October 25th, 2024

Week 11 - Winter Concert Preparation

Week 11 Newsletter

Concert, Symphonic, and Jazz Band all put on a good show this week at their Fall Concert! If you missed it you can watch it here or on our YouTube channel! Thank you for filling the cafeteria for this performance and supporting our bands! All of our bands, concert, symphonic, jazz, and beginner band have started getting their music to prepare for the winter concert at the end of this semester. So while it may feel early to start playing holiday music, you should hear it at home!

After one week of our fundraiser, this band community has blown us out of the water with how much you have raised! We have gone right past our 20K goal and we are currently standing around 26k! We want to thank you all again and encourage you to keep sharing your links with your community through October 31st. Winners for the "pie a director" reward will be chosen next week on Wednesday, for each $50 raised students will be entered to win!

Use the quicklinks below to see more about the performances we had this week and what is coming next!

Action Items - Urgent, please complete!

Action Items - Urgent, please complete!

Sync the Band Calendar with your personal calendar! Click the plus sign on the calendar here to sync with your calendar.
Work with your band student to upload 25 contacts to their Raise 365 app! Our fundraiser has begun, the more people reached the more money we can raise!

Beginner Band

Beginner Band has done an outstanding job at fundraising so far with over 14k of the 26k so far! Thank you beginner band families for helping support this program!

We are adding more Gold Medalist to our Wall of Honor everyday! This weekend is the final weekend to complete Olympian Lines for the 1st/2nd six weeks. We will hand out Bronze and Silver medals on Thursday. All classes who have 100% of the students earn a medal will receive a class party!

Questions to ask your beginner:

You have one weeks left in the six weeks, are you planning to be a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Medalist? (3 vs 5 vs 7 lines).

Upcoming Dates

10/31/24 - End of six weeks, Make Music Lines due for Band Olympics

Concert Band

This week Concert Band put on a great performance at our Fall Concert! If you weren't able to make it out, you can watch the concert on our youtube channel! We have now begun preparations for our winter concert cycle of music! Students received Winter Wonderland and Celebrate the Season this week and should be practicing them at home. They will begin passing off cuts of these in the new six weeks starting 11/2/24. I will make them available starting today so they can get a head start! While it may seem early for Christmas music, we want as much time to polish this music as possible! While in the early stages students should be practicing slow with a metronome at home and using their pencil to write rhythms and mark mistakes. Encourage them to be doing this at home!

Questions to ask your band student:

How many scales do you have left to complete before the end of the six weeks? (Submit them on canvas!)
Which of the two winter concert pieces do you like the most or play the best so far?

Upcoming Dates:

10/29/24 - 8th grade Football Game Performance, all A team 8th graders excused
11/8/24 - Dave and Busters Social

Symphonic Band

This week Symphonic Band put on a great performance at our Fall Concert! If you weren't able to make it out, you can watch the concert on our youtube channel! I am extremely proud of how much music the students learned and the high level that they performed.

We are just 3 weeks away from the HEB Honor Band auditions. This has been our main goal in sectionals since we began in August! Students should be working to play their etudes more musically; adding appropriate style and dynamics. We had our first round of mock auditions in sectionals this week; this is an important part of our preparation!

Questions to ask your band student:

How did you do on your first mock audition? What was the strongest and weakest part of your performance?
What 3 scales do you have to prepare for your mock audition this week? *Mock audtions will take place during our sectional time!

Upcoming Dates:

10/29/24 - 8th grade Football Game Performance, all A team 8th graders excused.
11/8/24 - Dave and Busters Social
11/15/24 - HEB Honor Band Masterclass; 5:30-7:30pm

Jazz Band

This morning jazz band recieved their winter cycle of music! We will be working on Nutcracker Swing and Sleighin' It for our our upcoming performances. During this time of year (and due to the limited number of rehearsals between now and our performances) we will host a couple saturday jazz rehearsals! These are obviously optional but the more people in attendance the more we can get done. Rehearsal dates are listed below.

Upcoming Dates and Performances: