General Information
This week was the fifteenth week of band class and it was a great one! Great job this past weekend to advanced band for all their performances during the basketball tournament!! Thank you parents for getting your students here on time and thank you students for your enthusiasm and hard work in class. Everyone continues to sound better and better! Parents, please check the list of dates at the bottom, a few more have been added for advanced band to be aware of! Practicing at home will continue to be the best method for students to continue to improve outside of class so please continue to encourage your students to do so. If you have students wanting to take private lessons, please reach out so I can hopefully connect you with people in the area. I would love to do so.
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: Call time for both bands at Crown Center is 5:30. Stands will be brought from school by teachers. Band plays first and then the students can sing in choir. Call time for the school program is 6:15 for advanced band.
Advanced Band
This week we focused on preparing for all our upcoming Christmas performances. For Crown Center the students will be playing Jingle Bells with beginning band and then ending with We Wish You a Merry Christmas from their packets. The morning of the 17th we have also been asked to play as students arrive to school and pick up hot chocolate. We will be simply heading downstairs after rehearsal that morning as it falls on a normal day of class for us. The music we will play for this will be from the Christmas packet they received last year. For the prelude music for the school program we will be playing We Wish You a Merry Christmas and the First Noel. Bb, Eb and F major scales are still open to turn in for the scale challenge. 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 continued to work through the book, but we are starting to move around a bit to continue to increase their skills and note reading. We continued to work with slurring notes, but now it is happening in faster rhythm patterns. Working on finger confidence at home by simply practicing rotating between various notes will be extremely beneficial help for this concept. Students should continue to practice the notes and exercises from class at home. We are actively working our way through page 10. We have played through no. 32 in class. I would like them to look at Good King Wenceslas and Jingle Bells at home. These two pieces are ones they are learning for Christmas performances. Jingle Bells will be played with the advanced band at the Crown Center performance. Good King Wenceslas will just be B band alone. They can also practice the notes they know on long tones (long sustained note). This will help build up their lung capacity and sound. Another helpful practicing tip is to start practicing changing between notes that are not right next to each other. This will help build confidence for later. Keep encouraging them to clean out their instruments after a practice session. This helps keep their instruments in the best working order.
Upcoming Events
12/17- A AND B BAND- CROWN CENTER WITH CHOIR AT 5:45PM, CALL TIME: 5:30PM
12/19- A BAND ONLY- SCHOOL CHRISTMAS PROGRAM AT 6:30PM, CALL TIME: 6:15PM
12/20- A AND B BAND- SCHOOL SING-A-LONG