Information For Winter Concert - 2/14/2012

What To Do

Bragg Winter Concert

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

6:30 PM

Gardendale High School Auditorium

Who: Advanced, Intermediate , and Beginning Band Members
What: Winter Concert performance
Wear: Advanced and Intermediate Band will wear uniforms. Beginner Band will wear Dressy School Clothes Please- - no Blue Jeans, Shorts or football jerseys.
When: READY TIME is 6:15 pm at the Gardendale High School Auditorium
Where: You will sit in a designated area.

• Be QUIET and respectful while the other groups are performing.
• Remember that you represent yourself, your family and your school. You are ambassadors.

 Why: The Performance is 40% of your grade…Plus: IT WILL BE FUN!!!

 Bring: Music you were given in class and your instrument,

Schedule

 5:30 pm Bragg Band Room will be open (but please take your things home after school if at all possible). Band room will be locked at 6 PM!

6:15 pm Beginning Band on stage to practice

Other Bands in designated area of Auditorium
6:30 pm Concert begins
7:30 pm Concert ends -- take all equipment back to Bragg or home
Other Important information:
Do not play at anytime without permission.
Do not leave the group for any reason
Parents: Please make sure your child is present on time and ready to perform their best!

Admission is free! Bring the family!

Thanks!!

Dear Parents,

It has been a very BUSY seven days in the life of the band program here at Bragg, but I would be remiss if I did not take the time to thank YOU for all you have done to make our performances successful! I am going to address some of the things that have been going on lately and update you on a few others.

Please Take Instruments HOME – Please have your child take his/her instrument home during the break. It is dark and lonesome up here at the band room during the night, plus a PRACTICED instrument is a HAPPY instrument. Have them play a little for you and practice 15-20 minutes each day that you are in town. If they need more music, email me and I will see what I can do, but they have books with plenty of new things to learn! Our school is secure, but I feel better with your expensive instrument in your home during the break.

Christmas Concert – It was a great time and everything ran so smoothly. I was VERY pleased with the sound and appearance of all three groups, and thank you for having all the members ON TIME and LOOKING SHARP! I know that many of you made a great effort and sacrifice to be there, but I can tell you one of the “greatest truths” that I have learned from over 30 years of teaching is: YOU are the most important audience member for your child. I am very proud of our GHS Auditorium and hope that you are as well. It is fantastic and easy for us to have the performance in there, but it does make for a very long for Mr. Starnes (GHS Band Director). Please express your appreciation to him, as he does lots to support our program at Bragg. I looked at many of our 8th grade students the other night and remembered when they were the “little guys” running through the door every day. It is hard to believe they have now performed their last Christmas Concert at Bragg!

Magazine Sale – Please get the orders in ASAP. The sale will be over tomorrow as far as the prizes are concerned, but Internet Orders will still count toward the Spring Trip fee for the Intermediate and Advanced Band….so keep putting the word out to others to visit www.qsp.com ,look for Bragg Band…and credit your child’s name.

Pep Band – We had a good sounding group that had a great time last week. Our final performance will be at the North Jefferson Game on January 17 (Tuesday). This Pep Band will be comprised of the “other” half of the Advanced Band, plus the 7th Period Intermediate Band Class. Parents are welcome to chaperone ; I promise you it is a “low maintenance” night.

Spring Trip – I need to remind parents Intermediate and Advanced Band members of our planned Spring Trip to Atlanta on MARCH 31. We attend the important competition at the Southern Star Festival and then spend the balance of the day at Six Flags before returning home that evening. We need all our “team” to be there for this contest and day of fun. This trip is pending Board approval, but we expect to go as we do this annually on this weekend. The cost (as I told you at the beginning of the year) will be somewhere under 100.00 and will include all meals, admissions, transportation, etc. This money will be due in mid February. The students will receive 40% of any magazines they sell, and that will be taken off the final balance. I will send more detailed information when we return to school but if you have had a child in the Bragg program in the past, it is the same schedule.

2012 – 13??!! – Believe it or not it is already time to start planning class schedules for next year. We DEFINITELY want your child back with us in band and hope you will encourage them to take advantage of continuing in the band program here at Bragg (and GHS for the Freshman). They will build on their success and learn new things with their friends. Every year in band brings new opportunities for your child….and me as well. Just as I think things are getting a little “boring” for me, I find new challenges and exciting students to work with! We will be looking for 6th and 7th graders for our Beginning Class and in our community it has been traditional that we always get some of our best recruiting from our parents that already have students in the program. Let others know that their child will be welcomed and a valued part of the band here at Bragg.

I hope that everyone has a Blessed and restful Holiday Season. Please feel free to contact me if you need clarification on anything.

With Great Appreciation,

Dr. Min and Miss Willingham

Christmas Concert 2011!

Here is information about our upcoming Christmas Concert on Tuesday, December 13 at the GHS Auditorium. Although the concert starts at 6:30, we really need all the students in the auditorium by 6:15 to start on time. The Auditorium seats 650, so to get a seat everyone needs to arrive early! We respectfully request that every plan to stay for the entire performance...which will be over by 7:30. We are asking that parents of Beginning Band students sit with their student during the Intermediate and Advanced Band performances. The High School Band will have their performance at 7:30 after our Concert if you would like to hear some more great Christmas Music!

What To Do
Bragg Band Christmas Concert
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
6:30 PM (6:15 Ready Time)
Gardendale High School Auditorium

Who: Advanced, Intermediate, and Beginning Band Members
What: Christmas Concert performance
Wear: Advanced, Intermediate, and Beginner Band will wear Dressy School Clothes. Please---no Blue Jeans, Shorts or football jerseys. Ladies; please consider the length of your skirt….we will be sitting on a stage.
When: READY TIME is 6:15 pm at the Gardendale High School Auditorium
Where: You will sit in a designated area. Your instrument cases will be stored in the High School Band Room Be QUIET and respectful while the other groups are performing
Remember that you represent yourself, your family and your school. You are ambassadors.
Why: The Performance is 40% of your grade…Plus: IT WILL BE FUN!!!
Bring: Music you were given in class and your instrument.

Schedule

5:30 pm Bragg Band Room will be open (but please take your things home after school if at all possible). Bragg Band Room will be locked at 6 PM
6:15 pm Beginning Band on stage to practice. Other Bands will sit in designated area of Auditorium
6:30 pm Concert begins – After Beginner Band finishes, they will need to sit with parents and listen to other groups
7:30 pm Concert ends -- take all equipment back to Bragg Band Room or home.
Other Important information:
Do not play at anytime without permission.
Parents: Please make sure your child is present on time and ready to perform their best!If you need to deviate from this schedule, please email or call me before Tuesday UNLESS it is a true emergency.
Beginner students need to sit with their parents after their performance.

Admission is free! Bring the family!

November Update

It has been a while since we have sent anything out to our band parents. We have a lot of busy students who are working on becoming good musicians! Can you believe it is less than a month to our Christmas Concert (Tuesday, December 7 at 6:30)? We are looking forward to seeing all of you there and I hope you will be impressed by the improvement in all 3 Bands!

PLEASE make sure your students is practicing 15 minutes or so 5 days a week. The Bandroom is open each morning at around 7:20 AM and is also open until busses leave every afternoon to help students that have a problem taking the instrument home. There are a number of students that I see practicing a little each day and it is no wonder that make a lot of fast progress. It really does not take much time and it makes playing the instrument more fun!

On December 1, we will kick off our final fundraiser of the year. It is a Book and Magazine sale. This sale is great in that it does not require delivery and a good deal of it can be accomplished through internet link. You just have friends and relatives renew subscriptions and the Bragg Band gets the credit. We did this project last year and it was very successful.

Beginning Band

Our beginners are doing well. Please get them to practice 4-5 days a week, even if only for a short time! Skill building takes daily repetition. We are listening to each student individually as often as possible. If you hear something that might not be just right in their sound, then I will be glad to come up here in the evening sometime and meet with you and your student and help solve the problem. We are making progress through the book, but we also have an individualized “Passoff System” where the faster students can move on ahead. Ask your student where they are in the book!

Advanced and Intermediate Bands

We have a good number of Advanced Band students that were selected for the UAB Honor Band in December. They should send their confirmation in by next week. Please check with me if you have any questions.

There are a large number of students working on the All-State/All-District auditions in January. This is great as there is not much more that I can recommend that can aid in a student’s musical growth and helping improve the band! Mrs. Towns and I will be available during class and during their reading time to help with these students. Please encourage them to work hard at this goal.

Our Competition Trip is planned for March 26. We will be competing early in the morning and going to 6 Flags the rest of the day. The cost will be around 95.00, but we have a project planned to help students earn part of the cost. We need all students to attend since it is an important competition!

Basketball Pep Band (Advanced and Intermediate Bands)

We will be performing at two Ball games: December 13 and January 13. Students will be assigned and required to perform at one game, but can play at both if they like. More on this later.

Thanks for all your support and encouragement of your students!

Dr. Min and Mrs. Towns

Stuff Your Locker!

You may bring your instrument, Binder, and other things you need to the band room on Sunday afternoon (8/8) during the “Stuff Your Locker” time of 4:30 – 5:30. I will have the band room open. For right now, just put your things in your locker from last year. If you have changed locks, you will need to leave me a copy of your combination.

Our big news is that we have another band director on board to help us! Mrs. Cherie Towns was selected out of a wide pool of applicants. I know that you all will enjoy getting to meet her and having her work here with us this year. I hope you will thank Mr. Caufield for his commitment to making sure that we have a good staff for the band program and for the extensive amount of time he spent in the interviews.

Please remember that we need every one to bring instruments, binders, EE Books, and be ready to participate in the first day of class!

See you soon!

Winding down......

Thanks to everyone for such a wonderful Spring Concert! It was great to see our students showcase how far they have come this year. The end of the year has gotten here quicker than expected and now it is time to tie up a few loose ends.

Instruments: If your student has a personal instrument, please make sure that they take it home (with the lock, binder, etc.) the last day that they will be here in attendance at Bragg. If they are coming to school next week, they should have the instrument here each day until they leave.

If your student plays a school instrument (tuba, French horn, etc.), then they are welcome to check it out over the summer. They need to leave a note with their name and instrument for Dr. Min.

You might want to check and make sure that your child has reeds, valve oil, etc. for the summer. We have some up here at the bandroom if that is needed.

Dr. Min will have the bandroom open on some mornings throughout the summer. We will send a schedule out next week about this. This is an opportunity for interested students to practice, pass-off or get extra help. We will also have the new books available for the students who will be in Intermediate and Advanced Band and some special ‘fun’ music.

Thanks again for a fantastic year and for all you do for your child!

Mr. Thompson and Dr. Min

Solo and Ensemble Festival

A few reminders about Solo and Ensemble Contest which is THIS SATURDAY (May 8) at Thompson Middle School in Alabaster. The address is: 1509 Kent Dairy Rd, Alabaster, AL 35007

· Students that are riding the bus should be here before 7:45. Come to the backdoor of the Bandroom.
· Dress neatly and nicely. Casual clothes will be fine, but follow school dress code.
· Students that receive a Superior rating are eligible to purchase a medal for $5.00. We are going to go ahead and take up this money and then refund it to students that do not get a Superior. Please send cash in an envelope with your student’s name on it. Medal purchase is optional, but many students want this as a keepsake and to wear on their uniforms as they progress through band.
· Students riding the bus will need money for Lunch. We will be stopping by the mall on the way home.
· The bus should be back at Bragg by 1 PM.
· We still need a few more parents to help chaperone. Not a hard job. You can bring a book and read for most of the time.

Our Spring Concert is next Tuesday, May 11 at 7PM at the new GHS Auditorium. We will send home more info in the next day or two.

We have had a great year and we are not finished yet!! We appreciate your efforts to keep the students learning and practicing!!