JUNIOR BAND HAS BEGUN 2015 Edition

Aaannnnd we're back!  With some music making youngsters, lots of notes, jokes, and foot tapping as we begin another year of Junior Silver Cornets.  This year we have 25 students representing four school districts between 4th and 8th grade.  Mr. Dan Cartwright, with his baton trusty baton-Stanley, is fearlessly leading us through a fun song collection:  Cyborgs, Furioso, and Rhumba (which I am pretty certain is representing a dance for the small circular vaccuum cleaner-imagine the possibilities) as well as a few others.  Today, Mr. Cartwright guided us through the art of sight reading and learning how to identify "tricky spots" even before playing the first note.  The kids played through almost all of the pieces and they are already shaping up to be quite an impressive set of performers.  We were assisted by veteran Junior Silver Cornet members Sara and Tyler as well as a few helpful adults: Mr. Stuttler, Mr. Bell, and Mr. May.  Snacks were had and new musical friendships began.  Take a peak at some of the moments captured today as well as a video or two of rehearsal goodness.

 

First Peek-Our Group Photos in our Sparkly T-Shirts

 Aren't they such a fine looking bunch!

 We took a few "serious/nice" pictures and then of course, the obligatory funny face picture.

Working Backwards from Concert Night

Okay family and friends, I got a bit behind with the pictures in the midst of the week's bandy chaos.  My apologies to those who were sitting at their computers waiting for the latest updates on our musical adventures.  I am going to go through pics and videos this morning and put them up in reverse order; starting with the concert flicks and images.

We were so lucky the weather cooperated just in time and that we had the good fortune of getting to play in the park (first time in three years).  The kids sounded great and handled the pressures of the big stage atmosphere, full audience, and windy gusts with grace and poise.  The smiles on their faces were enough to let me know our goals were met (have fun, learn about music, show our families/friends our mad music skills).

As Mr. Greene mentioned last evening, many many thanks go out to you, the supportive and loving family and friends, teachers and mentors that keep these kids plugging away through rewarding times and tough.  I want to specifically thank you for your support with this program, helping them get to and from rehearsals each day, encouraging them to pick up their instrument when they were at home for bits of extra practice (it truly shows-that Curse of Tutankhamen song would have not happened without the extra bits of practice the kids put into it). 

I hope you and your family and your musician enjoyed the concert.  I hope your musician had a great time with the program.  I encourage any Facebookers to find our Franklin Silver Cornet Band Facebook Page and follow news of us through there (especially for our fourth year students who are going into their freshman year-you folks are eligible to join us come next spring to watch out for when we pick up rehearsals in the March/April vicinity). 

Musicians, congratulations on a wonderful year of making music, kudos to your commitment and keep at it; as I may have mentioned, you are a part of a band, one of the coolest groups you can ever be a part of.  In a band you can/will meet lifelong friends and have amazing times that some instrument-less folks can only dream of-stick with it, you won't be sorry.  







  

Video of Rehearsal

Here we are in all of our playing glory-we are working on The Buckingham March, a very English-y sounding procession tune; just imagine The Queen herself walking down Liberty Street as our kiddos played this stately tune.

Day Two

We saw some new faces Wednesday-we were happy to have several members of the Franklin Silver Cornet Band play with us today.  We even have veterans of the Junior Silver C's program; here with the trombones, Sydney is coaching the percussion section to greatness, and Matt, a trumpet player, has been flitting around helping here and there.  Mr. Stuttler was back and today he played his big bari-saxophone with our bass clarinet player.  Andy Bell hung out with Logan in the tuba section, and I think I saw Mr. May in each section at least one time throughout the morning. 

The band sight read Ragtime; it will prove to be our biggest challenge with its syncopated rhythms and many-layered parts (including a nod to the Yankee Doodle tune).  Mr. Cartwright and the band dissected and worked through The Curse of Tutankhamun, a unique sounding piece that sounds mysterious and gives creepy yet cool sounding vibes. 

We got to move around and meet some new people and laugh with a game called Food, Friends and Fireworks (sort of like rock paper scissors but with cooler motions and sound effects and no winner/loser-just silly fun). 

And Here We Go!

"So how do your lips feel?" --Mrs. Greene

No hesitation "Numb!" --Austin

What a great morning we had!  We had over forty local youth musicians gather today at the First Baptist Church in Franklin for the beginning of the 8th edition of the Junior Silver Cornets.  Mr. Cartwright resumed his directorial post to steer our mighty music-mobile through some lively and melodic pieces of music.  Tyler helped us out with the term subito means (it means "suddenly" but even more mature players may still mistake it for some other musical directions).  Lots of us would follow a rainbow if it would lead to an amusement park;  we learned that there is no orange Power Ranger, and that it is going to take some cajoling to get Mr. Cartwright to demonstrate the Cha Cha de Salsa (perhaps if he is given a sombrero-it will give him amazing Latin dancing powers).  Thank goodness we live in the 2010s where girls are not just allowed to be in bands, but that they make up a good size of the group.  A few folks walked away with a little more facial hair than they arrived with courtesy of the novelty sticky mustaches (those will make it hard to play/practice, but it would look entertaining).

I hope you all rest up, relax, look at your music and figure out some fingerings and locate some tricky spots.  We will see you bright and early tomorrow morning for round two--we have a couple of pieces to sight read still and then we move on to the task of polishing and perfecting.  You folks already sounded so nice; you will sound amazing in our couple of rehearsals.

  

Calling All Businesses!

How does an all volunteer group pull off a memorable two week program that is fun, exciting, educational, musical, and a must-do event for instrumentalists?  Hard-work and talent from the kids, passionate caring from the director (yay for Mr. Cartwright!), organized creativity from the coordinator, and the strong support of the families attached to our players.  However, none of this operation could go on without financial support.  We have already had several generous donations from local music lovers and businesses, and I am still reaching out in hopes to help offset the costs the program.  Every bit contributed goes to making the six rehearsals and one concert we have a unique, engaging experience kids have been returning to year after year.  I am hoping you, or a friend, or a business acquaintance you know would consider giving something towards making this year as great as the previous ones.  All donations no matter the size can be made out to Franklin Silver Cornet Band  and sent to me (Amanda Greene, 712 Elk Street, Franklin, PA 16323).