Happy New Year!

Please refer to Google Classroom for all news and assignments 🙂

Join GoogleClassroom using the following codes:

Symphonic Band (per. 1): alwald

Concert Band (per. 3-4): lx9f3ws

The Jazz code will be made available following auditions.

What do you listen to in your free time? Is there an artist or song that really speaks to you in some way? Maybe there is a type of music you are obsessed with.

Tell us about your listening habits below for extra credit!

On Saturday, Nov. 5th, we will be holding our Applebee’s pancake breakfast fundraiser from 7AM to 10AM. 8th grade students may sign up to work at the fundraiser next week. TICKET MONEY IS DUE TUESDAY!

Welcome back to what will surely by another great year at TJHS. I am looking forward to seeing all of the familiar faces and getting to know new students over the coming weeks. Our bands are bigger than ever this year and I can’t wait to see what we accomplish together.

For students interested in auditioning for jazz band, please click on the Jazz tab to find the necessary information.

Watch a message for the TJHS bands from composer Robert W. Smith:

I am so proud of your tremendous efforts on Friday night at the CMEA festival. You were all incredibly focused and took to heart everything we have been working on for the past year. I applaud your performance and am honored to share this experience with you all.

Thanks to Mrs. Estep for recording and posting our performance on youtube!

Procession and Torch Dance

The Rowan Tree

Mighty Mite

Also, congratulations to the Concert Band for your Excellent rating at Great America on Saturday. You worked hard and came away with a great showing! I enjoyed spending the day with you.

Bravo to you all!

You should all be very proud of your performance on Saturday night. It was great to see so many TJHS kids participating (as usual). Keep up the great work! And tomorrow…In and Out!!!

A few of our students have been very busy lately! Claudio, Isaiah, and Brady represented TJHS at the All-Northern California Honor Band this weekend at Delta College in Stockton.

Isaiah and Claudio also made us proud by performing in the Bay Section Honor Band last weekend at San Jose State University.

Everyone is invited to watch the Stanislaus County Honor Band performance this Saturday, January 26, at 7pm at MJC. Fourteen of our students will be performing alongside some of the best musicians in the county. AND, it counts for A Activity! The concert is free, but get there early because it fills up quickly.

We lost one of the last living legends from the early jazz days. Mr. Brubeck was a California native and graduate of UOP. He died today, one day before his 92nd birthday. I’ll leave you with some live footage from 1964.

Ready for another extra credit opportunity? Tell us what you listen to in your free time. Be specific! Feel free to post a link (as long as it’s clean).

I’ll go first:

Eat at Red Robin on Oct. 23rd between 5PM and 10PM and they will donate 15% of your tab to TJHS Bands! You MUST bring in this flyer for us to get the credit. Continue reading →

Did you already have one? Maybe you have a family member who played the same instrument?

Tell me why you chose your instrument below for extra credit!

Post a reply by Friday for Extra Credit!

Have our rehearsals left you wondering what our pieces are supposed to sound like?

Click here to hear a recording of Ain’t Misbehavin’.

Click here to hear a recording of Hymnsong Variants.

Click here to hear a recording of Clash and Roar.

Thank you all so much for your hard work and dedication to the band and to the performance we had at CMEA on Friday! You have been working diligently for months and it all paid off with our Superior Rating. You did a great job of sightreading, too. I was so proud of you all!

Thanks to Mrs. Estep for filming and posting our performance on youtube!

Here’s a little something to get you excited to come back on Monday- Oscar Peterson playing “All of Me.”

March has been a busy month for TJHS Bands! Many of you performed at the CMEA solo/ensemble festival on the 3rd. I don’t have all of the videos but hopefully will have more up soon. Ryan started playing before I could even sit down and the sax duet was well underway before my phone would do anything…

“The Death of Ase”

“Prelude”

“The Storm”

“Sarabanda and Gavotta”

District festival was great! All the litte guys were impressed and I got to catch up with some of the graduating seniors.

Last weekend the jazz band went to Santa Cruz and had a blast watching groups, eating pizza, and most of all, throwing poppers at each other in the rain at Casa de Fruta.

Today was the encore performance for the students who received a “Command” at CMEA…CONGRATS TO ANGEL, ROSS, DIEGO, ISAAC, CYRUS, and of course our old friends Eddie and Bryan who played great horn solos (Eddie played violin, too!).

Keep up the great work and let’s continue to strive for excellence as we push toward Spring Break!

Correct articulation is a very important part of playing your instrument. However, it is also one of the areas in which bad habits, once established, can be difficult to break. Check out the videos below for articulation help and post a reply for extra credit!

flute

oboe

clarinet

sax

trumpet

horn

video here

low brass

percussion

Irish Air and Dance

Colliding Visions

And here is a link for Ancient Voices

Kentucky 1800

Soldiers’ Procession and Sword Dance

March of the Buccaneers

Only a mother could be more proud!

Iphone stops Mahler

I was so proud of all of you on Thursday night! You played very well, were focused, and really enjoyed yourselves. That is what it is all about! I was also impressed with your poise (that means good behavior!)- you conducted yourselves like professionals and really set the tone for the audience. I am so excited to continue working with you this year and to see what we can accomplish. You earned your day off- enjoy it because THAT NEVER HAPPENS!

In honor of today’s valiant participants, I am sharing with you a video that is pretty much an accurate representation of what went on in class today:

Did you know that you can listen to the tunes we are working on in class? Click on “Listening Station” at the top of the page and click on one of the links- sometimes you have to try both to find the piece.

You can also listen to music and find stuff you think would be good for the band! Just stick to the “easy” level. On JWPepper, you can choose to sort by difficulty. Post a tune you would like to play for Extra Credit! Happy Hunting!

I couldn’t be more proud of our eight young musicians who performed last weekend at the Carnegie Arts Center! You prepared a lengthy selection of music in just a few short weeks and gave up many of your lunches to rehearse together. You were poised, professional, and represented TJHS Bands very well. Below are some videos from the event:
First off, we have Carrie, Ashley, Marissa, and Annika performing “An Irish Suite.”

We also have Angel, Ross, Diego, and Isaac performing “Three Short Pieces,” “Reflection,” and “Andante Festivo.”

Congratulations on your fine performance!

I’ve been noticing a lot of comments coming to my inbox. I realized that some of you are choosing to subscribe to the comments…however, because your account is linked to the tjhsbands gmail account, the comments come to ME, not YOU. Please do not click the “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail” unless you enter your own email address that is not linked to the blog. If you are logged into the blog, you won’t have this option.

Thanks, happy blogging!

Ok, guys, I think our listening skills need some work. IF YOU WANT TO BLOG FOR YOUR “A” ACTIVITY, GIVE ME THE USERNAME AND PASSWORD YOU WOULD LIKE TO USE SO THAT I CAN SET IT UP FOR YOU. If you set it up yourself, you will not receive credit for it!! Also, please chill on the “my blog doesn’t work” comments! Teachers have lives too! Sheesh 😛

Ryan, Dezi, and Brandon, you are up and running. For those of you who gave me blog info without your name on, I CAN’T SET UP YOUR ACCOUNT UNTIL I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. ClarinetFreak and bandnerdlover, I’m talking to you.

Then use this opportunity to make up a few points with some Extra Credit!

Can you name one professional who plays your instrument? 1. Find a video/recording of that person and post the link below. To make it easier for everyone, type what you want the link to say, highlight it, and then click on the link button and enter the URL. 2. Tell us why you like the video. I’ll start!

Emmanuel Pahud with the Berlin Philharmonic

I like this soloist because he is very precise in his movement and his tone is perfect. Great conductor, too!

How is everyone feeling about the first two weeks of school? Returning symphonic members, what are your first impressions of this year’s group? Concert band, are you finding the music challenging enough? Jazz band, are you liking all of the improv? Share your thoughts below for EC!

Hi guys! It seems like there is quite a lot of interest from students wanting to create their own blogs. Remember, give ME a username and password during class and I will set it up for you through the tjhsbands blog. If you create your own blog without going through mine, I can’t supervise it and you won’t receive credit for it. If there is enough interest, we’ll do a lab on it during class in the library 🙂

Happy Blogging!

Welcome back! It will be nice to see all of our returning students and meet our new “band mates” (as Lisa would say). After all of our success last year, I am really looking forward to this year. I am excited to try out some new things such as letting you guys have your own blog as an option for the A Activity. Click on “student blogs” on the home page and you will find Carrie’s sample that she so kindly set up for me. Also, if you are new or need a refresher, download the guidetoblog as a reference.

Our first performance for the year is on September 10th at the Carnegie Arts center. It is open to all students who have prepared a piece of chamber music in advance. Symphonic Band members will have limited time to rehearse during class. This is a great opportunity and I am honored to have you participate!

One issue both the Symphonic and Jazz bands will face this year is lack of a low section. Our guys really rocked last year, but as of right now we have a bari sax. That’s it. No bass clarinet, trombones, baritones, or tubas. Having a balanced band is essential to having a good sound; please consider helping the bands by switching to a low instrument.

I’m looking forward to making music with all of you. See you in class!

Great story!

Congratulations Symphonic Band! You did very well on your music festivals this spring- we scored a full 10 points higher than last year and received the highest ratings since I have been at TJHS. The jazz and concert bands also performed well and I know we will bring the same spirit to our spring concert.

I am proud of all of you. I expect to continue to grow and improve next year. For those of you who are leaving us for high school, we will miss you but I am confident that you will do well in your future musical endeavors.

Concert Band at Great America

Santa Cruz Jazz Festival

I was perusing some other music teacher blogs (kinda lame for spring break, I know, but one of you got me sick so I don’t have much else to do) and came across a post and video illustrating the high level music students must be held to. The same concept is demonstrated in Thomas Duffy’s “A+: A ‘Precise’ Prelude and an ‘Excellent’ March.” In the video, the conductor asks the band to play a passage “perfectly” with no mistakes. He asks them to play a second time, only this time, each player adds one intentional mistake. For the third run, he asks the players to play no mistakes and to add expression (you know- dynamics, articulation- the elusive elements we are always chasing).Watch the video and leave a comment!

Practicing Your Instrument Ok, so I may have flown off the handle a little in class today. But I think I was justified.

As we have dicussed, practicing is not playing your favorite parts of the tunes over and over again. Practice is dedicated, focused time spent learning the parts you don’t know and perfecting the parts you do. Playing long tones with a tuner and using a metronome will be the best and quickest ways we can improve.

Record yourself! How many of you have recording capabilities on your phones/mp3 players? Listen to how you sound and fix what you don’t like. You would be amazed at how much you are able to tell what needs more work.

The link above is a document regarding practicing. It has a ton of useful tips for both you and your parents. It also contains an outline of how to best structure your practice time.

Follow this link to Theta Music Trainer, a site with several different ear training games- it is free to play all the beginning levels!

Did I mention this would count as an “A Activity”?

Eddie after the Bay Section performance

The TJHS band students have been participating in many extra activities that deserve recognition! We had 16 students participate in the SCMEA Honor Band- the highest representation ever for our school and the highest number of participants from any school this year! We were also proud to send Eddie to the CMEA Bay Section Honor Band, where he was awarded first chair after his audition. Just yesterday we had about 20 students participate in the CMEA Solo and Ensemble festival. All of our students did well, but we are especially proud of our oboists Kalina and Annika, who earned a Superior rating on their duet, and Eddie, who earned a command performance for both his violin and horn solos. Below are a few photos of some of our fine musicians.

The flutes after a successful performance

They played in tune and I didn't even have to shoot one!