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

Concert time is here!

Has it really been almost a month since I've written a post??? Things got crazy busy here very quickly. Congratulations to all of the 5th grade band members from both schools! The concerts this week were outstanding and I'm just so incredibly proud of both groups! This was the first year in a while that I was not nervous about how the concerts were going to go, because the groups were so prepared!

I will hand out the January/February schedule when I'm at school on Tuesday, December 20. I start the day at SGS and then come to RGS for the afternoon. I will not be at either school on Wednesday, December 21. If your child will not be at school on the 20th, I will sure to post the schedule on my website, so you can access it before we all start back up in January. Just a head's up: the first day back to school for students in 2012 is a Wednesday (January 4). I will be at RGS on this day for the whole day and will see all of the band students for lessons and full band that day. The next day, Thursday, January 5, I will be at SGS for the morning and I will see all of the band students for lessons that morning. I know it will be a different day than usual, but I don't want to miss another whole week of my SGSers. I will be emailing reminders once we get closer.

I've just recently gotten access to a projector at each school and we've been able to project the Smartmusic program on the board and play along with it! It is SO cool! The students get a kick out of seeing the green cursor moving along the music, showing them where they should be playing. And after we play a song, green and red notes pop up to show them if they made any mistakes. There is even a percentage "grade" they are given to show them how well they did! They like to try and beat their last grade! How much fun would your bandling have if they could use this program at home?? If you're still looking for things to get your children for the holidays, a subscription to Smartmusic would be GREAT!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday break! Be sure to request that your bandling plays some holiday music at your family gatherings! They love to show off their talents!

Amanda Storer

678-6726

astorer@nsd2.com

It's almost the most wonderful time of the year!

Can you belive that it will be Thanksgiving in one week??!!!?? I knew that once Halloween was over, time would FLY and it sure has. We're all beginning to feel the crunch of just 4 weeks until our first concert! Because we only have school Monday and Tuesday next week, and not Wednesday, I will be cramming ALL of my students from BOTH schools into small group lessons on TUESDAY, November 22. I will start the day at RGS with an optional before-school full band rehearsal at 8am and then once they check in with their teachers, three small group lessons. Then I'll head to SGS and spend the rest of the day teaching lessons and end the day with full band at the normal time.

The songs that we will be playing for the concert are:

Concert Warm-Up No. 1 (2.23 in book)

The Syncopated Row Boat (2.25 inbook)

Crown Of Majesty (2.26 in book)

On Carribean Shores (2.30 in book)

Rock the House (2.31 in book)

A Winter Medley, made up of Good King Wenceslas (1.27), The Dreydl Song (2.11) and Jingle Bells (2.10)

 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

Amanda Storer

678-6726

astorer@nsd2.com

Concert Countdown: 5 weeks!!

I hope you all had a nice long weekend with your children last week! Some students really upped their practicing during their 4.5 days off! But quite a few of my students did not have practice records filled out or signed. It's the beginning of the second quarter now. It's not a good idea to be starting with two zeros for practice records. Filling it out and getting it signed is an easy way to get a good grade in "Preparation" (assuming they actually did practice, though!)

Now that it's the second quarter, I've upped the ante with incentives for practicing 80 minutes or more each week and for coming to their lessons prepared. I've given each of the band students have a chart to keep with their practice records and books. At every lesson, if they come with all of their materials (instrument, book, music, signed practice record) they will get signed off on their chart. After 6 sign-offs, they will get ribbon for the Bronze Attendance Award. After 12 is the Silver Attendance Award and after 20 is the Gold. Similarly, there is a chart for when they practice 80 minutes or more in a week and there are bronze, silver and gold ribbons for the Practice award as well. Hopefully this will encourage the band students to be practicing harder and always be prepared.

With our first concerts only 5 weeks away (12-13-11 for SGS and 12-15-11 for RGS! Are they on your calendar yet??), I'm starting to count how many full band rehearsals we have left. At SGS, we have 4. At RGS we only have 3!!! It's the week of Thanksgiving that puts the RGSers at a disadvantage. I'm not sure if you noticed on the schedule that I WILL BE AT RGS ON TUESDAY MORNING, November 22 for a few lessons so that I don't miss those kids all together. I want to have a full band rehearsal BEFORE school that morning. It is totally optional and your child will not be penalized or marked down for not attending. But for those students who can make it, there will be an extra full band rehearsal for RGS students ONLY at RGS on Tuesday, November 22 at 8:00am.

Please encourage your child to continue practicing! They have to start building the muscles and endurance to get through a whole concert! Full Band rehearsals and lessons have been like sprinting the 50 yard dash: short spurts of activity. The concert is a marathon! If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to email or call. Have a great weekend!

 

 

Amanda Storer

678-6726

astorer@nsd2.com

www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com