Dec 17, 20243 min read

CN Band Newsletter 12.18.2024

Updated: Dec 18, 2024

From the Director’s Desk

Happy Holidays! Congratulations on making it to the end of the first semester. I hope your final exams go well and you get some good rest and time to spend with your families over the next three weeks.

Congratulations to our CN & GR students for earning chairs in the Fresno Madera County Music Educators Association Honor Band and Orchestra! This is a great accomplishment. This year Clovis North and Granite Ridge have the most students from any campus participating in ALL middle and high schools from the two counties.

We have 28 High School students participating in the honor band – the school with the next highest enrollment (CHS) has 14, (CEHS) 12, (CW) 10, (BHS) 9, and other Fresno/Madera area schools combined (25). We have 5 CN wind and percussion students earn chairs in the High School Symphony Orchestra, more than any other school. GR had a whopping 20 students win chairs for the Middle School honor band, more than any school.

We are very proud of our students as the audition preparation was all work done on their own time.

Spring pledge form links were sent out yesterday. Thank you to the families who have already completed the form and submitted a donation. We appreciate it!

Remember Core PE starts after the break. Don’t forget to be on time and to dress out appropriately. NO B’s in Core PE!!!

Thank you for your continued support of the arts!

Wind Ensemble

Now that Marching Band is over Concert Band takes center stage. We are working on preparing a challenging and exciting program for our upcoming festivals. Students should be practicing regularly. We spend a good portion of each rehearsal learning what appropriate practice is and how to break down a practice session to minimize frustration and maximize productivity and improvement.

We will continue Monday night rehearsals from 5:30-9:00 pm once the second semester begins.

During the break, students should work on solidifying their music for FMCMEA and getting as proficient as possible on the four pieces we currently have in the music folder.

Concert Band

Great progress on the music this week! We are looking to polish up all the details. Over the break, work on the articulations at a slow tempo. We aim to have notes and rhythms ready for our guest clinician, Robert Herrings, at our Concert Band camp in February. Have a great break!

Jazz Band

The CN Jazz Band continues to focus on their most challenging charts for our upcoming festivals. A very momentous congratulation goes out to Nathan Hazelrigg for making Lead Trombone, (1st Chair) in the All-State Jazz Band! Have a happy and safe Holiday Season.

Percussion

CN Indoor Percussion is off to a great start. Drums are learning drill and the front ensemble can already play about 1/3 of the show music. Tuesday night was an exciting night as we had designer of the new sound system out and we finished putting together the synth stations and got everything set up with new mics and are running everything through the new sound board. We are excited about what the next chapter in our sound production will be with the new system. Don’t forget after the winter break students will start attending PE class as a zero period class or as a lunchtime class. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Color Guard

Please observe our calendar. We have two important rehearsals scheduled during the break where we will learn the majority if not all the staging for the Varsity Winter Guard Show.