Happy Holidays from the BAND Department!

I was so incredibly proud of the bandlings this last week! Both concerts at SGE and RGS went off without a hitch and were pitch-perfect! I hope you all enjoyed them as well. I passed out special practice cards for  Winter Break called, "Band Bingo." The library in Mchenry always has winter and summer reading programs to motivate children to read during breaks, so I decided to do the same with my bandlings! On the bingo card, (HERE is a link) you will see that there are always options to simply practice for 20 minutes. However, there are also really fun options like "play holiday music for friends and family," and "teach yourself 2 new notes from your book." There are also options that ask the students to surf on You Tube (with parent permission, of course) to find videos of people playing their instrument and/or the President's Own Marine Band. I know that every household has their own rules about You Tube and I did talk with the students about following their household rules and to seek your help. I did want to include these activities because it is SO incredibly helpful for students to see and hear good examples professionals performing. With the Internet, these experiences are much more readily available. If your child does want to complete any of the You Tube squares, be sure to have them fill out the survey on my website so that I know what video they watched and what they thought of it.

As the bandlings complete the activities, they should mark an "X" on the square and have you initial the square. I will have small prizes for up to 3 BINGOS and if they complete the whole card, there will be an extra prize. I know that practicing is not always possible over these breaks as there can be a lot of travel. If students don't complete any of the card, there is no repercussion. However, some students can practice more over break because they are not traveling and I wanted to make it a bit more fun.

Please scroll down to the second sheet of the Bingo card for links to important websites that might help and further instructions.

HERE is a link to the "Schedules" page of my website with the schedules for January and February. I had a lot of things to work around in January (namely Scantron and Isteep testing for 5th graders.)

I hope you all have a wonderful and restful full of memories and maybe a little music too!

Amanda Storer
astorer@nsd2.com
www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com

Crunch Time!

It's almost here! Don't forget!

SGE Winter 3rd grade musical and 5th grade Band concert: Thursday, December 13, 2012 at 6:30pm
Band students should wear nice clothes and report to the library at 6:00pm.

RGS 5th grade musical and Band concert: Monday, December 17, 2012 at 7:00pm
Band students will wear their costume from the musical during the concert. Call time will be sent home in a note next week.

Please also remember that next week I switched my full days at each school. On Tuesday, 12-11-12 I will be at RGS and have lessons and full band and on Wednesday, 12-12-12, I will be at SGE for lessons and full band.

The bandlings are really coming along! They are totally ready for their concerts and I can't wait to show them off to you!

Have a great week!

Mrs. Storer
815-678-6726
www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com

Happy Turkey Day!

Not much news to report since this is such a short week, but I HAD to post this picture! How cute is this turkey marching band??!

A BIG thank you to all of the RGS bandlings (and their parents who drove them!) who came to the optional before-school full band rehearsal today! I was able to work with about half of the band and we got great work done! The SGE bandlings did a great job in lessons and full band today as well and I feel GREAT about our concerts coming up! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving this week and I look forward to seeing everyone back in school next week!


Amanda Storer
815-678-6726
www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com
astorer@nsd2.com

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

By now your bandling is in full-fledged concert season mode! You should be hearing “Jingle Bells” and “Dreydl, Dreydl” among other songs when your child is practicing…is your child practicing? This week’s lessons and full band rehearsals have left me feeling very good about where we are in our preparation for the concerts (12-13-12 for SGE and 12-17-12 for RGS!), well, if we didn’t have Thanksgiving next week, I’d feel really good! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Thanksgiving, it’s actually my favorite holiday because cooking is a passion of mine, second to music, of course! But RGS will lose lessons and full band because of the Wednesday off next week. Hopefully most of the RGS bandlings can come to the before school rehearsal on Tuesday at 8:00am!! Thankfully, SGE will have lessons and full band as per usual on Tuesday, so nothing is missed there!

Did everyone get the note about the Band Buddies event we will be having on Thursday, November 29?  We are teaming up with the RBCHS band members for an optional after-school lesson and rehearsal. I really hope your child can make it! For this event, you are responsible for transportation to and from the high school. Permission slips are due on Tuesday, 11-20. HERE is another copy of the slip if you need it.

Last order of business for this week: Here are some recordings of all of the songs we will be performing on the Winter concert (both schools are playing the same songs) Please have your child practice along with the recordings. It will really help!

Aura Lee

Ode to Joy

Ode to Joy (this version has the Trombone/Baritone part emphasized since it is much different from the rest of the band!)

Holiday for Basses

Hard Rock Blues

When you click on the links for the mp3 files, click "Download" and then "Open" to hear the songs.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and let me know if you ever have any questions or concerns!

 
Amanda Storer
678-6726
astorer@nsd2.com
www.mrsstorersband.weebly.com

Jingle Bells already?!?

Have you heard the familiar strains of holiday music coming from your child's practice sessions? If you haven't, just wait, it's coming within the week! We have started to prepare for our first concert and the bandlings are so pumped up! Things are really starting to get into a groove in the band room (groove, get it?) The students are coming on time, most of them have their practice records filled out and signed and some of the issues we were having with note-reading or embouchures are improving! Time is all it takes. Some of the students were getting so frustrated with themselves after the first few weeks when things started to get harder. As with any new skill, there are periods of rapid improvement and times where things seem to plateau for a while. It's OK!  I've been telling them all that next year, full band is every day and the amount of material that we cover in one quarter of the school year is easily covered in less than 2 weeks when they are in middle school. This equals RAPID improvement. Please just continue your child to keep practicing.

CHANGE TO SCHEDULE NEXT WEEK:
Schedules for November and December came home this week. PLEASE NOTE!!! I will be at RGS on TUESDAY next week (11-6-12) and I will be at SGE on WEDNESDAY next week (11-7-12) The SGE 5th graders are going on a field trip on Tuesday, 11-6-12, so I'm switching days so that I don't miss them for lessons and full band.

PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES:
Please come by my room and visit during Parent-Teacher conferences next week! The band room at each school is in the cafeteria. I will probably have music playing, so follow the music! I would be happy to discuss your child's progress in band and show you a demonstration of the program we've been using called Smart Music. The bandlings really like playing with the program and the instant feedback and support is gives is hard to replicate. It would be so great if Santa brought subscriptions to this wonderful program to as many bandlings as possible! I will be at SGE on Wednesday night from 4-8pm and at RGS on Thursday from 12:30-8pm. If you will not be at your child's school during those same times, please call or email and we can work something out.

Have a great weekend! Remember to change your clocks on Sunday. How many bandlings will have an extra hour of practicing in their practice records this week? HA HA, I'll keep dreaming!

Mrs. Storer
815-678-6726
www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com
astorer@nsd2.com

PRACTICING your band instrument 101

You may be able to predict how things in the band room have been going just by the title of this post…I’m not complaining, I’m really not.  But I have been trying to reinforce the concept of “HOW” to practice with my bandlings these last two weeks. The concept of practicing may seem simple: Take out your instrument, open your book and PLAY! But, for some and maybe even most students, those three steps can be kind of daunting. So for this week’s blogpost, I will provide some guidance as to “How to Practice.” I have already gone over this with my students, but my hope is that you can talk to your bandling about these steps and help ensure they are following through with this process so they can be more prepared and confident in their coming lessons.

1.       Make sure to have a space that is distraction-free and well-lit. Be sure to have a chair to sit in (not percussionists, though!) and a stand to put the music on.

2.       Warm-up properly. For percussionists, play 8 on a hand to a recording of your favorite song. For woodwind and brass players, play whole note/whole rests on mouthpieces/headjoints. Then go on to play whole notes/whole rests for each of the notes you know. #1.26 “Scaling the Wall” on page 9 of your book is a great song to warm-up with since it is a scale.

3.       Now start to practice the songs from your homework.  First sing the pitch names and do the fingerings/slide positions/type the notes (if you play xylophone). If you need help with letter names, write a few of them in. Please do not write in every single letter name of the pitches in your music! This will quickly become a crutch and you will never be able to read the music. Instead, pick only the pitches that you don’t recognize right away, and always write in pencil so that maybe you can erase them at some point in the week.

4.       After you’ve sung the pitches and done the fingerings/typed by yourself, see if you can do it with the recording on the CD! This will give you a better idea of how the song sounds.

5.       Now you’re ready to try and play the song on your instrument. Go slowly. Try the whole song first. Then figure out which parts are giving you the most trouble. Isolate those few notes and play those patterns slowly. Once you can play the pattern,  put it back together with more of the song. You may have to do this with more than one section of the music! It’s OK! Slowly put the whole song back together. It’s like a cord that is tangled up. You have to fix one section at a time.

6.       A song isn’t ready until you can play it all the way through at least a few times. Don’t worry if you can’t get through all of the songs in your homework in one practice session at home! It is probably more realistic to really work on one or two songs in a 20 minute practice session. Then you can revisit them in your next practice session along with another one or two songs.  If you follow this process an average of 3-4 times a week, you should be pretty well prepared for your lesson!

The two most important things your bandling needs at this stage is motivation or praise from you and time to practice. I keep trying to reinforce to the students that they did not learn how to read words in only a few weeks! The same is true for reading music and playing an instrument. It takes time! Of course, it also takes practice. Playing an instrument is one of those things in life that you get what you put into it.  Please continue to encourage your child to practice. When you take an interest in what they are doing, their motivation and pride in themselves skyrockets! Please let me know if you ever have any comments or concerns. Have a great week!

 

Amanda Storer

678-6726

astorer@nsd2.com

www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com

What's so SMART about Smart Music, anyways?

I promised a blogpost about Smart Music this week and I am delivering! I'm sure you're wondering what this program is and why am I telling you about it? I'm telling you about it for two reasons. The first reason is because I know that many parents feel as if they are clueless about music and band and that they have no idea what happens in my classroom. I like to let you know so that you feel more informed and that you can feel comfortable asking your child questions about their lessons and how band is going. When you talk to you children about school and band, they know that you care and that you think it is important and that will help their motivation immensely! Second: If you can swing it, it would be a great investment to purchase a subscription of this program yourself and your child can use it at home with your own computer.

If you can imagine it, my first description of it is "Guitar Hero" for band instruments.  I use a projector and the music is projected onto my white board like this:

There are so many great tools for students who are practicing, especially the younger ones like I teach. My favorite part is the green cursor that pulses with the steady beat and goes along in the music where the students should be looking at and playing. I think one of the first challenges that students have is following the music. This helps train the students how to do this. Steady beat is also a challenge for students of all ages and levels. With this program, the student can change the tempo and make it slower and faster to fit their practice needs. As you can see from this graphic, they can make it so that they play along with just their part, an accompaniment track (like a rock band playing with them!),with just the steady beat, or any combination of all three choices! When they play, the program records them and keeps track what they played correctly (in green), and incorrectly (in red)!  They are given a score and if they are competitive, they can choose to try and beat their score, which some kids really like. They can also save their recording as an mp3 file! In fact, I've done this with a few of my groups and was able to email the file to those parents with email addresses.

Please know that I do not work for Smart Music or anything like that. I work for NSD2 and that is it. I don't work for any music store or anything else. I will never come at you about buying thing for my own personal gain. Please take some time to look around at the website www.smartmusic.com and find out more for yourself. I'd be happy to talk to you more about this!

Amanda Storer
815-678-6726
astorer@nsd2.com

Squeaking and Squawking Along!

Greeting from the Band Room! This week was a GREAT one in the SGE and RGS band rooms! All of the students are progressing quite nicely and I’m very pleased with their progress. There are still some students who do not have a lesson book. Everyone should have the book “Measures of Success” Book 1 for whichever instrument they play. Here is what it looks like:

Any music store can get this for you. HERE is the link on my website with a list of all of the local music stores in the area. If you’d rather not drive to a store or order from somewhere online (like JW Pepper or Hickeys), you can always call Quinlan & Fabish at (847) 253-5592. Then our representative, Mary will bring it with her when she visits the schools on Wednesdays.

I hope the bandlings are having a great time practicing and learning how to play the first three notes on their instruments! All of the students have learned how to read these notes on the musical staff.  I’ve really encouraged them to use the CD’s that have come with their books.  I find it is so much more fun to practice with the background tracks! We’ve also started using a program in lessons called “Smart Music.” I’ll write more about this program in next week’s blogpost with instructions on how you can purchase and use it at home if you wish. I started using this program regularly last school year and I encountered a HUGE difference in performance and motivation among my students last year as compared with my previous classes.

Another important thing to mention is the dates of the required concerts for the school year. There was a little confusion about when the SGE winter concert was going to be and now that it’s cleared up, I want to be sure that everyone knows when the concerts are:

SGE Winter 3^rd grade and 5^th grade Band Concert is Thursday, December 13 at 6:30pm in the SGE gym

RGS 5^th grade program and Band Concert is Monday, December 17 at 7:00pm in the RGS gym

RGS/SGE/NMS 5^th and 6^th grade Combined Spring Concert is Thursday, May 9 at 7:00pm in the NMS gym.

Each band member is expected to be at these two concerts (their respective December concert and the Spring concert) this year. There will be other opportunities to perform this school year that will be optional. For example, last year some bandlings signed up to play the Lion’s Club Pancake Breakfast in Mchenry in February. It was a lot of fun! The year before, some students signed up to play at a nursing home in April. I will arrange these extra performances during the school year and let you know about them, but anything above and beyond the Winter and Spring concerts will be totally optional.  

One last thing to leave you with is a link to my You Tube channel. I regularly add new videos to my channel and I already have a LOT of videos on there in playlists. (To more easily view all of the videos I’ve compiled, be sure to click on the “playlists” link.) There are a few I’ve made myself, but most are videos that are posted by professional musicians and even a couple of former students! I’d love for you to encourage your children to take a look through the play lists and watch any of the videos, with your supervision, of course! I totally understand that different houses have different rules about what can be done with or without supervision. If you have your student look at any videos, help them to leave a comment on my wall wisher (HERE) about what video they watched and what they thought of it!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and let me know if you ever have any questions or concerns!

 

Amanda Storer

678-6726

astorer@nsd2.com

www.mrsstorersband.weebly.com

A Really BIG Band!

Did you notice the title of my first blogpost of the year? I titled this post "A Really BIG  Band" because between the two schools, I have over 105 band students!! That is a number I have not seen in a long while! Maybe even ever! It's going to be a great year!

Depending on which school your child goes to, you may have had over a week of new bandling sounds in your house, or you may have just started to have the beautiful sounds of beginning band practicing in your house! Whichever is true for your household, I hope your child(ren) have been enjoying themselves! First lessons at SGE went really well on Tuesday! Most students are supposed to be practicing page 4 in their books. You can find out what their homework is by looking at their practice record. Every week at the end of the lesson, each student marks down the date and what their homework is on their practice record. They are then required to keep track of how many minutes they practice each night and get that row signed each week before their next lesson. Most RGS students had their practice records signed and ready to go during their second lesson this week, but some did not. I do check practice records each week and record how many minutes and whether or not it was signed in my gradebook.

I'm sure you have, but please take time to talk to your child about their band lessons and how it's going. Any encouragement and positive comments you can make to your bandling about their progress is going to pay off exponentially in their attitude and motivation! I try and be as positive and encouraging as I can be, but I do only see the bandlings one time a week! I need your help to keep them going the rest of the week.

Once we start working on page 5 in the book (most the RGS students are practicing page 5 & 6 THIS week!) the students can start using the CD's that have come with the books. This usually makes practice sessions more exciting. You can even load the whole CD onto an ipod or a tablet and then they can take the device and use it with headphones and play along! Playing with the CD is great because it gives the student help with intonation (playing "in-tune") and a good sense of steady beat.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call or email! I'm happy to talk with you. Enjoy yourselves this weekend!

Mrs. Storer
678-6726
www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com

Re-energized and Re-charged!

Welcome back to my originally scheduled program! With starting back up for the new year, getting back into the groove of things, handing out new music and trying to get and keep my family healthy from all of the nasty germs out now, January sure FLEW by! Last week was a short week for me (and the rest of the music/band/choir departments in NSD2) as we all attended the IMEA All-State Conference in Peoria. I look forward to this conference every year. It is at the perfect time of year, for me at least. I'm always so excited to get back to school and start new music and get back to the basics with the book we'd neglected for a few weeks before the Winter concert, but then after a few weeks, I get a little down. I don't know why. Maybe it's because it's cold outside (although not really this year!) or because we don't have a concert looming right over our heads. But the IMEA conference always re-energizes my passion for teaching your children!

While the K-12 music/orchestra/band/choir teachers are busy for three days attending sessions about teaching practices, new products, repairing instruments, including technology into our teaching, etc., there are the best of the best of the high school band, orchestra and choir students from all over the state who are participating in rehearsals to get ready for a huge concert at the end of the weekend. Here's a picture of them all

It's hard to see, but they were all rehearsing a combined piece of music. I tried to estimate how many children there were. The range I got was around 500-600 students! To hear all of those children making such extraordinarily beautiful music together was completely moving and amazing. I attended a concert by a middle school jazz band on Thursday. I was struck with how competent and talented this group was, but what moved me the most was how much pride was apparent by the looks on their faces after performing such intricate music and how much fun they seemed to have making it!

I think I have high (but absolutely attainable) standards, I expect my students to do their homework and be ready for their rehearsals. Those standards are important because that's when the fun can really happen. I went to another clinic about learning how to improvise (or make up music on the spot) and how to teach my students to do that. The clinician said something along the lines of, "Practice=Preparation...Preparation=Comfort...Comfort=Confidence." It made so much sense. I think I will make a sign for my rooms that conveys this message.

I'm not trying to harp on the practice thing (ok, maybe a little!) because on the whole, my groups at RGS and SGS are doing an AMAZING job! We have been preparing music for an in-school concert in March. This concert will be during the school day (no evening performance) and it will serve as a demonstration concert for the 4th graders so they can start getting excited about band for next year. Each instrument group will play a short song to demonstrate their instruments and the full band will play 2 or 3 songs. We're close to being able to play one of those songs all the way through! SGS's in-school concert will be on Tuesday, March 20 at 2:45pm. The concert at RGS will be the next day, Wednesday, March 21 at 2:45. Feel free to attend! There will be no specific concert dress for this performance since it is during the school day.

And don't forget to mark the big combined May concert on your calendar! It's Tuesday, May 8 at 7:00pm at NMS. Have a great week! As always, feel free to call or email with any questions or concerns

Amanda Storer

astorer@nsd2.com

678-6726

www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com