General Information
Last week before Spring Break! This week was filled with rehearsals and performances. Congratulations to A Band for an excellent performance on Sunday morning! We had a smaller group, but everyone stepped up to play their best. Our March Madness is in full swing and we have decided winners from 3 of our 4 major countries. After break we will continue to vote and see who wins in country vs country. I am excited to see which piece wins at the end of the month! This week we also have Grandparents Day on Friday (tomorrow). We did not have a great dress rehearsal at the all school rehearsal on Wednesday, which is why we added the full group rehearsal this morning. After practice this morning, we sounded much better and I am feeling more confident going into tomorrow. The biggest thing I need from the students is their focus and continuing to practice their parts at home. They know the music, we just need to make it sound the best it can.
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.
Private lessons: I have had a couple people ask what these are. Private lessons are an excellent way to help support your student’s growth on their instrument. They are an opportunity for them to learn from a licensed teacher of their specific instrument. These teachers are able to meet your student where they are skill wise and provide additional support and techniques to help them improve outside of band. Various music stores offer lessons, my college MidAmerica Nazarene University has a program, and there are various individuals across the metro that teach out of their homes as well. Please let me know if this interests you at all!
Announcement: Grandparent’s Day TOMORROW!!!! Don’t forget your instruments and music!
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. 30 minutes minimum a week is a place to start.
This week we worked on pep band and performance music. Zig Zag is coming along quite well already and I am looking forward to hearing them perform it tomorrow! 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. The only thing they need to keep working on is making their articulations clear and showing more dynamics. We also worked on Pirates of the Caribbean briefly this week. Medallion Calls, He’s a Pirate, and One Last Shot continue to be the sections to look at. 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 is ordered and should be here when we get back from Spring Break. 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. 30 minutes minimum a week is a place to start.
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. They need to practice it all the way through now without stops. If they mess up a note, they need to practice simply moving on to the next one. In a performance they cannot go back to a note so I do not want to build this habit. 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. A Band will be joining them for this 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
03/14- A AND B BAND- GRANDPARENTS DAY PROGRAM
05/15- A AND B BAND- FINE ARTS NIGHT AT 6:30 PM