Winter Guard at East Coweta

On Saturday our winter guard had their second performance of the season at East Coweta High School.  They had a better performance than last week and continue to work hard each week to finish their show. We are very proud of their work so far and look forward to future performances!  Thank you for representing our community, school, and band program with class! Their next performance is on February 15 at River Ridge HS.  Way to go, Trojans!

Dinner Concert a Success!

Last Tuesday night we held our second dinner concert.  Last year we had a Chili Cook-Off and this year the students asked for something different titled it Pastapalooza.   Wow, what a fun evening! I am so proud of the students who demonstrated their music creation skills through improvisation, or the spontaneous creation of music in solo form!  Last year we featured percussion ensemble and jazz bands from the Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band, and we are so proud that in addition to those ensembles we were able to include our concert band and some Chamber Ensembles!  The students continue to work diligently and are growing every day! Thank you for celebrating their growth through this fun event!  

Also, it was our first event in the brand new cafeteria.  What a beautiful facility! We are so fortunate to live in a community that values the education of all of our children and who are willing to invest in our school system.

This event couldn’t have been successful without the generosity of our band parents. THANK YOU SO MUCH for bringing pasta dishes, desserts, and drinks.  Also, I continue to be humbled by the generosity of our parents who willingly donate food for the event and still donate to the event!  We raised over $1,000 because of your generosity!  We are all extremely grateful for the support our band parents provide to our program.  Thank you!

Week at a Glance

• Monday – Guard 4:30PM – 7 PM
• Tuesday –

• Guard 4:30 PM – 9 PM
• Moe’s Spirit Night 5PM – 8PM (details below)

• Thursday – Guard – 4:30 PM – 7 PM
• Saturday – Guard 10AM – 9PM

Please subscribe to our calendar at www.chstrojanband.com to stay up to date.

Moe’s Spirit Night

Our first Spirit Night is coming up this Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at Moe’s Southwest Grill from 5PM – 8PM.  Moe’s will donate 10% of all sales (less taxes) to our band booster program.  We sincerely hope that you will make time to come out and fellowship with other band parents, enjoy some Moe’s  all while supporting the band.

UWG LGPE Clinic

The University of West Georgia has started a LGPE Clinic and we are excited that our Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble have been invited to participate on Wednesday, February 12.  The clinic will take place at Carroll County Schools Performing Arts Center.  The students will do a run-through of their music, receive commentary from UWG Faculty, and rehearse with Dr. Byrd for the remainder of the clinic.  Each clinic is roughly an hour and a half.  This will undoubtedly be a profound experience for our students in their preparation for LGPE.

Symphonic Band

• 11:00PM Lunch in the Band Room (Papa Johns)
•         Please bring $5 for pizza
• 12:15 PM Depart for CCS PAC
• 12:30 PM Unload
• 1:00 PM Clinic onstage with Dr. Byrd
• 2:20 PM Load
• 3:00 PM Arrive Back at CHS

Wind Ensemble

• 3:15 PM Report to the Band Room / Load
• 4:00 PM Depart for CCS PAC
• 4:15 PM Unload and watch the end of UWG’s rehearsal
• 5:20 PM Clinic onstage with Dr. Byrd
• 6:40 PM Clinic concludes
• 7:00 PM Dinner (at a local restaurant – more details TBA roughly $8)

District Honor Band

Download Handout Here

District Honor Band is next week (February 13-15).  Students were given the handout above last week, but just in case you haven’t seen it yet, I wanted to be sure that you got all of the information.

We will take a bus to the event on Thursday afternoon and chaperone the students through Saturday’s morning rehearsal.  We ask that parents please arrive in time to meet up with their child at the conclusion of the morning rehearsal on Saturday so that they can enjoy lunch together before attending the concert.  All of the information can be found in the handout.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Mr. Carr at christopher.carr@carrolltoncityschools.net.

Do you shop on Amazon often?   Did you know that you can help the Band Boosters when you shop on Amazon?  Go to smile.amazon.com and then select Carrollton Band Booster Club, Inc. for the charitable organization you want to support.

Leadership Clinics

Hopefully, our leadership candidates noticed on the back of the Pastapalooza programs a series of upcoming leadership clinics.  We will meet after school from 3:30-4:30 on the following dates:

• February 10, 11, 12
• February 24, 25, 26, 27, 28
• March 2, 3, and 4.

Large Group Performance Evaluations

Large Group Performance Evaluations (Festival) is a concert at which our students and directors receive important feedback to allow us to continue striving for excellence.  It can be analogous to our Milestones Testing in Band.  Sponsored by the Georgia Music Educators Association (GMEA), we are required to prepare a concert of three pieces, two of which are chosen from a prescribed music list.  The list is categorized by difficulty with level 1 being the least challenging and level 6 as the most complex/challenging level.  The State of Georgia Music Standards recognize these difficulty levels and define the band course offerings by the level of music that is prepared.  High School Beginning Band students perform level 1-2, Intermediate Band students grade 3 – 4, Advanced Band students 4 – 5, and Mastery Band students 5-6.  At CHS our Concert Band is considered an Intermediate Band (grade level), Symphonic Band is considered an Advanced Band (accelerated), and Wind Ensemble is considered a Mastery Band (AP/IB/Honors).

LGPE is a public concert and admission is free.  We would be honored if you made plans to be in the audience to support your child during his/her performance!  At the concert, three adjudicators will assess our performance with a rubric with scores ranging from Superior to Poor (I-V).  According to the GMEA Handbook, the following ratings mean:

• Superior (1): Outstanding performance. Worthy of distinction of being recognized as among the very best.

• Excellent (2): Unusually good performance in many respects, but not worthy of the highest rating due to minor defects. A performance of distinctive quality.

• Good (3): A good performance, but not one that is outstanding. Shows accomplishment and marked promise, but lacks one or more essential qualities.

• Fair (4): A performance that shows some obvious weaknesses, generally weak and uncertain.

• Poor (5): A performance that reveals much room for improvement. The students reveal almost a complete lack of preparedness and understanding.

I hope that this information helps you to understand why we put so much emphasis on our LGPE preparations.  On February 25 we will host a Pre-LGPE concert to help us to receive preliminary feedback and have a better performance at LGPE in March.  Below are our LGPE dates and times.  Please add these to your calendar.  Unless our parents make an intentional effort to attend, we may end up performing for an empty hall of 3 adjudicators and a few band directors because it is often during the school/work-day.  Thank you for doing what you can to be there for all of our students! They always perform better when you are present!

LGPE DATES​ • Carroll County Schools PAC

• Symphonic Band • March 19 • 4:10PM  
• Wind Ensemble • March 19 • 8:40PM  
• Concert Band • March 20 • 9:30AM