School starts back tomorrow

We hope that all of our families in our community has enjoyed their break, gotten much needed rest, and spent quality time with family. Tomorrow we start back and we are excited about welcoming everyone back to campus! This marks the beginning of the final semester at Carrollton High School for our seniors and we look forward to celebrating with them as they finish up their coursework while making cherished memories along the way!

Week at a Glance

• Monday: Welcome BACK!
• Tuesday: Silver Winter Guard • 6:00pm – 9:00pm
• Thursday: All Winter Guard • 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Trip Refunds

Have you not received your trip refund yet? All refund checks were made available the week before the break, but if you have not been able to pick up your check yet, please visit Ms. Dothard in the band room so that we can return your money to you. We are not freely passing them out to the students because we understand some parents would prefer to pick up the refunds themselves, but if you would like your child to pick it up for you, they can sign for it with Ms. Dothard, please communicate that to them for us.

District Honor Band Auditions

Click this link to SUBMIT YOUR VIDEOS. – DUE FRIDAY 1/9/2021

This form must be submitted by Friday, January 9, 2021. Students who do not complete this form on time will be counted as a no-show to their audition. There are no make up auditions for District Honor Band.

Students who have signed up for District Honor Band Auditions should start recording their audition videos now. You can follow this link to see an example of the district honor band score sheets. Please note, the link contains ALL sheets so you will need to scroll down to see the appropriate sheet for your instrument and grade level. Concert Band = 9th and 10th grade; Symphonic Band = 11th and 12th grade. After recording, students should use the rubric to judge how many points they would receive on their scales. If they start doing this now, then they can continue creating videos before the deadline to ensure that they receive all of the available points for scales. This is a highly competitive process, do not give away free points.

The points awarded for the etude and sight-reading are slightly more subjective to interpretation, but students can see the rubric used and score themselves accordingly as a strategy for continued improvement. For the first round the first etude counts as the etude score and the bracketed portion of the second etude will be performed as the sight-reading portion.

Here is the information from GMEA regarding video submissions for District Honor Band this year. This information was shared with our students at the beginning of November via Google Classroom. I have included most of the information below also for your convenience:

What to record:

• The recording submission should be video with audio and NOT audio only.
• Each student will need to record three separate submissions as follows:

Brass and Woodwinds:

1. Submission #1 Scales: Required scales in required order and chromatic scale (specified to their instrument) submitted as one continuous recording. All major scales, arpeggios and chromatic scales must be memorized. Scale sheet and music stand should NOT be present in the video when recording this portion of the audition.
2. Submission #2 Lyrical: Lyrical etude
3. Submission #3 Technical: Bracketed portion of technical etude

Percussion:

1. Submission #1 Snare: Bracketed portion of snare etude
2. Submission #2 Mallets: Required scales in required order, chromatic scale (full range of instrument) and bracketed portion of the mallet etude. Major scales and chromatic scale must be one continues recording. The etude portion can be recorded separately then edited together with the scales, or may be recorded sequentially with the major scales and chromatic scale in one take. All major scales, arpeggios and chromatic scale must be memorized. Scale sheet and music stand should NOT be present in the video when recording this portion of the audition.
3. Submission #3 Timpani: Demonstrate tuning* both drums to Etude Pitches, Single Stroke Roll, Forte Piano Crescendo Roll and designated portion of Timpani Etude. These four performances must be filmed in one take.
   1. *Reminder: Students may use any type of tone producer (pitch pipe, mallet instrument, etc.) for tuning, however no electronic devices may be used to produce a tone for tuning purposes by the student. Symphonic Band students must use only one pitch (the lower of the two) to tune the lower drum and then tune the higher pitch by ear only. The given pitch must be the lower pitch of the 2 drums.
   2. There will be a 30 second per drum time limit on the Middle School and Concert Band timpani tuning audition and a 30-second total time limit on the Symphonic Band timpani tuning audition.

Introduce Yourself – VERY IMPORTANT

Judges must be able to see the student’s face, hands, and full instrument throughout the entire recordings.

Students should not wear clothes identifying the school they attend.

All students must introduce themselves at the beginning of each video.

Woodwinds and Brass Students must clearly state:

1. First and last name
2. Grade in school
3. The component they will be playing within the video (Scales, Lyrical, or Technical)

Percussion Students must clearly state:

1. First and last name
2. Grade in school
3. The component they will be playing (Snare, Mallet or Timpani)

Label Your Videos

Students must label each individual recording file in the following format:

“Level_Instrument_What portion of audition_Last Name_First Name”

Examples:

For Winds:

For Percussion:

Students need to upload all three individual recordings into YouTube and create an “unlisted link” for each video. Only people who are provided the link will be able to view the video. These videos will not be viewable by the public on YouTube.

*When this process is complete, each student video will display their “labeled file name” under the video window as shown below:

This will ensure directors have all recorded components from each student and all district organizers have accurate records for the judging process. Judging panels will be able to accurately identify students with score sheets.

Step-by-step tutorial video

Brass and Woodwinds: https://youtu.be/w20334PFL8Q

Percussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tZWn6c3kVM&t=296s

Once the videos are completed the students will submit all three videos using a Google Form. I will make this form available very soon, but the videos for District Honor Band are not due until the week that we return back from Christmas Break. It is still A GREAT IDEA to go ahead and start recording! If you have finished your scales already, then you do not have to worry about that recording except for keeping up with the link. Let’s get it done!

Senior Spotlight – Need your help

We would like to continue our Senior Spotlights tradition that was started last year but we need your help. Seniors or senior parents, click here to fill out this form to allow customization of your senior spotlight. Filling out the form allows us to celebrate our senior’s future plans and share photos of them from throughout their school careers. Senior Spotlights will be featured on on band’s Facebook page: CHSTrojanBand

After School Rehearsals

In preparation for Large Group Performance Evaluations and allow us to bring in guest clinicians for our ensembles, who help our students and teachers grow, we will be holding regular after school rehearsals for our concert band classes this semester. These rehearsals are on the calendar – Symphonic Band will meet on Mondays, Wind Ensemble on Tuesdays, and Concert Band on Wednesdays from 3:45pm – 6:00pm each week as noted on the calendar. These are required rehearsals.

If you have a child who participates in the marching band, it is very important that you subscribe to our Remind. Although we will send communications regarding class via Infinite Campus (IC) messenger, we use Remind for our extra curricular communications. The interface for the IC messenger does not allow us to send messages unless we use a computer and we often need access to send a communication (i.e., updated ETA’s) using our phones. We use Remind for all “just in time” communication to our marching band parents and students.

How to Join Remind

We would also appreciate you following the band on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Upcoming Dates

• 1.18.2021 – MLK Day – No School *Parade has been cancelled this year
• 1.25.2021 – Start of the 2nd Semester