Hello! Welcome to the Middle School Band and Orchestra pages. If you have any questions about the program please contact me via email, or call the school and leave a message. Thank you for your patience.
All middle school level musicians should have a tuner if possible. Violin and viola players do best with the clip-on type. I would prefer that band and cello and bass students get the box-shaped Korg tuners and get a clip-on pick-up wire.
Please enjoy these performances by high school honors musicians from Maryland:
- Maryland All State Full Orchestra 2014 - School of Scandal
- Maryland All State Band 2012 - Transformed Spring
Musically,
Ms.Murray
Jennifer.Murray@pgcps.org
(301) 572-0630
General Information
The secondary instrumental music program provides large group experiences such as concert band, orchestra, and marching band (high school only) for all interested and qualified instrumental music students. In addition, small ensemble experience is available in the form of jazz band, string quartets, and small wind ensembles.
In addition to classroom instruction, the following enrichment programs and assessments are available to secondary instrumental music students:
- Middle School Honor Band and Orchestra
- Band and Orchestra Assessment Festivals
- Secondary Solo & Ensemble Festival
Students auditioning for all enrichment orchestras and bands must be enrolled in the instrumental music class at their school and must have the approval of their instrumental music teacher. They must pass the playing audition and be able to commit to attending all rehearsals and performances. High expectations are set for student performance and behavior.
The specific goals of the secondary instrumental music program are to ensure that each student completing the program can:
- Read music
- Organize musical sounds
- Perceive the elements of music
- Demonstrate knowledge about the history, styles and multicultural aspects of music
- Perform musically as a member of an ensemble
Courses:
Middle School Repertoire
Middle School is a time to develop large ensemble skills while advancing a student's personal skill level. Students have three basic sets of work: scales/rudiment, method book/etudes, and literature.
- Literature can simply defined as written works (such as poems, plays, and novels) that are considered to be very good and to have lasting importance (from Online Merriam-Webster). In band and orchestra this means pieces of music. Typically this includes solos, chamber music (small ensembles), and large ensemble music for all of the band or all of the orchestra. By the time students are in the 8th grade, they have enough skills to play together in a full orchestra.
- Method Books contain etudes, scales, excerpts and folk songs that the students learn in order to advance different aspects of their playing. For example, etudes are songs which are studied to learn a way of moving the bow for a string player, or a new finger combination for a woodwind player. The student learns how to control an area of their playing without learning a known tune. The work done in an etude can then be applied to other songs in the book, or literature.
- Scales consist of a series of eight notes placed in a particular stepwise ascending/descending order with a specific pattern of whole steps and half steps. (The distance between sounds or pitches or notes, in this case, are measured in intervals called steps.) Students will learn MAJOR and three types of MINOR scales as well as a chromatic scale. Additionally, scales can be learned with different sequences, and in our case we also learn some scales in thirds.
- There are 20 +/- scales for students to learn and master in middle school. Not all are learned in 6th grade. As the student goes up in grade level, so too the number of scales that must be completed. 6th graders must perform their scales with the metronome at 72. 7th at 88 and 8th at 100. A site like www.metronomeonline.com provides a free metronome. So, by the time a student is in 8th grade they are working on all of the scales, but at a faster speed.
- Rudiments are a standardized series of rhythm and sticking patterns used with the snare drum. There are 40 Rudiments, and we will be working on 8 of them in middle school. You can find the required rudiments at the back of the method book and listed in this document.
- Scale Hero: As a fun motivator, at the 8th grade level we add a scale competition, "Scale Hero." The first 8th grader from band, and from orchestra, to complete all of their scales, (and rudiments for snare) at a speed of quarter note = 100, can win the Band Hero, or Orchestra Hero T-Shirt. The speed for snare depends on which rudiment is being performed.
