Highland Bands -- Overview

General

Band at Highland Middle School is a graded, co-curricular class. Students enrolled in band attend two different types of classes. The first type are small-group lessons and the second type are large-group ensembles. Small-group lessons meet once per-week during the school day. Large-group ensembles meet several times per-week before school.

Concert Bands

There are three concert bands at Highland. These are separated by ability level. Generally this means that they are separated by grade level. All of these bands rehearse before school from 7:45 - 8:43 A.M. Here is a list of the bands with the grade level they generally represent and rehearsal days:

Gold Band - Mostly 6th Grade - Mon & Thurs
Red Band - Mostly 7th Grade - Mon, Tues, & Wed
Symphonic Band - Mostly 8th Grade - Tues, Wed, & Thurs

Incoming sixth graders are placed into Gold Band. Students advance to Red Band as seventh graders if they score 90% or higher on the sixth grade testing curriculum during small-group lessons. Students then advance the next year to Symphonic Band if they score 90% or higher on the seventh grade testing curriculum. Students scoring below 90% stay in the same band the next year that they were in the previous year. They have every opportunity to "move up" to the band with their grade level peers.

Occasionally a few of our strongest students are "moved up" a band ahead of their grade-level peers. This is done when there is a need for a specific instrument in one of the older bands and there is a student in the younger grade level who shows strong musical skills. The students who are moved up all take private lessons.

Over-Instrumentation

There are two instruments that are limited in the upper two concert bands at Highland. These are percussion and saxophone. Due to equipment and space Red Band and Symphonic Band have only nine percussionists each. Due to the overly loud sounds made by saxophones Red Band and Symphonic Band have only six alto saxophones each. Placement into these bands on these instruments is determined by testing averages during small-group lessons.

Small-Group Lessons

Small-group lessons continue at Highland as they did in elementary school. These occur once per-week during the school day. There is another entire page of this site devoted to Highland Small-Group Lessons.

Solo & Ensemble

Solo & Ensemble is unit of study which occurs during small-group lessons. It is approximately five weeks long and usually starts in January so as to end with the Solo and Ensemble Contest in February. Participation in the contest is optional, but all students will be working on solos and/or ensembles during their lessons for this unit. There is another entire page of this site devoted to Solo and Ensemble.

Jazz Bands

Jazz bands at Highland are ungraded, extra-curricular ensembles. There are three jazz bands at Highland. The upper two ensembles (Jazz 1 and Jazz 2) are "traditional" jazz bands and include saxophones, trumpets, trombones, piano, guitar, bass, and drums. Students are placed into these ensembles by audition. Jazz 3 is open to all instruments without audition, with the exception of piano, guitar, bass, and drums. There is a page of this web site devoted to the jazz auditions.

Contests

All three concert bands and the upper two jazz bands attend one large-group contest per-year. These events give students and teachers a chance to be critiqued by a panel of professional music educators. Not only are these events a good chance for students to learn from other great educators, but the comments given to the groups are used by the Highland's teachers in future years to make the bands even better. All students enrolled in band also have the opportunity to participate in the Illinois Grade School Music Association (IGSMA) Solo and Ensemble Contest.

Full Orchestra

The Highland Orchestra includes winds, brass, and percussion sections for some of the music they perform. The band instruments used in full orchestra are flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, French Horn, trombone, tuba, and percussion. It is the addition of these instruments that allows the "String Orchestra" become the "Full Orchestra." Symphonic Band members who play these instruments are invited to audition for full orchestra in the fall. Full Orchestra meets on Monday's before school during regular rehearsal time. Gold Band and Red Band members can not participate as their bands rehearse on Monday mornings.