Marching Band
TBA Marching Band Evaluation System
The Tennessee Bandmasters Association is proud to announce the creation our own TBA Marching Band Evaluation System. This system was created by a committee of TBA Members and approved by the association at our annual All-State Conference meeting. Members of the TBA Marching Band Committee are; Craig Cornish, Chair, Nola Jones – Consultant, Joe Allison – Advisor, David Aydelott, Eric Baumgardner, Chris Cooper, Joel Denton, Mark Kinzer, Scott Miller, Barry Trobaugh, and Jim Smith.
The goal of the committee was to create a system that is comparable with the best systems in use across our nation. This will better provide standardized artifact support for demonstrating student growth in our band programs. The committee felt strongly about creating an evaluation system that weighted music with sixty percent of the score and visual with forty percent of the score. This is achieved with any of the approved adjudication panel configurations.
The sheets in our evaluation system include Music Performance Individual, Music Performance Ensemble, Music Effect, Visual Performance Individual, Visual Performance Ensemble, and Visual Effect. Each of the sheets has two – 100 point sub captions for a total of 200 points per sheet. The evaluation system is designed with flexibility for three different adjudication panel configurations. These include: a six person adjudication panel using all the sheets; a six person adjudication panel using two Music Performance Ensemble adjudicators and two Visual Performance Ensemble adjudicators accompanied by one adjudicator each for Music Effect and Visual Effect with this configuration there are no field judges; the final configuration would be a four person adjudication panel which would exclude the use of the two Performance Individual sheets and use only one adjudicator for each of the Music Performance Ensemble, Music Effect, Visual Performance Ensemble, and Visual Effect sheets.
The score for each panel configuration are determined as follows:
With a six (6) person adjudication panel using all of the sheets, the three (3) music captions receive 200 points each with the Visual Performance Individual and the Visual Performance Ensemble scores averaged for a possible 200 points and the Visual Effect caption receiving the other 200 points. The final score is achieved by multiplying the total points earned by .10.
When using the six (6) person adjudication panel with two (2) Music and Visual Performance adjudicators and excluding the Performance Individual sheets, the two Music Performance Ensemble and the Music Effect sheets each receive 200 points with the two Visual Performance Ensemble scores being averaged for a possible 200 points and the Visual Effect caption receiving the other 200 points. The final score is achieved by multiplying the total points earned by .10.
When using the four (4) person adjudication panel, the Music Performance Ensemble and Music Effect scores are multiplied by 1.5 to equal a possible three hundred points each with the Visual Performance and Visual Effect captions receiving a possible two hundred points each. The final score is achieved by multiplying the total points earned by .10.
The committee’s hope is for this evaluation system to be used and embraced by marching band events across our state. Each of the three regional Band and Orchestra Associations of our state will designate marching band events using the TBA Marching Band Evaluation System for qualification in earning the TBA Sweepstakes Award. This requires a Superior rating in Marching Band, Concert Band, and Sight-Reading at an association approved event.