Westside Middle School Band

What Your Child Should Be Working On

 

How many times have you heard your child say, "I don't have any homework today in band, so I didn't bring my instrument home"? Maybe you aren't sure exactly what your child should be doing to improve him/herself in band class. I want to take the next few paragraphs and let you know the expectations I have for each student and what they should be working on. 

 

Homework

 

Do your children have homework in band? Yes... yes they do! Each student is expected to practice a MINIMUM of five (5) nights a week on their instrument. Why so much? There are two main reasons. First, I do not see every student every day of the week in class. This means unless they practice, the skills and techniques we work on in class will have to be re-taught if students are not working on them in between classes. The second reason is from a consistency point of view. Would an athlete go days between working on techniques needed to perform a sport? If that athlete wanted to be successful, of course the answer is "no". The same idea applies to practicing an instrument. The more practice students put in, the better they are going to get on their instruments. An off day here or there is expected and needed; most days, however, students should be practicing their instruments. How much time should they practice? If a student is practicing between 15-30 per practice session, that should be enough.

 

What should they be working on?

 

In class each day, we work on a variety of warm-up exercises, scales, technical exercises to teach necessary skills, and music to prepare for performances. Students should be working on items from each of these categories in each practice session. They don't have to practice EVERY warm-up exercise; just one or two. The same goes for the other areas of music they have. Also, students need to remember that they will be tested on the scales they learn, and some of the technical exercises and music we work on. Many times, they will know in advance what they will be tested on; in some cases, they can choose what they are tested on. This should give students a good idea of exactly what they should be practicing on daily.

 

What will my child be tested on?

 

Each 8 weeks grading period, your child will be tested on the following things:

 

• Three ensemble (group) pass-off lines; these will be chosen by the director and played by the class as a whole, and the class will receive a grade on the performance.

• At least two individual pass-off lines; these will be chosen by the students themselves. Each student can do this pass-off either in class , before or after school, or at home on SmartMusic, or recorded (either at school or home) and submitted to Mr. Pearce through Google Classroom. The nice thing about all of these options is that the student can play the test as many times as he/she wants, and then only send in their best version!

• A minimum of one scale test (except for the first grading period for 6th grade students--no scale test during that time for them). Options for doing the scale pass-off are the same as mentioned above for the individual pass-off lines. All scales are to be played for pass-off from memory.

• Two online practice records. The link for the online practice record can be found on the "Practice Record" page. Students may fill out the online practice record any time between 4:00 on Friday afternoon and midnight on Sunday evening. Students are required to fill out a minimum of two online practice records during each nine week grading period. If students do not have access to the internet at home to complete this assignment, paper copies are available in the band room any time a student needs to get one. Please see the director if you need a paper version.

• Concert performance. During almost every grading period, band members will be expected to do some type of performance. Leading up to these performances, there will be after school rehearsals. Students are required to be at these rehearsals to perform, unless there is an excused reason for being absent from rehearsal. If a student misses a rehearsal for an unexcused reason, he/she can make up the time with the director and be allowed to perform. It is the student's responsibility to work this out with the director.

 

As always, if there are individual concerns or issues, please contact the director to address them. The goal here is for each student to perform and grow to be the very best he/she can be. With parent help and support guiding the efforts of the director, we hope this will happen for ALL of the members of the WMS Band program!