5TH GRADE PARENT INFORMATION NIGHT @7pm

all right good evening ladies and gentlemen i can see that it's not quite seven o'clock yet so we'll get started in another minute or two thanks for being here i'm sure we're gonna have some more people joining us um i'm glad everybody was able to find the link and get here we'll have tons of information for you about fifth grade band and orchestra so stay tuned we'll start in another minute all right i think we can get started with um introductions my name is matt taganelli i've been teaching fifth grade band for many years here in troy i'd like to introduce my colleagues right next to me we have janie sorenson she also teaches fifth grade band next to her is joanna van isinga fifth grade orchestra and isaac weiss also fifth grade orchestra we're very exciting that everybody can be here we're very excited about having our classes in person again and being able to have our classes during the school day at school it's great to be back and to be seeing the fifth graders so we'll go ahead with our presentation here we like to start with this video showing the different groups in troy you'll see high school groups middle school groups fifth grade groups um just showing kind of what things are like in troy and what we do and kind of welcoming you to the instrumental music family [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so as you can see we have a fantastic program here for instrumental music and troy from fifth grade all the way up through high school and we're hoping that your family and your student will be a part of this program for many many years we're going to go ahead and get started with some videos of instrument demonstrations your students would have seen us demonstrating instruments when they first saw us in school last week and the week before talking about the instruments we offer we'd like to have the families be able to have the opportunity to see what instruments we teach and offer in fifth grade and we have some videos from some troy high school students uh there will be a time for questions at the end so if you have any questions just try to keep those in mind and we'll open up the chat for questions and things like that later on when we get to the end of the presentation hopefully we'll answer a lot of questions along the way so we're going to get started with the string instruments and i'll turn it over to the orchestra teachers good evening everyone i'm mr weiss i work with mrs van eisen god to teach orchestra which at the fifth grade level is synonymous with the string family so we have four string instruments from highest in pitch to lowest violin viola cello and bass and among these some are played on the shoulder some are propped up on the ground there's all different sizes and ranges of pitch but all of them can be played both by plucking the strings which is called pizzicato or with a horsehair bow and this year in fifth grade we will be doing both of those things one important thing to be aware of when it comes to the strings is that they come in different sizes and by that i mean not just that a violin is smaller than a viola but also that violins come in three-quarter half one-quarter sizes violas come in different measurements of inches and so on so if your fifth grader has elected to play a string instrument this year or will elect because we'll be doing a couple more schools tomorrow then we have measured them for sizing so on the instrument choice form which you have or will receive from your fifth grader it will have marked on it something like violin three-quarter size or whatever measurement it may be on the uh slideshow right here in the bottom right corner you can see those are all violins and those are all three different sizes so whatever personal measurements you've got there is a size that you can play even the smallest kid can play a double bass in orchestra now to take a look at some of the individual instruments one by one demonstrated by athens high school students i'll hand it off to mrs van isenga so first we're going to hear the violin the violin is the highest member of the violin family it's the most famous member and when you listen to this listen to the really bright tone quality that we hear from the i'm violin wang and i play the violin i'm a senior at troy high school and i actually went to vietnamese when i was in fifth grade here's a little bit of what the violin sounds like [Music] you [Music] uh [Music] uh [Music] all right so here how high the violin can play especially when we get to advanced technique let's move on to the viola the viola is very similar to the violin so it often kind of is a hidden gem a lot of people don't know much about the viola it is played on the shoulder just like the violin but it's actually slightly larger and slightly lower but the other thing to know about the viola is that it has a characteristic mellow and warm sound hi my name is james chamblin i go to troy high school and i play the viola [Music] now [Music] so as you can hear it's a bit lower but it's got quite a different tone from the violin as we go lower in the string instrument family mr weiss will tell us about the next two so as i mentioned the upper strings are played propped up on the shoulder and now here are the two that are placed on the floor the cello is only one that has to be played sitting in a chair it is not large enough to play standing and too small to prop up on your own body so check out the deep rich sounds of the cello hi my name is lisa and i go to troy high school and i went to leonard elementary school and this is the cello [Music] and finally the largest string instruments the one you have to play standing up although i again reassure you that even if your fifth grader is small you can play this one because there are different sizes available the contrabass double bass or string bass depending on what you prefer to call it hello my name is hadra amith and i'm a bass player at the troy high school orchestra i actually started playing bass in fifth grade at bemas elementary school so i hope you guys enjoy my next piece [Applause] [Music] thank you yeah so strings are pretty cool but that's far from all the options let's introduce you to some of the band instruments now good evening i am janie sorenson and i'm one of the fifth grade band directors here at troy so let's get started with the first family in the band and that is the woodwind instrument now in fifth grade we are offering three woodwind instruments that's the flute the clarinet and the alto saxophone so the flute um is going to have the highest sound in the band it's pretty light pretty soft sounding now you can play all of the instruments to be soft or loud but flute overall is going to give a pretty soft sound pretty high-pitched i am a current senior at troy high and i went to venus and i play the flute and i'm going to play an exit from the government [Music] foreign [Music] one thing to note about the flute is that it kind of makes sound differently than other instruments in the band so the flute is held off to the right and there's a piece called the head joint that sits right on the lower lip or right below the lower lip and the student or musician will blow air across the hole in the head joint it feels really similar to blowing air across an empty bottle and creating that fog horn sound and then you change notes by pressing the keys with your fingers and clarinet is the next lowest what of an instrument in fifth grade band it is played by putting the mouthpiece and a reed which is a piece of wood into your mouth and you kind of just close your lips up around the mouthpiece and blow air through the instrument and then you change notes again by putting your fingers over the keys and the holes it's a little bit lower sound than the flute but it's like a middle high sound pretty soft as well hi there my name is arjun bonazir i play the b-flat paranaq i'm a junior 11th grade at troy high school and i've been playing this instrument since fifth grade at bemas elementary [Music] uh [Music] thank you and the last woodwind instrument offered in fifth grade is the alto saxophone it's played similarly to the clarinet in that there's a mouthpiece and a reed that's put into the musician's mouth sealed with the lips and then we put air through that instrument and change notes by using our fingers to press the keys it's a lower sound than the clarinet but it's a little bit more pointed hello so my name is dennis yang i currently go to troy high school and i played the alto saxophone in fifth grade i went to margaret elementary school and i want to demonstrate what the stacks will sound like my foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a couple things to know about the saxophone before we move on is that it is played with using a neck strap and that just helps hold the weight of the instrument and then i'm a few fifth grade students their hands might be a little small for the saxophone we'll check that out in class but if they really want to play saxophone we may suggest that they stick on clarinet for a year and then they could try saxophone in middle school and one more thing to note about band instruments before moving on to the next section is that string instruments come in different sizes but band instruments do not so clarinet is just one size flute is one size but that really shouldn't pose much of an issue with the exception of the hand size on the saxophone so i'll pass it off to mr tiganelli for the brass instruments okay we'll move over to the brass instruments and then percussion as well we'll start by talking about the different instruments we have in the brass family so first you'll see towards the top here is the trumpet and the cornet the trumpet is the instrument that's a little bit taller and the coronet's just a little bit shorter they're very very similar they play exact exactly the same notes they're played exactly the same way they're just shaped different and either instrument is fine for fifth grade trumpet or cornet and then we also have the trombone that's the low brass instrument with the slide this instrument down here is the baritone it kind of looks like a tuba but it's a little bit smaller and then over here we have the percussion instruments these are the percussion instruments that the fifth graders would play and they all come in this rolling case with wheels on it that you can see so there's two main instruments we play in percussion the snare drum and the bells and we'll talk about those um when we get into the demonstration video so let's go ahead and start with the trumpet video hi i'm phaedra's merlite i go to detroit high school and i'm senior uh i played a trumpet and i'm going to play for you an excerpt from american paris by george gershwin [Music] uh [Music] so as you can hear the trumpet is the highest sounding brass instrument we like to have lots and lots of trumpets in our band because it plays the melody almost all the time and sound is made on a brass instrument by blowing and buzzing your lips into the mouthpiece and that's how you make sound on any of the brass instruments we'll move on next to the trombone hi my name is danny i'm a current senior at toro high school i play the trombone and i went to bemas elementary school [Music] m [Music] ah [Music] so the trombone looks big but it's really not very heavy and um we show the students how to hold it and be comfortable with it it's really pretty easy for a fifth grader to maneuver i've had a lot of parents ask me in the past is my students arms long enough and every student that i have ever had played the trombone had long enough arms we make it work we know that they're going to grow and we don't really even use many of those further slide positions where they're really reaching until they get older towards middle school and things like that the next instrument is the baritone this is a larger instrument and it comes in a big case it's not able to go on the bus and it is kind of difficult to bring it to school and then back home for each band class so what we like to do is we have some baritones that belong to the school district and we keep a baritone at school for the student to use and then they would have their own baritone at home for practicing and they would need to bring it in for our evening concerts the same is true for the string base that's another large instrument that's really too big to go on the bus so we like to have a base at school that the student could use during the day for our classes and then they would have their own at home for practicing and to bring in for concerts so those are our two bigger instruments that really can't go on the bus because they're so large the string base and the baritone let's listen to the baritone hi my name is miranda holla i go to troy high school and i went to morris elementary and i played [Music] [Music] oh [Music] before we talk about the percussion instruments i do want to mention that we have some special items and things that we're going to have for students that play woodwind or brass instruments so if your student plays the flute they will receive a special flute mask that the district is buying that we will hand out and it has a slit in each side and the head joint of the flute will go through the mask and it absorbs the air to make everything safe so we are taking special protocols to make sure the fifth graders are safe when they're playing their instruments at school flute players will receive a mask all of the other wind players so woodwinds and brass will be receiving a bell cover it's like a stretchy material that goes over the end of their instrument that keeps the air from getting out into the room so if they play clarinet or saxophone that bell cover would go um across the bottom of the instrument any of the brass instruments trumpet trombone baritone the belkwood cover would go over the front of it where the sound comes out to absorb some of that so we don't have so many things um in the air and so that we're safe while we're playing our instruments and all those materials the bell covers and the flute masks will be provided by the district and passed out from your students instrumental music teacher so we can move on to the uh percussion and in the previous slide i showed you a picture and it had the bells and the snare drum the bells kind of looks like a metal xylophone this instrument that this uh gentleman's playing here is actually the xylophone it's a little larger makes a little bit deeper sound our students get an instrument that's smaller with metal keys on it and that's called the bell so this is really really similar but this instrument that you see in the video is something that they would have in middle school or high school my name is i play percussion i go to troy high and i'll be playing in my piece today [Music] [Applause] [Music] so the bells and the xylophone and really all the other mallet style instruments they play the melody and you could hear that what he was playing sounded like a tune it sounded like a song and um these instruments are all set up kind of the same way they have the same order of keys it's set up a lot like a piano keyboard so if your student has previous experience on piano has taken some piano lessons sometimes that can help with learning to play the bells and to play the mallet instruments but it's not required we've had many great percussionists that didn't have any prior experience on piano that did very very well on bells and xylophone and things like that um i should mention that they are required to play both instruments all percussionists may play both instruments must play both instruments the bells and the snare drum we're going to take a look at the snare drum next so we use one main drum in fifth grade band and that is the snare drum we also use some other drums that belong to the school at the end of the year but we spent almost all of our time on the bells and the snare drum and you saw that picture earlier when i showed you the percussion instruments so this is the snare drum if your student played snare drum they get one that's a little bit smaller than this but it would come with a stand like you see in the picture and it all folds up and fits in a rolling case that's on wheels [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so as you heard the video the snare drum only plays rhythm it does not play any melodies or tunes um we like to look for students for percussion that have a good sense of pulse rhythm and time uh that really helps our band stay together as we're playing all right so we're going to transition to an overview of our curriculum and what to expect this year before we move on to this i do want to mention that many of the fifth graders have met with us today we met with a whole lot of fifth graders at several different schools and talked to them about what instrument choice they would be making we're going to wrap that up in the next day or so and your student may have already come home with a form that says what instrument they told us they wanted to play if it's a string instrument it will include the size that they need once that form hope comes home you would be able to start shopping for an instrument and getting an instrument for your student so we'll talk about how to obtain an instrument in a couple more minutes here but i did want to let you know that that form would be coming home and there would be information about what instrument your student chose now we won't be starting classes with instruments for two more weeks so during the week of september 27th that will be when your student would need to have an instrument and bring it to school so we'll mention a couple things about how our classes are set up here we'll talk about how to get an instrument and hopefully that will answer a lot of questions so speaking of questions if you are trying to ask a question in the live chat right now and it's not working just go ahead and refresh your browser and that feature should be working now so to overview kind of how our program works and how our classes run each fifth grader at all of the elementary schools are taking band or orchestra in fifth grade which is an awesome opportunity once they get to sixth grade they can make the choice to stay or choose another elective but in fifth grade each fifth grader will be participating in instrumental music and classes will meet all year long so there's you're not going to opt out of the class at christmas break or anything you will be in instrumental music through the whole school year which really gives you that beginning to end experience and we do meet during the school day so it's not an after school program your student will get banned or orchestra two times each week it's different days depending on what school your child attends and they are held the same day each week so if your student has classes on monday or thursday it will be monday and thursday each week and all fifth graders at each elementary school go to instrumental music at the same time so all fifth grade classes will go to band and orchestra together but we split off into different sections so at one building i might be teaching the woodwind section of all fifth grade students who play woodwinds mr taganelli would be teaching brass and percussion at that school and then mr weiss and mrs van isenga are teaching strings so they'll all split off into their own instrument families at that time okay we have um kind of what to expect and the materials that you need and things like that on this next slide so first we expect the fifth graders to commit to the instrument that they chose for the entire year it can be very difficult to choose instruments later in the year and trying to get caught up we don't want to put the fifth graders in a situation that's overwhelming where they've changed instruments and are starting off fresh late in the year when all the other students have been playing and have tons of experience that's why we've demonstrated the instruments we've helped them met with them so that they make an informed decision and pick something that they're going to like at the very beginning during the first several weeks if your student is having some trouble or has some questions we can help with that but once we get through the first three weeks of instruction the fifth graders really need to be committed to their instrument and stick with that for the rest of the year we ask the fifth graders to be prepared for class that's bringing their instrument their lesson book and things like that to class on each class day twice a week they should be practicing regularly at home we'll have different kinds of things and assignments and stuff to motivate them to practice uh we're looking at having them send us videos on schoology we did that last year a lot and it was really successful really motivated the students and got them practicing at home so we're going to have some different exciting things that we'll be doing later this year to encourage regular practice at home they should be practicing an average of about 15 minutes five days a week i said to some students if they're busy and have fewer days that they're available if you could at least do three times a week for 20 minutes that will make a big difference but five times a week for 15 minutes each time really does make a big difference we have winter and spring concerts in february we'll have a concert with the band and strings together so all the fifth graders will take turns playing in the band and strings and we'll have both groups playing back and forth at that winter concert and that'll be their first performance we have a separate band and a separate orchestra concert in the spring that's usually in the end of april or the beginning of may and that concert features groups from the middle school and the high school so you'll get to see the older groups and see kind of what lies ahead for these students we do need the students to have a book if you rent an instrument the book comes with it if you get an instrument from another source and we'll talk about different ways to get an instrument you might need to purchase a copy of our book they do sell them online the local music stores also carry them the book that we use for band class that would be the woodwinds or the brass and percussion is called sound innovations book one and for the orchestra class they use essential elements book one and then at the end of this presentation i will show a link to a packet that includes all kinds of information about the music stores the supplies specific to each instrument everything you need to know dates things like that and that will have a list of all the supplies that are needed broken down for each instrument and that link will be coming up in a couple more minutes here when we get to the end of the presentation we have a couple additional items that i want to make sure we mention we'll have miss man mrs van isn't come up and talk about this next slide so these are just some miscellaneous items that we want to make sure you have a chance to think about i believe ms sorensen mentioned hand size for saxophone so um if we take a look at your child's hand size when they're filling out their instrument choice forms with us occasionally we might find someone with very small hands we usually recommend that they start with clarinet for a year and switch to saxophone the next year there are a lot of similarities between clarinet and saxophone with the mouthpiece and the way that you play and the way that you use your fingers if your child has braces an expander spacers anything like that or we'll be getting that soon we recommend that you check in with your orthodontist um just to double check that it's not going to be a problem it usually is not but it can be good to check in with them and that's just for any of the wind instruments that use your mouth to play the woodwind or brass instruments we recommend renting usually over purchasing an instrument for a few reasons and a big one is that instrument repairs are often included when you rent an instrument and it can help repairs be made quickly it's also really great to rent an instrument for a couple other reasons it can be a good financial decision because as your child um moves up maybe most of the programs will have a rent to own or a rent to buy program where eventually you would own the instrument or you could use your rental equity to purchase an instrument or a nicer instrument in the future and that can really pay off for you um and with string instruments in particular since we start with smaller sizes and move up to larger sizes as your child grows it's a real pain if you have a half size violin your child is ready for a three-quarter but you've owned the half-size violin and now you have to purchase a three-quarter instrument if you have a rental contract when your child's ready for that three-quarter size instrument it's a simple trade-in it doesn't affect anything else in your contract at all the last note we want to make is about instruments purchased online or from we'll say questionable sources so we have a lot of information for you in the packet about some great places to get instruments including the used instrument sale but a lot of places online sell some instruments maybe they're selled at a particularly low price that should be a red flag for you because there are a lot of instruments from sources that are not reputable out there that are of poor quality that break easily that sound really bad um and that just are going to be a pain for you and could end up costing you more money if you have an instrument that's not functioning well that needs to be repaired it could cost you money to take it to an instrument store and get it fixed it could end up costing you more money than you actually paid for it or than it would have been to rent or get a nicer instrument so in the long run it can actually not pay off hence the disposable instruments label and when you're looking online if you're shopping for an instrument you often will see reviews that will say i'm a music teacher and these instruments are great but some of those reviews are actually planted so it's better to look at sources that are trusted if you like buying things online or if you want to look at rental programs online almost all of our recommended instrument dealers who you'll find in our packet can do that and work with you online but it's really better for making sure your child has an instrument that works properly that they can make good sounds on and learn well on and also usually works out better financially for you to go through a reputable dealer or something like the use instrument sale let's talk about how to find the right instrument or from a good source so a quality instrument is just really going to help ensure success so those more bargain type instruments like mrs van isenga said they're going to break easier sometimes they're just not repairable at all or they're going to require more repairs in the long run and cost more but in our packet that was emailed out and the link will also be at the end of this powerpoint we'll have all of the local music shops that we recommend getting an instrument from and we also will list the recommended brands for each instrument and all of those supplies that we ask you to get as well in case you're unsure or if you're going to the used instrument sale which i'll talk about in a minute that way you know you're getting a good brand also we are we would love to talk with you about an instrument you're interested in buying i've had parents send me links to look over used instrument they found online so feel free to do that so renting from a local music company is our our number one way to get an instrument that's what we highly recommend that way you can move up in string sizes or if your child needs to switch instruments we can do that easily as well and a lot of them offer rent to buy or rent to own programs that's how i bought my instrument when i was in school i paid a monthly fee and then every repair cost was covered when i was renting it and at the end i owned it and that's the instrument i still have today and when you rent an instrument all of the maintenance supplies and your book will be included as well we are also having a used instrument sale on september 18th that's a saturday and that information i think that's in the packet yes that is in the packet as well you can also borrow from another source a lot of students have an older sibling or a parent that maybe played the instrument that they're interested in using or a neighbor or family friend and we are also very happy to look over those instruments for you your student could bring it to school we'll look at it send us pictures just to make sure that it's a quality instrument just a couple quick things to add before we go on to the next part of our presentation the used instrument sale is this saturday as ms sorensen said and it's right here at athens high school it's in the cafeteria from 9 00 am until 4 pm so if you're looking for a used instrument the used instrument sale here at athens on saturday is a great place to check that out i did also want to mention that many of the music stores are offering online rental right now so you don't even have to go into the store that what they'll do is you can fill out the information on the music store's website and you can either have the instruments the supplies that come with it delivered right to your home or you can come and pick it up curbside at the store so you don't have to wait in line it's kind of a simpler way that takes kind of the waiting and lines and time and stuff like that out of it so you could order that instrument on a music store's website like marshall music or anderson music or one of the companies in the packet that we'll have that link to in a minute and they'll either bring it right to your house or you can go to the store and pick it up so we have some frequently asked questions we're hoping that we can answer a lot of the questions that you might have classes are held during the day this is not a program that meets before or after school the classes are always during the day at the same time on the same days of the week for the most part the classes meet all year long this is a full year program and the students are expected to be in band and orchestra for the entire year it's their decision if they want to continue in middle school and we hope they will that there's some fabulous opportunities ahead as you saw in that video from the beginning of this presentation um if your student already plays an instrument that's great and if it's an instrument that's abandoned orchestra they can continue to play that instrument if they've already had some experience and taken some lessons many students will continue to play the instrument that they play or that they've already played and taken lessons on some students will even try another instrument if they're kind of far ahead and we often have questions about students that have had piano lessons or lessons on instruments that are not offered in band and strings so i'm talking about instruments like the guitar piano drum set things like that and those experiences really lend themselves to any instrument so any kind of lessons that your student would have and we asked them about any lessons that they have taken and they filled out a form and gave us some information about that but any of those instrument lessons even if they're different instruments than what we haven't banned in orchestra that instruction really transfers over well and helps with all the instruments there's not really a specific direction that we try to steer anyone in that has previous experience and of course your student can take band and orchestra in middle school and high school we've got some awesome programs here troy has been on the best communities for music education list for years and years and we're just really proud of all the experiences and opportunities that we have here and there is homework in bannon orchestra that homework is practicing we talked about the expectation that your student would need to practice regularly each week like three to five times a week is really good 15 or 20 minutes each time they practice is great at the very beginning during our first couple of weeks we won't really have covered a ton yet so if you find that your student is only practicing for like five or ten minutes at first they'll learn more and become more experienced and will have more to do once we get into the end of october and the beginning of november they'll be ready to set up a regular practice schedule and i talked a little bit about the performances we do two performances one in the winter time in february and that is a fifth grade only band and orchestra concert and then we have our spring concert which is separate orchestra on one night and then banned on a different night and we have middle school and high school groups along with those spring performances um to show off all the different levels that we have here in troy so this is the link to that packet we've been talking about it does kind of take a while to load so if you go and put in this website right now it might take a few minutes or a little while to load because it is a big packet it's like about 15 pages and there are ads in the back from all the music stores and those ads and the photos and things like that kind of loaded up the presentation so it is a very big file if it doesn't open right away you probably didn't do anything wrong just wait and it should pop up so here's the website bit dot ly slash troy 2021 so we'll leave this up and we'll put it up again in um another minute or two we have just a couple more things we want to show you and then we'll put this up in case you missed it so we do have an instagram page and we're showing pictures of what the students have been doing if you want to check out what's been going on in instrumental music we have even some information about the different teachers and if you want to check out our instagram page you can see the handle at the bottom there underneath the qr code and then that qr code would take you right to our instagram page so you could scan that code if you want to take a look at what's been going on in class lately you want to see throughout the year what kinds of things we've been doing that's a great way to keep up with us so check out our instagram page and we have a couple of thank yous we'd like to thank the troy secondary instrumental music teachers they're so supportive and helpful to our program i know we have a couple of teachers that are online right now and going to help us with answering questions in the chat um mr joe varila is here he's our instrumental music coordinator and we're just so happy to have his support he's always looking out for us of course we definitely need to thank the troy high school musicians they did a fabulous job making those videos and demonstrating their instruments it just sounded awesome and we need to also thank gino manchilla our theater manager here he did a fabulous job making everything run smoothly tonight so we appreciate everything that everyone was able to contribute to this night and make it work for us so once again here's that link to the packet in case you need it again or you missed it and then we're going to jump on our computers and answer some questions we'll put the um chat up on the screen and i think ms sorenson is going to kind of verbally respond to questions as we see them so we'll do our best to answer questions if you have a very specific question that you aren't able to put in the chat or you don't want to put in the chat you could also email us but we'll do our best to answer as many questions as we can in the next few minutes thank you again for tuning in tonight we're really excited for your student to get started with their instrument once again we'll be having our first classes with instruments during the week of september 27th so that's two weeks from tonight will be that week that we're getting going with our first classes and really digging in so we're excited we know the fifth graders are excited it's going to be a great year we're so glad to be back and teaching our instruments in the schools and this is just such a fantastic opportunity alrighty so the other teachers are going to hop on the live chat answer some questions and we have some of our middle school band and orchestra teachers helping us out as well i'm going to take a look at the screen and hopefully verbally answer some of your questions one thing i do want to say is i think i maybe misspoke earlier and said we already emailed out the packet we did not we are going to email out the packet along with the recording or a link to the recording of this meeting afterwards so you will get the packet after this meeting so if your child picks an instrument that they don't like or maybe they don't feel very successful with within the first three weeks of our classes starting with instruments you're welcome to switch so maybe they start off on clarinet and they're not having a great time we'll work with them to help them along but if they're really unhappy we can help them make the switch to another instrument that they would rather play that's another reason why we suggest renting an instrument because that's going to make that switch a little easier in that area as well but that needs to happen within the first three weeks of class how will performances be conducted with covid to be honest we aren't exactly sure right now we are moving forward as though things will be normal we are planning our concert dates which is super exciting as though they will occur normally which is hosting them at the high school auditoriums or gyms and usually we group three or four schools together it's by feeder school to the middle school and have the students perform that way but we aren't sure what precautions we will need to have in place at the time of the performance so we will keep you guys updated when we know so using a school instrument we only have a few of each instrument available for students to borrow but if you're in a situation where maybe you need some help obtaining an instrument for your student just send one of us an email and we will definitely help you getting an instrument we'll make sure every student is happy with the instrument they have so that they have a great experience and we will get one for them but again they're limited so we need everyone to rent an instrument or borrow one from another source when possible but we have a few of each instrument at the school and then when you're helping your student choose an instrument if they're stuck between a few instruments um here are just some things i've talked with students with that school so first i like to kind of get an idea of what sound they like do they like those high sounding instruments maybe a low sound or something in the middle you can also consider how an instrument makes sound if they are stuck between band and strings you know those string instruments make sound by plucking the string pizzicato or using a bow and then the band instruments all make sound in different ways those brass instruments you have a mouthpiece sit on your lips and you're creating a buzzing sound which you practiced doing in class percussion you are using mouth or drumsticks to create sound by hitting your instrument and the flute is a little different you blow across the hole it sits right underneath your lower lip or kind of on your lip and then the clarinet and saxophone have a reed on the mouthpiece that go into your mouth and you blow air through the instrument so they can consider how the instrument makes sound is it a high middle or low instrument and what are the other sound characteristics is it a pointed sound a bright sound a warm sound and what would they like to hear all the time because that's what they'll be playing and practicing maybe the size of the instrument as well something to consider the ppe that we supply for the students i believe matt flagged me down if i'm wrong but i believe that we'll just be providing one flute mask for the students and one bell cover for the other students so let me clarify that a little bit the flutes players will get one specialized flute mask as a slit in each side for their head joint and clarinet saxophone trumpet trombone and baritone will all get a bell cover and they will just get one of those provided by the district but you can wash them to sanitize them yes one very important thing to know about that ppe for your student is that the bell cover is just it's just going to stay on their instrument so it never needs to come off they can practice with it on keep it on their instrument and the flute mask and the bell covers need to come to school every day they have band class if they don't have their flute mask or if they don't have their belt cover they cannot play in class because that wouldn't be safe so belt covers and flute mask need to come to school every day that your student has banned what is the difference between band and orchestra that's a great question so a good way to remember this is the orchestra in fifth grade are all the string instruments so that's the violin the viola the cello and the bass the double bass so those four instruments are members of the orchestra all of them have strings and then the band are the other instruments one way to remember the band instruments or anything that you put your breath into plus percussion so the flute clarinet saxophone trumpet trombone baritone all require our air to create sound and then we have percussion as another member of the band family doesn't require our air but it is part of band and there's not a different size saxophone for fifth grade so band instruments are just one size they don't come in different sizes like string instruments i don't think that there would be much problem with fifth graders playing saxophone i think we fit most schools for instruments so far and i've only had two of my students that i suggested a different instrument too and there's a question about with used instruments how long have they been used and do they come with reeds for clarinets and saxophones that really just depends on where you're getting your used instrument from if you're renting an instrument from one of those sources like a local music store that we have in the packet sometimes those are gently used and they usually give you at least one read in the case i think they give you one read in the case but if you are getting a used instrument from another source i don't know how used that would be it depends on what source you get that from likely would not come with the reed but the the used instruments at a music shop would be very gently used it'd be sanitized and they always check them over to make sure that they're in great working condition before they rent them out alto saxophone can be continued in middle school all of the instruments that we offer in fifth grade continue into middle school and then we offer some secondary instruments so there's some other saxophone other members of the saxophone family that your student could play but usually we start those in seventh grade there's um tattered berry sacks bass clarinet french horn tuba those are brass instruments um oboe and bassoon are members of the woodwind family so those are all instruments that a student could transition to in middle school but the ones we offer in fifth grade will be continued through middle school and high school and renting an instrument you keep it as long as you're paying the monthly fee so if your student is in band in fifth grade and you're renting that instrument and then you go on to band in sixth grade you do need to continue renting that instrument through the summer not only to practice the instrument but also you're doing this rent to own program so if you stop making payments on the rental program they're going to stop all the credit you've built going into your account there and then you'd have to start again in sixth grade so you'll just keep paying that monthly fee you'll have that instrument for your student to practice on during the summer and you will pay that fee as long as your students and instrumental music and then if they're in it long enough you will own the instrument i think we are getting ready to close out the chat so if you have any follow-up questions or you think of anything afterwards feel free to send any of the four of us an email we would be happy to answer that and thank you so much for coming tonight you

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Published: Tue Sep 14 2021