"Common Times" Weekly Newsletter 1/9-1/13

Upcoming Events

Happy New Year Wildcat Band Family,

A two day week was sure a nice way to ease back into real life after the winter break!

7th Grade has begun working hard in classes with new warm-ups, sight reading practice and scale based technique challenges.

7th and 8th grade percussionists received their percussion ensemble music this week for our annual Bentonville Night of Percussion concert scheduled for March.

8th Grade band is well on the way with working on maturing our ensemble balance and our concert assessment literature. This week, 8th grade band will miss class 11:30-2:15 to travel to Ruth Barker MS to play a couple of mini pep rallies for the 6th grade band students. Students should wear their band t-shirt and nice pants. Please no large rips in jeans. This will be super awesome fun!

Jazz Band is starting a project to work up some challenging music that we will record and turn in for a competition to, hopefully, be selected to perform at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in 2023! There has never been a jazz band from Arkansas selected to do this, let alone a Junior High Jazz Band, so we would be breaking records and setting precedence if we earn a spot. It will take everyone working hard on their part and coming prepared. We will add some after school rehearsals to have clinicians come in to work with us to help us be the best we can be!

8th Grade band and Jazz Band, please remember to be making your spring trip payments. We have 2 partial trips and 2 full trips paid. The cost per student is $330. We have one more fundraiser to roll out in a couple of weeks to help families raise funds to off set their cost. Please let me know how I can help your family. Since we are competing we need all of our students in the 8th grade band and jazz band there to be successful. Not to mention, just to get to have a lot of fun with friends the week after state testing! :)

7th and 8th grade band members, please be sure you have turned in your band supply fee and paid your instrument rental fee if you play bassoon, oboe, french horn, euphonium, tuba or percussion. These supply fees are used to purchase the books, binders and shirts you have already received. The instrument usage fee helps us to offset the cost to have the instrument professionally cleaned and maintained each year. The cost of rental is $100/year. The average cost to clean and maintain our instruments is $125/year. We have funds set aside to help families who are in need of financial assistance but are not able to cover the cost for everyone. We currently have less than 25% of students who have turned in their fees either through cash/check or Bentonville's My Payments Plus system. If you need to know if you have paid, please email me and I'll get back with you. If you have fundraising profits, those will be applied towards supply and instrument fees first. Thank you for your help!

Reminder from last week: the 8th grade band will NOT have after school sectionals in January. I have been able to work out a schedule to do short sectionals during class with Mr. Moore, Mr. Pierce, and Mrs. Richardson as well as use some priority time to get to everyone. This will work but we will need every student practicing regularly outside of class time and sectionals to be prepared for class each day. I want students to be able to have time after school for their activities, homework, practice, private lessons (hint hint) and time to just be a kid.

For our 7th grade band students, I have been able to finalize the dates for our early week of Summer Band now that the school board has adopted the 23/34 calendar. We will have sectionals and rehearsals August 7th-11th as can be seen below. Please plan summer activities accordingly as we will use this time to learn all of our pep music for the school year.

On January 26th we are partnering with Saied Music to provide an opportunity for our students to step up to an intermediate or professional model instrument, head joint, barrel, or mouthpiece at discounted rates. More information coming on this soon!!

Please take a few moment to review the information below so you are fully prepared for the week ahead.

This week:

• Monday - A Day (Classes 1-4 and Advisory)

• Band Room closes at 4:00pm

• Tuesday - B Day (Classes 6-8 and Priority)

• 8th Grade Low Winds sectional during priority (Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, Tenor Sax, Bari Sax, Trombone, Euphonium and Tuba)

• Band Room closes at 4:00pm

• Wednesday - A Day (Classes 1-4 and Priority)

• Faculty meeting.

• Keep instrument with you until 8:30. Go to commons, gym or cafeteria. DO NOT wait in the hall outside the band room.

• Flute sectional during priority time with Mrs. Richardson

• Band Room closes at 4:00pm

• Thursday - B Day (Classes 5-8 and Priority)

• 8th Grade trumpet sectional during priority time

• Band Room Closes at 4

• Friday - A Day (Classes 1-4 and Engagement Friday)

• 8th grade band to perform for Ruth Barker MS for 6th grade band students

• Band t-shirt and nice pants

• Out of class 11:30-2:15

• Band Room Closes at 4

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Current 7th Grade Band Members	Current 8th Grade Band Members
Times will be determined once speaking with XC, Cheer, Dance, Volleyball and Football Coaches so that there aren't any conflicts. Typically, these are 12:30-3:30. For those planning to attend Camp War Eagle, please plan to do one of the early sessions.	July 17th - Expected Beginning of Daily Summer Pride Band Rehearsals (only for those who are in the BHS Pride Marching Band or Color Guard. (Could change depending on start of school dates yet to be released.)
​August 7th- Low Brass and Low Reeds Sectional (Bass Clarinets, Saxophone, French Horns, Trombones, Euphoniums and Tubas)	For full calendar, please see www.bentonvillepride.com
August 8th - High Woodwinds and High Brass Sectional (Flutes, Clarinets and Trumpets)
August 9th - Percussion Sectional
August 10th - Full Band Rehearsal
August 11th - Full Band Rehearsal

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You can find a complete copy of this year's calendar of events here.

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PRIVATE LESSONS ARE AWESOME! They are designed to be fun, engaging, supportive and focused on the individual student.

We have an awesome partnership with Arkansas Music Conservatory where your student can take a lesson or two on US to see what private lessons can do for your band student! We have set aside $1150 for lessons this year. We can also help pay for additional lessons and offset the cost of lessons for families who need financial assistance in this area.

Who should take private lessons:

• Advanced students who need to be pushed and challenged

• Students who need some 1-on-1 assistance to learn and master concepts covered in class

• Students who missed substantial class time due to illness

• Students who just began playing this year

• Students who want to get better

• EVERYONE

To sign up for a free lesson:

• Contact Mr. Jones so he can track who is taking the exploratory lessons

• Contact Arkansas Music Conservatory to setup a lesson 479-268-3307 (call) or 479-430-2226 (text)

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To stay in the know be sure to follow us on your social media platform of choice: Facebook or Instagram - @wjhswildcatband and/or at www.wjhswildcatband.com

If you have any questions or concerns, please never hesitate to reach out. We are partners in your student's growth and need to work together for them to be as successful as possible.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Musically Yours,