West El. Update, 10/23/13

Hello!

The West Elementary Band always seems to get my Wednesday started off right!

In general, this band has a nice mix of experience and work ethic, and they come ready to play.  Please continue to encourage regular practice.  It is apparent to me when this has occurred, and it make a wonderful difference from week to week!  It was good to (eventually) have everyone there this week!  That also is a big help!  It was also very nice to be joined by Alfonso Morell this week!  Hope to see him back!

The class went quite smoothly.  Every single member is engaged and courageous, and are giving it their best shot.  We were able to move through page 9 quite nicely and will move on to page 10, where will deal with ties, where two note are graphically tied together with an arched line that creates one note that lasts as long as their combined durations.  We will also be using a 2/4 time signature, where as up to now, everything has been four beats to a measure.  Now we learn two beats to a measure.

As you may have noticed (and as I pointed out to them), we are starting to hear some winter holiday music.  I think that we might logically draw a conclusion that we are a month or two ahead of where the publishers of the book think we ought to be at this point in the year.  That's good!

I am keeping two blogs, which I encourage you to check out:

"What's New In Band" (http://whatsnewinband.blogspot.com) contains copies of all of the information I send out to the bands, including these e-mails.  They are labeled intuitively (I hope), and will stay there for future reference.

"A Different Kind of Beautiful" (http://www.adifferentkindofbeautiful.com) is a blog that I have been adding to periodically over the last four years or so with anecdotes and essays about school band, some more relevant that others.  Feel free to check that out as well.

On behalf of myself and Ms. Hofius, we again thank you for your support and encouragement at home!