Natalie had her first band concert last night. Watching her brought back many memories of my own time as a band nerd. The music program here works a little differently then what I experienced as a kid, though. I started band in 4th grade. The band teacher came around to the elementary schools and demonstrated the different instruments. Anyone who was interested picked what they wanted to play and had 30 minutes of joint music lessons once a week during school. Then in 6th grade you could join the band which met every day.
Here all kids learn the recorder in 4th grade and then don't have the opportunity to learn a real instrument until they go to middle school in 7th grade where they have different music classes for each instrument everyday. They might start later but the music program is much more intense here than what I did. First, all the graduating 6th graders listen to an assembly about the band program and hear the middle school band play. After the assembly, the kids who are interested in doing band have to take a listening test. Yep, a test. They listen to several notes and say if the notes are higher or lower and etc. Everyone who passes the test is invited to the band room for more testing where the teacher tries them out on each of the different instruments. Then the band director and the student have a little conference where they talk about which instrument they did the best on and which one they were most interested in learning.
Natalie went in really wanting to play saxophone, but during the try-out her hands were too small to reach all the keys. The teacher told her that if she wanted to play saxophone she should start by learning clarinet and then switch when she grew a little bit more. But Natalie also did really well on the percussion part of the evaluation (a perfect score!) so the teacher also told her she could also choose to do percussion. After weighing the pros and cons for several days. Natalie decided she would rather do percussion. She is really enjoying it.
Here is the video of her first concert. Keep in mind that these kids have been playing their instruments for about 4 months and have only practiced together as a whole band a few times.
Natalie is playing bells.
This last one is the beginning band playing with the help of the 2nd and 3rd year kids as well. I think they sound pretty good.
Good job, Nat!
4 comments:
Whoo, oh yeah, thats me! ;) 8D
Oh wow, that triggerd a flood of memories. Good job, Natty. I wish I could have been there to hear you.
Cindy, you sure are raising a bunch of talented kids. Great job, Natti!
Boy, that Natalie is really showing some spunk at the end of that piece. She looks and sounds great.
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