"Water Music?"

The Water Music is a collection of orchestral movements composed by George Frideric Handel.  It premiered on July 17,1717 when King George I requested a concert on the River Thames.  The concert was performed by 50 musicians playing on a barge close to the royal barge where King George I was listening.  It was said that the king loved it so much he ordered the exhausted musicians to play the suite three times on the trip.

This weather makes me think Handel's Water Music!  This morning when I drove to Franklin Elementary to begin my day it was raining.  When I left Franklin to go to East it was sleeting.  After my 3rd period class some of the biggest snow flakes I have ever seen were coming down.  The drive home found the wipers once again pushing the rain off the windshield.  Enough already!

Regardless of the weather it has been a great week!  General Music finished the 1950's decade and will move into the 60's on Monday.  The 7th Grade Concert Band made HUGE progress this week on their selections for the November concert - WAY TO GO!  We had an awesome jazz rehearsal Wednesday morning and will start working on our 3rd song next Wednesday.  More 7th grade students remembered their lesson than the first lesson cycle and I have more 7th and 8th grade practice logs in the drawers this week than last!  After school I looked at mostly empty instrument cubbies which means that a lot of horns went home this weekend to practice!  I think most students are finally establishing a routine (an none too soon as the end of quarter one is rapidly approaching.) If you have questions on practice logs, lessons, music, etc. please ask! I want to make sure everyone understands what is expected of them - and these expectations are designed to make you and the bands successful!

I wish the 8th graders a good weekend of preparation as we head into 8th grade lessons and testing!  I hope everyone finds a little time in their weekend to improve their individual playing - which in turn makes the groups better.  We are changing the game this week - instead of a secret word, tell me the story of Handel's Water Music.  Hopefully the rain will stop long before we need to start building barges to play from!

What we've learned this week:

It has been a short, yet beneficial week for all.  My post will be about what we've learned (or I hope we've learned) during school these three days. 

1.  Learning is so much easier when everyone is there!  It appears that students must be starting to recover from the flu - I've had pretty good attendance this week.  Good attendance means we don't have to back up to make sure everyone has the information we covered in their absence.  It also means students aren't stressed about what they have missed.  That being said:
2.  Students always seem to recover in time to be gone on a field trip!  Today was a field trip for half of the 7th grade class.  It was the first time I have had full attendance in one of my classes for weeks.  Of course half of those students were actually not in class; they were on the trip...Hmmm...
3.  Students can tolerate (enjoy?!?) music from the "olden days."  Music 7 spent the week learning about music from the 1940's.  Today when they wrote essays about the period I had the 1940's playlist going in the background - it was super cool to see them enjoy the music as they created. Can't wait until we discuss the 1950's next week.
4.  I love it when students put themselves out there and try new things.  We had an additional 9 people for JH Jazz this morning.  AWESOME!
5.  Students will believe anything really early in the morning.  To "reward" the jazz students for being "on time" (early) for rehearsal this morning I told them I had received permission from the school to allow them to sleep in the next two mornings.  It took awhile (too long) for the majority of them to get that. 
6.  With responsibility comes rewards.  It is amazing to observe what a make-up lesson can do for your grade.  We had many students make up lessons this week.
7.  It is difficult to successfully pull off a lock down drill when half of the students are coughing uncontrollably when we are trying to be "quiet."
8.  I am completely "OK" with students taking their instruments to practice. (note: It's kind of expected/required...see "practice logs" in the handbook!)
9.  We have a concert rapidly approaching and we have major work to do on our selections. (see #8 for a special message on how to help us deal with #9.
10.  After this week, I am looking forward to Monday!  The secret word this week is "learning."  You know what to do with it.  HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND (but find time to practice!)

If it's not one thing...

There is a saying that goes "If it's not one thing, it's another."  Sometimes it almost feels like we live that on a daily basis!  Just when I thought that most people were getting healthy enough to be at school we had new issues to work around.  It was 8th grade lesson week.  On Wednesday all the 8th graders were gone for a scientific field exploration.  The back-up that caused for students trying to cram lessons in before the mid-quarter reports were due was amazing.  Luckily this first lesson was more a lesson to evaluate where students were at and for me to give them their initial playing assignments for the next lesson, so I was able to accommodate some rather bizarre instrument combinations during lessons Thursday and Friday!

Thursday is  the only day each week where all of the 7th grade band members are in rehearsal.  On Tuesday we have students that go to orchestra and choir, and on Fridays we split the period, so Thursdays are "our day" to really make progress.  This Thursday we had a fire drill scheduled 15 minutes into rehearsal!  Now a fire drill in a "regular classroom" is bad enough, but in a band room with 65 students, chairs, stands, cases and instruments it is another thing entirely.  The good news is that it gave me time to inform the students where we go during drills and the expectation of how they are to get there.  The best part - they totally exceeded my expectations!  AWESOME JOB, BAND!!!  The worst part - that left us with about 10 minutes of our "full rehearsal."  Next week is a three-day week with a scheduled late start on Tuesday, so that will shorten our only rehearsal of the week - I hope everyone practices individually!  Yikes.

We had our first junior high jazz rehearsal on Wednesday and it went really well.  Thanks to all the parents who got their children there on time - impressive!  I look forward to this Wednesday when we will hopefully be joined by the students who were sick last week.  We also welcome other students - just let me know you are planning on being there so I have music for you. 

Wow this has become a long post - time for the "secret word."  If  you are visiting the blog for the first time, read last week's post to learn about the secret word.  The word this week is drill.   Good luck.  Have a great weekend - squeeze in a little time for individual practice!

Sniffles, coughs, and lessons

So it was quite the week.  Throughout the week we had various music teachers go down to the flu.  It was a guessing game each day when I arrived at East after teaching at Franklin as to which cars I would see parked by the music rooms.  Luckily, I had only had some of the mild symptoms and was able to keep going.  I didn't want to miss this week - too much happening!  Many, many students were gone though, and I'm afraid that has set our progress back a bit.  I hope everyone is healthy soon.

It was finally time to begin 7th grade lessons.  The best part for me was an that it was an opportunity to "meet" everyone and to hear them play individually.  I believe we have some talented kids in this group!  I'm excited about that.  It is taking longer than I would like for them to adjust to the new routines and protocals of a junior high rehearsal.  I hope that improves soon.

We had the jazz meeting on Wednesday and had many students show up.  We will begin rehearsals this week.

Due to Mr. Kopetzki being sick I even had the opportunity to spend a little more time with the 8th grade.  It has been a difficult adjust to make this year for all of us, and I hope that they will continue to work with us as we (and they) adjust.  I am looking forward to 8th grade lessons this week!  This is the part where I "reward" people who read the blog.  If you are a student reading this, come up to me and tell me the secret word of the week...that word is "tempo."  Extra credit goes to those who use it correctly in a musical sentence.  Don't tell your friends - this is your extra-credit reward for following our blog! I hope to hear from  you.