CS Beginning Band – Ready, Set, Go!
by Carol Swinchoski
Old Mill School, Wall Township, NJ
It is the first week of October and Beginning Band has their first rehearsal with instruments today! As you might imagine, the preparation for this important and exciting first day actually began a while ago. The beginning band model I describe in this article includes 4th grade musicians who have had First Steps in both Kindergarten and 1st grade and Conversational Solfege starting in 2nd grade. At the conclusion of 3rd grade these musicians completed CS Units 1-4. Also in 3rd grade, students learned recorder using a CS model. Before Beginning Band starts, students have been reviewing CS Units 1-4 and have begun Unit 5. I often joke that work with my trumpet players begins in Kindergarten, since I have the privilege of being their classroom music teacher as well.
Last week my musicians learned where to sit, where to place their cases, and they practiced appropriate behavior for band. Since I have 48 first year musicians, I need to run a tight ship! We echoed Unit 4 tonal patterns and we sang two Third grade favorites: Hot Cross Buns and Sailor, Sailor. This was a joyful, tuneful, beatful, and artful experience for all!
In lessons last week, each musician learned how to assemble & disassemble their instruments and create their first sounds. Glocks and trumpets learned the placement or fingerings for mi-re-do. The rest of the groups are learning mi-re-do this week.
Today in band we found our seats, assembled our instruments, and quickly reviewed how to sit in rest and playing positions. In addition, we learned the fire drill procedure for band with instruments- Safety First! We took an old game from the Movement Exploration part of the First Steps Workout: Stop & Go, and applied it to creating our first sounds together. Simply breathing and playing the best sound they could produce and stopping on cue. We used the Poison technique from CS – play at the wrong time and you are out. The musicians were incredibly engaged and accurate!
Students sang Hot Cross Buns on Solfege. I reviewed, or in some cases taught, the fingerings for mi-re-do in concert Bb for each instrument group. We sang the solfege for Hot Cross Buns while simultaneously “singering/slidering” the notes on our instruments and then everyone played the song.
Was it perfect? Of course not, but if you walked by the door you would know it was Hot Cross Buns. High fives and huge smiles all around as students prepared to put away their instruments.
Ready, Set, Go…and we are on our way to a Tuneful, Beatful, Artful and Joyful year of CS Beginning Band!