If you hear a quality piece of music, what do you do? You probably will tap your foot, smile, or sing along. Now imaging being stuck playing the same old beginning band music like "Hot Cross Buns." Imagine being in the audience at that concert!
In our school, we have a beginning band of about forty students.
For many of them, this is their first experience with an extracurricular activity. These students love playing an instrument and are so excited to prepare for our performances. Every year, we are restricted by our very small library of music, much of which is outdated or too difficult for beginning students.
This year, there is a big push for our music programs to be actively involved in our community. I believe that it is very important to start this with our elementary beginning band. If we have a strong beginning band program, it will help our entire district's music department to build a strong community presence.
My Project
The "First Performance" series is a wonderful set of beginning band music. With both complete sets, our band would gain about twenty new pieces that they could play at our concerts. Currently, we are very restricted by our small library, and there aren't a lot of options for the new band to play. The books would be used immediately with our beginning and second year students for our upcoming winter concert. The music within these books are from a range of styles, and many of them have a fun spin to them. I know that the students would really get excited about playing pieces like that!
As we start to have more dynamic and interesting concerts, students will start to get more excited about our band program. This will help with recruitment in future years. In addition, as our concerts have more variety, our audiences will become more engaged and hopefully will even increase in size! This will help our band and school to become more recognized within the community.
My students love being part of the school band.
Every time I watch them learn a new note, or play through a new song for the first time, I can't help but be inspired by the joy on their faces. These kids deserve quality, accessible music that they can get excited about!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Lucas and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
