General Information
May is here! I cannot believe how fast this school year has gone! I know the students are looking forward to summer break though. We are only two weeks away from our final performance of the year! Fine Art Night is going to be a great showcase of all the hard work your students have put into learning their instruments this year and I am very excited. In regards to Fine Art Night, after discussions with Mrs. Schkade and Mrs. Jankowski, band will not be playing at the first few rehearsals to give choir more of a chance to rehearse with the piano player. We might still do mock runs of when they need to grab their instruments in between all the singing, but we will not play until May 13th. May 13th is a required rehearsal for all band students to be at. This will be their only chance to run everything before the performance on the 15th so please make sure your student brings their instrument and music to school. Also, I had a small typo when it came to rehearsal dates as I accidentally put May 3rd as one instead of May 8th. While we are not playing on this day, I changed the date below for your knowledge.
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: Fine Art Night is at 6:00pm. May 13th is now the only rehearsal band will play at and it is required.
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. Please encourage your students to fill these out!
This week has been all about prepping for Fine Art Night and building up our performance endurance. A Band will be playing 3 pieces and they are Zig Zag, Down to the River, and Pirates of the Caribbean. This is also performance order. We have been rehearsing these songs in this order to get used to the endurance we need to play all three in a row. They unfortunately will not have breaks in between pieces, so building up this endurance now is important. When your student practices at home, have them first spot check their trouble spots, then work on doing full runs of the piece to help continue working on their endurance. Three full pieces is something we have not done yet this year and I am very excited for the challenge it gives them. They are doing an excellent job adjusting to all the various style and tempo changes between all the pieces and I am super proud of all their progress.
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. Please encourage your students to fill these out!
This week I made a change to our Fine Art Night music. Procession was not progressing as well as I would have liked and the students looked uncomfortable and stressed so I have changed what we will be doing. We are now performing March Across the Seas, which they played for Grandparents Day and two short exercises also in their books. These exercises are no. 56 and no. 67. Both are short one line warm ups we have frequently played in class and demonstrate some of the newer techniques they have been working on in class. While they may not be brand new songs, it still demonstrates well what your students have learned and they are able to play more than one piece by doing this. PLEASE ENCOURAGE PRACTICE AT HOME! 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
05/6- IN SCHOOL REHEARSAL AT 12:30, not playing
05/8- IN SCHOOL REHEARSAL AT 12:30, not playing
05/13- A AND B BAND- IN SCHOOL REHEARSAL AT 12:30 REQUIRED
05/15- A AND B BAND- FINE ARTS NIGHT AT 6:00 PM