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Table of Contents
Why should my child be in the band?
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Who do I need to know in the band?Bob Moorefield is the director. He has been at Foothill since it opened in 1973. He is one of the founding members of the NCBA (Northern Cailfornia Band Association), the competition circuit that the band, color guard, and percussion perform in. Sheldon Galdeira (Mr. G) is the assistant director. He is new to Foothill this year. He was the director at Cupertino last year. Valerie Rossman is the head chaperone. She is a teacher at Foothill. All band trips are official school outings that follow school rules. The volunteer chaperones (this could be you) report to Valerie. Chaperone leads organize the first aid and medical cards. Marching instructors (Mac McEntyre - “Mac”, Dennis Aquilina - “Mr. A”, Ellise La Barre) work with all or parts of the band to perfect their marching and playing. These people are paid for by general fundraising. Color guard instructors (Jolie Hedricks, Ron Frost, Megan Dwyer) work with the color guard. Also paid for by general fundraising. Percussion instructors (Lane Sanders, P.J. Hohl, Evan Benterou, Leslie La Barre) work to help perfect the percussion line and pit. Foothill Band Boosters (non-profit organization) is the parent volunteer association for the band, color guard, and percussion. The Band Boosters are led by parent volunteers. The Truck Crew is a special set of volunteers. They load, drive, and unload the trucks. On the trucks are drums, sousaphones, xylophones, drum major conducting stands, food, tables, uniforms, hats, repair tools, and other items. The trucks also tow two golf carts that are used to deliver instruments for marching and field show. The Uniform people match uniforms with people during band camp. They adjust pants length and see that everything fits. During performance days, they help adjust uniforms, set up the belts, and make repairs. And if it rains, they find ways to dry the plumes. Bus chaperones go on one or more trips. They assist on the busses, help with food preparation or serving, assist with uniform adjustments and shoe polishing (parade competition includes inspection), provide water, and assist with moving equipment on and off of the field for field shows. They also assist with the food preparation and serving of our students at the performance site (chaperones eat after all of the students). Not everyone does every job. NCBA – Northern California Band Association. Set up to standardize competitions with rules and common judging criteria. Each event is judged by multiple judges who each focus on a specific part of the competition. Each judge’s scores, judging notes, and comments (on tape) for a band are given to the band director at the end of each competition. The students get the opportunity to listen to these tapes during the following week. Back to Top
What are the key parts of the band?Drum major – one for parades, at least one for field show. Drum majors put on clinics for aspiring drum majors to learn from them. They also may attend drum major camp. The drum majors leads the band in preparation and training. They also lead the section leaders. Anthony Debenedetti is the lead drum major for this season. Band section leaders – one or more people from each section (depends on section size) are chosen by the band director to assist with organizing training and practice for their sections. They assist as leaders during band camp. Color guard – This group is incorporated into the field shows, demonstrating a variety of artistic and physical skills during the show. They use flags, rifles, and swords. For parade, this group handles the letters “Foothill” in the front of the band, and performs with one item in both the front and back. During the winter, the color guard performs in Winter Guard competitions, an indoor performance using the field show items without the band. Percussion – This is the drums and pit crew. In parade, the drums are in a block in the middle of the band and the pit crew either plays other instruments or holds the banners as the last rank of the band. For drum line competition in parades (called “percussion forward”), a golf cart helps the pit crew swap flags for xylophones and the like, and the entire percussion group performs a competitive routine at the head of the band. For field show, the drums are part of the marching unit and the pit crew is set up in front of the band with the assistance of both golf carts and the truck crew. The pit has multiple xylophones, an electric piano, gong, glockenspiel, a set of tympani, and an empty LP gas container (they play it). Percussion competes in indoor winter events that have the drums marching with the pit crew set up in the front. Lots of percussive sound. Color guard and percussion attend many winter competitions together. Band – Everyone else. Lots of instruments. Lots of sound. Lots of marching. Some people may be drafted to complete the banner line for parades or recruited for sousaphone. No banners in the field show, so everyone is playing instruments. The band (with percussion) also performs in concert competitions, usually in the spring. Each band (symphonic and wind ensemble) competes as an individual entity. Within the band are also members of the jazz bands. The jazz bands perform in competitions in the winter and spring. Back to Top
How does the band communicate with parents?The best information for the students is written on the white board in the front of the band room. Students should read this a copy down information that applies to them everyday. The best information for parents is your student. The next best is the FBB meetings (1st Thursday or each month @ 7PM) where you can find out answers to questions and general information. Bob Moorefield is usually there. The Foothill Band website http://www.foothillband.org/ also contains valuable information including news, calendars and chaperone updates. Back to Top
What about the trips?The students and chaperones ride on nice busses. Heavy instruments, uniforms, hats, and food travel in trucks. The trucks are preloaded so they can leave very early and be waiting when the students arrive. Students are told the leaving time before each trip. It is written on the board in the band room. Students should arrive on time or earlier and be ready to board the busses. Chaperones check for band shirt, black socks, black Dinkles marching shoes, and instruments. It is the student’s responsibility to show up on time and prepared. You can help your student check that they have everything before leaving the house for those early morning performance trips. As this is a school event, school clothing rules apply when they are not in uniform. On the bus, students can eat, talk, play games, do homework or watch movies. Movies are show on airplane-like screens. The students or chaperones provide DVDs. G-PG-PG13: school appropriate only. There has been a variety of fruits available as the students arrive. Students can eat and stretch their legs. Each competition has one or more events. The students will be told when it is time to change into their uniforms. After changing, they collect their hats and plumes, their instruments, and line up. The band directors or drum majors take over at this point. The uniform people use the warm-up time to adjust things, especially the belts. Parades usually have inspections. When an event ends, students are expected to change out of their uniforms. If there is more than one competitive event, the students will change into and out of uniform twice. For concert competition, selected dress clothes substitute for uniforms. One meal is provided before, between, or after the competitions. There is also usually food available from the competition sponsors for purchase. Students are free to bring additional food items on the trip. Students should always bring water or additional things to drink. For overnight trips, students should bring money to purchase some meals – they will be given a list of what meals are provided and what meals are not – as well as some extra food money. There are usually periods of free time between events. Students are free to move within the competition facility area. Students play games, study, play sports, eat, talk, and sleep. They become really good at locating shade. Sunglasses and sun screen are still recommended. Fall season weather: Warm to hot during the day (the band sets up and rehearses for parade on asphalt parking areas). Cool to cool and windy at night. Both students and chaperones should have some clothing layers available. Parade competition is usually in the morning or early afternoon. Field show is in the late afternoon or evening. Because of Foothill’s size, we are likely to be one of the last to compete in both parade and field show. After field competition, the band remains for the awards ceremony. Trophies (our band is really good) travel home on the busses. The return trip is on the same busses. Students are expected to pick up and clean up within the bus before the bus arrives at Foothill. The cleaner they keep the bus during the trip, the faster they can clean up and be released. Return times are approximate. If you are picking up your student, it is highly recommended that the student have a cell phone so that he can call you as they are approaching Pleasanton, saving you from unnecessary waiting. Please be there as they arrive; the students are tired and the head chaperone (also tired) has to wait for the last student to be picked up. Back to Top
Attendance: when does a band student need to be where?Practice makes perfect. Band camp is a great time to learn the music and marching. During the peak heat of the day, the band usually is indoors practicing the music. By the end of band camp, your band student will have memorized four or more pieces of music, learned to march forward, backward, and sideways, made some new friends, and probably gotten into better shape (especially the sousaphone players). Make sure your student brings water. Tuesday night practices are another key time for learning. With the delayed Wednesday start time for school, there is plenty of time to complete homework. Morning (A period - Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri) practices keep the band in peak form. In all of these practices, the directors take attendance and use that attendance as part of the grade. Band, percussion, and color guard classes also focus on practice. There are additional practice sessions for the percussion and color guard. During the winter season, the percussion and color guard have a new set of practice sessions while the band may see morning practice reduced at times. Competitive performance is the best measure of the quality of the band, color guard, and percussion. All of the events are mandatory including the “big trips”. Studying during these trips is not only possible, it is likely. There were many people that brought books and studied during last year’s trips. Back to Top
What about the competitions?The band becomes better if they have training (that’s what the directors and instructors provide), goals, and objective feedback on there current level of performance. The NCBA has judging standards to make this as consistent as possible for each competition. Each judge provides written and oral (taped) feedback which the students review the following week. Awards are given to the top performing bands and parts of the band usually separated by size of band or school. Winning awards reinforces the fun experience and also gets the band invitations to big (really fun) events.Back to Top
Volunteers, who needs 'em?The band could not function without the volunteers. There is not enough money to pay for all the services that the band uses. The general fund raisers also run on volunteers. Your students will be helping out at some or all of the events too.Back to Top
Why do we need fund raisers?Band fees pay for bus transportation to competitions, entry fees to competitions, food for kids on the trips. Also uniform cleaning and uniform wear and tear (depreciation) are part of your student’s band fees. General Fund raising pays for instructors (other than the teachers), music purchases, marching program creation (choreography plus computer generation of the field books), musical instruments and equipment, and musical instrument repairs. General Fund raisers for the Band
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Bob's TipsWatch your student perform in a field show: Attend an away event (volunteer), attend a home football game, or attend the Foothill Band Review. If you want to “see” your student, come to the end of band camp finale on the Friday before school starts. Without the uniforms, you can more easily identify your student. Watch your student in a parade: Attend an away event (volunteer), attend the Pleasanton Hometown Holiday parade, or attend the Foothill Band Review (parade is in the morning, field show in the evening). For Foothill, it’s a home town crowd which seems to bring out their best performances. See how the band has done in the past. Visit the band room and view “some” of the trophies. You really have to see this display. Find out much more about the band. Visit the Foothill Band website: http://www.foothillband.org/ Get up to date info at the Band Boosters meetings. Read the official handbook from the past year: http://www.foothillband.org/FB-Band%20Handbook.PDF Find out what is scheduled. The Foothill Band website has an online calendar: http://www.foothillband.org/WebCal/calendar.htm Find out the answers to your questions: Attend the Foothill Band Boosters meetings 1st Thursday of every month at Foothill High school. Mr. Moorefield is usually there. He and the FBB know many things. Back to Top
Band Booster keys to successWatch your student perform in a field show: Attend an away event (volunteer), attend a home football game, or attend the Foothill Band Review. If you want to “see” your student, come to the end of band camp finale on the Friday before school starts. Without the uniforms, you can more easily identify your student. Watch your student in a parade: Attend an away event (volunteer), attend the Pleasanton Hometown Holiday parade, or attend the Foothill Band Review (parade is in the morning, field show in the evening). For Foothill, it’s a home town crowd which seems to bring out their best performances. See how the band has done in the past. Visit the band room and view “some” of the trophies. You really have to see this display. Find out much more about the band. Visit the Foothill Band website: http://www.foothillband.org/ Get up to date info at the Band Boosters meetings. Read the official handbook from the past year: http://www.foothillband.org/FB-Band%20Handbook.PDF Find out what is scheduled. The Foothill Band website has an online calendar: http://www.foothillband.org/WebCal/calendar.htm Find out the answers to your questions: Attend the Foothill Band Boosters meetings 1st Thursday of every month at Foothill High school. Mr. Moorefield is usually there. He and the FBB know many things. Back to Top
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