Wonderful Wednesday!

WOW! I am on cloud nine after today! Excellent job Wednesday lesson folks in coming to your lessons...we may have set a new record of on time lesson attendance in one day! Keep this good work up!

HJH Marching Band is starting to come together! It'll be no time before we're ready! Pancake Day here we come!

CHS Flags...are you ready for tomorrow's putting it all together with the rest of the band? I think so :)

And on a side note - we're nearing the weekend, too... Labor Day weekend! Hope you're all looking forward to a little break before coming back to hit it hard again!

Mid-Week Update

Greetings Centerville Banders and friends/families!

I'm so excited after the first two days this week. First, HJH Band - WOW! We're going to have a great year if the first two days of full period rehearsals is any indication! Keep up the good work! Also, Monday and Tuesday lesson folks - great job! You guys are really neat people and I can't wait to work with you more. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday people - I can't wait until I get to have you for your first lessons!

CHS Flags - you all are still a great group to work with! Molly T. came up with the BEST T-shirt designs, what a talented lady! Sounds like we're working on our own tomorrow to clean things up and then might get to be WITH THE BAND on Thursday! I can't believe that our first performance of the year is almost here!

Wrapping up the Week

A HUGE thanks to the HJH Band today! WOW! A short rehearsal and you already were able to make some great progress :)

Don't forget that lessons start on MONDAY!! You'll want to bring your lesson book so I can review/learn where you're at. You will also want your marching music, I'll help each of you with a couple of spots if time allows. I'm so excited about getting the lesson schedule started! (Eighth graders interested in doing the honor band auditions, we'll talk about that at your lesson, too.)

Five full days next week, so we should be able to get a lot of work done. I'm starting to look forward to Pancake Day already!

Section of mention this week - DRUMLINE! There's something about the drumline that makes the marching band sound like a marching band, and I have to say, this drumline is going to make our marching season amazing!

Have a great weekend and don't forget to bring your practice sheets on Monday! Easy 10 points. (And your parents have homework, too, but you'll have to help them turn that one in.)

First Day of School!!

Hey all HJH Banders out there! I'm so very excited about this year, especially since I got to see your faces today! I got the feeling after 6th period today that this year could be something really special and I can't wait for 6th period Friday to roll around so we can play through our marching tune!!

Here's hoping that your lockers open easily tomorrow!

Five Flags a-waving

Looking good at your first performance ladies! Here's a picture from the Big Red Night :) Thanks Kae for sending me the picture!

Wrapping up the summer...SIGH...

One last post from me before I officially end my summer...

But what a summer it's been! Summer lessons went well, I think I had record attendance this third year of teaching in the Centerville summer program, congrats to those of you who were able to come to at least a few lessons! Also, the summer ensembles were even more amazing this year, PLUS we played to a record crowd! That was the sweetest way to end the summer lesson program. Hope to see even more participate next summer!

Getting back in to the swing of things, we've already had some fun with the marching program. I didn't get to check out any of the drum or wind rehearsals for CHS due to my flag coaching, but heard that things went well. I am very excited about the flag team this season, we had such a strong kick off! HJH Marching Band started out with a BANG! Sight reading through the piece, this could be the beginning of a top notch band!!

Enough looking back, let's look to the future and this upcoming school year. Eighth graders interested in auditioning for SCIBA Honor Band, you'll be wanting to work on your scales AND if you don't already have etudes, make sure I get those to you on Friday! Those auditions will be happening before we know it!

Pancake Day is the last Saturday in September (the 27th), and our combined performance with CHS will be the night before (the 26th). I think we've picked some very exciting music this season, and can't wait until Friday when we will get to start working on it at Howar!!

I'm already brainstorming some ideas for our winter concert in December as well as for our large group contest sets (both concert and jazz band), and I know that this is going to be another phenomenal year for those groups!

Don't forget - NO instruments on Thursday, but we WILL want them on Friday!! See you at Back to School Night and the First Day of School!!

Terriffic Tuesday All Around

At the end of today (Tuesday) I'm exhausted. Not bad exhausted, just tired beyond tired. It's the good kind of being tired, when lots of good stuff has happened during the day, but you're ready for bed because so much good stuff has happened.

First, flag team, WOW!! You're going to be ready for that first show in NO TIME! (I failed to write down some of the items from today, which I regret now, because I know that lots of fun was had.) Thanks to Tricia for the yummy treats that we gobbled down during our break! (If it makes you feel any better, I hear that the band had a little trouble with the end of Train, Train today, so it's not just the flag team that gets slipped up there, but you'll have it for that first performance, I know you all have it in you!) It was so much fun to get to watch more of this rehearsal and start to get to the picky! (This MIGHT even be deserving of cookies at some point this flag season, I MIGHT even have to break out my cookie sheets before one of the performances.)

Secondly, thanks to the HJH kids who came to the band camp this evening. I'm still on cloud nine after you sight read our tune as well as you did. A JUNIOR HIGH band sight read without stopping even before the year gets started. (I don't think I've ever had a JH band pull of that feat so early in the year before, quick pat of the back to each of you!) I'm so pumped thinking about what is to come this school year, and you should be, too. If you missed our music rehearsal/social event, your music is waiting for you in your cubbie in the band room. We'll sound EVEN BETTER when we can get everyone involved. Wow, I'm really looking forward to the end of next week!

Thanks to some special people who helped out today - Mr. DePrizio and his mean snare skills, Mr. Taylor and his stinging trombone, Tyler and his perfect rhythm bass drum, and Tricia and her excellent leadership in the after flag game played not after flags with the JH band - your time, energy, and efforts are truly appreciated more that you know!

And on a side note, the JH parade tune is so catchy this year, after one rehearsal on it I already have part of it stuck in my head. Must just be marching band on the brain!

NO INSTRUMENTS FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL HJH STUDENTS - BUT YES, YOU WILL NEED THEM ON THE SECOND DAY!! Until then, have a great last week of vacation!

HJH Marching Camp...TOMORROW!!

Howdy Howar Band Students!

I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow (TUESDAY, AUGUST 12 @ 6:30 p.m.) at our music rehearsal/social event!! We'll meet in the band room at Howar, please use the door off of the side gravel lot (it may be the only one open). We'll have a little fun, play through some of the music for this fall, and then around 7:30 we'll enjoy some frozen treats and socialize. Tell your ride that we'll wrap things up around 8:00! Can't wait to see you all!!

THANK YOU for an awesome week ladies!

To the members of the flag team who were in attendance this week - THANK YOU! You made my week. I had such a good time working with you, and we're going into next week with the first show just about ready to go, just some cleaning up to take care of - WOW!!!!!

Thank you also for helping me out this afternoon. As you are aware, I was not feeling well. I'm feeling much better now, I think I had a migraine or something similar and it's almost past. With a good night of sleep, I'm hoping to wake up refreshed in the morning. It was so wonderful to see you go ahead and work hard and pull together. If this week is any indication, we're on our way to the BEST YEAR YET!!

What a Wednesday!

What can I say? Crazy flag team fun was had on Wednesday! Here are of the highlights:

6. Whoa! You have green eyes!
5. I'm going to name my flag Petie after Petie the (dead) bug!
4. Come find us.
3. No cookies today, either.
2. Musical Catch Phrase!
1. The "After Flag Team Game"

Looking forward to another great day tomorrow! Might change the lunch location tomorrow to Subway. Thoughts?

There will be no cookies...

What can I say? Flag team is AWESOME! I saw Mrs. J. this evening and she commented to me how good you looked when she and her girls popped in this afternoon. :) Let's keep up the good work! Tomorrow - we polish Watchtower!

Oh, and make sure you check out each other's comments... We've had at least one so far on the posting with yesterday's highlights!

Successful Beginning to Flag Team 08

Yesterday was the first official meeting of the 2008 CHS flag team. What a team it's going to be! I'm so excited about the awesome possibilities for this upcoming season!

Top five random items from Monday's festivities:

5. Petie the (dead) bug...
4. Taylor found her pen from junior high!
3. What's on your I-pod?
2. Fundraising idea for flags - stop traffic!
1. The light over Tricia's head went out. Wait...the whole line is off...half the lights are off!