Good morning MSMS Band!
Happy New Year to all and here’s your info for the week:
Jazz Band Rehearsals Resume
Our first jazz band rehearsal of the semester will be Thursday, January 9 @ 7:15 a.m. We are working towards our first performance of the year, which will be at the MSMS Black History Month program in February. The rest of our January Rehearsals are as follows:
Thursday, January 16; Thursday, January 23; Wednesday, January 29
All State Tryouts
All State Band Auditions are Saturday, January 18. I will be staying after school on Tuesday, January 7 until 4:30 p.m. for students to stay and practice their audition material. Once I have an updated schedule for the day of auditions, I will let those students know.
7th Grade Chair Test
I will be passing out chair test material to the 7th grade band members on Monday when we come back to class. This will be their first chair test! Parents, please encourage your child to work on this material. Each child will play this material for a director, one on one. They will then be scored on how well they play the assigned material. Chair order in each section will be determined based upon their score. The week of the Chair Test has not been set yet, but it will be sometime in Mid-Late January.
Music Performance Assessment (otherwise known as MPA)
Our annual Music Performance Assessment will be one day the first week of March (either the 4th, 5th, or 6th). This performance will take place at Norton Auditorium @ UNA. This is the pinnacle event of the year for our 7th and 8th grade band members. We will be working on our MPA music as well as sight reading in class once we come back to school on Monday, January 6.
This year, we will combine our 7th and 8th grade band members into one band for our MPA Performance.
Leading up to our MPA Performance, we will need to have some extra rehearsal time (both small and large groups). Here’s the schedule of those rehearsal times:
Morning MPA Rehearsals for 7th and 8th Grade Band (these rehearsals will be in the MSMS Band Room)
January 28 – Brass; 7:15 – 7:50
January 30 – Woodwinds; 7:15 – 7:50
February 6 – Woodwinds; 7:15 – 7:50
February 11 – Brass; 7:15 – 7:50
February 13 – Woodwinds; 7:15 – 7:50
February 18 – Brass; 7:15 – 7:50
February 20 – Full Band; 7:15 – 7:50
February 25 – Full Band; 7:15 – 7:50
Evening MPA Rehearsal with Full Band
*February 27 @ MSHS in the Band Room; 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.* (this rehearsal will take place in the High School Band Room. We will have special guests with us that evening to adjudicate the band as we prepare for our upcoming MPA Performance)
Shoals Area Middle School Honor Band Auditions
Shoals Area Middle School Honor Band Auditions will be Tuesday, February 4 @ MSMS. These will take place that evening. We always have MANY MSMS band students to tryout for this event. I’ll be speaking with the kids a lot more about this once we get back in class on Monday. I will have tryout material ready for any and all students who are interested. Last year, between high school and middle school students here at Muscle Shoals, we had 64 students selected for this honor band! We hope to have just as many this time, if not more!!
If your child auditions for Shoals Area Middle School Honor Band, and is selected to participate, the weekend of the honor band will be March 7 & 8. I’ll send out more details about the honor band weekend after auditions are completed.
Upcoming Calendar of Events
January 18 – Middle School All State Band Tryouts @ Muscle Shoals High School
February 4 – Shoals Area Middle School Honor Band Auditions (for interested 7th & 8th Grade Students) @ MSMS
February 7 & 8 – District Honor Band @ Russellville High School (for selected students)
March 4, 5, & 6 – Music Performance Assessment @ UNA. This will be all 7th & 8th grade band students. They will perform on one of these dates.
March 7 & 8 – Shoals Area Middle School Honor Band @ Florence Middle School (for selected students)
April 10 – 12 – All State Band in Mobile, AL (for selected students)
April 24 – 26 – UNA Middle School Honor Band (for selected students, more info to come in the spring)
May 3 – Solo and Ensemble Festival at MSMS. (All grade levels may participate in this. More info to come in the spring)
May 8 – MSMS Band Spring Concert @ Muscle Shoals High School (All grade levels will perform)
We will hit the ground running on Monday morning next week. We hope you all have had a nice break and we are looking forward to getting back to work in band class.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
Seay you all on Monday!
