Exciting Music Updates for 2019-2020 School Year

I hope everyone had a great summer! I completed my Masters of Education degree at the beginning of July, so this was my first vacation without homework in years! I went to Portland with friends to see my favorite band, Chicago. I got to visit with family in Massachusetts. My cousins visited Maine for the first time. I even got to spend some time on Cape Cod.

When I wasn’t enjoying some down time, I was working in the music room at school. We have made some wonderful improvements to our already beautiful facility and great music program.

 

If you don’t recognize the music storage room in the pictures, that’s because it had accumulated so much equipment over the years that it was impossible to get from one end to the other. The school purchased a new bookcase to store all our music methods and references.  

 

I repurposed an empty file cabinet that was on the stage to store our sheet music library. Simple bookends now keep the choral music on the wall more secure. The keyboards are now stored on their sides, allowing more keyboards to fit on each shelf. By reorganizing everything, I was able to free up two complete shelves for band students to now store their instruments.  

On the wall opposite the student instrument shelves is the classroom set of ukuleles with padded cases and a tall rack on which to store them that the school purchased. 

Behind the school building, a storage garage is in the process of being built. Once finished, the smaller set pieces from our musicals, our chorus risers (which have been re-carpeted), and our acoustic piano will be able to fit in the garage until needed. This will free up a lot of space on the stage and in the music room. The school has purchased a new digital stage piano. It plays well, sounds great, and has a lot of features, but only weighs 25 pounds and can be moved wherever it is needed.

In the music classroom, you will notice that many of the tables that were around the edges of the room are now being used in the intermediate wing, where they will not need to move around as often. In the front corner near the flag, the school purchased a tall storage cabinet to store xylophones. Speaking of xylophones, the school purchased 7 new alto xylophones. We now have enough xylophones and metallophones for every student in a class to use one at the same time by doubling up. In the instrument corner of the room, we now have labelled storage containers to help students to select and return classroom instruments. Worn out classroom instruments have been replaced and a few additional instruments have been acquired. Our local Home Depot donated a classroom supply of 5-gallon buckets for bucket drumming units. The school purchased enough ear muff style hearing protection for an entire class.

There has been a lot of bragging in this post, but we have a wonderful school with a supportive administration and PTO. We have accomplished so much in just a few weeks of summer. I am proud of our students and our music program and I look forward to another incredible year of music making.

I can’t wait to see you at our open house on Tuesday, August 27th at 5:30PM. I will have handouts available for band, chorus, and general music classes. I will be happy to give you a tour of our music space and to answer any questions you may have.