Have you ever been last place?

Percussion Judge: "Wow, really nice dynamics battery! Great job of complimenting the woodwinds in that section!" Music Judge: "BATTERY IS TOO LOUD"

A guy in my drum line got something like 7 points off his I&E solo because the judge didn’t like how his snare was tuned. If those points weren’t taken off, he would have gotten 1st.

My freshman year mpa judge said our band “marched too much”. Not sure how a marching band can march too much but yeah. We got a poor that year, but percussion got a superior and best in class so we still got a trophy.

My band once got deducted 5 points because the fire alarm went off while playing and they didn’t let us redo the piece

Once took an amazing tenors player to an I&E competition with 15 competitors, and two judges. He played amazingly. One judge gave him 1st place, the other gave him 15th place. How is that even possible.

My sophomore year of high school we played a video game themed drumline show. It was a ton of fun! The finale of the show was the Tetris A theme. Our drill was full of little references, in that we formed different Tetris blocks. One of the judges complained about too many straight lines. ._.

This is the only arguement I will accept for why band isn't a sport: there is no definitive scoring system. Its judged, making it highly subject to bias and scoring flaws. By this arguement, gymnastics and diving arent sports, but it's a good point to make. Judges arent a definitive or finite way to score something.

We had a judge who docked points because our synthesized voice sounded “too robotic” and that our samples “weren’t EQ’d correctly.” On a synth. There’s not much we can do with those sounds.

we need merch that says "not music!"

When I was in WGI we had a show called nonsense and was very similar to the loony tunes show you did but it was Dr. Suess themed. It was supposed to be ridiculous. We had spinning snares and tenor drum harnesses, light up bass drums, marching timpani lines, etc... We had so many inconsistent scores all year, that we had to change our show theme halfway through the year because non of the judges understood what we were doing. So our new show was, "the evolution of music"... Woohoo

Back when i marched in highschool, one of our competitions had a judge from one of the schools that were competing (i think thats illegal) and *surprise* they got 1st. Even the audience was confused because they werent the best and we didnt deserve 4th either lol

I never have been able to understand how a judges opinion of a piece of music matters at a music contest. This is not a composition contest. It is a PERFORMANCE contest meaning (if the piece is on the approved list) bottom line how well was the piece performed!!

My school usually gets first place in most competitions. Sometimes I feel it’s because we’re better funded. Most times I feel it’s just our staff. Sometimes I watch other shows and feel that we didn’t deserve first. On an other note we don’t have a drum break this year and I’m sad :(

We have a colorguard judge in our area that calls everything "interesting" . And we never know if it's good or bad. She provides no other context other than "interesting". It's infuriating and I've started avoiding competitions that hire her because she always scores us low without any helpful feedback.

At one competition, our percussion section got 8th out of the 8 bands that advanced from prelims to finals. Then, after our finals performance, our percussion section was given 2nd out of 8. No one felt like we played any differently or had a better run at finals.

12:18 for an audition to a school of music, the professor would tell the student whether they made it in to the studio or not on the spot. It's important to note that they didn't tell them their results in the audition room, they told them in front of every person in the waiting area (other students, parents, and studio members). The three people before me I heard were rejected. Not only unprofessional, but also really nerve-racking

My high school band was effectively banned from advancing past the district level marching contests. Why? No color guard. Being a military marching style, it was all rank and file and no flashy designs. We always got very high scores on music and marching precision, but not having a color guard docked us points at UIL. Even if everything else was perfect, it wouldn't overcome that. At some point after I graduated, they added a pseudo color guard. All they do is march rank and file with the rest of the band with their flags held vertical. That's it. I don't think they even twirl the flags. It's ok, though, because our big competition was NAMMB, which was judged pretty strict. There's a video floating around that shows all the bands in the stands as they announce the scores. It's almost dead quiet as a bunch of II's and III's are called out, then ours is called as getting a I (One, the best score possible) and we basically drowned out the P.A. announcer with cheers.

me when i cant feel the eleven-eight groove

We literally had a competition sophomore year where the judges lost our tapes and then also put us in the completely wrong division, when our director went to talk to them after about the show they basically didn’t give him anything to help us in any way, to say the least we were all extremely frustrated and the only thing we could do was practice and fix anything the director and the techs saw.

Nobody: Not one soul: Percussion judge: “No percussion, it’s RataaTATAaTatA”

Ahh, to be a music judge and judge a performance based on your subjective opinion of the piece rather than your objective critique or review of the actual performance. Crappy piece!! Really?

I can’t believe how good that entire video was! I actually had to pause it so I could laugh without missing anything. I love Casey Cangelosi! The tenor lick on the bass drums was awesome! The judges meeting w percussion judge was spot on! I love how you ran around the snare drum, TWICE! And the “tens of people” at PASIC comment had me in tears! I’m just blown away by every second of this video!

I busted out laughing at DFL.

My Band Director always says to not put too much stock into what some group of people seeing you for the first time says. Its all about how hard you work, and how bad you want it. (We have gotten Division 1 superior ratings for the two years we have competed [boo covid]) My last competition is going to be this coming Saturday and i think we are solid for another Division 1 rating. Wish me luck!

The percussion judge at my last marching band competition got laughed out of the room because of the score sheet.

That's why I love the Barbershop Harmony Society's Judging. (all judging is subjective, but with double and triple panels all going through the same 3-yr. program, there's less chances of random scores happening)

Too many judges stuck on their “professor longbeard” life.

Ooohhhh, that 11/8 GROOVE! We were out of our minds on that 11/8 groove! DJ lighting, UV body paints, whipping light sticks around on strings... your quintessential '80s Rave scene! 😎

This didn't happen when I was in marching band, but when my youngest brother was in. This was at State in 2000, and they were announcing the placements at retreat. They announced the the 10th place band and the 9th place band. Then 'in 8th place...The AVON marching band!" Stunned Silence by the whole audience. I had to go back to college, but my mom got to see the recap and hear the judge's tapes at the band booster meeting the following Monday and told me about it. We had placed that low due to one judge. ONE JUDGE!! He had us so far in last place that it dropped us four places. All the other judges had us around 4th place or so. I also found out that that particular judge caused the band everybody thought was going to win to be second. Their show had some similar design elements to ours, but they were better than us, and that same judge didn't like them either. But too bad for that judge, because Avon came in first the following year and had a long winning streak at State after that. All my stories are from before Avon was the powerhouse that they are now because we were NOT a powerhouse when I was in band and just starting to get good when my brother was in, although he was in drumline and the drumline was a powerhouse.

I’ve been involved in barbershop singing competitions for 25 years, and I gotta tell you, this is difficult to watch. It makes me feel so grateful that the Barbershop Harmony Society trains our judges so thoroughly. They go to judging school every 3 years and have to re-certify through a competitive process against new judge candidates who have been practice scoring for the previous 2 years. In between schools there are lots of required training exercises, practice recordings they score, and massive discussions on artistry, performance, vocal pedagogy, and where the judging categories should be headed. Every competitor (except at internationals) also gets private coaching from judges at every competition, so ability to give good feedback/coaching is one of the most essential aspects of BHS judging required to become certified. I did a tour of duty as a candidate judge, but did not finish for other reasons. However, as a competitor, I cannot be happy enough with how fair, comprehensive, and uplifting our contest and judging system is. I think if many of these burned band kids have a singing voice at all, they should consider forming a barbershop quartet, or joining a barbershop chorus. They would have a MUCH more fulfilling experience in our contests, which the BHS also puts up on KZfaq so we can view them for years to come!

My band director forced everyone to do a solo for “solo and ensemble” one year and I was way too packed between homework and working (illegal) long hours and had to sight read for my solo and didn’t get too bad of a score. It was a bad score but it was pretty decent. Judge even called me out because of how “not practiced” it was.

Turns out the judge who wrote “crappy piece” was actually just Pius Cheung trolling Cangelosi

My freshman year we did horrible. 2 years later we made school history and made finals every competition, ending with a 96 as our top score. We had a new band director my 2nd year, and he started to have us listen to all of the judges recordings after competitions so we knew what we were doing wrong, and I think that helped a lot.

Show design is another important factor. Shows have to make sense to the judges. No matter how solid you are. The concept needs be understandable.

Small school director here. One of the most frustrating things I've had at marching competitions are ones where judges don't do recordings of their comments, they just use the score sheets to give scores and write any comments they have time for. On those events, so many times my groups have gotten like 30 out of 75, or 90 out of 150, and then the judges either don't write a comment, or all they write is 'good.' Like what the hell do you do with that? Had that happen this fall already. Even better, we got one of those 30 out of 75 scores, and they left a comment about our honor guard, and they aren't even supposed to give a score for honor guard in this state because no one does it.

Video 13 of asking EMC to see who plays the Beast and the Harlot drum solo the best

“Have a good morning” well since right after watching this video I start packing for my corps move ins, I will be having a good morning!! 😃

Do you like my new Industrial Skull Protector???

Thinking about that one time an ensemble from my band composed their very own piece for a competition, then got dead last because the judges were like "we usually play classical here." It was a kick-ass piece. Listening to it, I would have put them in first because it just sounded stunning.

It didn’t take me long to realize that competitions weren’t always “fair” Good to know that you kept pushing despite the “setbacks” 👍. Also my fav piece by Casey Cangelosi is Etude in e minor.👊

Back in high school (45 years ago) I was a damn good snare drummer. I was always first chair and in the region bands but the solo and ensemble contests were frustrating. I worked hard and prepared but it always seemed as if the judges were trying too hard to encourage or keep from discouraging others. They gave multiple first, second, and third place medals and never rated anyone bad or last. I guess they were ahead of their time with, “everyone is a winner for trying.”

That WGI picture at 3:45, those were 3 of the 4 marimbas and the cymbal lead from my freshman year! Wow they got that image around

Last year in marching band we had a melo/ low brass part where they played the melody of twinkle twinkle littler star… once the field judge heard it he sang the abc’s into the microphone for the rest of the show and scored us low

So recently we had UIL State Solo and Ensemble contests (based in Texas) and I was playing a snare solo entitled Africa Hot by John Wooton. Since covid was still a thing, UIL decided that we would record the videos and send it in to the judge. So we did that but...holy crap it took me 8 freakin hours to record that piece. Technically 2 days because I spent 6 hours the first day and 2 hours the second day. I just wanted to play that piece as perfectly as possible. S/o to my percussion teacher for staying with me so late the first day. All of that hard work...for a 2 rating (which 1 is the best and 4-5 is like the worst). I was gunning for that 1, but it didn't happen. The worst part is...MY JUDGE WASN"T EVEN A MARCHING GUY. He was some drumset guy who had no background in DCI from what I could find. I'm not saying my judge needed to be from DCI, but if you aren't gonna be a percussion instructor at a university or something, at least have background in DCI. Now, he did leave 2 good comments, but the third one was the weird one. He didn't feel the pulse in some sections of the piece. I thought I did a decent job doing that considering its hard to find the pulse in some places, but whatever. Its over. I got one more year of solo and ensemble and if anyone has any recommendations on what I should play (preferably 4.3 octave marimba, marching snare, or marching tenor) give them to me.

Unless you practice 40 hours per day (like Ling Ling) you will NEVER win the judges favor! Go Practice!!

I was always frustrated at the people that are in band for the credit and would come to the concerts and just ruin it for everyone that actually cared about music!

Had the opposite problem of the Loony Tunes show my senior year of marching band, consistently got top scores for visual in our group but dead last for visual effect :/ also got dead last in every competition but walked away from a few with the most caption awards in our group soooo... *shrug*

Casey is such a beast . I love White Knuckle Stroll. When you pull that piece off and hit all of the big intervals, it’s Impressive to watch

At my university, back when I was still an undergraduate and marching, we hosted a high school marching competition. Of course it was primarily a recruiting event for our music program and university as a whole, but we still did our best to give the kids a good experience. I worked in the press box on logistical stuff. As a high school marcher, everything about competition seems so mystical and official and it seems like the judges are some sort of all knowing faceless super smart marching gods in the press box and on the field. But after interacting with judges and overhearing their commentary for countless shows, I realize that they’re just regular people and will have differing opinions, and honestly might not even be as knowledgeable and experienced as you might imagine. Not to mention that once you get older you start to realize the social circumstances that impact band performances that are out of any one kid’s control. Funding, culture of the community of the high school, school size etc.

There was a judge recording at the invitational we hosted, that started the mic early and we heard him mumbling during the shoutouts for 1 minute. He said, "god im losing pencils faster than my wife left me." "They should call this show the short baritones because this band used to have really yall baritones." Like what?! 😂

Best outro of any KZfaq channel I've ever seen, you've got some serious taste, those judges don't know anything...

I played a snare solo that, when me and my band director were looking at it online, had a whole bunch of judges say that they loved and wanted to see people play. So I played it at regional and district competition and both judge groups said it was tacky, but still rated me well because I played it well.

Oh my LORD... I recently had my annual Solo & Ensemble competition for high-school and I remember choosing this piece my school didn't even have and practicing the living daylights out of it ("The Tower of Terror" - Marty Hurley). I played it and my only playing error was a opening a buzz too much from nerves. I get my feedback and I see that for the first time, I didn't get a Superior. The judge's lone comment was "That's the best playing of it I've ever heard, I just don't give anyone who plays this a Superior" and my jaw dropped... Go listen to it, it is a fun solo to both play and listen to.

Back in like 2002, my high school in the Florida panhandle did a very awful and embarrassing indoor drumline show based on The Patriot. We never had a full time drum instructor so they brought these two college goobers from Troy State to design and direct it and it was just a disaster. They were late a lot, smoked cigs in front of us, among other unprofessional stuff, and I'm pretty sure one of them slept with one of the girls who was like 15 or 16. Towards the end the main guy just stopped showing up and his assistant stuck around because he was actually nice to us, but probably because he wanted to sleep with more teenagers. We'd always get last place or nearly last because it was just terrible, and the Troy State goobers would change the show hours before we were supposed to perform. One time we were judged by one of the GOATs, Dennis DeLucia, and I remember him actually being somewhat charitable to us. Probably because he's a living legend professional and could most certainly tell we were victims of bad instruction lol. My highschool never did WGI after that and I don't think ever have since.

Late to the party but: My senior year in high school we marched the music from Dr. Seuss. I. LOVED. THIS. SHOW. We all loved this show. We poured everything on the field every time for this show because it was fun. It was technically challenging. It even had a baritone solo that was just... *chef's kiss*. And every competition the whole year we got lambasted for "not taking the craft seriously." But props to my director. Big homie went all the way to bat for us. Dude went so hard in the paint we got apology letters. While not the same as hardware... There is something about getting mail during concert season with mea culpas from marching season judges.

“Not Music” (translation: Not music I understand even as a judge).

At a competition this year one of the bands got scored 37 points higher than every other band in music and everyone was so confused.

I've never seen anyone drum quite like you, you're amazing!

Got to love the "lack of drumline" in a marching piece that had all perc on front.

I’ve never got to have a discussion with my judges, unless I knew them personally

As a teaccher, the worst are the judges that only tell you positive things about your group with never speaking a negative, or hell even writing one down. Then they score you lowest overall on the day? Or just the competitions that always end up with the generic "bigger band is better band". Like we have 30 total kids that sound like 4x that much and some shows they go out and wipe the floor and be 2nd-3rd for the entire day, and the next they'll almost be dead last.

when i was in high school, I was in a serial last place band that got 2nd to last at finals just like you. We cheered so hard when we weren't last but our cheers included "we're not last!!!!" and we got mega chewed out by our director for our unprofessionality. Ironically, our best performing contest was the saddest one...

I went to Beckman High School in Irvine, CA from fall 2014 to fall 2017. In the falls, we competed in parade competitions in we always did well. In the springs, we changed gears to indoor percussion (ADLA circuit), which we only made finals once over 3 years I was in the program (spring 2015- spring 2017.

Last week we had a competition and our props flew away and almost hit a group of clarinets let's just say I have never seen our directors run as fast as they did to grab the props

I have my first competition this Saturday and I so nervous. Last year we won grand champions (but everyone in the band says that was their worst run) and so I'm nervous we can't live up to that. This year none of us know what we are doing because of a new band director.

That feeling when two different judges give you contradicting pieces of advice on a section.

A few years ago my school did a show called starry night, one of the judges said, “what was the theme” We had literal stars

Please play The Black Page by Frank Zappa on drums. Considered one of the most difficult drum set pieces of all time

this is a story of my favorite moment in band ( so far... ). A judge came out to our school from a different state and spent hours telling us that we weren't feeling the music in the right sense, and that we need to have all of our heart on the field. After that we got a superior rating, went to State and got another superior rating...I love band

The fact that Casey Cangelosi actually took the time to impart his experience and wisdom to every applicant (presumably) speaks to his character and why he is a GOAT. How cool.

i remember when our school went to a comptetion in 7th grade. it was hell. like im talking we had to drive 4 hours in a non air conditioning bus with 48 kids. once we got there it was 106 degress outside. and after we played, our band teacher had the audacity to give us flaming hot pizza. WITH LITERALLY 0 WATERS. WE HAD NONE 😭. to end the hell of a day off we had to drive another 3 hours back to our school to go home. funny thing is that once everyone got out of the bus they were all literally dripping with sweat 💀

I judged TOB my first couple years out of college. I realized it was a crock when I was expressly told to start my scores on the low end at the beginning of the division so that there was room for the last bands in the division to score higher and to avoid ties.

This is my first year In marching band and we are going to state and I’m pretty nervous my school usually finishes in the top 5 for area also I’m in the drum line at my school bass 1 if I can have any tips that would help

My band went down to MACBDA a few years ago with a few others from my city (MACBDA is a summer marching band circuit in Wisconsin). At the first show our best band got rained out so we they performed a standstill in the gym and didn't get scored. So one of the bands one every caption. At the end of announcing all the caption winners as the Sound of Sun Prairie, the announcer said, "and on first place, everyone say it with me, the Soouuund of Suun Praiiriieee". It was so satisfying to see our band sweep the captions the next two shows

Cangelosi is the percussion professor at the University in my hometown! I’m auditioning to get back into school next year so hopefully I’ll get to learn from him!

I’m about to go into my first year of high school and I play trombone and we are luckily very very good at our competitions I am going to SHS southington high school and the band is BKMB blue knights marching band and most years we come in the top 3 at nationals so I am getting ready for 2 weeks of intense band camp wish me luck btw we are doing a show called Dystopia

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I remember, it was one of the biggest competitions last year, and one of the judges said to “finish the musical phrase” when we literally had rests, sucks because we were playing it right and that’s what kept us from getting a superior.

Just this year at a past competition we got many compliments on the drumlines dynamics from most judges. Except for one who constantly complained about how loud we were….. when he stood right in front of us on the field for most of the show.

Your performance pieces had me laugh out loud every time man

I just got home from a competition and this was on my recommend

I love watching your videos in the mornings especially because every video you say good morning and I have a lot of frustration with competitive marching music in general I feel like every year watching DCI my favorite show always gets 2nd or a show I dont think should get 1st does I have always felt a deep frustration with this because its like judging one beautiful masterpiece to another

BRO AT MY LAST COMPETITION (im a freshman in guard) THE MUSIC JUDGE GAVE US A SHOUTOUT BECAUSE WE WERE SO IN SYNC BUT THE VISUAL JUDGE SAID WE WERE OUT OF TIME IN THE SAME PART LIKE WHAT THE HELL-

Takes me back to freshman year, at MN state marching band competition. We lead the charge in our class, but the last competition we somehow came in last, and no one knew how or why that happened.

got to play the ensemble arrangement of white knuckle stroll with casey at indiana all state percussion a few years ago! coolest piece ever and casey is such a good dude

I love that you had your dad film the other bands for research

My freshman year, we took place in a percussion competition, and the host school competed and PAID THE JUDGES to make them win

My favorite judge report was about our drum line show and we all point into one corner at the end and the judge asked why we were all pointing at the door

Usually, I’ve found that when a judge critiques how ‘good’ the marching drill or the actual piece of music itself, it means they are too incompetent to provide an actual judging of the marching, and how the music is PLAYED. Because it’s literally ridiculous and petty to take off points if you think a piece of music sounds good or not, or if the drill suits your style or whatever. It’s the actual playing and marching that matters. Last year, my band advanced to state, and we made 8th. Literally every band director there (from all schools) said that we should’ve gotten top 3. Guess what our judge’s review paper said? “Drill is too simple”. That was their biggest complaint, and even though we marched and played perfectly, they took off points because they didn’t like the drill itself.

It does always stink when you get really high scores but one judge tanks you and just ruins your placement, but it's much worse when they don't even give proper feedback when they give you low scores! Sometimes you just get unlucky I guess :/

My band has a 2 week band camp, and we had camp days every Saturday that arent a competition day (which we also have rehearsal on) and we have band after school everyday except Monday for 3 hours, we placed 15th at grandnats (with the highest score we’ve ever had, 90.01) this year and 3rd at state (highest we’ve ever placed in state)

Can't wait for my first competition in a few weeks

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was in the drumline my 4 years in high school, every year we got 1st-5th, never got lower than that. But drumline was always #1 at the competition, always a great feeling

This year, in 7th grade, the kid next to me, disassembled his tuba and tried to fix a stuck valve, he failed and he keeps stealing my music and sometimes my mouthpiece, but he doesn't use them. It very annoying, and since that kid sits in the middle of the tubas, I have to get yelled at in my ear by a 33 year old pissed of band director in middle school.

What really sucks for my band is we’re poor because our director makes bed choices with the money so me and the rest of the drumline play our hearts out and do really good in our minds but we still get some of the worst percussion scores because we use stock music while everyone else has a percussion arrangers

Yesterday was the end of the marching band season and we were in ohio for mid states. Our props for this year were big and bulky and they had these giant banners on the front. Anyways, it was INCREDIBLY windy and those banners are like sail, so in the middle of the show, one of the props come rolling across the field, and HITS both of the snares and one of the two bass drums. We then proceeded to get last place. What a wonderful end to the season.

That shirt you're wearing is amazing!

I am currently in my sophomore season and we have gotten last place for our last competitions, we did jump 10 points on our most recent competition and we are going to Semi-Finals tomorrow. We are working hard and hope to make it to finals. Love the videos keep up that beard.