strike up the band

Dylan is now a second year band student, and he has considerably expanded his knowledge of percussion.  In fifth grade, percussion students focused on the bells, but in sixth grade he has added snare drum, bass drum, crash cymbal, suspended cymbal, wood block, triangle, and sleigh bells.

He is not quite as excited about band this year, mostly, I think, because he has a different band teacher than he had last year.  He is pretty sure he gets his original teacher back next year, as he transitions into marching band in seventh grade.

The fifth and sixth grade band concert was a few weeks ago.  He played bells, snare drum and triangle in this year's concert.

Dylan is in the back row, just to the right of the director, wearing a white shirt and dark tie.

Sixth grade percussionist

Dylan rarely gets dressed up, so I wanted to capture the moment.  Just before I took the picture, he had his hands full of drumsticks, mallets and music, so I told him to lay it on the ground, except for his drumsticks, for a picture... to which he vehemently protested, "No, Dad, give me my mallets, too... I played bells and drums tonight!"  Sorry, Dylan... you're right, percussion isn't just drums!

symphony?

Last evening, I took my family to the symphony to hear the debut of a world-famous percussionist.  Well... actually, we went to the middle school band concert to hear the debut of our first-year band student... but to a proud parent, it may as well have been Carnegie Hall.

If you recall from an earlier post, Dylan wanted join the middle school band this year, but almost passed, due to nervousness.  Jen and I made the decision for him, that he had to try it for at least a year.  That decision resulted in a great year, and his looking forward to the next year.

As the school year nears the end, last night was the annual middle school band concert... a time for the students to highlight their year's hard work and accomplishments.  Since Monday and Thursday are long days in the car business (9AM-9PM), I was fortunate to get permission to leave early to attend.  Although a little nervous, Dylan was proud to have a row of his family come to watch his performance, and he did a great job.

After the concert, I got to meet one of his best friends, "Sherm", who is also in the band (Jen had already met him at previous events).  I told Sherm, "It's nice to finally meet you, I've heard a lot about you."  To which he responded, "I've heard a lot about you, too.  You sound like a very nice man."  How diplomatic, Sherm!  It's good to meet your kid's friends and have a positive first impression of them (not just because he said something nice about me... you can just tell he seems like a good kid).

the fan club

5th grade (first-year) Tiger Band.  Dylan is in the back row, far left, standing.

"Old McDonald had a Band" with bell group solo