Dutchtown Middle School Band

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This site contains information about the Dutchtown Middle School Band Program located in Geismar, Louisiana. This website will be useful for current members of the band, as well as prospective members, and members of the community that are interested in what is happening with the Dutchtown Middle School Band.

Solo and Ensemble Ratings can be viewed by clicking Solo and Ensemble Ratings 2008 this link. Congratulations to all that played. A rating of I is a superior rating and those students will get their medals at the spring concert.

If you are a 5th grader at Duplessis or Dutchtown Primary School and want to be in band, you need to print out the following two letters, here and here, and send the instrument choice form in to your homeroom teacher. You will be placed in the band elective at Dutchtown Middle if you get this form in. We will have a meeting in August to let you know more about the band.

Solo and Ensemble Festival will be on May 10^th. I gave out a letter about this and emailed the pertinent information to you. I will have performance times up this week. You need to arrive at school at least 30 minutes before you perform to warm up and get ready.

Our State Festival Trip was very successful in spite of the rating. The band played very well and represented our school with pride. I was and continue to be very proud of all of out band students. Go to the Sounds page to hear our performance if you missed it live.

If you are a 7th grader or new to our band you will need the formal concert band uniform which is white pants, white shoes, white socks, and our purple band shirt. If you have a waist size above 26” we have white pants in stock in the band room and these are for sale for $25.00. White shoes can be tennis shoes and are available at any shoe or department store. Band shirts are $10.00 if you don’t still have the one from 6th grade band. If you are smaller than 26” waist, please try to find some white pants. White work pants or Dickies are acceptable. Pants must be full length and not cargo style. Sometimes you can find these at uniform shops.

Quote of the Week “The musician is constantly adjusting decisions on tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing, and feeling--training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing and conducting numerous activities at once. Dedicated practice of this orchestration can have a great payoff for lifelong attentional skills, intelligence, and an ability for self-knowledge and expression.” — Ratey John J., MD. A User’s Guide to the Brain. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001.

Practice charts are due on Mondays for all band members. This is part of the band grade. If you have lost your practice chart, you may go to the Band Forms page and print as many as you like. This page also has many other useful forms that you may need for band.

Please click here if you are interested in information on the Dutchtown High School Band

Why Learn Music? Interested in some good reasons why we do what we do? Click here.

Email List: If you want to be on the band email notification list, please email me at bresowar@apsb.org. I will send out by email all band notifications that are passed out in class. This way parents can be aware of what is going on in case something does not make it home from school.