General Information
We made it through the month of January! Time is truly flying this semester. Both bands spent time reviewing concepts and also starting to work on new pieces and ideas. We are starting to work on music for grandparents day, as well as starting to talk about music for May. So far I do not have a lot of dates at the bottom for everyone to be aware of. On paper, this semester seems to be easier schedule wise with performances, but things may pop up as we go along so I appreciate your continuous flexibility as things are possibly added. Just like last semester, if students are interested in taking private lessons please feel free to reach out. I am more than willing to help you connect with some of the amazing private instructors here in the area.
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: none
Advanced Band
This week we continued work in our blue books and started to look at pieces to perform for the semester. The piece I have picked for them to work on for Grandparent’s Day is called Zig Zag. We also voted this week on a “popular music” piece to play in May and the final decision was Pirates of the Caribbean. This will be one of possibly 3 pieces they play and I am very excited to work on it. We have been actively playing on page 14 in the books if students wish to continue working on the concepts from class at home. At the tops of their pages are explanation boxes for any of the new topics covered in class so they have reminders or a way to learn a new concept on their own at home if they wish to work ahead. We continued to work on the Ab major scale. This scale tests the students on one of their newer notes so it has been a good challenge to add into our warmups. Ab major is now open as a scale they can submit for the scale challenge. Bb, Eb and F major scales are still open to turn in as well. 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 have continued our work on page 12 in our red books. No. 42 has become our starting point and works on long tones. This is a great one to practice at home. Long tones are an excellent way to build the muscles and breath we need to play longer pieces. We have started using these as warmups in class and they are already starting to improve their tone. Exercises no. 43, 44, and 45 will be the focus of Monday’s class next week. Keep encouraging them to clean out their instruments after a practice session. This helps keep their instruments in the best working order. I am working on finalizing music for this group for Grandparent’s Day and Fine Arts Night. If the students look further ahead in their red books for pieces labeled full band, I am picking between a couple of those to play in March. For May, I am planning on giving them an arrangement of Spring by Vivaldi from The Four Seasons. This will be handed out in a couple weeks.
Upcoming Events
03/14- A AND B BAND- GRANDPARENTS DAY PROGRAM
05/15- A AND B BAND- FINE ARTS NIGHT AT 6:30 PM