The Band Boosters are selling clear bags and decals to fundraise money for our percussion ensemble's Music for All National Festival performance in Indianapolis in March. Visit our band website or scan the QR code in the picture to place your order. All orders are due Friday, September 20th and clear bags and decals will be delivered to students on Friday, September 27th. Clear bags are required at all GISD athletic and fine arts events - get yours today!

As many of you can probably relate to, I have become a bit overwhelmed by the amount of communication forms we are using. I have made some changes to my own notification settings on the apps. If you send me a message in Talking Points, you will notice an automatic message that lets you know your message has been received, but will be responded to on a school day during the hours of 8am-5pm. The same will happen to messages send on the Band app. The great thing about the Band app is that other parents and students have the ability to comment and answer questions as well (and I hope you all will chime in when you know the answers to questions that are being asked there).

The best way to contact the band directors is through email. Please know that we team-teach our classes and each of us only has one 45-minute conference period each day. If you haven't received a response to your message within 48 hours, please message us again. We all strive to respond within 24 hours, but that isn't always realistic. We are all setting boundaries to leave work at work (as much as possible), so we can be more present for our families at home. We spend many extra hours and days with your students, who we love, but our families must come first. Thank you so much for your understanding and for showing us grace as we put these boundaries in place.

For the remainder of this year, we will continue to share information through email (in both Presto and Skyward), post on Canvas and Skyward, and send through Talking Points and the Band app. At the end of the year, we will likely send out a survey to find out which form of communication works best for you. Our hope in the future is that we can simplify our processes and make our communication easier for everyone!

Advanced Band students should be practicing daily. They will begin completing their weekly practice logs in Canvas this week! You can see the practice expectations and the grades that will be reflected based on the days practiced each week in our band handbook (linked at the bottom of this newsletter). Those students should be practicing scales/technique exercises, All-Region music if in Wind Symphony or Honors band, fall concert & football music in Symphonic Band, and anything their private lesson teacher has assigned them.

Beginner Band students will begin their daily practicing this week. They should be working on memorizing the musical alphabet forwards and backwards, tonguing on a small part of their instrument, working on clapping/counting and playing the lines in Rhythm Rockers unit 1, and the first 3-5 notes on their instrument (possibly using the Essential Elements book or the Musical Mastery packet depending on which class they are in), and Units 1-2 of their snare book for percussion class. Beginner Band students will begin filling out their weekly practice logs in Canvas beginning September 16th.

What does practice look/sound like?

• Sit in a chair (preferably without arms)
• Feet flat on the floor
• Use a music stand to hold the binders
• Use a metronome to keep the beat
• Record yourself playing what you are working on - use that recording to evaluate yourself and actually see/hear whether you are doing things correctly

Students in the Advanced Bands will begin their biweekly before/after school sectionals the week of August 26th. Sectionals are required and grades will be given during sectionals. Please make arrangements to schedule appointments on the off days or weeks so your student does not miss these important rehearsals. Please see the links below for the sectional schedule for each band.

Wind Symphony Fall Schedule

Honors Band Fall Schedule

Symphonic Band Fall Schedule

The HMS Pink Out game will take place on October 22 at Sachse HS against Jackson TC (where the Advanced Bands will also be performing). The cheerleaders are selling a shirt that can be worn by band students and families at that game. Orders must be placed on this order form by Saturday, September 7th. All payment is due (CASH ONLY) to Ms. Reyes by Monday, September 9th. There will be no extensions or exceptions to this timeline. If you know you'll want to wear the pinkout shirt to that game, make sure you get your order in ASAP!

The BEST investment you can make for your student's musical education is with PRIVATE LESSONS! We have the most wonderful group of private teachers around who are dedicated to providing quality one-on-one instruction to our students. Most of our teachers have been working with our students already this summer at our camps and have already told me how much they are enjoying getting to know your students. To sign your student up for private lessons, fill out this enrollment form and get it back to us ASAP. The teachers will schedule students as soon as they receive their enrollment form, so be first to get the most desired lesson time! Private lessons are $25 each week, payable directly to the private teacher. If finances are the only thing keeping your student out of lessons, we do have limited scholarship money available to help. This private lesson scholarship application is due Friday, August 23rd. We will issue scholarships at that time to as many students as possible, based on financial need. If you would like to contact the private teacher for your student's instrument, you can find all of our teachers' contact information on this page.

All band students should now have a band locker issued to them. Band lockers are for storing band instruments and band binders during the school day. We expect all students to take home both their binder and their instrument EVERY DAY because consistent practice is the best way to improve on an instrument. We do have combination locks available to students who request one, but we do not initially issue locks with the lockers. We HIGHLY RECOMMEND students to keep their locker locked all the time. Students are welcome to bring their own locks, however, they are REQUIRED to either share the combination with the band directors or give us a copy of the key. We do our very best to keep things safe, but the best way you can help yourself is to lock your locker and LABEL ALL OF YOUR BAND SUPPLIES!

The United States Army Band will be performing at Garland High School on Saturday, October 26th at 7:00pm. Tickets to the concert are FREE, but must be reserved in Advance. This concert will be amazing and you don't want to miss it! Please only request tickets if you know for SURE you will attend the concert - tickets are limited and we don't want to take them if we aren't going to actually use them. Use the form linked here to request your tickets.

Our annual Practice-a-Thon fundraiser will kick off on October 4th and conclude November 1st with our big party and practice time at Hudson from 6:00-10:00 PM.

This year we’re once again using 99Pledges as our fundraising platform and it’s super easy! When the fundraiser kicks off on October 4th, you will receive an email with important information & instructions, as well as a unique link for your student’s fundraising page. Students are tasked with finding individuals and businesses to sponsor their practice time during our fundraiser party. Each student will have a goal of raising at least $300, but feel free to increase that goal.

Our ultimate goal is to raise $50,000, but with the opportunity for the Wind Symphony Percussion Ensemble to perform at the Music for All National Festival in Indianapolis in March, I would LOVE to beat that amount this year! So, start looking for business sponsors now! If businesses you contact donate, it will count towards your student’s fundraising goal. They just need to include the student they are sponsoring, along with their donation. You can download the flyer below to give to businesses.

Keep an eye out for that email and get ready to help support our amazing Hudson Hawk Band program! Let’s try to have 100% participation this year! No amount is too small!

It’s not too early to get a jump-start on reaching out to corporate band sponsors! This year we have multiple levels of band sponsorships so potential donors can decide how they would like to support our band. Corporate sponsors in any of the four sponsorship levels will have their business logo included on our band website and in concert programs the entire school year. Feel free to print this flyer about the Hudson Band and the sponsorship levels and reach out to businesses in your community. Have your student ask a band director for copies of the flier too! Feel free to contact me at fundraising@hudsonband.org if you have any questions because I’m excited about fundraising and the opportunities we have this year!

After a rigorous judging process, our Wind Symphony Percussion Ensemble has been accepted to perform at the Music for All National Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana in March of 2025. We are thrilled to get to showcase these students on a national stage and can't wait to get started preparing for our performance. You can help by sharing info about our sponsorship levels, participating in fundraisers, and joining us for spirit nights at local restaurants this year. This is a huge honor for our program and excites us for other possible opportunities like this in the future!

Much like the beginner band year, as students continue with band there are new/different/extra supplies that will be needed. Many of these are the same supplies that we requested for this past year, so if your student will be an 8th grader, they likely already have these supplies. Please make sure your student has these supplies when we start school. The supplies on the list have been linked to Amazon to try and make it super easy for you - just add to cart and check out!

You can find all of the Beginner Band supply lists for each instrument on our band website. They're found on the handouts page, where there's also a list of our recommended music stores that can help you rent instrument or purchase necessary supplies. Don't wait to get your supplies ordered - it takes a few days for the stores to fill the orders and you don't want your student to miss out on the first sounds of the year with their class!

This year, we will be using a new fine arts management program called Presto. For our returning members, this is replacing Charms. This program allows us to keep track of band finances, inventory, music library, communicate with members, and much more. On Thursday, August 15th, all parents and students should have received a welcome email from Presto with details on how to log in. You will be able to see upcoming events, outstanding balances, make online payments, keep track of your student's school-owned uniforms and inventory, etc. We believe this system to be much more user friendly than Charms and are excited to transition to this new program!

You can watch a quick tutorial video below!

• Reams of copy paper
• Cases of bottled water
• Puppy pads (for emptying spit valves and saving the carpet)
• Candy/Stickers/Trinkets (to use as student incentives)

Heather Becker - Director

Dan Urban - Assistant Director

Ryan Neff - Assistant Director

Website: www.hudsonband.org
Phone: 972-675-3070 ext. 52218
Facebook: facebook.com/hudsonmsband

Instagram: instagram.com/hudsonhawkband
X: @hudsonhawkband