Scaling New Heights!

Last week was a milestone for the Junior High Concert Band - they finished the 12th Major Scale! Each week we learned one scale and called it the "scale of the week." They have done such a great job on these - usually it takes much longer for the band to achieve this - way to go!!!

Hard at work

The Junior High Concert Band hard at work! Even though it has been a short week, we are making the most of our rehearsal time. The students have even begun an individual composition process.

Short Week?

We are gearing up for a "short week" of school due to the Minnesota Education Association Convention. While most people put their focus on how quickly we can get to vacation, I put my focus on how much we need to accomplish in our three days! It is the beginning of MAD Jazz and JazzHAWKS this week, and we play for games two of the three nights. I do not attend the conference in the cities. I would rather take my time and resources ($) to attend the Minnesota Music Educator's Association Mid-Winter Conference in February instead. Everything there applies directly to what I do on a daily basis. In case your thinking "Eichhorst gets a long weekend," let me assure you that I have school-related projects lined for those "conference days."

Before I forget - we had an excellent rehearsal on Friday in MCB. We made huge project on the Bach Arioso that we are preparing, and while we did that the flute ensemble and percussion ensemble met in sectional in other parts of the music area. What an efficient use of time!

Back to this week: the Junior High Concert Band members will start working on their 4th piece tomorrow. It is called Ancient Voices and they already love it after just hearing it once. They also will begin composing this week! I have developed exercises where they will write melodies for the entire band to play. If it works out, we will branch on to melody/accompaniment exercises.

MCB must do MASSIVE work on the Vaughan Williams and Brahms. We have spent a little more time than I would have liked to learn new and review old pepband music. I hope we have a great week! The phrase is "short week, but lots of work!"

Random Thoughts II

*The Junior High Concert Band is having a great week. The past two rehearsals have been outstanding. The band has been playing with great musicality, so much so that I am able to direct things the way "I really want to" instead of directing every little entrance and rhythm - what a treat! Their rehearsal etiquette has steadily improved this week as well - way to go, band!
*Wednesday was the kick-off for our annual food fundraiser. "Pizza Pete" was in the house to get everyone ready to sell. The smell of pizza carried down both floors of the building! I have already had students come in and request additional order forms. Tomorrow I'm starting a series of "commercials" that will be read during the daily announcements. Hopefully this will increase sales!
*It's hard to believe, but the end of the quarter is starting to sneak up on us. Students need to monitor their progress and take care of all required work. MCB students need to complete the Qtr. 1 outcomes and get those practice logs checked off!
*Another great sport-band performance tonight. The students are really playing with confidence so far this year - and the best part - I am having some fun during the performance as well! That means that I can enjoy what they are doing instead of worrying about HOW they are playing - excellent job.
*The word to use is "sport-band."

Finding our groove

Today was a pretty good day. Both bands accomplished a lot during their respective rehearsals. Jr. high is already steaming along on our quest to learn all 12 major scales. This week it is F Major. The next issue to focus on is air stream / air flow. We need to move more (and faster) air through the instruments to make the notes speak clearer and better. I'm sure they will get there - maybe tomorrow will be the day!

MCB had a fast paced rehearsal. We started by working with the first movement of the Vaughan Williams and then I stopped and broke them into sectionals. I occasionally use mini-sectionals to focus on a small section of the music. My purpose today was two-fold; work on the music while using the time to speak with the flute and percussion sections in the hall. We will have a flute choir doing the "Ukrainian Bell Carol" at the December concert. This will sound great performed by flutes. The percussion section will be working on "Yuletide Celebration", a medley that incorporates three different carols. We "talked our way through the pieces" in the hallway while the rest of the band was working the Vaughan Williams in the band room.

Following the sectionals we continued working the sections. The low brass was pretty pumped up about their progress, so much so that they completely covered every other part! Whoa - easy there!

It is so great when the band comes together enough to be "split apart!" It's nice knowing that I can trust them to work on the assigned material while I can work with other groups - great job, band!

"My Bands"

Today was a great day for us. Both the Junior High Concert Band and the Madelia Concert Band have had two great rehearsals in a row. The JHCB has made great strides the past two days on "Regal Fanfare" and today we also watched a portion of an instructional DVD on proper breath technique which we tried and will continue to experiment with tomorrow. The work ethic has steadily increased this week for them!

MCB had that magical moment today while practicing music for coronation next Monday. They finished the processional and I stopped and said,"Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time this school year I finally felt like you were MY Madelia Concert Band - congratulations!" I felt like they were finally "with me," responding to tiny inflections I was using with my conducting pattern, and performing "above the notes" with extreme emotion. They continued this tonight with an outstanding pepband performance!