THE Houston Band

Hello Houston Band family,

Happy last day of summer! This week, we begin school. Keep an eye out for fundraising materials later this week or early next week. Find important updates and info below! I can't wait to see you all at Spirit Night on Friday at the Gtown Baskin Robbins!

With excitement and gratitude,

Mr. C

Hello to each of you,

I am writing to each of you as a reminder for our uniform fittings this coming weekend (10am-2pm). We will have the entire new band room, the Pickler or south band room off the student parking lot full of uniforms. We will be going in order starting with Seniors and progressing each hour until we reach the Freshman. This is the only day we pass out uniforms to all students and everyone needs to be present. If your child has not turned in their uniform, which was due at the end of the last year, then they still need to show up so we can have all of the details to check out each item.

Seniors (including senior picture!): 10am

Juniors: 11am

Sophomores: 12pm

Freshman: 1pm

We are also in desperate need of aid throughout the entire day. This is set for four hours, but sometimes takes a little longer depending on the amount of volunteers we have. Please, if you have time, help us ensure this is a smooth event by aiding us, even if it is only for one hour! If you do not see space on the sign up genius, that is fine. We will gladly take every free hand we can. Volunteer at this link!

Please reach out to either myself (brian.sims@gmsdk12.org) or Mr. Carpenter if you have any questions.

Any day during class when the weather is nice, we will be outside (including tomorrow)! Please plan ahead with sunscreen, water, and a change of clothes if needed. We will start with more transition time this week and build the skill of getting outside/ready faster as we progress into our first full week of school next year.

We will be out basically every day we can. Our class time is now our full rehearsal time because we have access to the field in the morning instead of the parking lot at 3pm. It will be much nicer but still HOT! Let me know if you have any questions.

Show your Mustang pride and support THE Houston Band at football games this fall. Grab your WE WERE BORN READY! merch now — this store closes August 17. If we receive enough sales, we can have this merch ready for pickup before the first home game. Follow the link in our Instagram bio (@thehoustonbandboosters) to shop or go to this link. Let's pack the stands in band gear!

Thanks again,

Keri

The easiest way to pay band dues is by check (no cash) at our member meeting/ice cream social. Give the check to Mr. Carpenter or Mr. Sims at the door with your member's full legal name clearly printed on the memo line. You can pay in full if you are able ($550) or just the first payment if needed ($275, due August 15). Once the school year starts, online payments (with a significant processing fee) will be collected via SchoolCashOnline if you prefer that option.

If it is not a major burden to frontload your payments, please consider doing so. Taking care of this ahead of time on Sunday 7/26 enables us to immediately fund the needs of our season without waiting for the first payment deadline of 8/15.

Houston Band Booster Families and Friends: Looking for ways to support THE Houston Band? Join us for our first spirit night at Baskin Robbins Germantown this Friday, all day! Treat yourself to ice cream to celebrate the first week of school, all while giving back to our amazing band program.

Please read these few bullet points, follow the simple instructions, and make a huge impact on the future of a young musician and our band program!

Please know that word of mouth is our best recruiter for the amazing band programs here at Houston High School and within all GMSD Bands. I hope you have seen firsthand the transformative power of instrumental music education and band as an activity.

• If you have a friend, neighbor, family member, or ANYONE else in your life in 5th grade within GMSD, let them know about the transformative experience band has been in your students' lives. The HMS and RK8 band programs are some of the biggest activities on their respective campuses, and they immediately plug students into social and musical opportunities! JOIN THE BAND
• If you know a GMSD 7th or 8th grader that loves band and is considering private school options, please encourage them to reach out to me about our amazing band (along with curricular and extracurricular) offerings at HHS! We offer deeper, more diverse instrumental music opportunities than the vast majority of schools that HMS and RK8 students transfer into, and many families frankly don't know that's the case because of how much some schools highlight the more limited programs in their brochures.
• If you know a talented non-GMSD 8th grader that wants to be in a great school band program, let them know about our academies, which enable a limited number of non-Germantown students preferred-transfers into our amazing school district. Some of our most musically-talented, strongly-contributing, highly-involved members are part of our band through these life-changing academy opportunities! Academies often stay open until the beginning of the school year!
• If you are a freshman or parent of a freshman with friends in the RK8 or HMS band programs, reach out to those friends/family friends about continuing their band journey at HHS! Get the "band" back together! Your call or text can be the difference between a student joining and not joining. It is not too late to add the band elective if a student wants to participate.

We are so excited to continue building our program's numbers back to more sustainable levels, but that takes work from everyone. Thank you for helping with that work!

If anyone has ANY questions about GMSD Bands at any level, I'm more than happy to field those questions. Folks can email me at kevin.carpenter@gmsdk12.org.

They can also check out our info page about band here: https://www.thehoustonband.com/join

If you feel like dues are restricting your ability to participate in band, please reach out ASAP to see what we can do for you to ensure you have access to our amazing programming!

Unless you need a hardship extension (email me!), band dues will be frontloaded to the beginning of the school year. We do this to open up the rest of the year for (optional) trip payments and to make sure we stay in a good financial position through marching season.

Payment 1: $275 due on August 15

Payment 2: $275 due on September 15

It is extremely important to plan ahead for ACT dates when you are in band, as we often have Saturday events outside of our scheduling control. The upcoming ACT dates with no conflicts are: July 11, October 17, and February 27, 2027.

That is more than enough dates to take the ACT an adequate number of times. Missing a band event for the ACT is NOT excused. We understand the inconvenience of not having these dates available, but all of these Saturdays are outside of our scheduling control. Our ACT date conflicts this year are: September 19 (Mini Camp Rain Date), December 12 (Gtown Holiday Parade). Please plan accordingly.

As we get closer to next school year, we will know more dates that will/won't work with the ACT for the spring of 2027 semester.

If you work for or own a company that makes charitable contributions to nonprofits, please reply and let me know. I'll put you in contact with our booster parents on how to make a tax-deductible donation to our HHS Band Boosters, a 501(c)(3) organization that supports our band operations!

If you're unhappy with chair placements or all west results, please consider asking about private lessons. Mr. Sims and I are happy to give all students a few free one-on-one lessons each year before or after school. We are also happy to provide recommendations for great lessons teachers in the area for students that want to push themselves further as individual musicians. Our core goal as a band is ensemble musicianship, and lessons are a great way to supplement that instruction.

Private lessons make a great gift and can help students secure potential music scholarships and honors ensemble experiences! All five of our All-State students this year are enrolled in regular private lessons.

Please note, students that miss rehearsals and performances without prior approval will be penalized with grade deductions. All you have to do is give us as MUCH heads up as possible, emailing me the reason for missing and (when relevant) a doctor's note. Please note that the closer we get to a date, the less likely exemption will be granted. Give us time to plan for other students' success when sending us your reasonable conflicts due to health, religion, family emergencies, etc.

Please look ahead in our calendar when scheduling routine doctor or dental care. Your appointment may have been scheduled for six months, but our calendar has been set for 18 months. If you have an immovable appointment, let me know ASAP, not the day before. The former will be exempt, and the latter will not.

Thank you for your understanding and commitment to our band's success!

Mr. Sims has created a list of some practice resources for students. If you have any additional resources that have been helpful for you, please feel free to share them!

• The Woodwind Fingering Guide
• "Fingering Chart by Tremolo" on iOS
• PlayScore 2
• Sight Reading Factory (see Mr. C for activation instructions at the start of band camp)
• MusicRacer.com (note that there are strobing lights in this game)

Additionally, students have reported having improved outcomes utilizing the Tonic App. I've heard comparisons to the popular running app Strava, but for music. Parents, please feel free to explore this option for your young musician but be advised that there is a social media element to this app.

Instagram | Facebook | Website | Google Calendar