Beginning Brass is a class for students who want to learn how to play a woodwind instrument. (Trumpet, French Horn, Trombone, Baritone, or Tuba.) Beginning Band will be split between brass, woodwinds and percussion for the first semester. Most students in beginning band have never played a musical instrument before! Some students have taken piano lessons in the past, or have musical experience away from band. Whether you've never read music, or already have that skill, Beginning Woodwinds is a fun class to be in! This year we have a great mix of all grades from 7-9! Beginning Woodwinds is not just a "7th Grade" class, it's for anyone who wants to play an instrument!

Practice is imperative to the success of a Beginning Band member.  Students are expected to practice every day for 20 minutes.  For students who find taking their instrument to and from school every day inconvenient, the band room practice rooms are available before and after school.  The band room is open from 7:15am-4:00 pm daily, with only slight variations.  Playing an instrument involves the development of hundreds muscle fibers acting in unison to perform a specific task.  Much like throwing a football, shooting a basketball, or kicking a soccer ball, muscle-memory is required to ensure that every aspect of playing an instrument is performed the same, proper way every time.  Practice doesn't make perfect....Practice makes permanent. 

• Instrument! Ms. Shinney recommends renting for your first year. Sometimes you'll change your mind about what instrument you want to play. Please see the Instrument Rental Page under Resources. 

• Accent on Achievement Book! If you go to Amazon, type in "Accent on Achievement book 1" then type in your instrument, you'll find one! I recommend getting your own, because then it's yours to keep forever, and you get to write in it if you want to. We do have some at the school that can be used as needed. 

• Pencils! You need a pencil EVERYDAY! We only use pencil to write on music, because it gets reused. (It actually costs money to replace music if it gets ruined. When you buy a band song, you only pay for a set number of trumpet parts, so if it gets ruined or lost, you have to pay to get more copies.)

• Valve Oil! If you play any brass instrument except for the Trombone, you'll need some valve oil! This is important to keep your instrument working well. You can buy some on Amazon, or any local music store.  Ms. Shinney's favorite for the Junior high instruments is called  "Al Cass Fast Valve Oil." (See picture to the left.) Many other brands will be just fine though. The only brand I DON'T recommend is Blue Juice. (If you get the blue juice, it's cheap, but it will ruin your instrument and corrode it beyond use.)

• Slide Grease! You will need slide grease for all brass instruments! This keeps your slides from getting stuck into your instrument, which happens a lot! Slide Grease comes in a lot of shapes and sizes. If you buy it from a music store, you're set! If you look on Amazon, be sure that you're buying something that is for musical instruments, and I'm sure it will be fine. Ms. Shinney's favorite is MusicNomad Slide grease, or Monster Oil grease. Slide grease comes in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it's in a Chapstick tube, sometimes a small round container. Always read the reviews to determine if it's instrument safe. 

• Slide Oil/Slide Cream! (Trombones Only) Trombones don't need valve oil, but they do need their own special product to keep the slide nice and slick. This does need to be different than Slide Grease. Ms. Shinney recommends Yamaha Slide Cream, or MusicNomad T-Slide. Always read the reviews to make sure that it's an instrument safe product. 

• Small Plastic Spray-Bottle! (Trombones Only) Like a travel size one you could bring on an airplane. It needs to be small enough to fit in your case, and it will be filled with just water. It's an important part of trombone maintenance.