March 28th, 2025

Back From Break

Week 29 Newsletter

Getting back into the daily groove can be tough after a break but our band students are working hard and making big strides! All of our bands are now working toward spring contests and performances. Some of these performances will happen during the school day as part of our Spring Festival trip! In order to be able to go off campus and attend these festival performances students must be passing all classes. As we are getting closer to the end of this six weeks it is important that students take care of any outstanding work and get those grades up! Additionally, you should hear your student practicing our Spring Festival music and their Solo Contest music at home! Encourage them to practice as many days as possible to keep up with their band music, band assignments, and the contribution to their band TEAM!

Action Items - Urgent, please complete!

Action Items - Urgent, please complete!

None at this time. Thank to our volunteers and donations for our band spring fling! It was a huge success!

Beginner Band

Beginner band students have so many things they are working on right now, here are just a few!

All students should be learning and passing off their scales each week. The goal is to complete 1 or more scale(s) per week in this six weeks and the next! Scales are a grade and will move students towards earning their "Scale Olympian" status.
Solos - Students all received a solo in class or from a private lesson teacher. These solos will be performed on Wednesday, April 23rd at our BJH Solo Contest. Students should be practicing these pieces of music and be ready to play them in class down the row and as chair tests.
Full Band Music - Students received a new full band concert piece entitled Valiance this week! This is the first of 2 pieces that we will perform at our Spring Festival and Spring Concert at the end of this year. Students will begin submitting this and a second piece of music as assignments on Make Music next week!

Questions to ask your band student:

What scale are you on right now? (students should be on scale 4 or beyond!)
What is the name of your solo?

Upcoming Dates

3/28/25 - Practice and Pizza

Concert Band

This week in Concert Band we focused on making improvements based on our Pre-UIL judges comments in both our sectionals and each day in class. It is important that all students attend all sectionals so we can best use our time and work together as a team! We are currently working to improve our tempos, balance to the melodies of each piece, and have forward moving energy. Your student can contribute to these improvements by practicing their band music at home!

Practice each piece with your metronome set to performance tempo. March @104, Time Lord @144, and Soaring @152.
Practice varying your dynamics to suit your "role" in the music.
Practice with correct style and finish long notes.

Click here to see the UIL performance details. Parents are encouraged to attend! Concert Band UIL Information

Questions to ask your band student:

How many UIL cuts do you have completed? (students should have 8 or more!)
What day is your sectional? (Click here for the complete schedule) These are REQUIRED and GRADED!!

Upcoming Dates:

3/28/25 - Practice and Pizza
4/10/25 - UIL Concert and Sight Reading

Symphonic Band

Symphonic band students did a fantastic job at their PRE-UIL assessment before spring break. In class, students were able to listen to the recording and judges comments. We are also fortunate to have a lot of visitors in our band hall listening to our rehearsals and helping us to improve! There are so many people that invest in our success and we are thankful for how they help us (myself included) grow as musicians.

There are just 2 weeks until our UIL and that means only two more early morning sectionals! You can find the sectional schedule here.

Find the schedule for UIL on April 11th here.

Students should have ALL of their UIL pass-offs completed by Monday. Two of our pieces are available in Make Music and the other can be found in Canvas. Any students with missing work this week will be required to attend a mandatory tutorial on Thursday. You will be notified on Monday if your student is missing any work.

Questions to ask your band student: