Young children who take music lessons show different brain development and improved memory over the course of a year, compared to children who do not receive musical training.
With the holiday season upon us, I’d like to give you some listening suggestions for some incredible Christmas music that heavily features trombones.
On this timeless classic, Duke Ellington took favorites from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet and adapted them for jazz orchestra. This is album is one of the all-time great jazz records that shows Ellington’s genius in transforming music that we’ve all heard time and time again into something both familiar and completely unique.
We like to share this post each year to give you some ideas for practicing at home over break!
You’ve made it through the first half of the school year! For many of you, that means you’ve probably played a few concerts, recently completed your marching band season, or maybe you’re headed to the Rose Parade. With winter comes the thrill of pep band, the improvisation of jazz band, the spinning of winter guard, or the rhythms of winter percussion. You know by now, being a musician is a never-ending process with performances and rehearsals perpetually around the corner.
Much like expert technical skills, mastery in arts and humanities is closely correlated to a greater understanding of language components.
Raise your hand if you’ve had a band teacher or private instructor tell you that you needed to go from your 7C to a 5C, then to a 3C, then to a 1-1/2C and so on and so forth. Ok, now that we’ve all put our hands up, let’s get down to my unpopular opinion: There is no set progression for mouthpieces. They are not like shoes where you start with a size 5 and eventually get up to a size 12.
As discussed earlier on October 3rd, 2019; we talked about some factors that help us choose mouthpieces. Today we will briefly discuss a couple of those and other things to think about when testing mouthpieces.
It’s not too late, but time is running out. Contest Season is almost here!
January through April is a really busy time of year for school music students. Many of the annual contests and festivals happen during this time of the year. These include:
Your performance level and the success of your organization depend on a properly playing instrument. If your instrument has not been looked over by a technician in the last 6 months you may be overdue.
Send your instrument in for proper maintenance to help avoid small problems from turning into something larger at an inappropriate time. It could help you get to the next level during the upcoming contest season.
If you’d like to send your instrument in for us to check, we have a step-by-step guide on how to do that right here.
As always, please give us a call if you have any questions.
1-800-382-1099
U.S. Department of Education data on more than 25,000 secondary school students found that students who report consistent high levels of involvement in instrumental music over the middle and high school years show “significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12.”
The All-State Band is one of the most prestigious audition-based ensembles any student can perform with! It is an ensemble made up of elite musicians from all corners of the state.
The audition application deadline is Friday, December 6, 2019. Auditions for this prestigious ensemble are on January 12, 2019. More information can be found here
Here are some guidelines for audition preparation: