Bro’s face at the opening impact really said it all 😂

as someone who grew up in the texas hs band scene, i have the upmost respect for hebron. not only for the skill level of their students, their star studded staff, or their achievements as a program, but for the way they carry themselves. the hebron kids are so genuine and humble, and they just love to doin the thing to the best of their ability. so glad they finally had their moment to shine at boa san antonio with this show. shout out to my hebron homies out there. y’all are badass. you should definitely do more reaction videos like this. super entertaining and insightful commentary. if you’re interested in texas bands, i definitely recommend reagan 2019. one of the most highly regarded high school shows in recent history along with this one. ctj and the woodlands are two of my other favorite bands to watch as well. great content as always, keep it up🫶🏼

“Where there’s great instruction, the sky’s the limit” Well said. ❤

My high school band was just happy to have a run where no one fell down

Remember, these are HIGH SCOOL KIDS, not music major 20-21 year olds seen in drum corps. And they crank out these great bands every year.

The Texas competition is unreal. Marching in Texas and placing 19th at state. Many of the bands placing ahead of us are the big dogs. Props to Hebron for leading the pack.

It's such a tragedy that Hebron didn't go to Grand Nats that year. They would've absolutely decimated everyone

Hebron is one of few bands that actually uses full dynamic range, it’s not just loud or quiet with no in between. It’s always satisfying to have the contrast even with the entire band playing

This music was by far the hardest to clean at least percussion wise. Still get shivers listening to our finals

here's some context about this show and the hebron band. for the 2021-2022 school year, hebron had 24 band all-state musicians, which was the most out of all texas schools. iirc they had a large and very talented senior class that year. i believe all of the soloists were all-state musicians. they had six trumpet players make the all-state bands/orchestras, so i think that is one of the reasons why they had such good screamers and a good high brass section. (they suffered a bit after their relatively large senior class graduated in 2022, but not too much.) you mentioned hebron's mello line. they are probably the best high school mello line in the country, but there's a general consensus that hebron's mellos peaked in 2017 (most mello rips)/2018 (most mello sustains.) speaking of hebron's history, 2021 was the first time they won in the alamodome. in fact, they won back to back at both the boa san antonio super regional and the uil state marching contest (first occurrence since 2016? by flower mound hs, another exceptional band that happens to be in the same school district as hebron.) since 2012 (the first time they medaled at a san antonio contest), hebron came tantalizingly close to winning boa san antonio/uil/boa grand nationals. hebron has been one of the best bands musically for years, but their visuals and general effect didn't always match. the 2021 season ended their "bridesmaid" status and caused a large stir among the marching band community. hebron really broke out in 2015 when they attended boa grand nationals. they won semifinals and set the record score at the time (97.85, surpassed by broken arrow in 2021 with a 98.25.) at finals, they went early and dropped to third while winning the music caption. they were weak visually, but it was a solid show. hebron would continue to medal at san antonio contests until 2019. they attended grand nationals and placed third while winning music again. they also placed relatively low at san antonio, though their show was meant to plateau later. in terms of show design, i'm not very aware of their entire design staff, so i'll focus on their arrangers. hebron had will pitts (phantom regiment guy who everyone hates now) arrange the 2015 show. i'm not sure about 2016, but they switched to michael martin as the primary arranger by 2017 and stepped up their musical demand. they took up the musical and visual demand in 2019 where they had their first sixteenth note double tongue feature. hebron further stepped up their musical gain when kevin ronan (crown-affiliated) and dave glyde joined in 2021. their drill included much more jazz running and larger step sizes in 2021. (i'm not sure if kevin ronan is still with hebron since he wasn't listed in the 2022 announcements.) 2022 was also a harder show to execute. (the funny thing about dave glyde is that there's a section from the tank part of tempus blue where the sequence is fairly similar to the double tongue feature in the closer of penstriped. they both start with trumpets double tonguing and the lower voices progressively entering.) anyways, here's some recommendations for you to react (or just watch) - broken arrow 2021 - hebron 2015 - present, with emphasis on 2017/2018 - tarpon springs 2010/2014/2022 - flower mound 2016 - 2018/2021 - ld bell 2005-2007 (for more old school) - carmel 2016-2018 - an avon show - ronald reagan 2019, but you should explore some - round rock 2013 - cedar ridge 2022 - the woodlands 2013 - present - william mason 2016 this isn't an exhaustive list. there are likely more gems that i haven't found yet, but i hope you take some time to watch some.

my band director absolutely loves hebron and he encouraged us to all watch this state finals run. hebron is absolutely amazing at what they do, and my director has incorporated their routines into ours. hebron is absolutely astonishing.

I went over to watch them at a home game and was blown away. The best part was seeing them 2 weeks later at region having made HUGE progress on their technical features. It was so mind blowing that I did a solo drive down to San Antonio to watch them during this run, and I found myself laughing during the show because of how absurd what I was hearing was. As great as this video was, hearing it in person was something else, and I’ve been in front of a LOT of good brass lines over the years. This, all things considered was possibly the most insane thing I’ve ever seen live, and I snuck off to watch 14 Devs a lot that summer.

As a fellow marcher in Texas. I can tell you with 100% confidence. The competition here is fierce. I made 32nd at state last year. Haven’t even started coming close to the levels that these bands are at. We’re getting better and better ourselves each year, but schools like mine that are just starting to get into the wood works have a long time to go lol.

This is without a doubt the best High School band ever, at least in my opinion. With Reagan 2019 being up there as well as Flower Mound 2016

Ive been watching Texas bands for years... Flower Mound, Vandegrift, Round Rock, Duncanville, Marcus, Coppell, The Woodlands, James Bowie, Claudia Taylor Johnson, and Hebron

The jaw drop at the opening hit made me lose it so hard

it’s also a good thing to note that a good majority of these kids have private instructors as well but it’s also the dedication that they have to their craft that really tie it all together

fun fact: this show was dave glyde’s first time working with hebron. he and michael martin from crown collaborate on their music. next you should react to broken arrow 2021, they won the national championships that year and it’s been a huge debate in the hs band community who was really the better band that year.

Interestingly not many of us (Hebron alum) do DCI during or out of high school. Love the content Everett!

This band was awesome. People don't realize how difficult marching band can be. I was in it for 6 years along with blood sweat and tears. We had a strict band director that pushed us to the core to be the very best.

I have been lucky enough to see this live several times. Wow!! Hebron was on another level this season. This show was one that I never wanted to end. It was a tour de force at the HS level. If you want to come to a Texas UIL or BOA show, let me know.....You will be stunned at the depth of quality

I have always said this: Hebron's Brass, Colorguard and Percussion could *absolutely* compete with some of the really good Open Class Drum Corps out there. They're insane.

Keep up the good work guys. It’s really nice to see people who were in the activity putting up quality content like this all while providing constructive criticism. This could be a big channel one day! ❤

as a former guard member and co-captain, nothing makes me more excited and hyper to see such crisp and synchronized moves. i'm from texas, specifically in the san antonio region and i have never heard of hebron before! im super impressed by the colorguard performance, truly. this was what i wanted out of my team, but never got it. very beautiful. aside from colorgaurd, this band in general just sound so good too! im not musically fluent, but it's pleasing to the ear, especially with the power and the confidence!

There is a reason that this is widely regarded as the best high school marching show of all time

I’m a freshman Saxophone in the Hebron band and I can’t wait to play in our next show. This one was amazing

ok but why is their brass double tonguing cleaner than some world class corps this isnt fair

To answer your questions… Yes. They are the best marching band to date. They do march Freshmen and they are all playing. They all have to take private lessons and pay an absorbent amount of dues to march. Each player’s cost is still less than Broken Bow out of Oklahoma. One thing that impresses me most is the difficult level of the music, which they absolutely torch it. But most excellent bands across the U.S. will have a difficult, technical portion of playing at the beginning of the show, then they play really well with not as much demand through to the end of the show. Lips get tired, we get it. But Hebron plays a level of high technical difficulty, especially in the brass, at the end of the show as well. As hard as the beginning was, so was the ending. To me, that is something that sets them apart. The band has two uniforms. Black and Blue for football games and these uniforms for competitions. These uniforms have pen stripes, hence the title and idea of the show’s concept. I was speaking to one of my fellow judge friends that judged this competition. I completely agree with her that this is the most well rounded organizations we’ve seen. Of course they won State and would have won Grand Nationals if they would have went. (There are three bands from the Carrollton/Farmers Branch school District. They rotate which school goes each year. This particular year Marcus HS went and got third. The other one is Flower Mound.) Of course this year they won State. The next year they tied for first in Prelims with Vandergrift. What happened next was something that has never happened in the history of our U.I.L. State marching contest… they both tied again in the Finals with the exact same score the tied in Prelims with. (There is a different judging panel for Prelims and Finals.) To break the tie, we look at the ordinals and the one that gets first place from three judges out of five will be named the winner, even though they had the exact same total. Vandergrift won State and they gave second place to Hebron. I don’t call Hebron a HS marching band, but a breeding ground for DCI! 🤣 Thank you for your insights into this show. It is my first time to see you and I will have to follow you to hear more reactions.

1:20 ok I counted and I think they had: 24 trumpets 16 mellos 20 trombones 16 euphs/baris 12 tubas Which totals to 88 brass members.

Honestly, there's too many great shows from high school bands to mention as the bar keeps getting raised after each year, but I think in terms of musical difficulty Hebron 2022 is probably one of the hardest shows ever attempted by a high school (and holds the highest music score at a super regional). It's a shame that while Hebron's percussion is outstanding, they aren't the best in Texas. However, that's to no fault of themselves as Texas just has some killer percussion programs with some world class instructors.

Honestly, I think seeing your reaction to Hebron's 2022 show would be enjoyable. They really did well with that one too, and there are many features and solos to look forward to.

It's okay man. We all had that look on our face when we first saw them 😂

Bro that double tonguing was cleaner than most drum corps

Saw this at state my freshman year, and I barely knew what a good band was. Sophomore year I learned like the whole snare transcription. As a junior, this is still my favorite HS marching show.

Having been part of an extremely small marching band in an extremely small town - I won't lie, it was really easy to feel jealous of bands like this and stay all pissed off that I wasn't a part of one That being said I think that's a really terrible attitude to have and I'm glad it never really bothered me all that much, performing with the boys was the best and I wouldn't change anything about it

High school?? This is unbelievable. My HS was lucky if we had people able to walk and play at the same time lol.

My biggest flex is I can play the soprano sax solo in its entirety

I grew up in Austin, Texas and was in band contests for years: concert, marching, and individual solos, duets, trios and so on. I loved every minute and we always did very well. Now we were taught double and triple tonguing early on, sometime in junior high school. I remember practicing it a lot first with no instrument at all and slowly until you could play very fast passages easily. It makes playing so much easier. By high school it was second nature to use double and triple tonguing. Thanks for showing this video. The Hebron HS band is absolutely amazing!

I’ve been waiting for this video. High schools in Texas are crazy! Love the video.

Education: it starts in middle school. The band elective has a large participation rate, and the district encourages and arranges private lessons. The middle school bands in the Lewisville independent school district are very good. (In 2023 Arbor Creek Middle School will be participating in Midwest Clinic in Chicago).

Here in North Texas the competition is insane. Most 5A and 6A bands go to BOA regionals so each one has about 30 or more bands. Flower Mound HS (same school district as Hebron) has a JV and Varsity band.

watching this show live at uil was an otherworldly experience, and we were just out of finals that year

best dci content other than the shows themselves. It would be really cool if you guys could get guests on for the show from various corps to speak on different topics. Love the analysis

Woodlands ‘22 is a personal favorite of mine

Most outstanding Texas high school bands generally send 5 to 10 students to All State. These guys sent 24! There may have been more, but they're in the same district as Flower Mound and Marcus, no slouches themselves. They've advanced quite a few themselves.

Don’t get me wrong, I love drum corps and the powerful brass sound. But something about a full band sound (when done well) is just so symphonic-sounding and it’s actually quite jarring to hear this sound when you’re fully immersed in the drum corps season. It reminds you that although it’s hard to pick out individual woodwinds in a full ensemble, it’s easy to hear how a woodwind section adds to the timbre of the sound. It sounds, more…organic, I suppose.

You should watch Hebron 22 as well. I’d personally say some of the music and visual is even harder than 21 and it’s still absolutely amazing. :D

Funliner content is the best content! Hebron’s 2021 show was legit transcendent. Some other great high school’s show you should react to are Ronald Regan 2019, Flower Mound 2016 and 2018, and Carmel 2016

This hs band is the blue devils of highschool marching bands. They are so good. Definitely one of if not the best hs marching band ever.

watched it irl since we made it to state in 2021 and i could literally hear their sound on the 3rd floor 😭

Having to be in competition with Hebron high school back when I was in marching band it was definitely very impressive! I’ve had three members of my high school band to go into DCI playing for Cavaliers!

Food for thought… Why not take the next step and start interviewing some of these bands, kids, instructors, etc? Had this stuff been available when we were kids in school, I have no doubt our music programs would have been stronger, to say the least. The net has become one of the most important and powerful tools to inspire greatness since wax recordings.

Love your content man!!! Please keep it up! Love yall!

i have watched this video so dozens of times, and every time, without fail, i cant help but to smile and laugh at that trumpet screamer on that first double g because its just so amazing

I love going to Hebron high but to get to the goals that we’re shown people have to practice in 109°F weather or more. It’s brutal but everyone gets the job done. So proud of everyone at my school even if your not in a sport or band. Good job to everyone.

Hebrons shows have only gotten better over time! Their 2022 show is also crazy!!

If I remember right one of Hebrons drum majors was Vanguards drum major last year.

Hebron's 2022 show is also very strong

I remember seeing their finals performance when we went for state competition with my jaw on the floor the entire performance because I was in such awe of it

Fun Fact. Texas UIL (State regulations) does not allow for any Texas program to start learning drill until August 1st. Also unlike any other State all Texas programs are limited to an 8 hour per week - after school instruction (music and drill). They don’t want grades falling because of extra curricular activities plus our summers are ridiculously HOT! Even with these internal regulations in place Im always astounded as to what Texas programs produces by November!

we get to compete against hebron at the area contest for our area and lemme tell you, they've gotten first in finals SO MANY YEARS IN A ROW. (little frustrating but i have the absolute upmost respect for them.) everytime u get to watch them after we perform its honestly like night and day. they're absolutely INSANE.

Penstriped was definitely one of my favorite shows that we ever did. I can’t wait to perform this one at Grand Nats.

I've said for years that Hebron is the Carolina Crown of high school bands. Very few high school bands can raise the hair on the back of my neck, Hebron has done it many times.

I am currently play clarinet at Hebron, wait till this year (grand nats)

Love me some Hebron bands. Hebron has such a great program and I personally know that a lot of the graduates from the Hebron band program go on become high school band directors and spread what they have learned across Texas.

Bruh hebrons show last year was amazing. I had the pleasure to play against them

12:05 Brock Alsaffar one of the assistant directors marched Blue Devils for a while. Mr Pruitt teaches low brass with the Bluecoats and a lot of our technicians and writers work with large drum corps

You should really make high school bands a series, the BOA and UIL competitions are full of monster bands that perform high quality shows. 2019 Vandegrift and Claudia Taylor Johnson. 2022 Avon. Man Vs Machine Tarpon Springs(can’t remember the year). Anything by Broken Arrow and Hebron. Some of the best shows I’ve seen growing up in the BOA world. Also shout outs to Carmel, William Mason, Flowermound, and Blue Springs for incredibly well written shows!

3:19 just such amazing composing here! every part has their own little melodic lines, a nice bouncy feel with such great clarity! And then transitioning to this rallentando, just such a powerful section!

9:28 I’m the far right marimba. If you couldn’t tell by the rest of the band you can look at me and see just how we knew we’d finally done it

It's important to realize that the oldest player in this band is a year younger than the youngest player in a college band. The oldest members will turn 18 in their senior year. A DCI corps will have 3 more years of physical growth and development. That makes this performance all the more impressive.

Loved how you changed it up to watch HS bands, plz do more

There was i think 3 kids from this band that marched that year also marched blue devils 2022

Better than some world class drum corps tbh

The Dallas/Fort Worth surrounding area has some AMAZING high school bands!!!

I think that was one of the best shows. I've seen with that amount of students on the field. Sometimes it's hard to move that great.with That amount of students playing or musicians.

i live in texas and i am in band and bands here are crazy. its super cool too see. hope my band goes to state this year:D i saw this show in person

There are some student POV gopro videos of this show. It's even more wild from that perspective

Incredible ensemble, they’re bar none !!

As someone who has marched in both marching band and drum corps, i was getting so many different corps vibes just from the brass section throughout this entire show. A little crown here, phantom there, a little bit of cavies too.

As a Texan high school music lover, I am proud and excited to remind everyone of the UIL marching finals in November, as usual.

i get chills everytime i rewatch their show.

I judged marching band for 30 years and saw many bands that could march this show over the years. I NEVER heard a marching band that could play this show. You are correct that this is Carolina Crown level of difficulty. Some of the spread chords even sounded like Crown. Just as much credit should be given to the woodwinds. Their book was just as hard as the brass and they killed it musically. It was just the best high show that I have ever heard. Congrats 2021 Hebron Band.

My son is a freshman in the Hebron Marching Band this year. Very proud of him and can't wait to see how Hebron does at Grand Nationals this year.

In the late '90s early 2000s in Virginia, we had some gargantuan bands that could plow you with volume and power. But that was because our band directors pushed a lot of our band members into DCI. I remember we got off the tour buses at a competition one time and another band noticed all of the crossman jackets mixed in amongst our band asked if so many of us were in DCI with satisfaction. Did we get in competing with them? My high school marching band got first place at every single competition. We went to the entire four years I was there. Best years of my life. We were just about 200 strong at our biggest

It’s a shame lots of these people don’t move onto the next level and just stop at high school. I know Drum Corps would love to have some of these people auditioning for them.

The Hebron Band has won state marching and state wind ensemble competitions in consecutive years. That is unheard of

We compete in the same Area as them and watching them perform live is an experience. Personally I really like their show from last year, whole lots of solos and realllllly good music

Full disclosure. This is only my 100th time watching this video! 😂😂😂😂😂

I watched this live bruh!! I had to compete against them for the past few years and will have to for the next couple of years!!

my high school my senior year was only the size of 150 or so, i think we had the best trumpet section out of my 5 years marching with them. we always struggled with the lower parts coming out, only year every part sounded good.

Hebron is a beast man. They are insane. My favorite high school band along with tarpon springs

My daughter is a trumpet and actually marching in this performance as a freshman. The kids work extremely hard to earn a marching position, but really every part of this show is important from all the instruments to prop crew.

First time seeing Hebron, heh? They've been doing this for a while now. :-)

sometimes i’ll literally be playing parts of this show in my head and can’t figure out which drum corps show it is until i realize it’s hebron

Only one other high school has ever put out sound like that. Pomona 1996. Belshazaar’s Feast. Those who witnessed their BOA finals performance tell of hearing the band’s baritone line collectively inhale before the intro hit. One witness, a member of the Star of Indiana 1990 who played Belshazaar’s Feast, said the baritone line was eighteen guys, all of whom were like 6’4”. HIGH SCHOOL. It can be done, it has been done, but it is truly a powerful feat.

DCI welcome to your future....

This is wildly impressive for a high school

They are so good! They are DCI material! I wanna see older shows from them that don’t have props micros or anything. Everything natural. My favorite marching is traditional no electric. The kids who actually play the horns and drums are amazing

Broken arrow 2021 is another good hs to watch