Monday, February 29, 2016

Busy weeks ahead!

Greetings Tigers!

As we head into the final two weeks before Spring Break, our schedule will be jam packed with activities.

First, I would like to give a shout out to our Winter Guards and Indoor Drumlines for doing so well the past couple of weeks. All three of our guards took first place at the Campo Verde WGAZ Show back on Feb. 19. This past weekend our drumlines traveled to Casa Grande to compete in their WGAZ Percussion Focus Show. Inception Drumline took first and Gilbert Indoor Percussion took third in a very competitive division.

This week, our Band Boosters will be hosting a reception following the Greenfield Junior High Band concert on Wednesday. Come on out and lend a hand. This will be a great opportunity to recruit for next year's GHS Bands.

Thursday night will be OUR band concert here at Gilbert. Concert starts at 7:00 p.m.

This coming Saturday will be our home WGAZ Show. We will have 62 units from all over Arizona competing. Refer to WGAZ.org for the complete schedule. We will need a LOT of parent and student help to run this show. This is our biggest fundraiser for the spring semester.

Next week will be equally as busy. Monday and Tuesday, we are hosting the ABODA Area Concert Festival. This will take place during school hours both days.

Friday March 11 & 12 we are hosting the Arizona All-State auditions.

Saturday, March 12 we are hosting the WGI Phoenix Color Guard Regional. We will have groups traveling from all over Arizona and as well as a few groups from out of state to compete. The Drumline portion of the Phoenix Regional will be held at Mesquite High School. Again, we will need a lot of parent and student help to run this show.

For all volunteering opportunities, please log on to CHARMS and sign up. Thanks in advance for all your help!

Lets have a couple of GREAT weeks, Tigers! Then it's on to a much deserved Spring Break!

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Winter shows and 2016 MB recruitment

Greetings Tigers!

This semester has been a busy one! In an effort to get our marching band numbers up, we have been working at full steam with recruiting. The student leaders and I spent two full days at Greenfield and Gilbert Jr. Highs sitting in with rehearsals and talking up all things BAND. We also had a couple of great performances at Recruitment Festivals hosted at each of the junior highs.

For the first time at Gilbert, we had FIVE indoor winter groups perform at the WGAZ competition held at Campo Verde. This was the first competitive show for all our groups. I was especially excited to see the debut performance of our new junior high drumline, Inception Drumline. They had a great first ever performance and those kids had a lot of fun.

I would like to extend a BIG thank you to all the parents helping with recruiting this semester. They've been busy with setting up information tables at each Recruitment Festival and Freshman Preview night. Behind the scenes, they've been mailing letters and making phone calls to incoming junior high parents.

My goal for marching band next year is to have over 100 woodwinds and brass. I am attaching a spreadsheet of this year's top 10 marching bands in Division 1 with their breakdown of numbers. You will see that Gilbert was the smallest Division 1 band in the top 10 and our wind section was about HALF the size of the other bands. I am convinced if we get our wind numbers up, we will be more competitive.

The next few weeks will be just as busy. We are hosting a few activities here at Gilbert and we need a lot of help from students and parents to make them successful. Please visit the Band Calendar to see all the upcoming events. Pay close attention to our HOME WGAZ Show on March 5. This is our biggest fundraiser for the spring semester and we will need A LOT of parent help.

Go Tigers!