5th Graders are starting to work on some sight-reading skills in music. When we sight read music, we are looking for correct rhythms and pitches. It was amazing how quickly the 5th grade caught on with our first set of sight reading challenges last week. We are going to move on to more challenging material really quickly this year! What an awesome, musical group!
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7th/8th Grade Band Parents:
The annual homecoming performance with the high school band is coming up! We will be playing Thriller and the LCHS fight song before the homecoming game around 7:00 PM. There will be a charge of admission to the game for any parents who want to attend. All students are encouraged to stay after pregame to watch the high school marching band play at halftime. This will involve one after school practice and the performance after school.
As always, email me ([email protected]) or call the school if you have any questions. Mrs. Smith 4th Grade Performing "I Wish" as a round. Rounds are songs that have 2 identical parts started at different times. This is an awesome group of kids!If you are interested in helping out our music program-- check out my new Donors Choose project. If you are able, any donation will make a big difference to our students!
We are lucky to have a supportive PTO, but most of their support goes towards fixing instruments in need of repair. Thank you in advance!
I am so proud of this group of musicians in 4th grade. They volunteered to sing solos and record this song. They are so brave! We have discussed ways to be kind to others this week to help our school year start off strong. We also talked about "vowel shapes" for proper singing. Look for the singers with nice, round mouths on the last word!
Bartonville Grade School will be holding auditions September 6th after school for BGS's first ever holiday musical, Elf Jr. There are many wonderful parts available-- large and small. Students will be required to read a short piece of dialogue and sing a few measures of a song in the audition. Pick up audition packets from Mrs. Smith in the music room after school. Practice, practice, practice with the CD recordings! Parent permits must be signed and turned in at the time of the audition - no slip, no audition.
We can't wait to see Elf on our stage November 29th, 2018!!
Click to see the schedule as of 8/14/18. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Mrs. Smith via email or the "Contact" button on this website.
On Saturday, 11/11/17, Parker played with the all-district honor band at Augustana College. He had a great day and got to play some awesome music with a great band! His conductor for the day was one of Ms. Smith's band directors in college. Parker was happy to report that he had a great time. Auditions for the 2018 honor band will take place next fall! Let's take more than one person next year! Congrats, Parker!
One of the coolest and most challenging parts of music is sticking with a piece of music for a long period of time. We have been working on Barrage for about two months, here and there. We don't work on every piece every day. Barrage is going really well and we are ready to begin working on the finer elements of music-- adding expression!!
We are going to work on playing dynamics(changing volumes), articulations​(how we attack the note), and style (when to play long/short, pretty/aggressive, etc.). Here is what our piece sounds like before we begin this process!! You will see the finished product at our Winter Concert on 12/8/17. ​ Every year the Illinois Music Education Association hold auditions for all-district honor band and choir. This year, for the first time in many years at BGS, we had 3 young people audition for all district band. Parker, Ian, and Talen were extremely brave and worked on some seriously challenging music for the audition. Ian even played the timpani for THE FIRST TIME EVER in his audition.
We are so proud of these young men for auditioning and look forward to trying again next year! They have all said that their chances for next year are much stronger because they have experience now. Next fall, we will bring more members of the band to audition and we will include choir!! See the picture below of our young men enjoying a post-audition victory snack. Congrats to Parker for being accepted into the all-district band!! |