A Mr. Whiston Creation

August 25, 2016

THE BAND-AID All things about 5th Grade Band!

Weekly Assignments •

Putting their instrument together. and placing their fingers in the right place

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Practicing making a sound on their head joint or mouthpiece

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Making a few good sounds on their instrument

Check out the new 5th Grade Band Website

What makes up the Band Grade?

In order to better communicate with everyone from all 3 of my elementary schools, I have created a band website. Please check the website regularly for helpful video links, review weekly assignments, and get resources like note name flashcards. The band website should soon be on all three elementary school websites. The link for the website is:

10 points for rehearsal

https://sites.google.com/a/mpsomaha.org/mrwhistonband/home-1

Playing Test Exercise No playing test the first week!

Bring your book, instrument and a pencil and work hard to practice you get full points! 20 points for playing test Playing Test exercises will be done once a week. You always have a week to practice for the test

Band Show and Tell A fun activity to try at home is for your student to show and tell you what we did in band class. This helps your student review what we discussed and talk through all the steps we discussed. Things they can demonstrate now include. •

Putting their instrument together

Come See the Band

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Where their fingers go

Millard South marching band will be performing at the Millard Days Parade, this Saturday August 27th at 11:00. Enjoy the parade and see what high school marching band looks like

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Proper Embouchure (mouth placement)

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How to put on a reed (woodwinds only)

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How to put valve oil on (Brass Only)

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A Mr. Whiston Creation

August 25, 2016

A little dab will do you Trumpet and Baritone players will need to put valve oil on their instrument from time to time, so that their valves will work quickly. When putting on valve oil, put only a 3-4 drops on at a time. Make sure that you move the valve up and down so that valve oil can work itself into place. Over oiling valves can make the valves slow or sticky feeling. Make sure your student always has enough valve oil. One bottle should last a while.

Trombone Players Need a Spray Bottle In order to keep a trombone slide working properly, a trombone player should get a small spray bottle filled with water. A little spritz will do the trick!

Staff Wars helps students learn to read note names quicker For many students learning where every note is on the staff is a challenge early. Over the next few weeks students will be learning the names of the notes on the staff. Kids need repetition much like learning math facts. Staff Wars is a fun computer game/ tablet app that helps kids learn to remember note names quickly. If you see in your kids book that they are writing all the note names below each note, then Staff Wars is for them. If your phone or tablet has a microphone, students can play along with the game using their instrument! Flutes, Clarinets, Saxophones, and Trumpets will all learn Treble Clef while low brass students will be spending time working in the bass clef. Staff Wars is available in the Apple and Google App Store. Or at www.themusicinteractive.com

Check your reeds Woodwind Players!!! Woodwind players with reeds, (Alto Sax and Clarinets) your first box of reeds should be size 2. Once you have gone through the entire box of size 2 reeds, we’ll bump you up to a size 2 1/2. Students should have 3 reeds at all practices in case one breaks. When buying reeds, buy in a box format not just one or two at a time.

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