KMEA Marching Band Championship

By Kathryn Harris

The Bowling Green High School band recently undertook the hefty task of hosting the semifinals of the Kentucky Music Educators Association (KMEA) Marching Band Championships. The event took place on October 28, on the high school’s newly renovated football field. Later that night, the state finals took place at the Western Kentucky University’s (WKU) Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium. 

In order to successfully host the competition, the BGHS band used student volunteers to help “work” the competition. This included students whose jobs were to run and deliver the competing bands’ scores between judges, assist the filming of each performance, sell merchandise, and escort bands from their warm up rooms to the football field. Classrooms, including the band and choir rooms were converted into warm up areas for each of the bands. BGHS band students’ parents were also a big part in smoothly hosting the competition. These parents helped direct traffic that was moving in and out of the high school due to most of the bands having large trailers that contained all their large instruments like tubas and equipment used for special effects which were needed to be unloaded by the school. They also assisted with the unloading of that equipment. Concessions were sold at the competition by the BGHS band and they kept the profit, similarly to how the band sells concessions at home football games to make money. 

Vanessa Pineda, a sophomore in the BGHS band, helped work the competition. She was a band guide. She says that as a band guide she, “had the band that [she] was assigned follow [her] to the changing rooms, practice area, and the performance area.” Vanessa mentioned she only watched one performance, and she really liked how they “made a show that had a Mexican and Latino theme.” She notes that “their props also emphasized that.” 

Unlike most high school bands in Kentucky, BGHS’ band does not participate in competitive marching band, like those who competed in the competition do. The main reason for this is to give students the opportunity to do other activities because in order to be successful in competitive marching band, it requires such a large time commitment. Students who participate in it don’t have time for other activities. Because BGHS is not competitive, practically all the students in the band do other extracurricular activities, like choir, orchestra, and other various sports and clubs. 

In contrast, most students at other schools who participate in competitive marching band only have marching band as an extracurricular activity since they spend all their time after school in rehearsals. This situation forces many students around the state to choose between participating in band and other activities. Competitive marching band is also very expensive for students and their families as those who compete often have to pay a fee to be in the band, along with spending money while traveling for competitions. This costliness is another reason BGHS does not participate in competitive marching band. In place of competitive marching band, the BGHS band performs a different halftime show every home game, which is something competitive bands are not able to learn because they have to rehearse for their competitions. 

Similarly to how state championships are organized for most sports, each competitive marching band in the state is assigned a class based on the amount of students that attend their school. For marching bands, these classes range from 1A, the smallest of the school populations, to 5A, the largest. BGHS hosted the semifinals for class 1A. The high schools in this class who competed in the semifinals were:

1. Williamstown Sr. High School

2. Campbellsville High School

3. Lewis County High School

4. Cumberland County High School

5. Somerset High School

6. Washington County High School

7. Owen County High School

8. Todd County High School

9. Lee County High School

10. Mayfield High School

11. Nicholas County High School

12. Owensboro Catholic High School

Six bands from each of the classes are chosen to advance to the finals that were held later that evening. The bands that advanced for class 2A were Nicholas County, Owensboro Catholic, Campbellsville, Washington County, Mayfield, and Williamstown high school.

The bands were scored based on three different categories which aim to judge every aspect of a band: music performance, visual performance, and general effect. There are subcategories to each of these that make up the aspects the judges listen to in order to determine how the bands performed in the more generalized, overarching category. For example, the visual performance category has the subcategories of sound, tone/tune, and articulation/technique. 

Each subcategory is either an “individual” or “ensemble” subcategory. For example, sound is scored on the individual level while tone/tune is scored on the ensemble level. The judges assigned to the ensemble level judge from the commentator booth that overlooks the BGHS football field. In contrast, the individual judges walk around on the field while each band is performing. They get close to individual marchers chosen at random and listen to their playing in order to judge the band on how much each individual contributes to the overall sound of the band. The judges perform the task to ensure that every member of the ensemble is actually playing. In other words, the judges are confirming that there aren’t members who are pretending to play by simply moving their fingers on the keys/valves of their instrument, and letting the musicians who play much louder to compensate for their lack of sound. 

Washington County High School won the semifinals with a final score of 85.650. They scored only 0.150 points greater than the runner up Mayfield High School who received a score of 85.500. It is common in marching band competitions for scores to be very close together. It contributes to the long rehearsal time and obvious commitment from the band directors and marchers who perform in these competitions because every single small detail of the performance matters. 

It is currently undetermined whether BGHS will host a semifinal for the KMEA Marching Band Competition next year. Considering BGHS’s state of the art facilities, it is very likely it will be a considered location. This decision also depends on the willingness of the band directors at BGHS to host since it is a difficult job that requires lots of time to pull off.