RHHS Band News

Hello to All Members of the River Hill Band Family!

This is my first of a few “summer notes” regarding the upcoming year in the RHHS Bands. I am so excited to get back with all of you, but there is lots of preparation to complete, so I am thankful for the time off. It’s been a pleasure to see a few of you since the end of school, and I hope that more of our paths will cross before we all return next month.

This email is intended to accomplish four things: provide you with a calendar of next year’s Band activities, give you the resources that you need to get started working on some music that we will be performing in the fall, verify that all needed instruments have been checked-out, and give you instructions for reserving your “Friday Night Live” t-shirt for our football game performances.

CALENDAR - Everything we do is based on our calendar. Click the calendar icon to download this year's calendar in PDF form.

My next correspondence will contain some more-detailed thoughts, but for now, please get these dates on your family calendar. The reason I work so hard to complete the entire list of activities by July is so that every student can feel comfortable making the commitment to be present at each one of them. I will only make changes due to circumstances that are beyond my control (and hopefully that will not occur), and that is because I am as respectful of your time as I ask you to be with “our” time. So, once again, if you would please click on the attachment and add the dates and times to your family calendars I would truly appreciate it!

MUSIC FOR THE FALL - A lot of the music that we will be performing with the Friday Night Live Ensemble is ready for you to print and practice! Surf on over to our brand new RHHS Band Booster Website at http://rhhsband.wix.com/boosters and, after you have checked out all of the great information that we have posted, click here to for the music you will need this fall. Click on the sixteenth-note icon to see the music, and click on the corresponding arrow icon to hear a demo recording. Please also be sure to check out the file called “FNL Parts” so you know what part(s) to print for each piece.

INSTRUMENTS - I need to be sure that EVERY member of the program has the instrument(s) that he/she needs for the 2016-17 school year (a big thanks to all of you who came over to school in June to sign them out). If you still need to sign out an instrument, please let me know immediately and we will set up a time to get that taken care of. Horn players, euphonium players, and tuba players also need “outdoor” instruments. If necessary we can wait until next month to take care of that, but I would be thrilled to get those in your hands right away so you can get comfortable with them before you actually have to rehearse with them.

FNL SHIRTS - The final thing we need to do is make sure that everyone has his/her Friday Night Live uniform in time for our first performance on September 9th. If you already have an FNL t-shirt and it still fits, you do not need to do anything at this time. If you are a 9th-grader OR you need a replacement, I need for you to email Mrs. Swanner at rhbandbooster@gmail.com and give her your NAME and T-SHIRT SIZE. Thanks for getting this taken care of as soon as possible.

You will hear from me again soon, but if you have any questions or concerns at this point, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Thanks, and I look forward to working with every one of you!

Musically,

Michael Blackman

RHHS Bands