Dear Appling band students and parents:

The Solo and Ensemble Festival has been scheduled for Saturday April 1 at Elmore Park Middle School. This is the same as last year in that each school is assigned to a block of time and Appling’s assigned time is from 4:15 pm-5:00p.m (this is the last school of the day)We have paid for everyone to participate and it is covered with your band dues. This is also part of your responsibility and part of your grade and has been on the band calendar all year. There is only one student that has let me know ahead of time and is excused.

Students will need to report to the warm-up area (cafeteria) at 3:45 pm to warm up and receive instructions. Please find me and check in with me when you arrive so that I know you are here and I will give you your judge’s sheet to take in with you (this will be how I check attendance). When you arrive, stay together as like instruments and begin to warm-up. You may want to bring a wire music stand for warm up if you have one. Please warm up carefully. At the designated time, 4:15 pm, the students will go to the assigned hallways for your instrument family (they will be posted throughout the school)… Ex. Flutes and clarinets to the woodwind hallway and trumpets and trombones to the brass hallway. You will not be able to play in the hallways outside of rooms. Parents cannot go with you and will need to wait in the cafeteria until you are done. There will be a monitor at each room to help. When the student enters the appropriate room, you will need to give the judge a copy of the music with the measures numbered and the name of the student and school (this is your responsibility to get your own judge’s copy – there will be one available for $1 per copy or get one on your own ahead of time at parent’s work, Kinko’s, library, etc…..) and a judge’s sheet already filled in with the student info (I will give these to you in the cafeteria when you check in). Make sure that your music is long enough (should be at least 32 measures…the solos we have worked on in class meet this requirement) and if it is extremely long (over 3 minutes), make sure you have found a good place to stop and are prepared to tell the judge when you walk in what you plan to do with the repeats and/or the stopping place. If a student is involved in more than one event, they will go to the solo room first and then meet at the ensemble room to perform. Make sure you have tuned and have practiced together during the warmup in the cafeteria. There will be an overflow room in case a particular area gets overcrowded and bottlenecked. The monitors will send people to the overflow room as needed.

After I have seen that all students have performed, I will check out and pick up your comment sheets and your medals. You are free to leave after you perform. However, you may stick around and find out what you made if you like or you can e-mail me at or I can tell you on Monday when we return to school. If you receive a superior (1) or excellent (2) rating, then you will receive a medal and these will be given out at our awards banquet in May. All students will be receiving a certificate of participation.

Elmore Park Middle School is located at 6330 Althorne Rd, Bartlett, TN 38134. This is off Alturia south of Stage Rd. Allow plenty of time to get there and find parking –there should be people there to direct you. Students are to bring their instruments in assembled and leave cases in the car or at home. Students are not to roam about the campus either inside or outside.

Reminder: You are representing Appling Middle School and the Appling Band and you must be on your best behavior. Also, I encourage you to dress appropriately for the occasion. During the event, the judge will see you and there is a category on the judge’s sheet for “other” which may include how you dress and carry yourself. Hopefully this will be with poise and confidence. I encourage you to wear your Sunday dress clothes – girls should wear a dress, skirt, or nice dress pants and boys should wear nice dress pants and shirt (a tie is not required but would look nice). You want to impress the judges before they hear you play. They ask that you do not wear school affiliated shirts.

Other tips of advice: be polite. They will probably talk to you after you play and give you feedback and they may even have you play part of it over again. Don’t be bothered by this – this is a learning experience and not a just “play and get it over with” type of event. Saying “yes sir and no sir” and “yes ma’am and no ma’am” will also impress them. You may want to introduce yourself when you walk in…. for example ”Good afternoon. My name is John Smith and I am in 6th grade at Appling Middle School.” I also think that it is nice to say “Thank you for listening to me today” as you are leaving. Carry yourself with pride and have good posture. This will make you breathe and sound much better. Yes… you will be nervous but calm down and take deep breaths. If you are doing an ensemble, make sure you are in tune and focus on your part, not the other person’s. If you get lost, don’t stop but try to catch up with the other person. Tuning and balance are very important in ensembles. The main thing that people forget about in these “high stress” situations is to play musically. Usually they just play the notes or rhythms on the page. Play expressively, with dynamics, and you will surely get a better score. Here are the categories that they are judging: tone, intonation (tuning), balance (for ensembles), rhythm accuracy, technical accuracy, musicality (dynamics, accents, etc….), and other factors (choice of music, how you are dressed, how polite you are, etc…..).

This is a required graded eventfor a grade. The band has paid $10 per person for you to attend (part of your band fee). If you will not be able to commit, please let me know as soon as possible through e-mail or written note. Those students not attending will play for me in class for a grade and will not be eligible for a medal. There is only one student that has let me know ahead of time and is excused. If you do not show and do not have a valid excuse, then you will still be asked to play for a partial grade. If you cannot play at 4:15 and need to go at an earlier time (there is no later time), we can most definitely work that out and you can play with another school… but you must let me know so that I can let the director at that time know to look for your score sheet to come through and to also be a proxy for me so that you can participate. I will also have to get you your score sheet ahead of time.

Smart Music was assigned for these before spring break and I heard many good things from you and know you will do well. These will not show up on your home page anymore but you can still find them if you do a search under “Find Music”. They are in the Standard of Excellence Festival Solo book (book one for 6th and 7th grade and book two for eighth grade). With using this tool, there are no excuses for missing notes and rhythms so I hope you took advantage of using it. Please use this as your “homework” so that you can do well at festival. Use the “listen” tool to critique yourself and really work on good tone, style, and dynamics so that you can try to achieve a superior rating. Since everyone has them, you may bring your laptop with you to the festival and perform with the accompaniment and I think that would be impressive to a judge, but make sure you have practiced with it. If this is the case, then you can read your music from the screen and give the judge your paper copy to follow.

I think that I have covered everything. Please take this seriously and do your best. I know Appling students will do awesome! If you have any questions, please come by and ask or e-mail me at . Good luck!

Mrs. Sanders