Holland Patent Band Program

Holland Patent Band Program

5th Grade Handbook

2017-2018

Mr. Richard China, Elementary Band Director

Welcome to the HP Band Program!

Hello and welcome back! I am very excited that you will be joining us on our musical adventures in Band. This handbook was designed to describe your expectations as a participant or supporter of the band program. It contains information about what we are doing, concert dates, and expectations that I have for you as members of the band program.

But What Do I Need For This Awesome Program?

Joining band is an exciting and challenging endeavor! In order to ensure a successful start to the program, you and your family are responsible for the following:

You will be responsible for an instrument for your child. You can either buy or rent but I would recommend renting to start off. Big Apple Music in New Hartford (Music and Arts) provide high quality instruments at a very good price. Please begin by renting your child’s instrument. Once your child is absolutely sure they would like to continue with the program, we can discuss purchasing one.

You will be responsible for purchasing an instrument method book for your child. We will be using Breeze Easy Book 1 for your child’s instrument. You can purchase this book at one of our local music stores. If you seem to have misplaced your copy, let Mr. China know before you purchase a replacement.

Additional Items Required: Music Stand; Brass: Slide Oil for Trombone and Valve Oil for Trumpet, French Horn, Baritone, and Tuba; Woodwinds; Extra reeds and Cork Grease; Percussion; Extra Sticks and xylophone mallets. All of these items are essential to maintaining and playing a band instrument.

Student Responsibility” You and your child must sign an instrumental student contract that lays out their duties regarding lesson attendance, practice, and instrument care. Please help us by enforcing the importance of attendance, practice, and instrument care.

Instrumental Care

All instruments have problems every once In a while. If you or your musician finds something that doesn’t seem right, a key won’t go down or stay up, the instrument is dropped, or there is any issue with the instrument, contact me right away. There is no issue that is too silly or insignificant. When cared for properly, instruments can last for hundreds of years.

Here are some tips for keeping our instruments safe and in working order:

·  Always store and use the instrument at room temperatures. Extreme heat or cold can cause the materials of the instrument to become warped

·  After each play session (especially woodwinds), make sure you use your snake to clean the instrument. If you need help, I will gladly show you how.

·  Keep instruments safely secured in its case when not in use.

·  Make sure to keep joints on woodwind instruments greased up with cork grease. If the instrument is hard to put together or take apart, you need some!

·  If Valves on brass instruments get sticky and stop moving, use some valve oil on the sticky valve

·  Trombones should use slide oil when their slides become harder to move.

·  Brass instruments should make sure their tuning slides are moving smoothly. There is tuning slide oil for that!

If you have any questions or concerns about your instrument, please contact your band teacher.

Attendance

Participation is a critical part of any instrumental music program. We have group lessons that will meet once every six-day cycle to allow your teacher to check the progress made during practice at home. Small group lessons are critical for developing musicians. We will start off each lesson by playing thought last week’s assignment or technique, and applying our previous knowledge or skills to our new concepts.

Lesson schedules will be distributed via email to parents and classroom teachers weekly, and are also available on my webpage: http://www.hpschools.org/Page/2344

Second year band students are required to attend Morning Band Rehearsals on Days 4 and 6 of the six day cycle held at the MS. See letter sent home for more details.

Practicing

It is expected that your child spends at least 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week practicing their assignments. Your musician’s assignments will be clearly communicated by your band teacher. If you have any questions about your musician’s assignments, please contact me via email.

Practice can be thought of in a flow chart:

Practice – Ability – Success – Self Esteem – Motivation – Practice

Here are some ways you can accomplish this flow chart by framing practice in the context of a game you can play alongside with your children:

·  Create practice charts that your children can fill in or add a sticker to after a practice session.

·  Write out the assignments your child has for the week on sticky notes and let your child choose the order they practice them in.

·  To get in repetitions, your child rolls a set of dice and repeats the section/exercise the number of times indicated on the dice.

·  Play it anywhere: another fun way to get repetitions! Your child picks any number of places in your home and repeats a section/exercise in the spots in your home they choose.

·  Don’t practice mistakes or you will become very good at playing them.

·  Practice a little EVERY DAY; this is far more beneficial than one or two long practice sessions in a week.

·  Practice the hard sections- not just the sections you like.

·  Start and end practice sessions on a high note! Warm-up with a familiar or memorized piece, and close with something you feel confident playing.

These are a few of many practicing games that can lead to a positive and engaging experience for you and your child. There are many resources available to facilitate engaging practice for your child, such as “Helping Parents Practice” by Edmund Sprunger.

Tip: trying to establish a regular practicing time at home (10 minutes right after school, in the morning, etc) is difficult to impose at first, however, it signals to your children and the other members of your family that music is a priority in your household routine.

Students will be filling out a weekly practice log to help them keep track of how long and how often they practice. Practicing logs should be signed by a parent and returned at the beginning of the next lesson.

5th Grade Concert Information

Aside from your musician’s regular practicing, concerts are the only outside of school commitment to the band program. It is very important that your musician attends concerts. If there is an emergency, please contact me as soon as possible.

Concert Attire

We will work very hard to prepare for our concerts, and we want to look as great as we will sound! Please follow the following guidelines for concert attire:

Boys:

·  Collared, button down dress shirt with a tie

·  Dress pants with a belt

·  Dress shoes with high black socks

Girls:

·  Semi-formal dress (must be knee-length when sitting down)

OR

·  Dress shirt with skirt (must be knee-length when sitting down) or pants.

·  Dress shoes with stockings

Concert Dates:

·  5th Grade Winter Concert – Thursday, December 14, 6:30 PM at HS Auditorium

·  NYSSMA Competition – Tuesday, May 8 at Holland Patent (time TBA)

·  5th Grade Spring Concert – Tuesday, May 15, 6:00 PM at HS Auditorium

Student Name: ______

Please fill out the following information and return this page to Mr. China at our first lesson.

I have read the information in this packet and discussed it with my beginning musicians. We are aware of the level of commitment that comes with playing a musical instrument.

Parent Signature Date

Student Signature Date

Parents: Please provide an email address below. I use email often to communicate lessons schedules, updates, and reminders. Lessons schedules will be emailed to classroom teachers as well as posted on the LGI music bulletin board at HPE. If you do not use email, please check my webpage for your child’s lesson schedule periodically: http://www.hpschools.org/Page/2307

Parent Email Address

Thank you and I look forward to working with you and your child this year!