We need a marimba to help expand the mallet percussion section of our band.
$2,508 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
For the majority of my students, the first time they ever perform on stage is during their high school career. 89% of students qualify for free lunch and a lot live below the poverty line. Many have moved to this country with the hope of finding a new and better life filled with opportunity. My hope is to give every student the opportunity to succeed in music and performance whenever possible.
Student requesting this project: Nataesha is a fabulous young musician who will be graduating this year with the hopes of pursuing a college degree in music education. Nataesha's first opportunity to participate in band class came during her senior year. As such, she has had to learn a great deal in a short amount of time. One of the instruments she will need to demonstrate proficiency on is a marimba, and our school does not currently own one! She will be performing a piece on marimba at our upcoming competition in May WITHOUT EVER PRACTICING ON THE INSTRUMENT! This project can change that for her and give her the opportunity to learn one final instrument before graduating! Nataesha is poised to graduate as salutatorian of the class of 2018!
Band helps students learn communication and listening skills. When performing on an instrument, each section plays its own part in the context of a band piece. The each member must musically communicate with each other to deliver the best performance. Students must develop good listening skills as they must listen to each other to stay together. Music is as much about listening as it is about feeling. It is important that students listen to all of the music happening around them to understand how their part fits into the context of the whole.
It also strongly emphasizes a sense of teamwork. The band experience teaches students how important each of them are. If a student is missing, then a part of the song is missing. There are no bench players in band. Everyone is on ALL THE TIME! In band, students learn what it means to truly contribute to the success of a large group of people.
In Their Own Words
When it comes to instruments, each one is one of a kind and does certain things others can not. Each has it's own unique style and sound that it adds to a piece of music. For some instruments, they are enough to create pitches that a piece of music might need, while other instruments in the alto and tenor range help compliment the melody. When it comes to a marimba, the pitches that it can create are lower than both a xylophone, or a glockenspiel. All three of these instruments can play similarly, but only a marimba can truly add it's own rich, dark style when it comes to pieces of music. I am seeking donations to help purchase our very first marimba for band!
For every person who has started playing an instrument, they know it wasn't easy in the beginning and that practice makes perfect...or close to it. Even instruments that are similar are not the same. A piccolo is different from a flute, a clarinet different from a bass clarinet, an alto sax different from a tenor sax. Mallet instruments are the same. Have you heard the pitches a marimba plays?? They're beautiful! And so much different from other mallet instruments. A glockenspiel and xylophone are different from a marimba because a marimba is much bigger, richer and deeper. While I can practice on a xylophone, it is not the same. This project gives me the opportunity to advocate for myself and my band. I will benefit from learning and using this instrument before I graduate, and the band will benefit from its addition for years to come so many other percussionists can learn to play on it.
For every band, or even a regular music class, every instrument is important. Each creates the sounds for a song, and if one is missing or if one pitch is being playing on the wrong instrument, then it could throw off the effect for the whole song. This is why many instruments, even if they are the same, are for different purposes and play different pitches and parts of the song (for instance Trumpet 1 and 2 parts written to play in harmony). When certain pieces of music contain pitches and styles that only certain instruments have, and you don't own that certain instrument, then what do you do? You try to improvise with everything you DO have. But even then, some improvising isn't enough to truly create the sound that you want, and can only be created with that one specific instrument. For us, that instrument is a MARIMBA! Please help make this project a reality before I graduate!
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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. Lucini and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
