Gardendale High School Band: October 22, 2013

Gardendale vs. Carver at Gardendale this Friday. This is also senior night. Call time for the band will be 5:30 p.m. Parents of seniors should be at the stadium on the ramp going from the concession stand down to the field by 6:15 p.m. We will line up alphabetically by last name of the student. The band will march into the stadium early this week. After we are in the stands, we will have seniors move over to meet the parents where they will be lined up. The band is usually recognized first because they have to be back in the stands and ready to play the Star Spangled Banner.

This will also be the week that we invite our 8th grade band students to participate in the stands with us at the game. This is a great opportunity for them to see our program and how much our students enjoy the atmosphere of the game. It's a recruiting opportunity for us. We want our band to grow each year and this is a chance to make the 8th graders feel welcome and want to be a part of our organization.

As the weather starts to get colder, students should plan ahead for the games. We do not allow blankets or extra coats in the stands. We want to maintain a uniform look in public settings. Students are allowed to dress in layers underneath the uniform. Of course, these need to be thin layers that will not impede movement.

*Students should wear their gray band t-shirt and basketball shorts. They can wear thin layers underneath these to stay warm.
*Bring or wear black socks
*Bring or wear band shoes
*Bring your black gloves
*The boosters will provide drinks and snacks after halftime so students do not need money

Congratulations to the students for receiving all superior ratings at their competition again this past Saturday. The drum majors, dance team, guard, and band also received best in class awards. The dance team, guard, and band had the highest scores of the day out of the 20 bands at the contest. This is the first time in a long, long time or possibly ever that the band has won the best in class award at both of their competitions in the same year. Congratulations!!!!!!!! Thank you for working hard to make this happen!

We will begin concert band today. I think we are all ready for a change. I have enjoyed the show this year, but it will be nice to hear something besides Grease music. We will begin to look at Christmas music and possible pieces for our concert competition which will be near the beginning of March.

Our chair placement auditions will be coming up in November. Students should be working on that music on their own. The prepared exercise is the first All-State piece. That can be found at the top of the page on this BlogSpot. They can listen to a recording of it if they would like. That link can be found in the post for All-State Podcasts on the BlogSpot as well. If students have any questions or cannot find what they need, they should ask me. In addition to the prepared exercise, they will also have a short sight reading exercise which will account for 10 percent of their score. The other 90 percent will be the prepared exercise. These auditions will count as their pass-off grade for the second nine weeks of the semester. Everyone should play an audition unless they are willing to lose those points.

Next week we will be leaving school at 2:30 p.m. to travel to Buckhorn. We plan to stop at Parkway Place Mall in Huntsville for dinner around 4:00. It is at the intersection of Memorial Parkway and Drake Ave. Students will need to bring money for that. They can eat in the food court there. They have the typical food choices for mall food courts. There is also a Piccadilly Cafeteria in the mall where they can eat if they prefer that.

Parkway Place Mall
2801 Memorial Parkway Southwest
Huntsville, AL 35801