Mukwonago Bands Blog

2011-11-03T05:38:00.001-05:00

As b.etween friends I sugg_est you this wo.nde_rful sh_op!

Change, can it happen?

2011-09-25T09:47:00.000-05:00

I love this video. In my master's class, we are discussing how to make change and we viewed this video on YouTube. Is it possible to make change happen? How should we go about doing it so that it works and everyone involved understands why?

Our First Phantom Phest Competition

2011-09-18T09:17:00.003-05:00

Wow, what a great night it was in Mukwonago. The students had their first opportunity to perform their show this year and did it for a crowd that understood music and marching bands. The night was cool, the food was plentiful, and the music and marching was great. It was the first show of the marching season and we were excited to host it in Mukwonago. Keep it up bands! See you in Whitewater for the WSMA State Marching Band Championships.
~Mr. Werner

Who says Sports can't mix with Music?

2011-01-12T19:16:00.001-06:00

Ha, Shaq with the Boston Pops!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoyiR3ob7yk&hd=1

Solo & Ensemble Poll

2011-01-05T10:20:00.004-06:00

Bingo Night - PVMS

2010-03-15T13:46:00.001-05:00

Happy March, band families!

The Mukwonago Band Boosters are hosting the Bob Kames Foundation Bingo Roadshow Event at Park View Middle School on Friday, March 19th. Doors open at 5:45 p.m. with Bingo beginning at 6:30 p.m. Students/children under 18 years of age are allowed to play bingo with a parent or guardian present. This is a professional bingo event with all callers and money handled by certified bingo officials, courtesy of the Bob Kames Foundation. Cash prizes will be awarded throughout the evening, and there is a Progressive Jackpot that is currently estimated at over $2,200.00! There will be live entertainment throughout the night as well as concessions, including MHS' Jazz Ensembles I and II, plus a basketball pep band, too!

Proceeds of this event will benefit the band program here in our district, specifically the fundraiser to purchase new Marching Band Uniforms. Your Mukwonago High School Marching Band has been invited to march in the 2011 July 4th Parade in Washington D.C. to represent the state of Wisconsin. Our goal is to have our new uniforms before this trip so we can proudly represent Mukwonago as well as the entire Badger State in our nation’s capitol. Won’t you please join us for this fun and family friendly event and support this worthwhile cause? Any questions, contact Julie Kuzminski @ (262) 378-4137.

2010 Marching Band Show

2010-02-11T22:55:00.003-06:00

For those looking for definitive answers to next year's show, I will say that it is in homage to a great Mukwonago event in recent memory. It is one of the most revered compilations of music in the world. It is a show I believe every student should play in some form at least once during his/her music education.

Many of you guessed it right away. The Cadets in 2009 felt as strongly as I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm3FP4BB6uQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN3hqHSY9Vs

UPDATE: This is a much better video of the first six minutes of the show with better audio quality.
http://www.youtube.com/user/glennatienza#p/u/32/aYt3JpKYnIU

There are two arrangers who have put together the music. One is scored for smaller bands, and one is scored for bigger bands. Both are very good. Depending on how many people we get to participate will determine what show I buy.

The 2010 Mukwonago High School Marching Band is going to focus on succeeding on three levels: success as an individual (mentally, physically, and musically); success as a collective band (musically and visually), and success socially (traveling together, working together, and PLAYING together). If Marching Band only interests you as a casual hobby, I don't know if this activity will be right for you this year. I only want you to sign up for the class if you have an interest in getting better at your instrument, learning new skills (Color Guard, too!) and accomplishing things you've never done before. I respect Leonard Bernstein's work too much to give it casual treatment (and those of you who were a part of the stage show in 2009 would probably agree), so only serious musicians need apply. To incoming freshman for 2010, you are ALL welcome to be a part of something big and be a member in the show!

Something else that has not been offered before but will be new for 2010: MHS Football Pep Band. If you only want to be involved in playing the rock music during games (Crazy Train, Paranoid, 25 or 6 to 4, and all of your other favorites), you will have the option to do so alongside those who are performing the field show. Again, this is OPTIONAL and will be extra credit (points towards your letters/numerals/awards or volunteer hours for Tri-M). This option will be available to any band members in grade 10-12 who want to blast music at football games rather than sit with the kids who stand around texting or throwing things at each other. This will also be made available to any alumni who want to play music at MHS games (Homecoming and all other home games). More details of this new option will be made available in the near future.

Thanks, everyone! I'm really excited to hear you all play this AMAZING music and march a show in front of thousands! Expect to travel more this year than in recent memory :)

Sincerely,
Mr. Gard

Break your band geek stereotypes

2009-06-16T00:22:00.002-05:00

Just some food for thought, the following people were high school band kids:

Trent Reznor, lead singer for Nine Inch Nails, played saxophone and tuba in high school marching band and jazz band. He was also Professor Harold Hill in his high school's production of "The Music Man" as well as Judas in his high school's production of "Jesus Christ Superstar." (Where have I heard of that EXTREMELY POPULAR show before, known worldwide?)

Pamela Anderson, star of Baywatch and lots of other... things. She was also a high school sax player.

Jennifer Garner, star of TV's Alias, wife of Ben Affleck, and amazing actress in such movies as "Juno," "Elektra," and "13 Going on 30." Sax player.

Bill Clinton, 42nd president of the United States, was not only a sax player but also drum major in his high school band. He credits marching band as one of his first opportunities to learn how to lead.

Neil Armstrong (you know, the guy who walked on the moon) played baritone in school.

Tedy Bruschi, New England Patriots linebacker, was a sax player.

Drew Carey, from "Whose Line Is It Anyway" and "The Drew Carey Show" was a trumpet player in high school.

Richard Gere played saxophone and piano.

Julia Roberts played both oboe and clarinet in high school.

John Smoltz, future Hall of Fame pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, plays ACCORDION!

Gwen Stefani, from the band "No Doubt", is a flute player.

Dan Akroyd, movie star from "The Blues Brothers" and "Ghostbusters", plays tuba.

Steven Spielberg plays clarinet.

Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) played trumpet.

Nelly Furtado, NASCAR's Tony Stewart, and Bill Engvall (Blue Collar Comedy Tour) all shared the same interest in high school: trombone.

Aretha Franklin played... you guessed it, tuba!

Ewan McGregor ("Moulin Rouge"), Vanessa Williams ("Ugly Betty") and Samuel L. Jackson were all French horn players.

NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Otto Graham was also a French horn player.

And lastly, for anyone who still has the Mukwonago stereotype that athletes and musicians are two incompatible breeds, watch this Superbowl commercial if you haven't seen it already: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPLX_ckw0G4

Have a great summer, and practice your instruments!
-TG

Photo Album Updates

2009-05-18T15:42:00.002-05:00

New Website

2009-04-24T13:40:00.004-05:00

The Mukwonago Bands website has received a face lift. Please visit us at www.mukwonagobands.com and let us know what you think. Their is a feedback form located at the bottom of the site for comments. Or if you have an ideas for us to consider you can do that too.

Enjoy!

Musicians Use Both Sides Of Their Brains More Frequently Than Average People

2009-04-14T10:48:00.002-05:00

Supporting what many of us who are not musically talented have often felt, new research reveals that trained musicians really do think differently than the rest of us. Vanderbilt University psychologists have found that professionally trained musicians more effectively use a creative technique called divergent thinking, and also use both the left and the right sides of their frontal cortex more heavily than the average person.

read more at PhysOrg.com

Science Daily also has the article with links to related studies

Marching Band Registration

2009-04-01T11:54:00.003-05:00

Dear Parents/Students,

We have released the 2009-10 marching band registration form. If your child is interested in joining this ensemble, offered to grades 9-12, please fill out the registration form and return it by May 1st.

Please note on the form that there are two fees for marching band. One fee should be payable to Mukwonago Area School District for $45, while the other fee goes to the Mukwonago Band Boosters for equipment/transportation/uniform fees.

Our first rehearsal is scheduled for Wednesday, April 15th from 6-9pm in the MHS Band room.

Marching Band Calendar RELEASED

2008-12-31T11:55:00.003-06:00

The 2009 Mukwonago Marching Band Calendar has been released. Please click here to go directly to the file, or visit our web page at www.mukwonagobands.com.

Happy New Year!

Marching Band 2009

2008-12-10T23:07:00.002-06:00

If you want to know about the 2009 Marching Band show, your best bet is to always jam closely supervised.

(This is your hint)

-TG

WSMA State Marching Band Championships

2008-10-16T05:59:00.003-05:00

Good Luck to the MHS Marching Band as they return once again to the WSMA State Marching Band Championships this Saturday at UW-Whitewater. They will again be performing in the Festival class that first debuted last year.

Students - be responsible! That statement covers a number of topics (i.e. review music, review dot books, learn what is on the packing list and pack it, read your e-mail and review the upcoming schedule, know where you are supposed to be and when, act appropriately at UW-W, etc.).

Parents - please pay close attention to the parent section of the schedule. It has important information regarding the parking & cost of the event on Saturday. We hope to see you there on Saturday to support your marcher. To learn more, visit http://www.wsmamusic.org/programs/marching_band/index.html.

Have a great time and good luck! I already know how much time the marching band has put in and I know it's going to be a great show. Now get out there and practice. :)

Cappy

Homecoming Nominees

2008-09-16T07:35:00.003-05:00

Congrats to Marching Band members K.M. for the guys and K.G. for the girls! Due to the whole internet privacy deal, I'm not going to spell out their full names for all to see. But congratulate them when you see them in school!

P.S. If you don't know who I'm talking about, K.M. is the low brass section leader and K.G. is the drum line captain.

Great start!

2008-08-24T09:55:00.003-05:00

Hey 2008 marching band,
Outstanding performance last night! It's always great to get the first show in front of an audience under your belt. I heard so many good things from parents and alumni. I'm even happier to hear good things from you all... according the Keith, "That was AWESOME!"

Thanks also to the Mukwonago Summer Band. We hadn't played together in a couple weeks, but you still played very well. Once we got our marching band t-shirts on, it was amazing to see how many students crossed over from both ensembles. I suppose that's bittersweet; it would be nice to have more of the young musicians involved with the group during summer months, but it's also really cool to see how many of you enjoy music so much that you want to be involved in multiple groups. Good for you guys!

So, marching folks, it's time to take a day off, reflect on how you did, and come Wednesday night fired up for our first evening rehearsal. It's time to get pep band music out, and I promise those three hour rehearsals are going to move quick! DON'T FORGET THE BUG SPRAY!!!

Can't wait to see you all soon. Oh, and as the new school year approaches, dust off those scales, high schoolers!!!

-Yoda (TG)

Summer Band and Marching Band

2008-08-17T15:47:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to remind members of the Summer Band that we have one more performance this summer on Saturday, August 23rd. We will be playing at the MHS Marching Band Preview Picnic beginning at 6:00 p.m. at the high school. Please bring the picnic food you've been assigned, and join us for a cookout before the performance! Don't forget your music and instrument, too!

You all played great at Mt. Olympus, and I enjoyed the friendly go-cart competition. Next time, don't expect me to be so courteous on the track ;) Oh, and Connor, even though you broke the roller coaster first thing in the morning, I still enjoyed racing in the afternoon.

The MHS Marching Band is once again looking and sounding great. It's an ensemble I'm continously impressed by, and we're very lucky as a community to have such a great group. A quick piece of business: the North Prairie Harvest Festival is a week later than we originally thought, so there is a calendar adjustment. The parade will be on Sunday the 21st rather than the 14th. That will be our busiest weekend of the season, with the first FB game on the 19th, Germantown Marching Festival on the 20th, and the parade the 21st. On the other hand, it just freed up your weekend of the 13th!

Looking forward to seeing everyone for our performance on Saturday the 23rd. Don't worry; if there's inclement weather, we'll perform inside. We'll find a way to feed everyone, too!
-TG

Drill is on Charms

2008-08-17T09:43:00.001-05:00

Quick update-

I've got the drill posted on Charms in the "Handouts-Marching Band 2008-Class specific" folder. All four tunes are listed there seperately.

Have fun-
Mr. K

Marching Band Cruising

2008-08-17T08:49:00.003-05:00

Hey everybody-

Because we wanted to get you all out of rehearsal on time and cram as much in as we could, I didn't really get to say what I wanted to at the end of rehearsal. I'm psyched at how far we have come in the first 6 days of camp. Think back to what we did the first day (simple forwards and backwards, posture, style, etc.) to what we finished yesterday (marched through the entire 43 chart drill).

That kind of progress is amazing. I could tell from some people's expressions that there was a decent level of frustration and confusion since we poured through the charts so fast. That frustration and confusion is OK and normal after doing what we just did. If you are confused and lost during some portions of the drill, you are not behind (at this point in the season).

Take time today to relax and enjoy non-marching band life for awhile. Before Wednesday, be sure to look at your music and really start to get those parts under your fingers. Try playing the last 8 bars of a piece and work your way back to the beginning by gradually adding a couple of measures to memory each time. The more that you go through it, the more you will actually know it.

Again - Great job during the past three days, and be ready to work and clean each one of those tunes over the next 4 days of camp. I'm going to try and post the drill charts in a PDF format on charms for those people that didn't get everything during the last three days of camp. I hope to have that up by the end of 8/17.

Until Wednesday-
Mr. K

Successful Summer Band

2008-08-10T08:39:00.001-05:00

Hi All-

Just a quick post to say how impressed I was with summer band this summer. Rehearsals went well and it was capped off by a great concert at Mt. Olympus. My hat is off to everyone who made it a success this year.

Thanks
Mr. K

Good Search

2008-07-10T20:35:00.003-05:00

Here's a new easy way to raise money for your favorite cause. Just start using GoodSearch.com as your search engine and online shopping mall. Every time you search the Internet or make an online purchase at one of their partner merchants, GoodSearch makes a donation to your favorite nonprofit or school and it's powered by Yahoo! so you get great search results!

Mukwonago Band Boosters has a goodsearch account. Go to www.goodsearch.com and in the "Who do you goodsearch for?" box, enter Mukwonago Band Boosters, then search away.

You can even add a toolbar to either IE or Firefox, and we have a link from our web site.

4th of July

2008-07-03T15:10:00.002-05:00

Happy 4th of July to you all. Please be safe and enjoy the rest of your summer.

Cappy

DCI Ticekts Available

2008-06-24T21:22:00.004-05:00

We have a few tickets still available for the DCI performance in Madison, this Saturday, June 28. If you are interested in them, you must contact Mr. Koscinski or Mr. Werner before Friday, June 27, 5:00pm to get them. Tickets are available on a first come, first served basis.

Cappy

Summer Activities

2008-06-21T22:52:00.002-05:00

The summer has finally arrived and I'd like to tell you about some fun summer activities going on in the band program and in the rest of the music department.

Summer band rehearsals are have started and we're still taking students to play with us. Right now we are short on Flutes, low woodwinds, and percussion. We could also use a tuba, but one of our other members is trying it out as a second instrument. I must say he's doing pretty well also. If you'd like to join us, rehearsals are every Tuesday and Thursday, at 7:30pm in the high school band room.

We are also offering summer band and orchestra lessons. These lessons have already been scheduled but if you are interested, please contact me and I can see if I have a group available to take another person. Groups are based on instrumentation and then by ability level. There is a 5 student maximum per group. There is a small fee for the lessons, $50 for the summer. Whether you can make 5 lessons or 10 lessons, that fee is the same. Checks can be payable to Mukwonago Schools.

The Marching Band has also begun its season. We are marching in the SummerFeste Parade in Mukwonago and we're marching in the Kettle Moraine Days Parade. After that, our camps start in the end of July. If interested in joining us this year, contact a director for more information.

Have a wonderful and safe summer,

Mr. Werner

Solo/Ensemble this past weekend

2008-04-06T09:20:00.002-05:00

Congrats to all of our participants in the April 4-5 Solo/Ensemble contest hosted at MHS! Once again, we have many groups going to the State festival at UW-Parkside, May 3rd. Large ensembles who qualified include Jazz I, Flute Choir, Saxophone Choir, and Percussion Ensemble. There are many other solos and small groups who will also be making the trip, and you should all be really proud of what you accomplished.

High school kids, you should all be really proud of what you've done, especially because you have to do all of the work by yourselves, with the exception of our largest ensembles. While many other schools have teachers coaching their participants from the beginning, we at MHS select and learn the pieces all by ourselves, and it really gives us the chance to see what we truly know as young musicians. Overall as an entire program, you did very well and it's great to see that you have the skills now to play whatever music YOU choose rather than being at the mercy of your director :)

To the middle school students out there, I also want to pass along a tremendous congratulations to you all. I saw tons of I's and II's on the results pages, and many of you had beaming smiles when you saw how well you did. And to see many PVMS kids attempting Class A pieces is outstanding; I'm so impressed that some of you have even qualified for State before you've even entered high school! On behalf of myself and all of my high school students, we're excited to see all of our PVMS musicians succeed and are pumped for you to enter the MHS program!

Alright, enough gushing about how awesome you all are. Time for you guys to sign off and get back to practicing :)

-TG

MB Music Meeting

2008-03-19T19:45:00.004-05:00

Thanks to all those that contributed to ideas for MB Music Ideas for next season. We are meeting and discussing the possibilities and we've taken your ideas to heart.

Please visit the band website or Charms for the MB calendar. It is POSTED!

Cappy

Marching Band Music Ideas

2008-03-10T16:59:00.002-05:00

This is your one opportunity to give ideas for our 2008 Marching Band Production. Please add your ideas in the comment section. We are looking for themes or specific tunes. Please do not enter "the song goes like this... Nah, nah, nah mah, nah nah." If you know the artist, please add that to your post.

Deadline for completion of ideas will be Sunday, Mar. 16 at 8pm.

Qualification Round at PVMS

2008-03-10T13:42:00.002-05:00

Congratulations to the PVMS band students who participated last week in the Solo & Ensemble qualifications round. Everyone did a great job and the judges all had fun working with you.

The next festival is on Friday, April 4th and Saturday, April 5th. Events scheduled on Friday night are typically the larger ensembles, ie jazz band, swing choir, brass choirs, etc. We also have events on Friday for students who are unable to attend on Saturday. Contact your director if you have a conflict with either Friday or Saturday.

Events on Saturday are usually for soloists and smaller type ensembles. If you can only perform within a certain time frame, contact your director immediately, or no later than Friday, Mar. 14th.

Great job again to the PVMS students and keep practicing.

Wizard of Oz

2008-02-27T20:22:00.003-06:00

Good luck to all the students and staff who are involved in the Wizard of Oz show at MHS. Lisa and I will be attending on opening night and wish you all well. We hope you have a great show.

For those who don't know, the Wizard of Oz is showing this Feb. 29-Mar. 2, and also Mar. 7 & 8.

Good luck to you all and break a reed, I mean leg. :)

Cappy

Best Buy Teach Grant Awarded to PVMS

2008-02-19T08:42:00.003-06:00

The PVMS Band Program has been awarded a $2,000 Grant from Best Buy Teach. More information will be released soon regarding how it will impact the PVMS Bands.

But for now, the program will enable students to "check out" (like checking out a book from the library) an MP3 player loaded with music for them to listen to at home or wherever. This gives us the ability to load music specific to certain instruments. We will also be able to load jazz music, concert music, marching band music, and so on.

We are currently researching our possibilities and will contact the students and parents regarding the program and how it will work.

Congrats to the PVMS Band Program for this great opportunity.

Cappy

Why is it an "overload?"

2008-02-15T10:24:00.002-06:00

Why has signing up for band, or choir, or orchestra, or art, become an "overload?" The American Heritage Dictionary defines an overload as "An excessive load." So to me, an excessive load means that I am taking more that what is allowed by the school. Let's take a look at this and see how this is possible.

Okay, from the beginning we know that there are 7 class periods in the day, plus 30 minutes for lunch. So we can fill our day with 7 1/2 "classes." I say "classes" because lunch is scheduled into your day even though it is not a class. There are now several classes, 5 total, that are required of Freshman as they enter high school, and they are:

English
Math
Science
Social Studies
PE/Health

Since these are required, we now only have 2 left over for "electives." I say "electives" because according to No Child Left Behind Act, music classes are not electives, they are considered apart of core subjects. Which begs another question, why doesn't our district consider music as a core subject when the No Child Left Behind Act does? If you figure that one out, I'd love to hear your answer because I haven't figured it out yet.

Those two electives can come from a number of places. So if you fill those two spots, then you have a FULL class load. NOT and overload. Let's say you fill your classes with Foreign Language and Band, if you do that then you are filling your time with academic courses and will become a better student, a better person, and will have more credits as you near graduation.

Is Marching Band part of Band? NO. Marching Band is a voluntary organization which rehearses outside of the school day. Students earn 1/2 credit on their High School transcripts for participating in Marching Band, but it is not part of their scheduled courses.

Why do they call it an overload if it's not actually an overload? There may be several reasons for this, so here are just a few possibilities.

The first one is that due to budget cuts over the years, the number of staff we have has been reduced. Fewer staff means fewer offerings of a particular subject and also means larger class sizes.

Another one is that because of the budget cuts, it costs less to house 135 students in one class, study hall, and have teachers babysit them than it does to be paying the teachers to teach all of those students. With the average class size approaching 30, that would mean that there would need to be 5 teachers for that one class of study hall. There are actually about 3 or less teachers supervising those study halls, so the district is saving money.

There are many more I'm sure of it, but the main reason why we want that overload term changed to a full load, is because we want to educate our students. We want them to grow and be the best that they can so they are smarter and better when they leave. And if you fill your day with a study hall, and let's be honest students don't use it anyway, then why not fill your day with academic courses that will teach you something.

That's just my two cents on this and I hope you all take a look at what you feel is best for your child, your student.

Cappy

Who says more Marching Band is Bad?

2008-02-14T09:44:00.002-06:00

Hello to all-

I know that I already am beating a dead horse, but it's for the horse's own good. As many of you know, I teach a summer marching program that's a little more intense than our Mukwonago High School Marching Band. We travel and do about 3-4 shows in a weekend for fans across the midwest. We will even be performing with the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps this summer.

Anywho- For those of you that think this may be fun, you should definitely come and check it out. We are currently looking to beef up our hornline. Specifically, we are looking for more brass and high woodwinds (clarinets and flutes) to fill out our sound.

What's that? You say that you would rather spin a flag? Then we've got spots to fill in our colorguard as well. This oppurtunity is something that will make each of you a better musician and also help to make our MHS marching band much better in the long run.

If you have any questions, you can definitely come and talk to me about it. I love talking about this organization. If you want to do a little research on your own, you can check out our website at www.lighthousebrigade.org

I hope to see a bunch of you at our next rehearsal.

Kookie

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T07:15:00.002-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours.

Who invented FTP?

2008-02-13T18:44:00.001-06:00

FTP is the devil. So I ended up calling Yahoo!, which is who we use for the MukwonagoBands.com web site, and they couldn't fix the problem either. Everything on their end is working just fine. The very nice customer service rep. even uploaded a picture to our site briefly and he had no problems.

This whole thing of FTP is just foreign to me. I mean, why can't it be as simple as saying I have this file, I want it published to the internet, go! I mean come on! :)

Anyway, I was told I should just us Filezilla to upload my files, so that's what I am doing now. But it's another step that I have to take in order to get my files published. I know that it doesn't mean much, but it's just a bother.

Oh well, tomorrow will be a brighter day. Oh wait, I mean another snowy day. :)

Happy Trails!

First Post

2008-02-13T17:32:00.001-06:00

Okay, I'm finally getting on the blogging bandwagon, no pun intended. This is my first post and hopefully it will lead to more.

I am currently working on fixing up the website, Mukwonagobands.com, but I'm having difficulty with my FTP. I use Dreamweaver by Adobe, they bought Macrobmedia a few years back, and every time I attempt to upload new files, it tells me there is a problem with my FTP, or I may have a permissions problem. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Marching band dates will be released soon. The process starts by figuring out when the teachers and staff are most available in the summer. From there, we determine how we want to structure the camps, 5 day-5 day, 3 day-4 day-3 day, and so on. Based on history, we have determined that two 5 day camps are no longer viable in our district, so we explore other options until we find one that "works."

After the format is decided on, we then figure dates. Those dates are then put onto a "Facility Use Form" that is required by the district and sent up for approval or denial. It is then a waiting game to find out if what we have planned is approved. Once approved we then make the announcement to everyone as to the schedule. If denied, then we go back to the drawing board.

We are currently waiting for approval and once we hear that it is approved, we will anounce the dates for Marching Band 2008.