Land of Band
Welcome Back!
I hope everyone took some time during Spring Break to recover from the madness of March! It was nice to sleep in a few days, spend some times with my kids and family, and to catch up on things around the house that I didn’t get to over the past 5 weeks!
The Winter Guards and Percussion Ensemble rehearsed over Spring Break to prepare for performances over the weekend. Continue to read on to see how well they did at their competitions.
It’s hard to believe, but the end of the year will be approaching quickly. Please continue to stay on top of the schedule and practice to prepare!!!
Safe Travels!!
Safe travels to the members of the Varsity Winter Guard, staff, and families who will be traveling to Dayton, OH for the WGI World Championships this week! Scroll down for more info.
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Music Festival Wrap-Up
Thank you to everyone who worked shifts at the annual SCSBOA Music Festival. It was another successful event and many of the visiting directors were complimentary of how helpful and efficient our students were.
Congratulations to the Concert Bands for two outstanding performances. Both groups worked hard to prepare for this performance. The Symphonic Band has improved immensely under the direction of Mr. Vrooman and the Wind Ensemble performed two very contrasting and difficult pieces. It was a good day!
A special thank you to Wendy Lee for organizing the concession stand! We raised a pretty good chunk of change for the program! Also, thank you to all of the families who donated items for the concession stand and to all of the parents who helped work it!
Symphonic Band – Excellent Rating
Wind Ensemble – Superior Rating
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| Winter Guard Spring Break was a busy week for both Winter Guards! They performed at WGASC shows on both weekends and rehearsed during the week. Weekend Scoreboard WGASC Show – Rancho Cucamonga HS, March 31 JV Winter Guard – 71.98, 5th place, SAAA Class Varsity Winter Guard – 90.9, 1st place, Open Class WGASC Show – Valencia HS, April 7 JV Winter Guard – 70.88, 4th place, SAAA Class Varsity Winter Guard – 91.2, 1st place, Open Class Next Up… WGI World Championships Varsity Winter Guard April 10-15 This week the Varsity Winter Guard travels to Dayton, Ohio to perform in the WGI World Championships among some of the best winter programs from across the nation. The groups will travel on Tuesday, rehearse on Wednesday, and then head into Prelims on Thursday. The staff has done an amazing job preparing our Golden Hawks for this trip, the boosters have prepared and planned logistics, and the students performing on a level we haven’t seen at El Dorado before! It should be a great trip! To follow scores, go to www.wgi.org, look up scores under the color guard tab and find Scholastic Open Class. Scores will be updated, as they are available. |
| Winter Percussion Over the weekend, the Winter Percussion Ensemble performed at SCPA Open Class Prelims at Coussoulis Arena, CSU San Bernardino. They competed against 18 other Open Class groups with only 12 moving on to Finals. The Golden Hawks placed 3rd in their round, solidifying their place in Finals! This group has made significant improvements since last year and we are all very proud of how far they have come. The students have worked extremely hard and the percussion staff has really stepped up their game towards this accomplishment! And of course, thank you to all of our boosters who have been their every step of the way! Weekend Scoreboard SCPA Prelims – CSUSB, April 7 Winter Percussion Ensemble – 90.2, 3rd place, PSO Next up… Championships Preview Performance Friday, April 13 – Raya Gym 5:30p If you haven’t seen the show yet, come down to the Raya Gym on Friday around 5:30p for the end of the final rehearsal. At 6:00p, the group will be performing their show in full uniform as they prepare for the next day’s Championships Performance! Finally, enjoy some snacks and drinks with the group! SCPA Finals Citizens Band Arena Ontario, CA This event will feature THE BEST percussion programs in Southern California. If you are free, go out and support our Hawks! More info: www.sc-pa.org Finals Performance Time – 1:55p Awards – 10:00p |
| Jazz Bands Next Up: April 19, Visit from the Wolongong Conservatory of Music The WCM is from Australia and will be stopping by El Dorado to hang out with our jazz program. We will perform for each other after school, have some pizza, then have a combo jam. |
Google Classroom and Remind 101
All members of Concert Bands should now be subscribed and linked to the Wind Ensemble or Symphonic Band Google Classroom and Remind 101. If you are not subscribed to them, do so now! Scroll down for the codes.
We will continue to develop ways to use Google Classroom to benefit the program.
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Practice Tips
Every week, I will be adding practice tips to this list. Please check it out and apply them to your practice routine.
1. Make time to practice.
- Practicing should be part of your daily homework routine.
2. Create a good Practice Environment!
- Create a good practice environment that will allow you to be productive. Use a music stand, sit in a good chair, have a tuner and metronome, and focus!
3. Create a Practice Routine!
- Establish a good practice routine, like what we do in class. Start with long tones, play some velocity exercises, then some articulation exercises.
- Spend a few minutes on “maintenance practice”. Meaning, go over skills that need to be kept up on a consistent basis such as arpeggios, lip slurs (brass), etc.
- Most importantly, PRACTICE SECTIONS IN YOUR MUSIC THAT YOU STRUGGLE WITH! Work on these things at home so that you can contribute more to your performance ensemble!
4. Record Yourself!
- Record yourself playing your instrument, go back and watch the video or listen to the recording, and give yourself some feedback! You will hear things that sound better than you expected them to be and things that aren’t as good as you think they are! Use these recordings to help guide your improvement.
5. Practice with a friend or two!
- Get together with other people in the band and practice together. Come up with ways to make playing your instrument fun!
- Perform for each other and give feedback.
- See who can sustain a single note the longest with only one breath.
- See who can get through their major scales the fastest with the least mistakes.
- Be creative, come up with your own ideas, and share them with us!
- Get together with other instruments from your band and play your music together! You can create your own smaller ensembles and play through your music. You will begin to hear how your part fits with everyone else and will encourage you to have your part down!
6. Find a recording or video online of the piece you are working on!
- Most of the music we play has been performed before. Go to youtube and look up your piece! Find different ensembles playing it and listen!! You can also play along.
- Go to jwpepper.com and search for your piece. Most of these compositions have recordings on this website.
7. Break. Things. Down!!!
- Take difficult “licks” slow and break them down. Take one count at a time MULTIPLE TIMES SLOWLY! Then add counts and gradually speed them up until you exceed the intended tempo, then slow it back down to the actual tempo.
- This is tedious and somewhat annoying, but super helpful!
8. Analyze your music!
- Take small phrases and analyze it. Figure out what the rhythmic counts are and count them out loud. For example, figure out if the notes are on the downbeat vs. upbeat, “e’s and a’s” of the 16th note variations, etc. Then sing/clap/play rhythms to a metronome.
- Go through your music and really understand how the accidentals fit into the line that you are playing and practice them “slowly”, repeating many times.
9. Repetition is key! Repetition is key!
- Once you practice something and it finally sounds good, repeat it multiple times! Set a goal to play something correctly 5 times in row. If you make a mistake, start the count over!
- “Don’t practice until you get it right, practice until you can’t get it wrong!”
10. Take 5 minutes to watch this video
- After you’ve watched it, reflect on the information, and reflect on how you practice.
- I just might make this into a Google Classroom Assignment….
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Google Classroom and Remind 101
All members of Concert Band should be subscribed to their ensemble’s Google Classroom and Remind 101. If you haven’t done so already, subscribe now!!
| Group | Google Classroom Code | Remind 101 (text code to 81010) |
| Wind Ensemble | 364e58 | @eldowe |
| Symphonic Band | z3ww4xg | @eldosb |
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Upcoming Events
(this does not include weekly rehearsals)
WGI World Champs, Ohio April 10-15 – Varsity Winter Guard
Percussion Performance April 13 – Indoor Percussion, Raya Gym
SCPA Championships April 14 – Indoor Percussion
Australian Jazz Band Visit April 19 – Jazz Bands
Angels 5K gig April 21 – Pep Band
WGASC Championships April 21 – JV Winter Guard
WGASC Championships April 22 – Varsity Winter Guard
Road to Reno Concert April 23 – Jazz 1 and 2
Reno Jazz Festival April 26-29 – Jazz 1, 2, and Combos
Area Night Concert, VHS April 30 – Concert Bands, Jazz Bands
Jazz Master Concert June 1 – Jazz Bands
Spring Concert June 5 – Concert Bands
Band Banquet June 8 – Everyone
Graduation June 13 – Jazz 2
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Winter Rehearsals This Week
Winter Guard and Percussion
Please check your calendars that were passed out by your instructors.
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Here’s what’s up for this week…
Monday
0 period – Wind Ensemble in Band Room
Symphonic Band in Theater
Color Guard with Staff
Tuesday
0 period – Wind Ensemble in Band Room
Symphonic Band in Theater
Color Guard with Staff
Wednesday
0 period – Wind Ensemble in Band Room
Symphonic Band in Theater
Color Guard with Staff
Thursday
0 period – Wind Ensemble in Band Room
Symphonic Band in Theater
Color Guard with Staff
Friday
0 period – Wind Ensemble in Band Room
Symphonic Band in Theater
Color Guard with Staff
Evening: Percussion Performance – 5:30p, Raya Gym
Saturday
Varsity Winter Guard – WGI World Championships: Dayton, OH
Winter Percussion – SCPA Finals: Citizens Bank Arena: Ontario, CA
Thanks,
Samson
TIME MARCHES ON…
SENIOR PARENTS!!!
It is that time of year for proud parents of graduating seniors to select photos of your son or daughter for the end of year EDHS Marching Band & Color Guard slideshow.
Please select a minimum of five pictures, preferably digital and in high resolution, as candidates for the slideshow.
Ideally, pictures include ages of development (baby, toddler, grade school, and teen) along with a portrait photo in EDHS Marching Band or Color Guard uniform, if available.
Photos are due in the black box or preferably scanned and emailed to photo@eldoradoband.com no later than April 22, 2018.
BOOSTER MEETING TUESDAY!
Please join us this Tuesday, April 10th for the
April Board Meeting at
7:30pm in the Band Room
Get caught up on all the spring happenings!
Below is the Treasurers Report for your review.
QUARTERMANIA
The Quartermania fundraiser will take place on the first Saturday in May – May 5th at the Whitten Center in Placentia (on Melrose near Orangethorpe). More details to follow as the event date approaches. In the meantime, though, we are in need of your gift card and cash donations. Please donate a gift card or two ($5, $10, $15, $20 or $25) to any of your favorite places (stores, restaurant, gas, grocery, entertainment, …..) These will be used for the quartermania auction/raffle. —
Or, you candonate cash. Cash will be used to buy the breakfast items needed (muffins, danish, fruit, cheese, beverages….) to be served to our participants. Any extra cash will be used to buy additional gift cards. We are in need of both. —
Please place all donations in the black box and mark it as “Quartermania”.
WAYS AND MEANS REPORT
THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HELPED AT FESTIVAL!!
And a special shout out to the Dachenhausen Family – thank you for your support!
Fundraising Products
Ways & Means plans to put various Band & Color Guard fundraising products on the band website (i.e., Booster Wear, Bling Spirit Shirts, See’s Candy order form, Perfectly Posh etc.). More info to come!
ONGOING FUNDRAISING EVENTS
Scrip: (Individual Student Account Fundraiser)
The El Dorado Band Boosters are pleased to offer a great fundraising program to help students raise funds for their individual accounts. Profits from this program will first be used for any unpaid Marching Season Fair Share Donations for Band and Color Guard. Funds can then be used for Winterguard, Winter Drumline, Jazz Band, or next year’s Marching Season Fair Share Donations. Seniors who have paid all of their Fair Share Donations can use their profits for end of year extras, such as Banquet Tickets, Yearbooks and DVDs.
ABOUT UNITED SCRIP
UnitedScrip is a program that allows band supporters to purchase gift cards from hundreds of retailers and restaurants including Amazon, Best Buy, iTunes, Arco, Albertsons, Macy’s, Wendy’s, Subway and more. Supporters get to spend 100% of the amount they paid for the gift card. The retailer pays the band a percentage of each gift card sold. The percentage varies from retailer to retailer, but ranges from 1% to 50%. Family and friends can help out by either ordering gift cards directly from you (they pay you, then you write one check for entire order), or they may set up accounts online, being sure to specify that they are a supporter of your student, and pay with their credit card.
Scrip order deadline will continue on the first and third Wednesdays of the month.
For details about how to place an order, click here.
Scroll down to the Scrip section and look for “How to Purchase”.
This is a great way to earn funds for your student’s account – remind your friends and family that in addition to buying gift cards as gifts for birthdays and holidays, the gift cards can also be used for their everyday purchases at grocery stores, gas stations, Target, etc. And restaurant gift cards can be very nice to have handy for those nights that no one wants to cook.
Happy Ordering!
Help A Hawk: (Individual Student Account or General Fund Fundraiser)
Great Tax Deductible means to support the El Dorado Band Boosters, a non-profit 501(c)(3) booster parent organization. If you or know of any individual, business & or corporation looking to support a worthwhile, meaningful organization and at the same time benefit from a tax deduction, please send this “Help A Hawk El Dorado Band Brochure”
AmazonSmile: (General Fund Fundraiser)
Need to shop for gifts, decorations, or household items? Don’t forget to select our booster organization as the recipient for a financial donation. Use the Amazon Smile holiday at smile.amazon.com/ch/33-0858888 and Amazon donates to El Dorado High School Band Boosters Inc.