Summer 2024 Elementary Band Registration

Tri-City Band Corps is excited to announce the sixth year of its elementary band summer music program. We had over 600 students participate last summer, and we hope to see that number grow. Space is limited so register soon!

Note: This program is open to children entering grades 4+ in the 24-25 school year. Please do not register your child if they are younger than that.

Program Dates:

• Starting: Monday, June 3rd, 2024
• Ending: Thursday, July 25th, 2024

East Bay (In-person): Stratford, 43077 Osgood Rd, Fremont, CA 94539

• Beginning Band: Wednesdays 6:30 - 8:30 PM
• Intermediate Band: Mondays 6:30 - 8:30 PM
• Advanced Band: Mondays 6:30 - 8:30 PM
• *Bagpipes will be operating on the following schedule: Beginning: Mondays 6:30-7:30 PM
• Returning (Intermediate/Advanced): Mondays 7:30-8:30 PM

South Bay (In-person): Stratford, 1196 Lime Dr, Sunnyvale, CA 94087

• Beginning Band: Tuesdays and Thursdays 6:30 - 8:30 PM
• Intermediate Band: Tuesdays and Thursdays 6:30 - 8:30 PM
• Advanced Band: Tuesdays and Thursdays 6:30 - 7:30 PM

Our Process: We've designed an extremely comprehensive music program to ensure that students are receiving quality band instruction. Students in our program progress extremely quickly, consistently outperforming similar programs by covering more than twice as much content in the same amount of time.

• Weekly video lessons for your specific instrument
• Weekly sectionals for your specific instrument
• MakeMusic: The latest in music education technology. MakeMusic will track student practice time, provide instant assessments of student recording, and allows students to submit recordings to the teachers.
• We will have a concert at the end of the Summer to show off everything that our students have achieved.

Groups: We will be offering 3 levels for the 2024 summer program:

• Beginning
• Intermediate
• Advanced

Audition Information:

• Beginning - No previous experience needed (Must go through instrument selection night, first choice not guaranteed)
• Intermediate - Must be able to comfortably play Celebration for Winds by John Edmondson Please email us if you wish to audition for the intermediate program so we can send you the music pdf.
• Advanced - Must be able to comfortably play Turkish March in the Standard of Excellence Book 2

Level Recommendations:

• Current Beginning band students should sign up for Intermediate
• Current Intermediate band students should sign up for Advanced
• We highly encourage students who are comfortable with all the Standard of Excellence Book 2 exercises to move on to our Cadet Regiment instead (Recommended for current Advanced students)
• Students who are new to the program and wish to audition for a higher-level ensemble (Intermediate or Advanced) will need to submit an audition which is due by May 15th. Please email us at [email protected] for more info if you are interested.

Instruments Offered: Bagpipes (East Bay Only), Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Trumpet, Trombone, Euphonium/Baritone, French Horn, Percussion (Snare + Bells)

Costs: Our program is completely free to all students, though we do highly encourage donations to help us support our program. We're asking for a $250 donation, which helps cover MakeMusic, sheet music, sectionals, and lessons.

Grading: To evaluate our students' progress throughout the program, we use Google Classroom to keep track of student performance in our program. The grades will not affect whether or not students can remain in the program; we use them so both parents and volunteers can make sure students are keeping up in class! Students will be graded for the following:

• Weekly Class Attendance
• MakeMusic Homework Assignments
• Playing Tests

Elementary Band Introduction Meeting: We will be having a Zoom meeting on Saturday, May 18th, 2024 from 6-8 PM where students and parents will be introduced to our program's directors, and will get all of the needed information and clarification on how our program will run. We highly encourage all parents to come! More information regarding this meeting will be sent a few weeks prior. Meeting details are available in your confirmation email.

Instrument Selection Form (Required for Beginners): On the day of our introduction meeting, May 18th, we will be sending out a mandatory Google Form for beginning students to pick their instruments. All beginning students will be required to fill out the form and rank their top 3 instrument choices. Instruments will then be assigned to balance out the class. All students will receive their instrument assignment by May 27th.

To aid in the instrument selection process, we are planning to host in-person instrument demo sessions at the East Bay Stratford site on May 19th from 10am - 12pm so that students will have a better sense of how each instrument sounds and works, and learn about the pros and cons associated with each instrument; more information will be emailed out closer to the parent meeting date. Instrument demo videos will also be available with the instrument selection form, but we highly encourage students to attend an in-person session if possible.

Note: Although we try to match everyone with an instrument they are interested in, we cannot guarantee any instrument placement for beginners. Students who have completed the instrument demo or have submitted their requests at the parent meeting will be guaranteed one of their top 3 choices. Returning members who have completed a full season in our elementary band program will get priority for instrument selection.

Instrument Rentals: TBC offers a limited number of free rental Trombone, Bagpipes, and Baritones to students, with priority given to students from low income families. We will have more instrument rentals coming soon. Unfortunately, TBC is unable to provide any other instruments. We strongly encourage students to rent instruments from local music stores.

Here is the link where you can see local music stores.

https://www.tricitybandcorps.org/local-music-stores

Please do not buy instruments on eBay or Amazon.

Materials Needed:

• Instrument
• Music stand
• Beginning Band - Standard of Excellence Book 1 (Red)
• Intermediate and Advanced Band - Standard of Excellence Book 2 (Blue)
• Tuner (optional for beginning students, required for intermediate and advanced)
• Metronome (optional)

Performances:

This year our intermediate and advanced level students will be performing at the Fremont July 4th parade. Students will need to memorize 1 short song for this performance. This performance is optional and will take place the morning of Thursday, July 4th, 2024 starting 10 AM, and the route will be near the Fremont Main Library. There will be NO class on this day. All students who participate will be getting a free TBC t-shirt!

There will be two required rehearsals for the parade:

• Saturday, June 22nd, 5-7 pm
• Saturday, June 29th, 5-7 pm
• Location is at the East Bay Stratford site

If you sign up for the parade and need to drop out, the absolute last day to change your attendance status is June 4th.

End of Summer Concert:

All students participating in our elementary band program will also be performing in a concert at the end of the summer on Saturday, July 27th, 2024 from 4:30 - 7:30 PM!

After our summer season finishes, we will have a concert to show parents and families how far students have come. Students will be given concert sheet music which they will practice at home and during class. They will perform these songs during the concert and showcase their amazing talents!

If you are unable to come to the concert, you MUST notify us by June 20th.

Attendance Policy: We ask that all absences be reported at least 1 day in advance, and will only be marked as excused we are notified at least 24 hours prior to the sectional class. Students with multiple unexcused absences may be dropped from the class.

Questions? Email us at [email protected]

Host or Publisher Tri-City Band Corps