THE Houston Band

Hello Houston Band family,

I was reminded on Saturday of how great this activity can be at its best. To see students from "rival" schools cheering for each other, encouraging their peers, and celebrating each others' accomplishments was so beautiful, as was our run! No one knows the work that goes into marching band like marching band participants, and I'm so proud of our students and the other five bands.

I'm looking forward to our first competitive show and our first full performance this Saturday. I'm also looking forward to our final of five consecutive home games. Let's finish this amazing first quarter strong!

With excitement and gratitude,

Mr. C

Our first contest this year is this Saturday in Huntingdon, TN. Unlike typical contests we attend, this is a prelim-final contest, where 24 bands compete for 10 finalist slots and a second performance. It will be a long day, but (all going well) getting two competitive runs in the early season makes this a great place to rapidly improve our show.

Itinerary

7:30am - Loading crew/percussion call time

7:45am - All call time, uniforms, polish, etc.

8:45am - Depart Houston

11:00am - Arrive Huntingdon, unload, get concessions & watch bands (Milan High, Crockett County High, Dyer County High, Gibson County High, Forrest High, Green Hill High - get concessions early, as full lunch break will happen towards the end of this window, and lines will be long)

1:00pm - Back at buses, get in uniforms

1:21pm - Stretch/Visual warmup

1:51pm - Warmup begins (lot C)

2:21pm - Travel (if we can travel a few minutes early, we will)

2:31pm - Gate (students get props/etc. from parents)

2:36pm - Perform

2:47pm - Get off ASAP, travel

2:57pm - Stage things for finals

3:25pm - Prelim awards ceremony

3:35pm - Dinner break begins (concessions on your own, POSSIBLY dinner after finals performance but unlikely)

TBD - Finals warmup (earliest possible 5:27, latest possible 7:27)

TBD - Finals performance (earliest possible 6:12, latest possible 8:12)

8:30pm - Finals awards

9:00pm - Load

9:30pm - Depart

11:45pm - Arrive @ HHS (hopefully earlier, depends on traffic getting out of Huntingdon)

Find important information for our 9/25/26 game v. Oak Grove below:

• KICKOFF is at 6pm. Spectators should arrive early for pregame festivities and to get a seat.
• CALL TIME for band students is 4:30pm.
• DRESS is WHITE SHIRT, non-neon athletic shorts, and long black socks. If rain happens or weather otherwise prevents us from using uniforms, normal socks are fine.
• PICKUP is no later than 30 minutes after the game concludes and will likely be earlier than normal due to the early kickoff. 30 minutes is long enough to get to the high school from the Mississippi river. Please plan your evening accordingly, so band staff can get home to their families.
• EARLY DISMISSAL from football games is not permitted unless approved prior to the game by Mr. Carpenter. This enables us to more safely keep track of all students and maintain the level of excellence our band is known for.
• EXPECTATIONS are clearly set around football games from both our school and band. Behave as you would if an assistant principal were standing next to you, and you will be okay! Representing our band at football games is a privilege, not a right.
• PERFORMANCES will happen at the Mustang Walk tailgate event (drumline only), on the field during pregame, in the stands during quarters 1/2/4, and at halftime (HOMECOMING-not normal field show).
• BREAK will happen during Q3. Students will report back to the bleachers with 2:30 left in Q3 on the stadium clock. Don't be late!

We will be participating in Stangfest again this year on November 14th in the morning and early afternoon. If you have a conflict, please let me know ASAP. We will send out exact times when we get them from event organizers.

You have until the end of this week to send conflicts that would otherwise be unexcused (birthday celebrations, travel, etc.), as this was not on our initial calendar we shared.

GMSD Bands Day will take place on October 31st this year. Middle school students from GMSD schools and beyond will have the opportunity to attend this community-oriented event. Find the schedule below:

9:30am - Student leader/volunteer call time, set up

10:00am - HS student call time, uniforms, warm up sequence

11:00am - SHOW RUN

11:15am - Stand tunes

11:25am - HS students out of uniform

11:30am - MS meet your section / parent meeting inside

11:45am - MS marching basics learning

12:00pm - MS drill learning

12:15pm - MS section tent "trick or treat" time

12:45pm - MS dismissal, HS cleanup

1:00pm - Day concludes, HS dismissal

The band will be traveling to the away game at Collierville on Thursday, October 29th. We look forward to supporting our football players during their last regular-season game versus our biggest rival. Call time will be around 5pm at HHS with dismissal around 11pm at HHS, depending on game pace. Student pickup at CHS will not be permitted to ensure we reliably keep track of students on this trip.

The easiest way to pay band dues is by check (no cash) on any school day. Give the check to Mr. Carpenter 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). Online payments (with a significant processing fee out of band staff control) will be collected via SchoolCashOnline soon if you prefer that option.

If you registered later or this is your first newsletter you've received, please don't over-stress about timeliness of band dues. I don't expect everyone to be able to send a $275 check with four days' notice. If you're able to send them on time, please do. If not, just have a plan and reach out me (kevin.carpenter@gmsdk12.org) with questions!

Water bottle donations are always appreciated. Send students with water or bring some while coming to pick them up.

While the official registration deadline has officially passed, the travel agent has left things open in an effort to get us across the 200-person threshold, at which point there will not be any additional per-person cost to supplement bus costs. We appreciate the travel agent for this brief extension.

If you want to go on the trip as a STUDENT or as a CHAPERONE, there is still time to register! Reach out if you have any questions. Full information is below:

ALL Houston Band students and their families are invited to join us for our 2027 Spring Trip to Walt Disney World! This trip is completely optional and is open to all music students and parents.

The band will be performing a parade in Magic Kingdom. The travel agent's package includes charter bus transportation, hotel (+breakfast), and three days of admission to three Walt Disney World theme parks. Students will have Field Trip (FT) absences for Friday, Monday, and Tuesday.

When registering, students should select the Quad Room option. Students should not register for Double or Triple rooms. All students, regardless of registration status, will be placed in a quad room.

Parents rooming with other parents may choose a Single or Double. Parents can select Double, Triple, or Quad rooms only if they plan to room with their child. (Double - one parent/one child | Triple - two parents/one child | Quad - two parents/two children). Students sharing a room with parents will need to select the double/triple option.

Please note that our travel package does not include Lightning Lane access and there is not an option to add it through the tour company. You are welcome to explore options on your own.

If you have questions about registration, rooming, payments, or other travel details, please contact our tour company directly. They can provide the most accurate and up-to-date information and will be able to assist you more effectively than I can.

QUESTIONS?

info@etadventures.com

866-273-2500

www.etadventures.com

A non-refundable deposit of $200 per person is required by September 14th, 2026 to reserve a space. This is a fast turnaround but enables our travel agent to minimize costs by purchasing things early, avoiding wasted bus space, etc. Because it's so close to our band dues being due, if you need to delay your second payment to go on the trip, please feel free to do so. That said, students who have not paid any band dues are not permitted to attend. Band dues partially cover costs of equipment, uniform cleaning, music, staffing, and more for this trip and all other public performances.

HOW TO REGISTER -

1. Visit our website at: https://www.etadventures.com/

Click the green text in the top section of the screen that says: "Customer Login"
2. On the next screen you should choose the option to "Access Account" and then you will be prompted to create an account using your email address or your personal Google account.
3. If you have previously created an account with ETA, you may sign into your existing account to make a reservation and you will not need to create a new account.
4. Once you are into your account, select Add a New Trip, and then enter houston27.
5. You should see your trip details at that point, and then select Make a New Reservation and complete ALL fields.

Third-Party Travel Agency Notice

As with many school trips, we are utilizing the services of a third party travel agent to set itineraries, collect payments, and disburse materials. Generally, this is a better option to ensure safe, organized, exceptional educational travel experiences for our students. In the same way we wouldn't want a travel agent teaching our students music, we don't want music teachers pretending to be travel agents. We leave it to the professionals! No money is collected for this trip by GMSD employees, and GMSD is not responsible for the trip.

There is optional trip insurance through ETA.
Trip cancellation insurance enables individuals to cancel their trip at any time due to a family or medical emergency and receive a full refund, or cancel for any other reason at least 48 hours prior to departure and receive a 70% refund. Some people learned in the snowstorm last year that trip insurance is VERY helpful! Trip insurance costs $160.

We will be selling Houston Pompoms at each home game this year! All proceeds benefit our amazing band program. We need 3 parents to help sell during Pregame and 3 parents to help sell during the First Quarter. Please click the link to sign up for this and many other volunteer opportunities!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084DACAE2CA6F5C34-64527229-thehouston?useFullSite=true#/

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!

Pit Crew volunteers help move equipment for the marching band at home football games and competitions throughout the season. It’s a great way to support the Houston Band Boosters, and meet other band parents, and be directly involved in your student’s band experience.

Best of all, helping the Pit Crew puts you right there with the band, where you'll have a front row seat for every performance! No experience necessary, just a willingness to be part of the team!

Please click on the button below to sign up. Thank you!

The Houston Band Pit Crew Sign-Up

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

Any day during class when the weather is nice, we will be outside! 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.

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: 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'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.

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