General Information
We have now completed our first full week in May! Time is flying, but all your students have been doing an excellent job in preparing their Fine Art Night Music. Both groups have been doing full run throughs of all their pieces as a way to build up their endurance for the actual performance. 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, call time for Fine Art Night is 5:45 in their classrooms.
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 REQUIRED FOR ALL BAND STUDENTS. This is the one rehearsal we will most likely run everything fully at so please make sure they are here.
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 we have been continuing to build up our performance endurance. I also am having them rehearse this way so that they know they can play these songs when tired. By proving to themselves now that they can perform these pieces while tired, hopefully they will have more confidence in playing while nervous. Nerves can really affect playing ability because it causes the player to tense up and they lose a lot of their normal breath support. By building up an endurance now, this should help them balance this out. Nerves are a normal part of performing, but I want to give your students as many tools as possible to handle them. 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. 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 we worked on learning our new performance order. 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. We had an excellent run through of everything during Wednesday’s class and I am excited to keep this momentum going into next week. 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
05/8- 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, CALL TIME 5:45 IN CLASSROOMS