Hello Returning and New Monterey Family!
I'm so looking forward to September Start Up 2022 and hope everyone else is as well! It's been a crazy roller coaster couple of years between Covid, Budget Cuts, and some personal life developments for myself! Here's some important info about music for the year: I'd like to thank Mr Paul Beauchesne for his excellent work with the music program while I was on parental leave. I was able to go to the spring and year end concerts and the groups were sounding fantastic! I'd also like to welcome Mr Paul Spelt to Monterey Music! He will be the Thursday music teacher. YOUR TEACHERS Ms Dyler will be in Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday until Block 4 and will be teaching Band 6-8, Strings 6-8. Choir 6-8, and Jazz 8 as well as Music and Indigenous Drumming exploratory blocks. Mr Spelt will be in Thursdays and will be teaching Band 6-7, Strings 6-8, and Choir 6-8. A detailed schedule will be shared once the school year is off to a start - we're still waiting to see if there are any conflicts or bugs in the current schedule. INSTRUMENTS Nobody needs an instrument the first class but all Band 7-8 and Strings 6-8 will need instruments from their second class onward. Grade 6's will need instruments for their first class in October but they need to be assigned an instrument first. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE AN INSTRUMENT FOR YOUR CHILD UNTIL THEY HAVE BEEN OFFICIALLY ASSIGNED AN INSTRUMENT! It doesn't matter how good the individual players are - a band of 50 trumpets, or 50 saxophones is going to sound dreadful. There is a careful balance of instrumentation to be created in order for all the parts to be heard and for the music to actually sound good. INSTRUMENT RENTAL NIGHT Grade 6 Instrument Rental Night is at Long & McQuade on Tuesday, September 27 from 6:00-7:00 UNIFORM The uniform is the black Monterey Music shirt, black pants, and black shoes. It has come to my attention that the shirt was not ordered last year so I will have order forms for Grades 6-8 early in September, as well as options for students to try on in the music room. Each shirt is $30 and is the student's to keep. Try to size with Grade 8 in mind so that a new shirt doesn't need to be purchased each year. Students are welcome to use older siblings' and friends' old shirts, and there are a few spares in the music office that can be signed out for the concert if a family is unable to purchase a music shirt this year. CONCERT DATES Concerts take place in the Monterey School Gym three times a year. All music students are expected to attend and perform in the concert.
BAND TRIP I intended to take Band 8 on a trip this year to Vancouver but need to see how many students are in Band 8 to see what I can offer and how much that will be. Happy September! Let's do this! Ms Dyler
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Grade 8 Band students will be pleased to learn that there’s no early morning before school band for Grade 8s; rather both Grade 8 blocks are now during the regular school day! If your grade 8 child participated in Band in Grade 6 or 7 as hasn’t yet signed up for Band this year, please encourage them to sign up ASAP. Band 8 is a wonderful opportunity to continue in our Music Program, which leads into a phenomenal array of music courses in high school!
Grade 6 Band students, It's great to huge number of Grade 6 students (most of them) signing up for Band! It’s led to the creation of a third ensemble – Band 6C (for grade 6s in Divisions 12 & 13). Consequent, Division 17 has changed times to join the Band 6B schedule. No changes to the Grade 7 Band schedules and it’s great to see so many Band 7 students signed up already, but it’s not too late if you’re interested! Also, no changes to the Strings and Choir schedules, and registrations for Strings & Choir are still rolling in, so please get your form into Mr. Beauchesne ASAP to participate in these ensembles! The above changes are embedded into the REVISED MONTEREY MUSIC SCHEDULE (linked). The bottom line is: IT’S NOT TOO LATE to sign up for Band and/or Choir and/or Strings, but those of you that haven’t yet done so need to get your Music signup forms into Mr. Beauchesne this week. Parents with questions, should contact Mr. Beauchesne directly at [email protected] Welcome Back to school!Hello Monterey Families!
Welcome back to school for our 7’s and 8’s and welcome to the program to all the new 6’s! Congratulations to Mr Paul Beauchesne who will be in charge of the music program and music exploratory while Ms Dyler is on parental leave for the 21/22 school year taking care of her daughter, Ophelia (she’ll be back next September). There are some new forms to check out in the Documents and Forms area including all the letters that have been sent home, the new schedule, and the grade 6 instrument sign up. Cheers to a great new year! Let’s make some music! Hello Everyone! Quick update to do with Band 6 Scheduling and Late Cohort Choir: We've had such a huge turnout for Band 6, that we had to make a third band class! This is super fantastic that there is so much music support in Grade 6 and so we've created Band 6C. BAND 6A: Div 14 (Rud) and Div 15 (Gybels) - Tuesdays @ 7:30, Fridays @ 10:49 BAND 6B: Div 16 (Baird) and Div 17 (Bowyer-Smyth) - Mondays @ 9:52, Thursdays @ 7:30 BAND 6C: Div 12 (Nugent) and Div 13 (Galway) - Wednesdays @ 1:28, Fridays @ 7:30 Here are the current rehearsal schedules for the morning band group sessions:
Bear and Raven choir has moved from Friday mornings to Mondays from 3:00 - 4:00
Thank you! Any questions, concerns, comments - please e-mail me: [email protected] Michelle Dyler Music Director Monterey Middle School Band 6 Morning Band Schedule for October
Div 13, 14, 15: Tuesday, October 6 (flutes, clarinets, saxophones only) Tuesday, October 13 (trumpets, trombones, baritones, bass only) Tuesday, October 20 (flutes, clarinets, saxophones only) Tuesday, October 27 (trumpets, trombones, baritones, bass only) Tuesday, November 3 (Everyone) Div 12, 16, 17 Thursday, October 1 (flutes, clarinets, saxophones only) Thursday, October 8 (trumpets, trombones, baritones, bass only) Thursday, October 15 (flutes, clarinets, saxophones only) Thursday, October 22 (trumpets, trombones, baritones, bass only) Thursday, October 29 (Everyone) Instrument rental night for Monterey Music is Monday, September 28 from 6:00 - 8:00 pm at Long & McQuade!
Due to covid restriction, the rental night cannot be held at Monterey Middle School. Instruments can also be rented online at Long & McQuade or Tapestry Music. Welcome to Monterey Music: 2020 Edition! We're doing things a little differently this year (but then again, who isn't?). Please check out the below information for information about all aspects of the program:
Monterey Music Parents Association The MMPA meets on the last Monday of every month, starting October 26th, at 7:30 pm. The first meeting this year will be held via Zoom. This is a great place to find out what's happening in the music program, get involved in the planning of music at Monterey, learn how to offset the costs of music (rentals, supplies, etc.) and get to meet me, Ms Dyler. We have a great crew at the MMPA and are also currently looking for a new Secretary and Fundraising Coordinator. This is an excellent year to be a fundraising coordinator as we are doing minimal fundraising for 2020/2021. For more info, check out the MMPA page. Music Schedules There are some complicated schedules this year as I teach both the early cohort and the late cohort. Schedules can be found here. Band 6 Students should have brought home their music sign-up and instrument selection forms yesterday. This needs to come back to me or the advisory teacher no later than Tuesday, September 22 so I can assign instruments. I will try to give as many students as possible their first choice of instrument, but some may need their second choice as nobody wants to listen to a group of 35 beginning alto saxophones. All students who sign up for flute, clarinet, and trombone as their #1 pick tend to get their first choice. Alto saxophones are drawn randomly to make it fair. I don't know students yet so I can't "play favourites." They will need to begin bringing instruments to school in October after the instrument rental day. Instrument Rental Day Instrument rental day is Monday, September 28 at Long & McQuade from 6:00pm - 8:00pm. Instruments can be rented online at Long & McQuade and Tapestry Music. Grade 6 Band Parents: please do not buy or rent a Band 6 instrument until they have been officially assigned an instrument! Thank you. Band 7 and 8 Band 8 needs instruments as soon as tomorrow and Band 7 is asked to bring instruments to their first class next week as some of the Band 7 students still need to hear the safety protocols before beginning playing. Music will be handed out and students should have a duotang or folder to hold music as our usual cardboard music folders were back-ordered this year and are late in arriving. Strings Strings students should bring their instruments to their next strings class. If a student is beginning strings this year, they will need a rental instrument or a district instrument as soon as possible. Please contact me for more information: [email protected] Choir There are two choirs running this year, one for late and one for early cohort. Div 8-12 are in the Falcon and Wolf Choir (the Wolfcon Choir) Tuesdays after school from 2:30 - 3:30. Div 1-7 are in the Bear and Raven Choir (the Braven Choir) Wednesdays at lunch (12:36 - 1:06) and Friday mornings before school (8:20 - 8:50). Students cannot go out of cohort for choir due to contact tracing restrictions in place, as well as incompatible schedules. The choirs happen during the other cohort's scheduled learning times. Jazz Band Jazz Band 8 will begin Wednesday, September 23 at 7:50 am and Jazz Band 7 will begin Thursday, September 24 at 11:46 (lunch). Students can use their concert band instruments in jazz band. Virtual Concerts Unfortunately, we can't have performances and concerts until school goes to Phase 1 and the Public goes to Phase 5 of the restart plan (the phase where everything goes back to normal because we've either got a vaccine or achieved "herd immunity"). In the meantime, I will offer virtual performances in which I will send out links to private Youtube videos so you can watch your students perform in class. It's not the same as being there, but it also mean that friends and family who would otherwise be unable to come to a live performance can watch students perform from the comfort of their homes. Music Trips and Festivals For the same reasons that we can't have concerts, we can't have an end of year music trip. I urge students who feel discouraged by this news to think ahead to the future. There are some rumours circulating that once we get the all-clear to travel again that the high schools are looking to go some incredibly cool places. I have a great plan for a Vancouver trip with a visit to see the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra perform on hold for when we can travel again. That's a ton of info for now. If there are any questions, comments, or concerns, please e-mail me at [email protected]. Even if you'd like to have a phone conversation, please send me an e-mail to schedule the call as it's difficult to pick up during music classes and all the noise that ensues. Cheers! Ms Dyler In eleven years of teaching, this is definitely the most unique back-to-school I've faced, followed only by the September that we were on strike all summer. We made it through back then and we'll make it through now. The music schedule, and the school schedule at large, is still under revision following new updates from the Ministry of Education and the school board, so I can't share that yet, but I can share this: We are entering back into the school year as safely as we can and for music that means a very slow, gradual start-up so that we can truly cover and understand all the safety requirements necessary to proceed. Students do not need instruments for the first two weeks of school for certain. The first week is going to be dedicated to meeting the new advisory teacher and learning the new protocols for a safe and healthy school. The second week will see students coming into the music room but this will, again, be a presentation and practice on how to participate in a safe manner and what new expectations and protocols will look like. New Band 6 students will not be having an instrument zoo as there is too much hands-on and sharing but they can still explore the instrument inspiration pages to see what each instrument is like, as well as everything available on the beginner band 6 page. I think this will actually be a much better way to see the instruments as a lot of students think they "can't play an instrument" after trying it for all of 30 seconds. No musician ever learned their true potential to play an instrument in 30 seconds (or even 30 days). Music concerts and other various performances will be done virtually for the safety of all involved until we move forward into the next phase of covid response in which concerts and large gatherings are once again safe. Again, this may prove beneficial to some who may not have been able to see student performances in a live setting but may have access to watch performances on a virtual platform. For a quick slideshow on the benefits of music, ensembles being offered, and safety tips for music in times of covid, check out Welcome to Monterey Music 2020 as well as our Covid Safety page.
Hi Everyone!
All the Instrument Inspiration pages are now complete! You can use them to check out professionals on your instrument of choice and hear what our #SoundGoals are. It's really vital for young, developing musicians to hear professional quality sounds on their instrument to know what it should sound like so they know what to emulate. Stay tuned in June for sign-ups to come into the music room to practice, jam with friends (socially distanced of course) and get musical help/lessons from Ms Dyler! There are no official band, choir, or strings classes in June due to covid restrictions in school but we can still make music in small, carefully controlled groups. Cheers! Ms D Hi Everyone!
Some updates for the past week: GOOGLE CLASSROOMS FOR MUSIC Google Classrooms have been set up for Grade 6, Grade 7, and Grade 8. I have been updating those and have provided a music journal assignment there. It's mostly for Band/Strings but there are non-instrument journal prompts that choir only students can also participate in. There are a few non-music students who have also joined in so if you know of a student that would like to do some musical exploration at home, they're welcome to try as long as they are respectful. The classroom codes are Grade 6: 7ANYU3U Grade 7: SEZN5D7 Grade 8: 5XOCBJO INSTRUMENT RESOURCES I've also updated the Instrument Resources page to include inspirational players for each instrument. If you click on the name, you will be linked to their YouTube search results so you can easily access videos of inspiring, world class performers. I've included, where it is available, their birth years so students can see veteran professionals, as well as young and upcoming musicians the same age as them. So far Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, and Flute are complete. I'm hoping to finish Woodwinds this week and Brass and Percussion next week. SHEET MUSIC Just a heads up that many of the 'free music' sites linked on the student resources page are only free if viewed digitally and that you have to pay for a subscription or for the sheet music if you want to print it out. If you find you will have to pay $2.00 for this piece, and $5.00 for that piece, a much more affordable option is to purchase instrument medley books. My favourites are the ones that are "101 Movie Themes for Trumpet" or "50 Disney Favourites for Flute" and these are easily purchased online from Tapestry Music, Long & McQuade, Amazon, and a small selection from book sellers like Indigo. I am currently unable to go into the school to provide sheet music photocopies to students at this point. MUSIC TOUR My most recent update for the music tour refunds is that the tour agency is working hard at refunding all the tours they had organized but are being held up by various insurance agencies being overwhelmed as well as vendors not responding. I've been told our trip is in the line-up to be assigned to a case agent in the next 2-3 weeks who can begin processing our return. Hope you are all well, staying musical, and enjoying the beautiful weather we've been having. Sincerely, Michelle Dyler Monterey Music Director |
AuthorMs Dyler is the music director at Monterey Middle School Archives
September 2022
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