The Nash Band

Bobby McCoy, Josh Nowlin, Don Harrell, Joshua Groth, Stephanie Evans, John Mize

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Join the Nash 6th Grade Band!

Band Instrument Interviews

May 19 3:20pm-7:00pm @ Nash Band Hall

May 2011:00am-2:00pm @ Nash Band Hall

May 20 3:20pm-7:00pm @ Nash Band Hall

May 223:20pm-7:00pm @ Nash Band Hall

*You don’t have to stay the whole time. You can interview with a director and then leave once you finish. It might take 15 minutes at the most.

*In the interview, you will have the opportunity to speak with a band director about what instrument your student should play and what your student will be expected to do as one of next year’s elite 6th grade band students.

*You will also be able to ask the directors any questions you have concerning being your student participating in band.

You are welcome to email the band at with all of your band questions.

The Nash Band is an elite and prestigious group at Nash that performs special concerts and trains students for future involvement in the award winning and world traveling Kaufman Band. The 6th grade Nash band not only performs for several hundred people each year, it also provides an outlet for students to perform solos at a special contest hosted in Kaufman for all beginner band students.

Being in Band has provento be one of the best and most effective ways for student to boost their academic achievement levels. Students involved in band are more likely to:

1. Make good grades 2. Have good attendance 3. Stay out of trouble 4: Score higher on the SAT and ACT. In fact, students involved in music organizations such as band outperform all other student organizations on college entrance exams such as the SAT. TexasAllState musicians scored an average of 1829 on the SAT compared to the state average of 1437.

The Information on this page is the result of research studies that indicate how being in Band is a powerful tool for success in your student’s life.

*Academic Ratings: Campuses with a higher percentage of student enrollment in the fine arts courses achieved higher academic ratings.

*Student Attendance: Campuses with a higher percentage of student enrollment in music classes reported higher attendance rates.

*Students enrolled in band score higher on the SAT than other students in the state. The SAT average score of Texas All-State Musicians is 1829. The state average is lower at 1437.

*There are 359 direct correlations of Music Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Objectives (What we teach band students in the band class) to the same critical objectives on standardized tests.

An excerpt from an article published in the “The Scientific American,” October, 2010.

“Studies have shown that assiduous instrument training from an early age can help the brain to process sounds better, making it easier to stay focused when absorbing other subjects, from literature to tensor calculus. The musically adept are better able to concentrate on a biology lesson despite the racket in the classroom or, a few years later, to finish a call with a client when a colleague in the next cubicle starts screaming at an underling. They can attend to several things at once in the mental scratch pad called working memory, an essential skill in this era of multitasking.”

“Research of our brains on music leads to the conclusion that music education needs to be preserved…….further insights demonstrate, say, how the concentration mustered to play the clarinet or the oboe can help a problem student focus better in math class. The main reason for playing an instrument, of course, will always be the sheer joy of blowing a horn or banging [on drums]. But we should also be working to incorporate into the curriculum our new knowledge of music’s beneficial effect on the developing brain. Sustained involvement with an instrument from an early age is an achievable goal even with tight budgets. Music is not just an ‘extra.’”