August News
JCMS Band Families,
Our first week of school has been very exciting and we are so glad to be making music again in the band room! We are into a regular routine at this point and students should be bringing their instrument to school and taking it home daily.
Handbook
Students received their Band Handbook today in class. The last page is a signature page that needs to be filled out, signed, and returned this week. The date on the signature page is incorrect, but we would like to have them by this Thursday or Friday.
You can find the electronic version of our handbook here:
Fees
The band class fee is $25. This can be paid by cash or check written to JCMS.
Students who are using school owned instrument should have received a rental contract today or will tomorrow. If you received this, please fill it out and return with the $25 rental fee.
Schedule
Our fall concert is October 25th and the Lafayette Area Concert is December 13th. Click the link below for our full concert, rehearsal, and sectional schedule.
Concert and Sectional Schedule
Sectionals
Our after-school sectionals begin next week. Sectionals are when we can work on instrument specific instruction that we cannot get to during class. Many of the sectionals will also have professional musicians instructing in addition to Mr. Stites and Mr. Bowmer. Attendance is expected, please let us know if your student cannot attend. It looks like a lot on the schedule, but each student will only attend one or two per month. Sectionals are immediately after school until 5:00.
M2 Lessons
Private lessons with professional musicians are an excellent way for students to improve individually as musicians. We are extremely lucky that our JCMS Band students can participate in the M2 (Mastering Musicianship) private lesson program at Lafayette High School. It is an excellent value for one-on-one instruction with professional musicians. Registration ends this Friday, August 25 th.
Tuners
We highly recommend our students (except percussionists) purchase a Korg TM-60 tuner/metronome and Korg CM-200 microphone. These have been a huge help to our students when we started using them a few years ago. The clip-on microphone allows every student to use a tuner during class that only picks up the vibrations/sound from their instrument. The local music stores have them in stock, or they can also be found on Amazon in a combo pack.
Practice Cards
Each student will receive a practice card tomorrow, which is a way for students to record their at home practice (homework). They are due, with a parent signature, on Wednesdays. Students should be practicing 20 minutes at day, for a total of at least 80 minutes per week.