2013 The Honda Battle of Bands – Prunalysis
For the uninitiated
The Prunalysis is a play by play of everything that I heard and saw at a particular marching band venue.
In this PrunaIysis, I will attempt to put you in the seat at the Honda Battle of the Bands as much as possible and tell you the pros and cons of each band.
My only request from you is that you not just read the Prunalysis, but interact with it. Post your own comments about the band and your reactions to my work. Also, please help me with any songs that I might miss the name of.
While I’m doing this, It is my goal to be completely unbiased and to as always”
“Tell It Like It Is”
Replies
Edward Waters College – facing away from me
Edward Waters looked very good marching in. The band has a lot of uniformity in their marching style.
“Saturday Love” – (The Calendar song as I like to call it.)
One of the trumpet players near the sideline was marching in a distinctly different style from the rest of the band. This really stood out against the uniformity of the rest of the band.
Good diamond formation. – The areas where the tubas where on either diamonds seems to be a little cluttered very the spacing in the rest of the band.
Although there was a lot of uniformity in the marching style there was a lot of low-knee lift as well. The band did not seem to show a lot of energy in its marching.
Marvin Gaye sound – please help with the title.
Great solid tone from the tubas. This was continuous throughout the performance.
The dancers from EWC had a set of very creative and original looking fans they used. This really brought attention to what they were doing. As a part of their routine the dancers got into a circle in the middle of the band formations and began to rotate the circle while taking their fans out. This gave the impression of a large flower rotating in the center of the field. This was very creative but may have garnered more of a crowd reaction if the circle had been spun faster.
After this and as a part of their Asian theme for this part of the show, the band started playing “Gangnam Style” a song that we heard at least 2 others times throughout the day. There was no doubt thought that EWC performed it the best. They were the only band that true sold their dance routine to this song. The fact that this dance appeared in the middle of the show instead of at the end was just the right place to get a good crowd reaction. Very hype.
More to come...
The mellophones were shaky while playing chorus and while playing and marching at the same time. Very classy for the band to bow at the end of this.
“If Only For One Night”
Big Sound from the band. Mellophones were a little off.
EWC used a singer for this one. Singer off don’t work out very well, but in situation the young man had a great voice.
“Practice What You Preach”
EWC’s band creatively used not just one singer but two. On the second song, a bass singer came out and sang this Barry White hit. His low voice at the beginning instantly grabbed the attention of the audience. Also he was really getting into the song with his movement and so was very interesting to watch. The song ended with both singers singing in harmony on the song. Way to tie the ideas together.
The whole time while the two young men were singing one of the dancers circled them individually giving them each attention. Would have liked to see more interaction between her and the singers, particularly in the facial expressions.
“Conga”
EWC ended their show with their secret weapon. “Purple Thunder” A second group of dancers that are slightly larger than the average troupe. As expected the crowd went wild when they saw them. Having seen them before the dancers didn’t seem to have the no-holds barred full-on energy level that that I’ve seen them before with before. I was somewhat disappointed here, but as if to say “We Ain’t Going Out Like That.” Purple Passion’s routine ended with one of the girls doing a tumble routine down the middle of the field. This was incredible and really won the crowd.
More to come...
--
Founder, CEO
Block Band Music & Publishing, LLC
(919)-698-2560
BlockBandMusic@gmail.com
Block Band Music & Publishing…Your Assistant Band Director!
Like us on Facebook!
Follow us on Twitter!
Next Up…Albany State
As the percussion section started they didn’t seem to be as together as many of the other percussion sections of the evening. This was noticeable during the fanfare as well.
Solid Fanfare from the band. Nice twirling from the cymbals during the fanfare.
Drill Song – “Shame”
Nice drilling. Cool idea to occasionally switch up to ½ time marching.
As far as balance was concerned, the trumpets often seemed to get swallowed by the low brass. This occurred often.
“I Have Nothing”
Trumpets were strong during “I don’t wanna have to look…very much further.” The rest of the band did a great job of getting out of way to allow this to happen. The trumpets however would often pinch off the last note of the phrase and did not continue the upward ascent of the melody. As the melody got higher, they took the part down an octave.
There were very different stick heights in the rolls in the percussion.
The band got to slow a pause in the song, but the music did not seem to change much after the pause.
More to come...
This was great. There’s a lot of going on musically with the band and it’s all very interesting to listen to.
Nice descending run in the low brass. Needed to be just a tad cleaner at the end.
The band sounded good during the song that formed the beginning of the dance routine. (What song was this?)
During the dance routine one of the tubas in the front had his legs apart while all the others had their legs together. Watch the uniformity.
During the dance routine the band transitioned to a formation while playing “Locked Out of Heaven” but it wasn’t really clear as to what it was.
"Ratchet Girl Anthem"
More to come...
The Prunester…Telling it Like It Is.
Next Up…Tennessee State.
I like thed intro formation the band stayed in while waiting of the opportunity to perform. The drum majors looked really cool spread down the middle of the band on the 50.
A couple of things:
Some of the drum majors’ maces were not parallel. This was very noticeable in such an exposed position.
Many of the horn carriage positions for parade rest were somewhat different in horn angles. This took away from the unity of the group.
One of trumpet players decided that while the band was already on the field and no one else was moving. This was the best time to maintenance his instrument. This stuck out like a sore-thumb.
Drum Major Entrance
TnsU’s band formed a creative formation that put each drum major in the center of 4 diamonds. This had a great visual effect! We needed more energy and uniformity from the drum majors to truly sell this though.
The band moved into a formation that formed “GRAVES” for Dr. Graves on the field.
There were some problems in one of the trombone squads during the drill. They got tangled up a little in there.
More to come...
Tenn State’s tuba are especially powerful, and consistent.
Every time they faced us you could feel their sound the same way you could feel the sound of bass drum. Definitely the best sounding and most consistent sousaphone section of the day.
"Schoolin' Life"
To represent a schoolhouse, the band made a house of the field with a band in the middle, the letters “A”& “C” on either side (A, B, C).
TnSU’s dancers danced in very creative and sexy school girl outfits.
The band then formed a series of 9 letters of the field. The announcer directed the audience to find the letters – H-O-N-D-A from the mix. Since the band can easily give the impression of changing colors simply by turning around, the letters of HONDA were easy to find b/c they were in a different color than the other letters. The band then slightly changed formation and the announcer told the audience to find the letters –A-O-B for Aristocrat of bands. They did all this while playing the music to Jeopardy. I will admit I didn’t get this at all when I first saw it. Granted I was behind the band. After reviewing the type though I realized that this was quite creative.
More to come...
The Prunester..."Telling It Like It Is" & That is "Im Going to Sleep Now"
More to come in the morning.
Next-up Alcorm State.
I noticed the banner being held in the front by the banner girls was not parallel. This of course was a very small detail.
Alcorn’s band was very hype coming on the field.
Fanfare – “Out On A Limb” by Tina Marie
Very powerful
Good turns during the drill. Alcorn had good formations made by step 2 drills. The trumpet sound was often lost during the drill.
The band ended its drill in a “A-S-U “ formation that spanned the length of the field.
Slow song – “I Wanna Know” by Joe
One of the mellophones held over at the beginning.
The song started with a trombone soli. The Alcorn trombones were very out of tune here.
Nice run from the low brass.
The song had no counter-melody that I could hear.
During the bridge, the woodwinds took over the melody. Great work woodwinds. Creative use of instrumentation.
The drum majors looked good directing the song from the front, but they really needed podiums, the band was relying on listening to stay together and this eventually became problematic.
Since the band was spread from 10 to 10 (almost the whole football field), phasing really began to set-in towards the end. The band really needed a director to stay together. It may have been better to condense the band into a smaller formation while playing this.
There was low energy in the marching when transitioning to the next formation.
More to come...
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next