General Information
March is upon us and apparently some crazy weather as well. Thank you for being flexible this week as we dealt with blizzard conditions. In the spirit of the start of March Madness in basketball, I created a music march madness for the band and choir to vote on. Twice a week they will listen to two pieces from the four major countries that shaped music as we know it. This will hopefully be a fun way to expose the students to styles of music they may not listen to often. They will then vote on their favorite and gradually pieces will get eliminated as the month goes on. I am excited to see which piece wins at the end of the month. This week we also continued turning in our practice logs for a prize. I hope this continues to be a fun way to motivate them to practice. I had a ton of fun putting it together so I hope the students enjoy it. Everything adds up in the end and I believe they will really start to hear improvements in themselves as this goes along. I also plan to have a prize at the end of the year for the students with the most at the end of the semester. Since I do not submit grades, I thought this method to be the best way to help encourage practice at home. I also ask that parents initial or sign the paper before the students bring them to me just to verify what they wrote down is accurate.
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: NEW A BAND PERFORMANCE ADDED ON 3/9 in Concord Hall at 9:20am!!!!!
Advanced Band
Practice logs will be tracked from Tuesday-Tuesday. I gave them out next Tuesday and would like it back filled out and signed by the following Tuesday. There is no set minimum expectation, I just want to encourage them to practice.
This week we worked on hymns and performance music. Zig Zag is coming along quite well already and I am looking forward to hearing them perform it on Sunday. We did a full run of the piece this week with no stops and they did an excellent job following along and adjusting as needed. Sunday’s performance will give them a chance to perform it and deal with nerves which can add a new challenge to all the tempo changes. We also worked on Pirates of the Caribbean. We have looked at Medallion Calls, He’s a Pirate, and One Last Shot. One Last Shot has some high range parts for most instruments, so having your student go through and write in note names to help take it down an octave if needed can be helpful. I also finally found an amazing arrangement of Down to the River to Pray that will be ordered so we can play it in May. It is ordered and on the way. We have been actively playing on page 15 in the books if students wish to continue working on the concepts from class at home. Scales are coming along quite nicely in class. Bb, Eb, F, and Ab major scales are still open to turn in and C Major is almost there. Students can submit a video by email of the full scale through the thirds to be added to the leaderboard.
Beginning Band
Practice logs will be tracked from Monday-Monday. I gave them out next Monday and would like them back the following Monday. There is no set minimum expectation, I just want to encourage them to practice.
This week was all about Grandparents Day. Grandparents day is coming up quick and we have been working really hard to learn our piece March Across the Seas. This piece needs to be the main priority when practicing at home. Working on it in two measure chunks is the best way to help them break it down and learn it correctly. Once they are more comfortable with that, bump it up to 4 measure chunks and then start adding them together. I also cut out measures 15-23 or where the second theme is located. I did this so the students can go into their performance with more confidence on their parts. I am also planning on writing out the other parts for A band so they can play with them as we have a couple people who cannot make the performance. This will simply help give them numbers and a base line to their melody. Long tones also will continue to be a great way to build up their playing muscles when practicing. This is seen in exercise no. 42. This will really help out brass players specifically. They can also practice just sustaining their buzz on a mouthpiece to help maintain their sound.
Upcoming Events
03/9-A BAND ONLY- PERFORMING AT CHURCH AT 9:20AM
03/14- A AND B BAND- GRANDPARENTS DAY PROGRAM
05/15- A AND B BAND- FINE ARTS NIGHT AT 6:30 PM