February
2011
Play a String Instrument! Join the Orchestra!
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Invitation to
Festival
2
What Is Practice?
2
Rock Star
Academy
2
RBe a
3
ROCK STAR!
Strike Up the Band Honor Band - It’s Time!
Mind Benders
3
Hot Items
4
Special points of
interest:
Invitation to all SUTB
students for 2011
Festival
What is Practice?
The Journey
Continues...
Rock Star Academy
Rock Band Contest
Mind Benders Answers
Orchestra Continuo is up and running! Would you like to see an
orchestra in your school? We can help! For schools and homeschools who want to start building a program this winter we are
offering weekly 40 minute private lessons to enrollees. We also
have a new great package deal for your string instrument and a
brand new orchestra director, Hope Grover, all ready to teach!
This program begins with 2nd grade students. If you think that your school would like to start an
orchestra, contact Kris Knutson at (763)398-5046 .
All 6th-8th grade students are invited to audition for the Strike Up the Band Honor Band! Honor
band is a performing group for a select number of students. Those chosen have the privilege of representing Strike Up the Band to family and friends. It is an experience that your child will remember
as they get the opportunity to play with other talented musicians their age. Auditions will take place
for all students on April 2, 2011 at the Schmitt Music Edina Galleria location. Students will all gather
at 10:00 am in the auditorium for an explanation of the audition process and then draw numbers
for audition times.
The audition will consist of an assigned scale, an assigned solo, and three short sight reading passages. Please note that percussionists will audition on both bells and snare drum. Each student is
required to purchase a copy of their audition solo. You may order the required audition materials
from your teacher. Order your materials as soon as possible! Students should start working out the
rhythm and learning the notes of the solo as soon as possible.
This year’s Honor Band Rehearsal and Concert will take place on Saturday, April 30 at 7:00 pm. The
location of this event is Grace Lutheran Church in Bloomington. Students should plan on arriving on
April 30 at 10:00 am with rehearsals running until 4:00 pm.
Please encourage your child to audition for this great opportunity. It promises to be an excellent
learning experience and a chance to meet students from other Strike Up the Band schools and
home schools.
Further information regarding Honor Band will arrive after the auditions and be on our website.
Contact Kris Knutson for more information or for questions.
March On Down the Road This Summer!
Strike Up the Band is going to take our act to the streets! We are looking for band members who
would be interested in participating in our Summer Marching Band program. This experience would
include marching in your own hometown summer parade representing both your school or home
school and Schmitt Music. This program is open to all band students. We are
looking into have both a North and South marching bands. If you would like to
participate in both, go ahead! The music and marching will be the same for
both bands. Stay tuned to the newsletter for more information and if you think
you may be interested, please email [email protected] so that
we can start compiling a list of interested students. Come on and join in on the
fun of being in a marching band!
Invitation to Festival!
January 19, 2011
Dear Band Parent,
A continuing effort to provide memorable musical experiences, I am excited to invite your student to the 2011 Strike Up the Band
Festival! Festival participation is completely voluntary and open for all students with at least one year of band experience. Festivals will be held on Saturday, February 26th at Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights and Saturday, March 5th at Gethsemane Lutheran in St. Paul.
Students will arrive at their school's appointed location at 9:00 am. Students will receive their music at the first rehearsal. The day
will include rehearsals and sectionals with the concert beginning at 2:00 pm. Each student needs to bring their own music stand
and bag lunch with beverage.
The festivals are a highlight for many students in the Strike Up the Band program. We would like to invite you and your family to
attend the concert at 2:00 pm. The students enjoy performing for an audience, especially when it is filled with family and friends.
Just a reminder that rehearsals and sectionals are for band members only. We encourage you to wait for the concert to enjoy the
music.
Listed below are Festival location assignments. If you are unable to attend the one that your school is assigned to, you are more
than welcome to attend the other festival. Please let your band director know that you will be making the change.
February 26th - Immaculate Conception: ICS, St. Alphonsus, St. Vincent, Golden Valley, Brooklyn Park, St. John’s,
Kaleidoscope, Mary Queen of Peace, Sacred Heart, Faith Christian, Holy Trinity, St. Raphael, Salem Lutheran, St. Joseph
March 5th - Gethsemane Lutheran: Gethsemane, St. Mary of the Lake, East Metro, North Heights, St. Michael,
Shoreview, St. Helena, St. Stephen, Trinity Lutheran, St. Paul Lutheran
Gethsemane Lutheran is located at 2410 Stillwater Rd. E, St. Paul, MN 55119-3699. Immaculate Conception is located at 430
Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights, MN 55421.
Please RVSP to your band director or to Kris Knutson, Schmitt Music Education Manager, at [email protected] or
(763)398-5046. If you have any questions regarding the 2011 Strike Up the Band Festival, please contact the Education Office at
the same number.
I look forward to meeting many of you and enjoying the great music-making of our Strike Up the Band students!
Sincerely,
Kris Knutson, Education Manager
Schmitt Music
(763)398-5046
[email protected]
What Is Practice? The Journey Continues...
Join me on a monthly journey exploring “What Is Practice?” This month is about the benefits of practice. In
addition to reviewing and strengthening musical skills and knowledge, practice serves to hone technical
and mental skills. A by-product of practicing is consistency, and as that develops, self-confidence goes up as well.
If you want to become good at hitting the ball, you must go to a batting cage and practice batting. At first it may be hard, but gradually, the more balls you hit, the more confidence you gain. As your confidence increases, you feel better. You predict that you will
be able to hit the next ball. This positive cycle feeds on itself, and as success becomes inevitable, you start to have more fun.
Similarly, a child who wants to learn how to ride a bike needs to get out on the road and practice riding. At first, he or she may be
scared or get hurt by falling over, but by practicing, the child will gradually gain more skill and confidence (with fewer bruises).
Eventually, this confident bicyclist will glide down the road with a big smile.
Music works the same way. Good practice habits encourage self-confidence and foster pride. Practice opens up a world of musical
possibilities and enables dreams and self expression to flourish. What makes practicing music unique? Unlike hitting a ball or riding
a bicycle, music skills take longer to develop and more energy to refine because of their distinctive mental and physical challenges.
By mastering these skills and learning to play the right notes at the right time with consistency , your child will increasingly gain
self-confidence.
Next month we will continue to explore how self-confidence is a benefit of practice.
- Kris Knutson, Education Manager
Page 2
Page 3
Rock Star Academy Is For You!
We are very excited about a new opportunity at Schmitt Music in Burnsville! Schmitt Music is
opening its Rock Star Academy in a brand new Schmitt Music Burnsville location! Due to the
relocation of the Burnsville store, opening has been rescheduled to early April.
The Schmitt Music Rock Star Academy, for vocals, keyboards, guitars, bass and drums, is open
to students age 7 and up. No experience needed!
If you would like more information about the Schmitt Music Rock Star Academy you can check
out our website www.schmittmusic.com, email [email protected] or Kris Knutson,
Schmitt Music Education Manager, at [email protected].
Your Chance To Be A ROCK STAR!!! No Joke...
Schmitt Music is a proud sponsor of “Rock for Reach”! It’s a Rock Band Video Game Challenge and Benefit Concert at The
Fine Line Music Café at 318 N. First Ave., Minneapolis. All proceeds will benefit services for people with disabilities. The
basics: Do you like to play Rock Band? Then this event is for you! Form a team and come strut your stuff onstage at the
Fine Line. A $200 cash prize will be awarded to the top Rock Band team! Bring all your friends out to vote for your team,
then hang around after the competition for a great concert. The Rock Band Challenge begins at 5:30 pm and the Benefit
Concert at 9:00 pm. Come check out the Schmitt Music table where we will be giving away an electric guitar!
Mind Benders...
Below are the mind benders from last month along with the correct answers. How did you do?
1. I occur once in an orchestra, twice in a jazz band, and never in a woodwind quintet. What am I? The letter A.
2. Several band members volunteered to practice for the weekend’s pep rally in the band room after school. Olivia walked into
the room with her trumpet, joining the three people already there. After the first song, two band members left the room, and
four more came in. After the second song was finished, three people left the band room and one more person came in.
Suddenly, the door to the band room was locked from the outside by the janitor, and no one was able to get out!
Miraculously, Olivia was home in time for dinner. How is this possible? Olivia went home because she was one of the people
who left the band room after the first song.
3. Three tuba players were walking down the street carrying their tubas under the same tiny umbrella, but none of them got wet.
How is this possible? It wasn’t raining.
4. Rearrange the letters in WONDROUS MICE to make one music word. ONE MUSIC WORD
5. If it takes one flute player seven minutes to play a particular piece of music, how long will it take 10 flute players to play the
same piece of music? 7 minutes
6. Bethany’s trumpet case is filled to the brim with her mouthpiece, an extra mouthpiece, a mute, a couple of polishing cloths,
valve oil, tuning slide grease, and even a few pieces of sheet music. But Bethany is missing something in her case. What is it?
Her trumpet
7. Look very carefully in the following sentence to find the year that Mozart was born:
My teacher says even teenagers like Mozart’s compositions. We’ll have proof if Tyler, Jessi, Xavier, and Bart all enjoy The
Magic Flute. 1756
8. Melissa was organizing the classroom percussion instruments to help out her music teacher. There are five shelves on the wall
of the music room on which she can put the instruments. Use the following hints to figure out which instrument goes on each
shelf.
Hint: There is only one instrument type per shelf.
The guiros are not on any of the bottom three shelves.
The metallophones are heavy and need to stay close to the ground.
The woodblocks are in between the guiro shelf and the finger cymbal shelf.
The tambourines aren’t used very often, so they can be placed on a high shelf.
The guiro shelf is not next to the metallophone shelf.
Tambourine, guiros, woodblocks, finger cymbals, metallophones.
Schmitt Music began the Strike Up the Band program in 1965 to bring music to
metro area children in private and parochial schools where a full-time band director
2400 Freeway Boulevard
Brooklyn Center, MN 55430-1799
Phone: (763)398-5046
Fax: (763)566-4763
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
SCHMITT MUSIC
Strike Up the Band and
Orchestra Continuo
was not feasible. In 1992 the program expanded to help homeschool families allow
their children to participate in group music.
Thank you for choosing to enroll your child and giving them the experience of learning to play a band or orchestra instrument. With the weekly group lessons, weekly
band/orchestra rehearsals and concert performances, you are enabling your child
with the group music experience important to every child’s complete education!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
We’re on the web!
A great Valentine gift idea
for your parents play a song on your instrument just for them!
www.Schmittmusic.com
Hot Items!
Many more at your local Schmitt Music store!
Jazzy Opera Classix
Happy Color Harp
Harmonicas are great fun!
Available in different colors.
Cost: $3.95
Great Movie Instrumental Solos
Titles are: Battle of the Heroes (from Star Wars: Episode III) * Double Trouble (from Harry Potter and
the Prisoner of Azkaban) * Hogwart's Hymn (from
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire™) * Into the
West (from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King) * Star Wars Main Title(from Star Wars: Episode III) * Imperial March (from Star Wars: Episode
II) * Superman Theme (from Superman Returns) *
Raiders March (from Raiders of the Lost Ark) * Wonka's Welcome Song (from Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory) * The Notebook (from The Notebook).
Cost: $12.95
12 favorite opera themes in easy jazzy/pop
arrangements, with written out simple improvisations and chord symbols for further
improvisation. The book includes the instrumental line only, with chords, but there
are piano accompaniments available as PDF
files on the CD. Includes notes about each
aria. Contains music from Aïda, The Barber
of Seville, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Faust,
The Marriage of Figaro, Rigoletto, La Traviata, and other operas.
Cost: $19.95
Disney Solos
Features 12 Disney favorites with a
great CD that lets you play along
with a full band! Songs include: Be
Our Guest • Can You Feel the Love
Tonight • Colors of the Wind •
Friend like Me • Part of Your
World • Under the Sea • You'll Be
in My Heart • You've Got a Friend
in Me • Zero to Hero • and more.
Cost: $12.95