Sounds of the Season 2015

Saturday, December 5, 2015

M&M was able to participate in the Sounds of the Season concert again this year with me. It is fun being able to share this experience with her as well as with my parents!

Sounds of the Season 2014

Saturday, December 6

I was able to perform with Sounds of the Season again this year.  And again there was a conflict with M&M's district honor band so she decided not to participate with Sounds of the Season this year - and I missed her concert once again. We had a 2:00 matinee performance and then a 7:30 evening performance which DH and the kids came to.

I uploaded this picture and thought, wait, is this picture from the wrong year because it looks like M&M is in the picture.  After looking at it a little closer I realized that it is not M&M, it is one of the violin players!

A picture with my mom in it.

A picture with my dad in it.

Kay and MJ had their picture taken with Santa.

Blondie's School Play

Wednesday, March 12

Blondie's 5th grade class did a musical this year about the California Gold Rush.  Blondie was an extra - she was a narrator, a settler, and one of the miner's children.  Here are a couple of pictures from it:

Sounds of the Season 2013

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Emily was able to perform with Sounds of the Season for our evening performance this year.  My parents were in the choir again and I played the flute and piccolo.  Here are a couple of pictures that DH took from the audience:

You can see both of my parents in this picture: my dad on the far right and my mom on the far left.

Crazy Saturday

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Saturday was super crazy because M&M and I both had separate performances at the same time (District Honor Band for M&M and Sounds of the Season for me).  So both DH and I missed her performance. :(  Thankfully some friends of ours were able to give her a ride there and she got a ride back home with another friend.  Kitty got a ride to the play (since she had to be there early and I wasn't going to be home in time).  I had just enough time after my afternoon concert to go home and get the kids in the car to leave for Kitty's play.  Crazy as it all was, Kitty's play performance time was right in between my two concerts so M&M and I (and my parents) were able to attend.  DH got home from his Guatemala trip and hopped in his car with his ticket for the play and met us there - he arrived just after it started.  After the play was over M&M and I had to take off for our next concert and DH rounded up Kitty and the rest of the kids and headed over to the high school for the Sounds of the Season concert.

Orchestra Christmas Concert

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Kitty & Blondie were having their orchestra Christmas performance on Thursday evening and I had a dress rehearsal that night for Sounds of the Season so I was not going to be able to attend the evening concert (and DH was out of town so he couldn't go either).  Thankfully they also do two performances during school hours for the students.  So DH was able to go to the school concert before he left town and then I was able to attend on Thursday morning.

MJ waiting for the performance to start.

The orchestra group

Busiest week of my life

I think that the first week of December 2013 was the busiest week of my life!  DH was on a work trip to Guatemala and I was running solo with our 6 kids.  That week we had dress rehearsals and performances for the school musical, I had a dress rehearsal and performances for Sounds of the Season, M&M had District Honor Band rehearsals and performance and played in one performance for Sounds of the Season, and Kitty and Blondie had orchestra performances.  Thankfully we have some super neighbors and friends that I was able to call on to help me get everyone where they needed to be! DH was gone Sunday through Saturday afternoon.  He made it back just in time to see most of Kitty's performance on Saturday and then was able to bring the kids with him to my Sounds of the Season performance Saturday evening.  It was definitely a week that I am hoping to not have to repeat ever again!

Spring Orchestra Concert

Thursday, May 2

They have an excellent orchestra program at our kids' elementary school.  The teacher has been teaching there for many years and has built up a great program.  Blondie has learned a lot playing the viola this year and has really enjoyed herself.  I am glad that she was able to participate!  They had their spring concert at the beginning of May, combined with the band program (which really struggles).  At first I had all of the kids with me but then MJ fell down outside while we were waiting for the program to start and I ended up taking everyone except for Kay home to stay with M&M.

MJ singing

I was able to take some video with my ipad of MJ singing "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction:




Here is the song with lyrics by One Direction in case you're not familiar with the song and want to hear the original:

Congrats M&M!

A couple of weeks ago M&M auditioned for the Wind Symphony group for the high school she will be attending next year.  This is the top band group at the high school and is composed mostly of juniors and seniors.  The high school teacher came to her school and auditioned anyone who was interested immediately following school.  M&M just found out yesterday that she made it into the group and so did a fellow classmate of hers who plays clarinet.  She is super excited!  The high school teacher has been excited to have her come play for them ever since he heard her play last year when she was in 8th grade.  They have not had a bassoon player the last year or two at the high school.

Christmas concerts

M&M's band concert was Wednesday, December 12th.

Blondie's school orchestra concert was the following evening, Thursday, December 13th.

They both performed well.  We are a little disappointed in M&M's band this year.  There are not a lot of 9th graders that are in the band program so the top band is a very small group and they have moved up some of the 8th graders to make the group a little bigger, but that means they are not quite as good.  M&M is definitely looking forward to moving up to the high school next year.  Blondie's school orchestra is amazing!  Her teacher has been teaching there for several years and has an excellent program going at the school.

Sounds of the Season 2012

December 7-8

Our Friday night performance went pretty well, although I had a huge headache that whole day.  I was a little nervous on a couple of the songs starting out, but once we got into it I did alright.  It was fun having M&M participate with me this year.  We'll have to see what her schedule is like for next year's performances!

I think that our second night went a little bit better than the first, but I struggled a little on the piccolo part!  For the last song there was a section where I needed to play really high on then piccolo and by that point in the concert I am pretty worn out.  I didn't get it all out on the first run through but I was able to get the part out for the encore (which was just the last half of the last song).  So playing that high part twice on the piccolo at the very end of the night is asking a bit much for someone at my level!  DH and Kay to the Saturday night performance as well as my sister and her family.  DH was wondering if this is the first time there has been 3 generations of performers in the group - my parents, me and M&M.

Assembly Hall Performance

Saturday, November 24

Time for our annual city Christmas choral program, Sounds of the Season, and I am playing the flute/piccolo with them again this year!  It has been awesome!  I really missed playing with this group last year.  And this year M&M joined our group with the bassoon.  They had a couple of possibilities for bassoon players and they both fell through so I volunteered M&M.  The music was a bit of a challenge for her but she has been enjoying it.  Her band music is a little too easy for her this year and she is getting a little frustrated with the class this year in school.

We had our first concert the weekend right after Thanksgiving day at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.  At first we didn't think that M&M would be playing with us for that performance because the space is really limited for the orchestra, but at our Saturday morning rehearsal the director said that she wanted M&M to come too.  (And if there was not room for her she would just sit in the audience and watch.)

M&M and I drove down to Temple Square for our performance and she was able to play with us.  About halfway through the performance I spotted DH in the audience with all the rest of our kids.  I was quite surprised that he had decided to make the trip downtown to see us - and to bring all of the kids with him.  We had talked about him doing that a little bit but he hadn't sounded too interested in making the trip.  Afterwards we met them outside of the building and decided to walk over to the new City Creek Center to the food court to get some dinner.  Unfortunately a lot of other people apparently had the same idea for that evening because it was jam packed!  We got some food for the kids but we had an incredibly hard time finding a place to sit down and eat.  We finally found a counter with some stools at it for the kids to sit at.  After that we tried walking through Temple Square to see the Christmas lights, but it was so crowded it was ridiculous...  We ended up not spending much time there and then went back to our cars and headed home.

Viola

A few weeks after school started, the kids brought home fliers about school orchestra.  Blondie has been talking off and on over the last year about playing in the orchestra and this year she really, really wanted to join.  Being from a musical family myself I am not one who wants to discourage my kids when they express interest in learning an instrument.  The problem with a string instrument though is that there are many different sizes, based on the size of your child and I know very little about them (and neither does DH who came from a strictly band family).  My mom and sister played the cello but I still don't know much about it.  DH and I agreed that she could be in the orchestra but then we had to decide on which instrument and renting it.  

At first DH wanted to play the cello but after looking at rental prices we decided that that wasn't in our budget at this time - not only would we have to play a monthly rental fee for the instrument, but we have to pay for the orchestra class which is $200 for the year.  The beginning group meets Monday and Wednesday mornings before school so there is also a time investment on my part to take her to school early twice a week (and then drive her both ways on the days she is off-track).  I haven't been too impressed with the band program at the school since we have been going there, but the orchestra program is really good with an excellent teacher who has been teaching there for several years.

I took Blondie to a local music store one day after school to have her measured for an instrument and she would have needed a 1/4 size cello.  After we found out the monthly price for that we decided to look into violins and violas.  The 1/4 size cello was so cute that I was a little tempted, but it was about double the rental price of the smaller instruments.  I think Blondie was a little more hesitant to do the violin because there are so many kids that do that so we looked at the violas.  The size viola that she needed the store didn't have but we were told that they could restring a 1/4 size violin for her with viola strings.  At that size apparently it doesn't make a huge difference.  So after talking with Blondie and DH about it we decided to do the 1/4 violin with viola strings.  It is tiny!!  She will probably grow up to the next size next year so we will need to decide what we want to do then.  (The viola has the 3 lowest violin strings and then one string lower.  It is very similar looking to a violin but is typically a little larger and a little wider at the base.  And one thing that I didn't know before is that the viola reads the Alto Clef.)

I picked up the instrument when Blondie was at school and a couple of other things that she needed for it and she has been so excited!!  It is fun watching her get better at it and she enjoys telling us the things that she has learned each day.  They will have their first concert for the parents in December.

Running on fumes...

This is what M&M's marching band schedule has looked like for the last couple of weeks.  And on top of that she still has school and homework.  Needless to say she has been literally running on fumes over the last little while.  They regularly have about 3 rehearsals a week for 3 hours each and then a competition and sometimes a football game.  They have really lucked out with the weather this year.  It has been a pretty mild fall season.  It seems crazy that the season is already almost over!  I think it will be a relief but at the same time I think she will really miss it!  She's already talking about and looking forward to next year and learning a new show!

• Monday, Oct 1 - Rehearsal 3-6 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct 2 - Rehearsal 3-6 p.m.
• Thursday, Oct 4 - Rehearsal 6-9 p.m.
• Friday, Oct 5 - Homecoming Football game 5-10:30 p.m. (I helped sell T-shirts at this game for the band boosters)
• Saturday, Oct 6 - Wasatch Front Competition 12:15-6:00 (luckily this competition was at a high school in our school district)
• Monday, Oct 8 - Rehearsal 3-6 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct 9 - BYU/Rocky Mountain Invitational Competition 3:00-11:30 p.m. (I picked M&M up as soon as school was over and took her straight to the high school)
• Wednesday, Oct 10 - Football game 5:30-9:30 (I still am not sure why this game was played on a Wednesday...)
• Thursday, Oct 11 - Rehearsal 3-6 p.m.
• Friday, Oct 12 - Rehearsal 6-9 p.m.
• Monday, Oct 15 - Rehearsal 3-6 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct 16 - Davis Cup Marching Band Competition 3:00-11:00 p.m. (Again I picked M&M up from school and took her straight to the high school)
• Wednesday, Oct 17 - Rehearsal 6-9 p.m.

M&M sightings!

Saturday, August 25

M&M's first marching band outing of the year was at Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah.  Her high school football team has their opening game of the season there every year against Alta High School.  We decided not to go but we have a few friends from the ward that were there and spotted M&M and sent us some pictures from their phones.  This was her first time wearing her band uniform and since they don't bring it home it was our first time seeing her in it.  Two people came up to me at church the next day and told me that they had seen her and didn't know that she was in the marching band.  It kind of ended up being a bum deal for the band though because they were scheduled to perform their half-time show at the end of the game but the people at the stadium wouldn't let them do it because the game ended much later than expected.  So they got dressed up in their uniforms and were out late just so they could play a few songs in the stands (and I think they were able to do a portion of the pre-game show).

Band Camp

August 9-21

M&M is doing marching band at the high school this year.  It seems kind of weird because she will still be attending the middle school, but I will need to pick her up a couple times a week immediately following school to take her over to the high school for rehearsals.  They started with a band camp that was just at the high school.  Her first day was just for new people to the program and went from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.  The remainder of the days were 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.!!  Unfortunately the person writing their drill didn't finish the drill for the last song until a couple of weeks after school started so they are a little behind as far as the season goes.

Can I just say that watching M&M and the marching band has brought back so many memories for me!!  I remember the long, intense rehearsals, the hours in the sun (or cold), the super busy weeks and weekends with rehearsals, football games & competitions!  I really enjoy it when I am able to get to her rehearsals before they end so that I can watch them.  And she is really enjoying the whole experience, it's been nice!  I will periodically try and post pictures as the season goes along.

So now we are going to play a game called, "Where is M&M?"  See if you can find her in these pictures from band camp.  They had to bring a white shirt to camp so they could write their dot number on it to make it easier to form the sets and make sure that everyone is in the right spot.  They had to wear this shirt everyday to camp.

Standing in straight lines - pretty good...

This picture cracks me up because they do a crazy kind of a zig zag move their first few sets which is supposed to look like a snake swerving back and forth.  I think M&M says that they call this a "jazz run".

Standing in diagonal lines - could use a little work...

Piano recital

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The kids had their end of the year piano recital.  (Kitty started out the school year taking lessons but we dropped them a couple of months ago because she was having a hard time at lessons and not cooperating with the teacher on several occasions.  We might start her up again in the fall if we feel she is ready.)

For Luke's birthday I gave him some piano music to Star Wars and he ended up playing one of those for the recital.  Blondie played a song from the Tangled piano book I bought a couple of months ago and M&M played one of the theme songs from the Peanuts.  It's fun to hear the kids get better at the piano and to see them enjoying it when they learn a song that they know.

Unfortunately I spent most of the evening in the hallway trying to keep MJ entertained and trying not to distract the other people watching the recital.  Thankfully I could hear just fine from there though.

Unexpected praise

M&M has been playing the bassoon now for a little over a year and she loves it!  She has been self taught with some tips found on the internet and a few pointers from one of her orchestra teachers.  Other than that she has learned everything on her own.  When she first brought the bassoon home her band teacher had shown her how to put it together before she left school and I had bought a few reeds to try from a local music store.  We printed off a couple of fingering charts from the internet and then she has practiced and figured things out on her own.

The other day the band director from one of the local high schools stopped by her band class to drop off some marching band registration forms.  He came in while the band was in the middle of practicing a song and when M&M turned around to see who it was, he was standing right behind her.  In front of the whole class he told her that she sounded really good and had good tone and her tonguing was really crisp and clear too.  M&M's band teacher then said to M&M, "Tell him how long you've been playing."  M&M said that she had been playing just a little over a year and the high school director was amazed.  He then asked her where she would be going to high school (her school feeds into at least 3 different schools).  She said that she would be going to the high school where he teaches and he pumped his fist in the air and said, "YES!"    M&M was quite embarrassed by the whole scene because it took place with the whole band class watching her!

M&M's last band concert she had a solo part and we could actually hear her playing from the audience.  It was quite exciting and she did really good on it.  We had several neighbors in the audience who afterwards came up to us and complimented her on her performance.  (I will try and get a video clip of the solo up on YouTube for those that are interested.)  The bassoon is not a common instrument and it is typically not a solo instrument.  It is one that blends in well with the rest of the band/orchestra, supporting the melody parts and is hard to hear most of the time.  This last concert though I could hear her on several parts other than her solo as well.  We're pretty pleased with how well she is doing and hope that she will continue to enjoy music.

Since she will be going into 9th grade next year she is allowed to participate in the high school marching band, even though she will still be at the middle school.  She has attended a 2 day clinic on marching band and just last week we went to an info meeting to find out more about the costs and the time involvement.  I think she has decided that she wants to do it and it should be a good experience for her and a chance to meet and interact with a lot more people her age and with similar interests.  And no, she will not be marching with the bassoon!  She has kept up her playing on the flute a little bit and will either be marching with the flute or the piccolo.  Right now there are no piccolos in the marching band so she is a little hesitant to be the only one!  The downside to the marching band is that she would not be able to play soccer in the fall and she also will not be able to play in the after school area orchestra that she is in this year.  (Although she's not too bummed about the orchestra because she was trying to talk us out of having her do it next year anyways.  She thinks the music is too boring and she unfortunately hasn't enjoyed it a ton.  Maybe the group at the high school level will be more exciting for her to play with.)

Future piano player?

MJ is a surprisingly good piano player for her young age. She will sit at the piano and play very gently on the keys - very rarely does she ever pound. With the piano being right in the middle of the house, quite often I am asking whoever is playing to play quieter or wait until a more convenient time. Lately I have called out to see who is playing the piano only to find out that surprisingly it is MJ!