During my Elementary Student Teaching experience I had the opportunity to work with the 5th Grade Band. As a way of motivating the students we organized a Pep Band to go to the 4th/5th grade basketball games during the district tournament. Since the students give up their recess twice a week for Band rehearsal, this offered a sort of reward for the students, and showed the students a different outlet/purpose for music. The music consisted of songs the students could have heard at other sport events or songs from movies like the Death March. All the songs were fairly short, with optional repeats at the end of them, were numbered on one sheet of paper, and used simplified rhythms. This allowed us to be flexible, move quickly, and didn’t require screaming over the game/crowd to indicate the next song. Using only one sheet of music kept the gigs easy and let the students maintain themselves. They were only responsible for their individual instruments, one stand, and one sheet of music. Generally, we were in and out of the basketball games in an hour or less. The most prominent consequence of using this ensemble was in the appreciation and visibility it created for the school and the main music teacher/director. The games in our district were back-to-back in the same gym, so at times there were up to 6 different schools represented at the same time. Several parents and administrators from schools in the county would stop by just to say how much they enjoyed our band, and were often surprised by how well they sounded as 5th graders. It’s an excellent opportunity to get members of the community or middle/high school programs involved, and provides further justification for the band or music program in your school. Check out the PDF attached below for an example of a flute part.
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March 2023
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