William Mason/Springboro High School Bands (Dayton, Bowling Green: high schools, college, to live in)

[SonnyDaze]

Originally Posted by progmac

centerville band is just amazing. i think they are precisely as good as they were when my friends graduated from there more than 10 years ago. i haven't heard mason. similar i'm sure.

i think you'll find a clearer division between marching and concert band compared with a smaller town school. you might want to figure out where his passion is.

closer in, i believe finneytown and roger bacon have very well-regarded music programs.

My brother is in the Finneytown marching band- a band of ~125 members in a school of 525-550 kids. The top choir at the school which has about 35-40 members recently received straight 1s at the AA level of the state competition (the highest honor a choir can receive at the top level of competition). The band and choir programs at Finneytown are truly exceptional.

[CinciFan]

^ I can't speak for Finneytown, but I can say from personal experience that Roger Bacon's music program isn't nearly as good as it used to be. It used to be known all over the country when Wes Neal was the band director, but the band has really gone downhill since his retirement. The marching band is now less than 30 kids, and the current band doesn't do a lot of the big performances it used to do every year. Roger Bacon is a great school, but I wouldn't recommend chosing it for its music program.

To the OP, you can't go wrong with Mason and Centerville. Both are amazing schools with amazing music programs. A few more you should check out are Fairfield, Sycamore, Beavercreek, and maybe Milford.

[coffeenut]

Thanks for sharing your story! No doubt about it....music is so important in education and it's something you keep with you no matter what you do in life. I am an "OK" musician myself just playing a little classical guitar, but am truly grateful that both my boys are exceptional and well versed in music theory at almost 14 and 17 - at that age I didn't even know what music theory meant! This is why I'm trying to gather information for my younger son as he wants to be a professional - he definitely has the rock band yen, and is very frustrated because he can't find anyone his age or close to it that is at his level of seriousness - we tell him it will come and get better once he gets to high school in the fall.....luckily he's keeping an open mind about career goals. His main goal is composition for the media (soundtracks for TV, movies, video games), but he's also willing to teach and be patient as I have no doubt that field is fiercely competitive just like any other arts. As I mentioned in my original post, he plays electric guitar and bass, acoustic guitar and percussion - yes, we have a drum set too! He'll be auditioning for drumline next month and has a good chance. In our small concert bands, the director lets the electric basses play along with the traditional tubas, euphoniums, etc. Since this is not very traditional, I'm wondering if he'll have to get used to the idea of that not being practiced in his new high school in OH. I'll be contacting the band director, but can you tell me when your daughters attended Mason, did they allow electric bass in the concert band? If not, he'll probably try for percussion in the concert band and stick with electric bass for the jazz band. He'd love to play the quads one day!

Thanks again....

[coffeenut]

Thanks again to all of you for the wonderful info! I looked up RB - any private school is not in our plans, we are strictly looking into public schools....also, my husband's new job will be at one of the P & G campus', not sure which yet - and I'll also be attending grad school at U of C - so the closer we can be to the city, without actually living in the city will be better for us.

[progmac]

Originally Posted by coffeenut

Thanks again to all of you for the wonderful info! I looked up RB - any private school is not in our plans, we are strictly looking into public schools....also, my husband's new job will be at one of the P & G campus', not sure which yet - and I'll also be attending grad school at U of C - so the closer we can be to the city, without actually living in the city will be better for us.

Keep an open mind - there are a lot of great communities in Hamilton County that could offer you a better commute and the schools you're looking for. Just FYI, in the city itself you do have the school of creative and performing arts, this would be like THE arts school in the region and it is a public school but it is geared more towards people pursuing careers in music and artistic performance, so while it opens some doors it may partially close some others. Also, i doubt they have a marching band - it would be more of a chamber / symphony / ensemble situation.

Good luck in your search and keep us posted. Your son is lucky to have you!

[DEFAULTv2.0]

Coffeenut- most schools in the Cincinnati metro have a decent band program so in most cases you can't go wrong, if your looking for that shorter commute mason is obviously closer than centerville which I think is considered part of daytons metro. But as the above poster mentioned Cincinnati does have an extremely good performing arts school, they don't have a marching band that I know of but they have a chamber choir and a symphony I think, they are more geared at the overall arts and performance and if your son plans on majoring in music you couldnt go wrong with Cincinnati's performing arts school. But no doubt the king of band in Cincy's metro is currently mason. They are big contenders on the national stage and compete in 3 or 4 BOA events a year including grand nationals. Which in itself is an amazing life changing experience! Your son sounds like he is very passionate about band and BOA is an incredible positive and life changing event, so it's a bonus that mason has vastly improved over the years and is as of the last couple of years quite contender in BOA and places very well! Any place you choose though around cincy he can easily become involved in a band or orchestral community. Good luck on your choices!

[coffeenut]

Wow! Thank you Progmac and Default - I didn't know Cincy had a performing arts school, but it makes sense - I'm sure most major cities have them, of course the only one I'm really familar with is NYC of "Fame" fame - I'll definitely check Cincy's out. We were just discussing tonight how different and much more structured the marching band is going to be out there - it's definitely something my son has to decide which way he wants to go. I can see it going either way, he's pretty non-conformist and non-traditional, but if he really wants an intense band experience he'll go with it, we'll see where he's at. That's why I like to plan as much as possible, it let's you think through these things with plenty of time. You guys are awesome, I'm so glad I posted my questions! Have a great night....

[DEFAULTv2.0]

No prob. ^^^ happy to help.

The cincy art school had it's own show on MTV for awhile (but apparently most of it was acted, who'd of thunk it?)

A lot of people here take band, especially marching band pretty serious, almost like a big sub culture type thing. But whatever your son chooses I'm sure he'll like it though.

[progmac]

i believe they are re-upping the SCPA reality show. i heard that last night, but it may have been on the local news, which is probably not much better than gossip. it is actually the only k-12 performing arts public school in the country, i think

[DEFAULTv2.0]

Nice! ^^^

Now we can show off our new tower to the MTV crowd!

I just hope the show is a little less like The Hills or whatever that sad, fake excuse for a show was and more real and authentic.