General Information
This week was the fourteenth week of band class and it was a busy one! This weekend is the basketball tournament which means multiple performances for advanced band. Thank you parents for getting your students here on time and thank you students for your enthusiasm and hard work in class. Everyone continues to sound better and better! Parents, please check the list of dates at the bottom, a few more have been added for advanced band to be aware of! Practicing at home will continue to be the best method for students to continue to improve outside of class so please continue to encourage your students to do so. If you have students wanting to take private lessons, please reach out so I can hopefully connect you with people in the area. I would love to do so.
Student Recordings: To submit a video or audio recording to me, students should ask to use a parent’s device such as a phone, iPad, computer etc. to record the asked for music. This can then be sent in an email to Miss Beumer.
Announcement: Call times for this weekend- Friday: 4:50pm, Saturday: 7:50am, and Sunday: 8:50am. This should hopefully give us enough time to get instruments together and music out before the start of each game and be ready to play prelude before the 9am church service on Sunday.
Advanced Band
This week we focused on preparing for the upcoming basketball tournament Hope is hosting. We will be playing the National Anthem for the first games on both Friday and Saturday. Friday is at 5pm and Saturday is at 8am. There is also a pep rally on the 5th we will be playing for. For Christmas music we are working on O Come O Come Emmanuel and Jingle Bells. Another piece will be added later for the Crown Center performance. The morning of the 17th we have also been asked to play as students arrive to school and pick up hot chocolate. The music we will play for this will be from the Christmas packet they received last year. We will be simply heading downstairs after rehearsal that morning as it falls on a normal day of class for us. Bb, Eb and F major scales are still open to turn in for the scale challenge. Students can submit a video by email of the full scale through the thirds to be added to the leaderboard. 3 hours overall for each week is a good goal with any of the music.
Beginning Band
This week we continued to work through the book, but we are starting to move around a bit to continue to increase their skills and note reading. We introduced the concept of slurring music this week. This creates a more connected sound and challenges the students to move their fingers faster and support their air more. Students should continue to practice the notes and exercises from class at home. We are actively working our way through page 10. We have played through no. 30 in class. I would like them to look at Good King Wenceslas and Jingle Bells at home. These two pieces are ones they are learning for Christmas performances. Jingle Bells will be played with the advanced band at the Crown Center performance. Good King Wenceslas will just be B band alone. They can also practice the notes they know on long tones (long sustained note). This will help build up their lung capacity and sound. Another helpful practicing tip is to start practicing changing between notes that are not right next to each other. This will help build confidence for later. Keep encouraging them to clean out their instruments after a practice session. This helps keep their instruments in the best working order.
Upcoming Events
12/6- A BAND ONLY- MBHC BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT AT 5:00PM
12/7- A BAND ONLY- MBHC BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT AT 8:00AM
12/8- A BAND ONLY- PRELUDE MUSIC FOR MBHC AT 9:00AM
12/17- A AND B BAND- CROWN CENTER WITH CHOIR AT 5:45PM, CALL TIME: 5:30PM
12/19- A BAND ONLY- SCHOOL CHRISTMAS PROGRAM
12/20- A AND B BAND- SCHOOL SING-A-LONG