Final payments for the Spring Trip are due Friday, March 31st. Feel free to send the remaining balance by cash or check (made out to Hudson Band Boosters). All band fees (including school-owned instrument usage fees) are due by April 28th.

As of this afternoon, ALL trip charges and payments have been input to Charms. You should also have received an emailed band fee statement. Please see the "total balance due" row as the statements can be confusing to follow. Please let us know if you have any questions.

If you are a parent of a Honors Band or Wind Symphony student and you are available to help as a chaperone for UIL next week, please let Mrs. Becker know ASAP.

Honors Band chaperones would be needed from 12:30-4:45pm on Tuesday, April 4th.

Wind Symphony chaperones would be needed from 11:45am-3:55pm on Wednesday, April 5th.

If you are looking for something for your student to do this summer, please consider sending them to a band camp around the metroplex or state. There are day camps and overnight camps that offer lessons, electives, and performance opportunities to give your student the chance to keep their skills up over the summer and make some new friends. This link is a list of camps we know to be reputable and we will be adding to it as we learn of more opportunities.

We passed out the last practice challenge of the year just before Spring Break. Students must practice for 50 out of the 63 days available during the challenge to earn the prize. We will be renting out a movie theater to see a movie together with all of the students who complete the challenge!

Click here to find a copy of the challenge paper.

If you know any students in the 5th grade (or any other current middle school students who wish they had joined band this year) and are coming to Hudson next year, please tell them to be on the lookout for a chance to sign up for one of our Instrument Selection Drives on our band website.

We are thrilled with the growth in our program this year and look forward to welcoming tons of new Hawk Band members next year! Our best recruiting tool is our current and former band families - please help us spread the word about joining band and getting more amazing students to be part of our band family!

I realized that I never sent the list of who is a chaperone for our spring trip, I just closed the form when I reached the number we needed. We ended up accepting more than originally planned due to the number of bands we will have performing that day and the need for a little more help in the performance logistics. As a reminder, the chaperone trip fee is $20 and will also be added to Charms this week. Here is a list of parents/guardians who have been accepted as chaperones for the spring trip:

Belinda Solis

Huong Le

Cerella Alexander

Marvis Browder

Amy Albus

Mayra Martinez

Cassie Kahl

Kerrie Russell

Sequena Williams

Kalan Williams

Julie Nguyen

Maria Yanez

Nicole Bushe

JeMese Chamberlain

JoVitha Hawkins

Traci Kilpatrick

Karen Polzer

Angelica Chavez

Cecilia Donovan

Robyn Thompson

Margo Spence

Jennifer Stotts

Ana Rivera

Teri Jones

Nicholas Brooks

Devon Small

We will have a few openings for Booster Club Board positions next year. If you are interested in serving the band in a larger capacity, please reach out to Mrs. Becker so she can discuss possibilities with you or put you in touch with the booster club to see where you could be best utilized.

We are SO THANKFUL to the amazing parents we have in our band family, who are always willing to help when needed, and can't wait to plug a few more of you into a larger role next year!

We know that many of our students will need braces during the course of their middle school years. Every band instrument can be played with braces, however, it is a big adjustment that often takes weeks or months for the student to feel "back to normal" once they get them. As you are scheduling this big change for your student, please be mindful of the band performance calendar to help our students be able to perform their best this semester.

April 4-5 - HB & WS UIL Evaluation

April 22 - Beginner All-Star Band Audition

April 27 - WS Peak Festival

May 6 - Beginner Solo Contest

May 12 - Spring Festival for All Band Students

May 13 - All-Star Band Clinic/Concert

May 17 - HMS Bands Spring Concert for All Students

If your student is using a school owned instrument (or is a percussionist), the school-owned instrument usage fee has been added to your student's Charms account. Woodwind and Brass players will now see a fall and spring fee for $25 each, or $50 for the whole year. Percussionists will see a fall fee for $25.

Oboes, bassoons, bass clarinets, tenor saxes, bari saxes, French horns, euphoniums, tubas, and the few students who play a different instrument that is owned by the school will see that fee now and can pay it by cash, check (made out to Hudson Band Boosters), or through Charms (using Paypal).

This fee was originally supposed to be paid in Skyward, but we are adjusting the process for ease of charge and payment.

If you have any questions or have any issues logging in to Charms to check on fees, please let me know and I am happy to help!

Because our school band budget is so small, we have to charge a band fee so that we can provide the best music education experience for all our band students. This band fee covers all instructional materials (band binder and all its contents), band shirt, contest entry fees, solo accompanist fees, performance music, music theory subscription, transportation, meals before performances, incentive days, and so much more. We set up our band fees to be collected up front (or split into payments), so that we are not constantly asking for $5 here, $7 there, etc.

This year, you can pay band fees through cash or check (made out to Hudson Band Boosters), Paypal through Charms (watch this video to walk you through the Charms system), and for the first time - credit card through the band website. Visit the band website and enter the password HawkBD2223 to enter the secure page and pay online. Please consider adding the optional donation to your cart to cover the credit card fees we incur using this convenient service.

If you have a financial hardship, please communicate with us so we can help you. We never want a student to be unable to participate due to finances and will do everything we can to work with your family and ensure your student is included.

Please take a moment this week to log in to Charms. www.charmsoffice.com

Log in as a parent/student/member

The school code is hudsonsoundmachine

The password for first time users is your student's GISD ID number (should be 6 digits)

For non-first time users, your password should be your student's ID with their capitalized initials in front (i.e. HB123456) unless you've changed it to something else.

Please update contact information (add adults as necessary), check your student's birthday ID, instrument, etc. and make changes as necessary. If you have questions or have difficulty logging in, please contact Mrs. Becker.

If your student was involved in the TMEA Region 3 All-Region Bands, there were professional recordings made of all of the concerts. Due to copyright laws, the recordings were not able to be sold, however, we have been given permission to share the recordings with our families. THIS LINK TAKES YOU TO ALL OF THE RECORDINGS. Feel free to download the recordings of your student's performance, as they will not be available for long!

Please make sure your student in the Wind Symphony, Honors Band, or Symphonic Band have their required supplies for this year. We are using the Foundations for Superior Performance book in all band classes and many students do not yet have the book. We are also beginning to work on tuning and if your student does not still have their tuner/metronome from beginner band, they will need one ASAP.

Because our band has grown so big, we can no longer use Remind. We have reached the maximum participants in multiple classes and do not have space for more unless we upgrade our account (which costs more than we wish to spend). We will be switching messaging services to the BAND app (which the Sachse HS band also uses) to align our cluster. Please sign up for the appropriate class(es) for your student. We will NO LONGER be using Remind, so if you were just signed up for band, you will not need that app/number any longer. Thanks for understanding!

22-23 ALL HMS Band Students/Parents

Beginner Band

Symphonic Band

Honors Band

Wind Symphony

22-23 HMS BAND PARENTS ONLY

Our private teachers are THE BEST and their schedules are starting to fill up. If you are going to sign up for private lessons, DON'T WAIT - TURN IN THE ENROLLMENT FORM ASAP.

The single biggest investment you can make in your student's musical advancement is signing them up for private lessons. Return the private lesson enrollment form to get your student started ASAP. Lessons are $20 each week and the fee is paid directly to the instructor.

Heather Becker - Director

Dan Urban - Assistant Director

Email: hdbecker@garlandisd.net
Website: www.hudsonband.org
Phone: 972-675-3070
Facebook: facebook.com/hudsonmsband
Twitter: @hudsonhawkband