Winter Band Concert 2019

The girl had their 2019 winter concert this past Monday night.  

Melayna played first in the beginner's band.  They have really come a long way since the beginning of the year when they were playing songs like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Hot Cross Buns".  Now they are playing full Christmas songs with harmony and different tempos.  She loves playing the Clarinet and is really doing well.

After the beginning band was finished, Marissa came out to play with the Advanced Band.  She played the bassoon once again.  I apologize for the quality of the picture, but you can sort of make her out in the second row behind the flute players.  (When they went on the elementary tours a couple of weeks ago, several of the elementary students commented that they wanted to play the "stick instrument" like that one girl!) They haven't had a bassoon player in many years so the band director is excited about the publicity that it's giving to his band.  LOL

The advanced band did an excellent job.  Our band director does such a good job with middle school students and I really really enjoyed the concert this year.

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Marissa would also have the chance to play her saxophone at the "Breakfast with Santa" later in the week at one of the elementary schools.  She won't be playing band in high school so she's enjoying all of the fun moments while she can.

Monday Night // Band Concert // 2019

 Monday night was the girls' last band concert of the year.  (And probably Morgan's last band concert ever as unfortunately, she doesn't plan to play in the band at the high school level).

The concert started off with the beginning band playing three numbers.  They have really improved since the beginning of the year and I'm excited for Melayna to join the beginner's band at the beginning of the summer.  She was able to see the level where she could be after a year of practice.

Then Marissa came out with the jazz band and they played one song.  Unfortunately, due to several snow days and a lot of testing, the band wasn't able to meet as often as the director would have liked so they only had time to prepare the one full number.  Marissa plays the tenor saxophone in the jazz band and the one song that they played was really fun.

 Finishing out the evening was the advanced band.  Both Morgan and Marissa play in the advanced band - Morgan playing the flute and Marissa playing the alto saxophone this year.  The advanced band also played three songs.

You can see Morgan on the end of the front row in these pictures and if you look closely, you can barely make out Marissa near the back center.

At the end of the evening, the director gave out a few awards and Morgan and Marissa were both chosen to receive the "Director's Award".

It's always so hard to believe that yet another school year is quickly coming to a close.   The years just seem to pass by quicker and quicker with each passing year.

Marissa's New Instruments

Marissa normally plays the alto saxophone in her middle school band.  She seemed to pick up on it pretty quickly and not long after starting that, she began to talk about learning the tenor saxophone to play in the jazz band if she was able to find one for cheap.   Then, a month or so ago, her band director approached her about learning the bassoon.  He said that the high school band was in need of a bassoon player in the coming years and he asked her if she would be interested in learning to play the bassoon as well if he bought the instrument.  She said she was willing to give it a try.

So, fast forward to this past Tuesday.  I arrive in the parent pick-up line to get Morgan and Marissa both from school and they are standing there holding two instrument cases each!!  Morgan has her own flute and Marissa's alto saxophone case.  Marissa is standing there with two other large cases.  Apparently the director thought Thanksgiving break would be a great time for her to start practicing on the new instruments that he recently purchased.  

I shouldn't ever let this girl surprise me by what she can do when she sets her mind to it, but without any formal instruction or even a fingering chart, she sat down and watched a few videos online and then learned how to play both the tenor sax and the bassoon.  By the end of the weekend, she could play at least three songs on both instruments.

Obviously, she has a lot of practicing ahead of her if she wants to master either of these instruments but I'm so proud of her for trying something new.

All Region Band Selection

Congratulations to Morgan and Marissa for both being chosen for the All-

Region Band 2018!!  

The practice will take place on Saturday with a concert on Sunday afternoon.  I'll post pictures and more information after the weekend.

Band Camp Complete / Band Concert

For the past three weeks, the girls have been attending Band Camp for summer school with the Advanced Band Class at the high school.  They only met for one hour a day but after meeting for these three weeks, they performed a short concert this past Wednesday to show parents their progress.

(Both girls said that it was the "worst concert ever" but I didn't really think that it was too bad).

Monday Night Band Showcase

And just like that, the fun of the weekend was over and it was back to 'business as usual' bright and early Monday morning.  Noel went in to work for the day and all three girls went back to school.

Then, later on Monday night, Morgan had to return to her school for the middle school showcase where the school highlighted some of their electives for the community.  You can't see her because of the way they were positioned in the gym, but she's playing the flute in the front row.

For their last song "At the Hop", they were able to stand up and have a little fun with it.

And here's a short clip of that song:

Morgan's Solo and Ensemble Competition

This past Saturday, Morgan participated in the Solo and Ensemble Competition for area bands.  As a seventh grader, she thought she could only participate as a soloist but then her band instructor told her that he would allow her to play in an ensemble with two other eighth grade girls.  They had a scary moment as they were just getting ready to walk in and perform and one of the girls realized that she had left the original score on the other side of the (very large) school.  Thankfully the moderator standing outside the door allowed them to switch up their performance with another group, and they had time to run down and retrieve the piece.  

Needless to say, all three of their hearts were racing by the time they took the stage.

The ensemble received a gold medal for their performance.

About 35 minutes later, Morgan went to another room where she performed her solo.  She did a really nice job and although I knew she was really nervous, she carried herself very well and appeared to be really calm.  The judge gave her some great positive feed back and she received her second gold medal of the day.

Good job Morgan.  I know you worked really hard for this in recent weeks and I'm glad to see your efforts have paid off.

A Tribute to Veteran's

Last night, Morgan took part in the annual Veteran's Day Tribute at an area middle school.  Her band was playing along with two choirs and a combined orchestra.  Each group performed two song with the band doing a third as they played the song of each branch of service and any veterans in attendance stood to be recognized.   They all did such a fine job and it was a great evening!

The picture quality isn't very good as I was zooming in on my phone, but you can see Morgan in the front row.  She is the third flute player from the left.

My favorite part of the evening was when Mr Marc Eckel painted a special painting while the band played.  This is how he started...

...and here is his final tribute to fallen soldiers.

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Now Morgan gets a day off before we travel north on Saturday morning so she can spend the day in rehearsals for the "All Region Band" that she was recently chosen for.  She will rehearse with students from 20 different schools on Saturday and then we will be able to watch the concert performance on Sunday afternoon.  'More on that to come...