Way Behind #3

I'm almost caught up.  This next post is just a fun one.  My 5th grade band prepared and played 3 songs for their first concert.  They played "Good King Wenceslas", "Jolly Old St. Nicholas", and "Jingle Bells".  The first two are "just" exercises out of their lesson books.  I put the word just in quotes, as yes, it is an exercise, but we do kind of arrange them differently to make them concert appropriate.  Jingle Bells, however, is in their lesson books, but it is arranged for concert bands.  Students are learning separate parts and listening to each other and learning to play like a real ensemble.  It is a huge accomplishment for them to pull these songs off for a concert.  Some of them have only had an instrument in their hands since the beginning of September.  Our concert was Sunday December 6, so most have literally been playing for 3 months.  

They did a wonderful job and I was very proud of them.  We are already preparing for our spring concert where we will play all sheet music and nothing will be from their books.  They are super excited.  Parents often comment on the difference from their first concert to the spring.  The amount of growth they make this first year makes those beginning squeaks and sqwaks totally worth it.  I'm already taking less Excedrin Migraine pills.  :)

Here are two pictures that I took of my band one day for our yearbook.  Getting them to sit still for a formal picture is next to impossible, but we had no problem coming up with the fun poses.

This is what they look like most days, so this is very accurate.

 

I'd also like to finish this post, with what's happening now that the concert is over.  The elementary has been invited by the Iowa Wild Hockey team out of Des Moines, IA to sing "God Bless America" for the opening of one of their home games in March.  After some serious consideration, I said yes and opened it up to all 450 students whoever signed up.  I've ended up with 50 great students and we've started our rehearsals.  We are meeting once or twice a month on Wednesday mornings at 7:30.  That is quite a commitment on their parent's parts.  I haven't snapped a picture of them all in my room, but took a quick picture yesterday of them all trying to gather their coats and backpacks outside my hall. 

It's a lot of bodies to sort through their stuff and get where they need to go.

As we get closer I will record a rehearsal, and then I hopefully can upload the performance video as well.