music Educators Convention in San Antonio the following February. This is the highest honor a band can receive in the state of Texas.
