Announcements 5/31/20

1)  Our first summer rehearsal is this Wednesday.  I had sent out a schedule last week, but that may change slightly.  I am meeting with school administration tomorrow to review some new safety guidelines from the district and state.  What's likely to happen is that I will need to stagger the arrival times of each section by 15 minutes or so.   Our priority as a school right now is to take the proper precautions and follow provided social distancing procedures to keep the students safe through these summer practices. 

2)  I will be meeting with the Leadership team on Monday at 10 am in the Band room.  We will discuss summer rehearsals, band camp, and sectionals.  Be sure to sit at least 6 feet apart from each other as you come in to the Band room.

3)  We have a Booster meeting scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 pm, and I want to try to have it through Zoom.  I will send the link out later this week.  We will be discussing Band camp, the Hornet Invitational, and other things. 

Updates 5/24/20

1)  June Rehearsals - We are still having the June Rehearsals every Wednesday in June.  I am restructuring the times to fit within the social distance guidelines, which I will have finalized by this week.  For Freshman parents, these June Rehearsals are bonus time to get a head start on the music, marching fundamentals, and just getting to know each other.  If you are on vacation, don't worry about that week's rehearsal.  Basically, I take the approach of "if you are in town, come on out to the Band Room and help us get better!"  Every Wednesday in June.

2)  Possible Summer Parade - I don't have any updates on this until we get clearance from our Governor and Mayor to have large gatherings.  The "parades" we have seen recently for graduates have been car parades or small gathering parades at schools that only include seniors and faculty.  Ultimately, we are still hoping to play Star Wars Parade Sequence and Tennessee Pride for the South Gibson Community.

3)  New York refunds - Right now we are at about 90% refunded.  We have to wait for hotels to reopen before they can write us a refund check.  As soon as they do, here is how the money will be distrubuted:  Any money paid out of pocket will be directly returned to you unless you specify that you want it transferred to the Rose Parade trip.  I will have a Google Form document for this when the time comes.  Any money fundraised will be transferred to the Rose Parade trip.  If you are not attending the Rose Parade trip, that fundraising money will be returned to the General Band fund.  

4)  Rose Parade trip - There are a lot of options that the tour company and Rose Parade committee have in place depending on how the next few months go.  One possibility is to still have the parade without spectators and just do the parade for the TV cameras.  Another possibility is to have the parade but with only 30% of the usual spectators.  Not ideal but that gives you an idea of everything the Rose Parade Committee has to consider.  In the event that the parade is cancelled, we will still have the invitation open for the next year with those Seniors having the option of still performing with the Mass Band after they graduate. 

Announcements 5/17/20

1)  Guard auditions will be Tuesday.  Make sure you look over the assigned times and procedures that I sent out last week.  It is important that we adhere to the guidelines of social distancing - no physical contact, remain 6 feet apart, etc. 

2)  Percussion auditions are Wednesday.  Same as Guard - look over the assigned times that I sent out last week and make sure that we adhere to the social distancing guidelines.

3)  This week as you come to school and return items to your other teachers, I need you to return your uniform if you still have it at home from cleaning it after the Christmas Parade.  Since I will be having auditions this week, go ahead and take them to the gym where we will have a place for you to return the uniforms.  

Announcements 5/10/20

1)  This Tuesday, I will send a link to the youtube video that will serve as our end-of-the-year celebration.  It will include the senior wills, the slideshow, and highlights of the year.  I will have the video scheduled to premiere at 7 pm Tuesday night.

2)  We will not be playing at Graduation this week.  There are many logistical problems that deal with social distancing that we cannot get past.  

3)  We will not be having sectionals again this week because teachers are going to be at school from 8-3 Tuesday to Thursday closing out grades and getting ready for graduation.  If you need to bring anything to the school or pick anything up, this is the time to do it.  I am still aiming for a parade, but I know that it won't be this month due to the directive by the Governor that specifically prohibits festivals and parades.  

4)  It looks like we won't quite get back all of the money from every entity from the New York trip, but it is coming up on the time to get back what we can.  I will continue to keep you up to date.  And when the money comes in, I will let you know and set up the system to get the refunds where they are supposed to be.  

5)  Percussion and Guard, prepare for Auditions to happen in the next couple of weeks - probably next week.  We are seeing new procedures from the state that allow 10 people to gather in a school practice setting.  I will set up a schedule and let you know ASAP exactly when they will take place.  

Announcements 5/3/20

1)  We will not have sectionals on Zoom this week because I will be conducting Leadership interviews throughout the week.

2)  The good news is that we will be able to have Guard and Percussion sectionals in the Band room one person at a time in allotted time slots.  The bad news is that I still don't know exactly when we will be cleared to do that.  It will be by the end of May, definitely, and I will give exact dates for those as soon as I have them.

3)  Seniors - Get your Senior Will videos to me by this Friday.  I am going to put together a video that will serve as our Band Banquet this year.  Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to have a Band Banquet in a live setting, but I plan on trying to make this End-of-the-year video good enough to make a lasting memory for you!

Announcements 4/26/20

1)  Sectionals will work a little bit different this week.  I am only able to do it on Monday and Thursday this week and I wanted to approach them a little differently anyway.  This week is going to be more geared to next year's Marching Band, with us returning to the parade music next week (with the exception of percussion, who will continue working on the parade music this week during sectionals).  We will be watching a series of short videos about Body position and the vocabulary of Body visuals in the Marching Band.  In between each video will be opportunity for questions about anything we just watched.  I still plan on the sectional lasting 30-45 minutes.  This will mainly apply to  current 8th - 11th graders, but seniors are more than welcome to attend.  Monday - Brass at 11 am, Woodwinds at 1 pm.  Thursday - Guard at 11 am and Percussion at 1 pm. 

2)  I am trying to schedule our parade performance around whatever time is finalized to hold the graduation ceremony, whether it is in May, June, or July.  And my plan right now is to start at the Park and march down Middle School Rd.  That's really all of the semi-details I have, but I will update you as much as I can.

3)  I am still trying to finalize exactly how the Band Banquet could work. I hope to have definitive details by the end of this week.  

Announcements 4/19/20

1)  I have moved flags, rifles, and instruments to the Small Band Trailer for those of you who need to get those.  The trailer is parked in front of the band room in the parking lot.  I put enough flags for all current high schoolers and 8th graders to get one to practice with.  I put 4 snare drums and 2 quint drums for the students playing the Parade music.  And I put some mallets for the 8th grade percussionists to practice 4 mallet technique with.  And if you messaged me with a request to get your instrument or mouthpiece, I put those in there too.

2)  Wow!  The Zoom meeting went great on Friday!  The program maxes out at 100 people and when I last looked we had at 93 on there at once!  If you were unable to get on there, it might have been because we had maxed out our meeting.  That's why we are going to be doing it in sections this week.  Also, after talking to the seniors on Friday, they still want to go ahead with the Parade music for a potential Summer South Gibson area performance if the quarantine orders are lifted by then.  So keep working on the Parade music.  

3)  We are still trying to get full refunds from the NY trip from a couple of the businesses in New York.  It is a slower process than usual since everyone in every company we are working with is working from home.  Getting to talk to the managers is a lot more complicated and time-consuming!

4)  Here is how we are going to do Zoom  sectionals this week: Monday - Clarinets at 11 am and Alto Saxes at 1 pm, Tuesday - Baritone/Tuba at 11 am and Trumpets at 1 pm, Wednesday - Guard at 11 am and Trombone/Tenor Saxes at 1 pm, Thursday - Percussion at 11 am and French Horns at 1 pm, Friday - Flutes at 11 am.  Sectionals will last between 30-45 minutes. We will mainly be working Parade music but also use the time to just catch up and see each other.  8th graders in these sections are invited to be a part of the sectionals, even if it's just to observe.  We want to go ahead and start getting to know you guys!

5)  I am working on exactly how I want to do the Band Banquet this year, but here is what I do know - I want to do the Senior Wills and the Slide Show.  I am asking everyone who has good pictures from this year to send no more than 10 of those pictures to Amy Sorsoleil at lildsmom79@gmail.com.  Seniors, send me a pre-recorded video of your Senior Will and I will put it together into one video.  I will create a chat in the Band app for Seniors for you to upload your video.  This seems to work better than email because usually the video files are too big to email.