A Busy Week
Written on December 14, 2008 – 9:28 pm | by srband
Are you ready? Is your music prepared perfectly? Have you signed up to help with the dinner? It is so nice to have students that are taking charge and coming up with great ideas.
Written on December 14, 2008 – 9:28 pm | by srband
All-County Auditions
Written on December 14, 2008 – 9:25 pm | by srband
Everyone sounded good from outside the rooms Saturday. Each of you that auditioned prepared your music to the best of your ability and you should feel proud of yourself whether you are selected or not. The experience of playing in front of an adjudicator is worthwhile. The more you put yourself in this situation the easier it gets. Thank you for your hard work…. it is noticed!
Area All-State
Written on November 26, 2008 – 7:07 am | by srband
I am so proud of the students that participated in last weekend’s area all-state festival. The concert sounded great and I’m sure that no one in the audience recognized the little mishap during “The Lord of the Rings.” I think my favorite piece was the Four Dance Episodes which I would like to consider for our band in the future. The mixed meter and multitude of percussion parts gave it a unique and catchy feel.
My hope is that next year we have many students prepare their NYSSMA solo to the A+ level so we can have more experience participation in a group of this caliber. I look forward to sharing the recording with the band.
Metronome Sharing
Written on November 18, 2008 – 11:03 am | by srband
Check out the advice about metronomes that are accessible on the web – it’s one of the comments under WORK. Thank you Suzanne 
Work
Written on November 18, 2008 – 8:25 am | by srband
We have some work to do as individuals to get ready for the holiday concert on December 17th. Each person will only have to learn 5 Christmas songs and we will have a great variety to present the audience.
I know that some of you are diligently working on your all-county audition music and area all-state music and I appreciate that. Perhaps everyone will need to up their practice time for a few weeks to get through this busy season.
And just think, some of you will be getting pit band music and new jazz charts too!!!!
Concert
Written on November 6, 2008 – 10:06 pm | by srband
I was very proud of your performance at Wednesday’s concert. I know that you all put in your best effort and did the best job you were capable of. Thank you so much for starting this year off well. I know we will only get better between now and our final concert of the year!
Remember to think about our holiday program. We’ll begin putting it together next week. Let’s work hard to make it something really special.
Appreciation
Written on October 27, 2008 – 8:18 pm | by srband
It’s always fun to introduce new music to each of you in your lesson groups. What I really appreciate is when you take the time to tell me where you have heard the selections before and make it personal. Elora brought in a recording of Pachelbel Canon performed by the Transiberian Orchestra today for us to listen to. Thank You! What music do you relate to ?
Dorian Wind Quintet
Written on October 23, 2008 – 12:23 pm | by srband
On Wednesday I attended the concert performed by the Dorian Wind Quintet with Suzanne and Anita. The group was fantastic! Although the concert was pretty long and filled with serious wind quintet selections, listening to their excellent intonation and awesome skill level was a real treat. Each musician had superb technique which helped when they played in unison. What a treat to have these fine musicians so close to us.
Monday, Monday
Written on October 20, 2008 – 9:00 pm | by srband
Just a couple of thoughts from today’s rehearsal:
1) I never knew how much not using the circle to begin rehearsal would upset you!
2) Thank you for working hard on Copland – I hope this will be one of the best pieces we play on November 5th. We’ll get Earl of Oxford later this week.
Rehearsal
Written on October 17, 2008 – 6:10 am | by srband
The band rehearsal on Thursday was a pleasant surprise and demonstrated how much talent each student has. Generally if we mix the seats up like we did, everyone plays very tentatively because they aren’t sitting next to someone playing the same part. But, that wasn’t the case! The four songs we played sounded great.
The percussion section is still a bit unsure of their parts, but they are one of the youngest sections in the band. I also think they need to practice their parts individually more than they do. Hopefully by the concert November 5th, they’ll have them down.
Tags: Rehearsal
