I have listen to bands for years and this is my opinion on the matter. If you appear to have a loud baritone section and weak T-bones and Trumpets it's not that your baritone section is loud it just everything else is weak. For example 35 has 3 blowing basshorns, but if you take those basshorns and put with a band like St. Aug. they would just be a nice section. Not the dominate sec. you have now. Why? Because St. Aug. have more of a complete band to silence those bass horns.
I listen to people go OOOoooooo when a couple of loud notes are played from the baritone or f-horn section. What's up with the rest of the song when they are non-existent. I once heard someone tell me that St. Aug. pre-katrina didn't have any lower brass. Then I had him listen to Back Stabbers, Break Out, Africano and PYT to shut him up. It appeared they didn't have lower brass because they had 50+ trumpets. If you would have taken any great high school lower brass section in the state of La. and put them with those 50+ trumpets you would just have an average at best lower brass sec. Since most N.O. high schools only average about 12 to 21 trumpets the lower brass get their shine on. It's not that you are loud it's that your supporting cast is so weak.
Lets talk stands. Sound rises just as smoke. St. Aug. set up from top to bottom. With this setup y'all sound is going str8t out of Ted. That's why directors set their band down low. For one, the cams are low. Every walker clip I see the cam is right in front of them on the sidelines. Whereas with St. Aug. it's either across the field or on the side line, but y'all are way up blowing over the cam. Souther Uni. has an atvantage every time a band setup in that corner up high with the right of that stadium open. The sound is escaping.
The art of deception is the key. To make your school appear to be louder than what they are. St. Aug. program understand this one thing. It is more valueble to remain true to thy self than to bow down to temptation and become like everyone else. I miss the old 35 of the 80's. The K of the 80's to mid 90's. The F-troop and the Mac and yes St. Aug. All these programs had an identity and the only one struggling to hold on is St. Aug. Don't change St. Aug. y'all are all we have left of what once was.
None of this should be taking personal. It was just on my mind.
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No Doubt we had weaker sections (or weak members in sections) ...Speaking from the Inside we had 12 tuba players and only like 8 to would be playing 100% of the time.. usually the horns we borrowed didn't work properly.
alot of people knock the tbones for having so many and not not always having 3 part harmony. we had 26 but our second and thirds were transitional. most of the thirds were weaker players. we had to switch some of our 1st to 3rd because of it.
but hey we had a full sound and it wasn't bad... other bands Blasted their way to fame...
Deception is what made Bandheads think one band was better / louder than others. lol