5th Grade Band is the main entry point into the Brighton Band Program. 5th Grade band is open to any 5th grade student regardless of previous music experience or knowledge. Instruction begins in September with work on instrument fitting and basic music theory. The goal of this is to have the students ready to work when they get their instruments late in September. In late September a rental night will be held which is the easiest most convenient way to acquire an instrument.
Students are assigned instruments based on their input as well as physical characteristics that make learning one instrument more suitable than others. There are limits for some more popular instruments. These are generally flute and percussion. Screenings will be given to determine the students best suited for study on those instruments. Past piano experience is highly recommended for potential percussion students. Please note that already having gone out to rent /purchase an instrument does not guarantee placement on that instrument unless the rental/purchase unless that decision is made in concert with the director.
Instrument choices for 5th grade are: Flute, Oboe, Bassoon, Clarinet, Trumpet, French Horn, Trombone, Baritone, Tuba and Percussion. Student wishing to play one of the saxophones should start on Clarinet, auditions for saxophone happen during the 6th grade year and are only open to the clarinet section. Family financial standing is not a reason to not allow a child to learn an instrument. We do whatever we can to provide school owned instruments so that no child is denied the opportunity to learn an instrument and start what could be a positive life changing activity. More information on school owned instruments is located on the school owned instrument tab.
As with any skill development activity band does require practice in order to be successful. Practice for 5th grade is recommended to be a minimum of 80 minutes a week. Some students choose to take care of this a little bit each day (12 minutes a day takes you over the 80 minute threshold. Some student choose to do less frequent practice and do longer periods on fewer days. The good news is the practice schedule can be made to fit the students schedule and homework load.
While instruments are most often allowed on buses there are a few exceptions for the larger instruments and sometimes these vary by bus driver. In the event that a student is not able to take an instrument home on the bus accommodations can be made to get some practice time in at school before, after or during the day. Also in some cases parents are able to pick up the instrument on their way home from work and deliver it back to school on their way back. There also are ways in some cases to sign out an instrument to take home.
In the event that your child picks and is assigned a more expensive instrument we do offer the ability for the student to leave their rental instrument at home and use a school instrument in class. This eliminates the need to worry about taking the instrument on the bus.
5th Grade Band utilizes Instrument Specialists to give small group single instrument instruction. So there will be times where you will receive information from them, or the students may be assigned assignments by them, You can learn more about the Instrumental Specialists under the Maltby Intermediate School Bands tab.