Greetings fam!
All weekly updates for the band program will now be viewable on the BAND App, as this has been our primary source of news and information pertaining to our band program. Please go to the Apple app store or the Google Play store on your mobile device and download the BAND App. Information on how to install and sign up for the BAND App can be found here:
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Greetings Eagle family! It’s yet another scorching hot week of record-breaking temperatures! We are super thankful for everyone being flexible with our switches to evening practices, and we know that takes out a lot on families to readjust schedules for students to be there. Students who work jobs and do other activities, we are thankful for your flexibility. We are SUPER hopeful that this heat wave will finally end and we can return to some sort of normalcy.
Here are the announcements for this week: PROGRESS REPORT NEXT WEEK: This weeks is week no. 3, and this Friday marks the last day that students will receive a grade for the progress report period. We need every single student in the band diligently turning in their work and doing great work on tests, exams, essays, and projects. You must pass your classes - zeros for assignments are not tolerated. BAND BOOSTER MEETING MONDAY SEP 21: This Monday, even though the band will be outside, we will be having our band parent Booster meeting in the band hall! The board will meet to vote at 6:30, and all parents are invited to attend the general 7pm meeting. EVENING PRACTICE SCHEDULE: We are up against the Houston heat wave once again, so we have modified our rehearsal schedule again. This week is Monday 5pm-8pm and Tuesday 5pm-8pm. Wednesday and Thursday are off. Wednesday is a church night for a lot of families, and Thursday is supposed to be the hottest day in recorded history for Houston. FOOTBALL GAME FRIDAY ITINERARY: The itinerary is posted at the top of this update and on the main website. Click the itinerary to see the full details of Friday’s football game. FOOTBALL GAME ATTIRE: This week’s attire for the football game is:
Jewelry should not be worn. This is for uniformity purposes, and jewelry can be easily lost at games. BAND FAIR SHARE FEE IS DUE: All students will need to have paid their yearly band dues of $300 no later than August 25th before we roll out on the bus. The TMF webstore is now closed, so the only option is to send cash or check made out to Atascocita High School Band Boosters. If you are requesting a payment plan, any form of payment - $20, $40, $60, $0.25, ANYTHING, needs to be in that box with a name on the envelope and fair share fee payment written on it. It will be processed in your account, and we will need to work out getting the rest paid in the future. IT’S THE FIRST WEEK OF FOOTBALL GAME!!! Good luck to the AHS Band - they have worked super hard, and we are very excited for their very first performance of the year! Greetings Eagles! We have a little bit of a “different” week in terms of rehearsal schedules. We are just weeks away from our first football game, so we need to have some rehearsal time outside to get ready for that.
REHEARSAL SCHEDULE CHANGE: This week only, we have a different rehearsal schedule. Our practices this week are:
The website calendar has been updated with these times, just for this week. LETTER JACKETS: They have arrived. If you were awarded one, come see us to receive it. FIRST FOOTBALL GAME: Less than 2 weeks away! August 25th at Dickinson High School, away game. An itinerary will be sent out soon. BAND DUES: We are at about 120 students who have made a payment towards the yearly required fair share fee. Please make sure you are active on getting this taken care of, because you will need to have had a payment made before the first football game. The web store is now closed, so the only way to pay is by cash or check in an envelope made out to Atascocita High School Band Boosters and placed in the black dropbox by the instrument storage room. SHOES: They are coming in this week. If you ordered them, they will be received here in the band hall. OTHER APPAREL: If you ordered band gear on the last runs, they will be delivered to you sometime either this week or next week. GRADES: We are in week two of grades. The next week will be the 3rd week, which will indicate where a student will be on their first progress report. September 22nd is the eligibility cut-off date. Whatever a student receives on the second progress report will determine their eligibility to participate in our activity. PRIVATE LESSONS: We STRONGLY ENCOURAGE our high school students to enroll in private lessons. Having any sort of one-on-one private instruction with a coach who masters pedagogy in their craft is highly beneficial to students. It also greatly benefits the band program in general, and it makes for the band experience to be super positive when a student feels individually successful and thriving. For more information, visit the website below to see our information on private lesson teachers, forms, etc: https://www.atascocitaband.com/private-lessons.html August 9, 2023
Greetings everyone, and welcome back! We are so excited for everyone’s first day back of school! It’s an exciting time, and we hope that everyone has had an awesome restful break. We have already had almost four total weeks of camps and students back for band, so for us, it feels like we’ve already been in school with you guys! Therefore, this week’s update will contain some of the items that we need to go over with students and parents so that we are all on the same page. Please read carefully each one, as most of the information will pertain to you: Daily Rehearsal: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 3:45 to 5:30.
First Football Game: August 25th vs. Dickinson High School, away game Band Fees: Only 99 students of our 200 member group have paid their annual dues. There are 4 days left on the web store. This is not an optional purchase - this is a required due for the program. Students will not be able to participate fully until the dues are paid in full. If you are experiencing a financial hardship or need to request partial payments, please contact Mr. Best at rxbest@humbleisd.net to set up a payment plan so that you can participate. If you are ready to make a payment, go to https://stores.inksoft.com/atascocitahsband/shop/home and pay for your annual dues (fair share fees) there. Students with completely unpaid fair share fees before August 25 (first football game) will not be allowed to perform at the first game. Your attention to this matter is greatly appreciated. Band Shoes: There are about 40 students who DID NOT purchase the required black shoes for the marching season. Without them, you will not be allowed on the field. You have 4 days left. https://stores.inksoft.com/atascocitahsband/shop/home We are going to put a pause here for now. Just make sure to familiarize yourself with www.atascocitaband.com website and get to know all of the information pertaining to our program. We are going to have an AWESOME year of Atascocita High School Military Marching Band! FIRST UPDATE! The new year is fast approaching us, and we are about to kick start another exciting year of Atascocita High School band! We are delighted to see everyone back, and we can’t wait to see your smiling faces again! I hope that you all had a wonderful summer break!
Here is some information that you need to know to get started with high school band coming up here soon. OFFICIAL BAND FORMS: All band students need these registration forms filled out prior to camp:
PHYSICAL AND RANK ONE: Your physical must be turned into us NO LATER THAN July 24th - FIRST DAY OF FULL CAMP. This is super critical, because without it, you will be unable to go outside with us and you’ll have to stay inside. The physical is your clearance to go outside with the marching band and be with us when we learn our show. If you did it at the school, you should be good to go. If you haven’t done it yet, it’s super easy to do and a lot of places do it for super cheap. Go to https://www.atascocitaband.com/physicals-and-rankone-for-marching-band.html for more information LEADERSHIP CAMP: If you are on the leadership team, our official camp is July 13 (1pm to 4pm and July 14th (9am to 4pm), located in the Kingwood Park High School band hall. You will wear your blue band shirts on the first day and your red polo shirt on the second day. OFFICIAL SUMMER CAMP SCHEDULE:
If you are a percussionist of any grade, we will get you started on July 10th with all of the music and equipment you need this week, featuring several percussion masterclass clinicians. Lunch will be provided. If you are a freshman woodwind or brass, we will see you July 17th-19th for three days of freshman music camp. We will teach you a bunch of great stuff - our school song, fight song, all the things! It will be super fun! Lunch will be provided. Leadership team will be in attendance with the freshman these three days. If you are any high school band student, you will return to your first day of band camp starting July 24th at 7AM. The schedule is the same as last year - 7am to 11am outside, lunch (provided on the July 24th week), then 12pm to 3pm inside with music and masterclass teachers. This is a UIL Military Marching Band state year! So, we are going to put our “Best foot forward” and give it our Best shot! BAND FEES AND PAYMENTS: The webstore has closed several times to process payments and orders. The store will reopen on July 17th, and it will stay open for two weeks. If you have not yet processed your payment for new black shoes, required band apparel, and the annual fair share fee, you will need to do that on the week of when it opens up on July 17th. A few notes about payments and stuff:
ALL KIDS NEED A WATER JUG FOR CAMP. It is a required item. We can’t allow you outside with no hydration - dehydration is a big concern for us at summer camps. SUPPLY CHECKLIST:
Greetings Eagles fans! TWO MORE WEEKS LEFT! We are super close to the very end, and we are already looking forward to having a really nice summer vacation with our friends and families, and also getting ready for the hype of football season! Speaking of, the football schedule is posted. You can find the schedule on the website calendar to use for your convenience.
This week is another busy one! Let’s go over this week: MONDAY DRESS REHEARSALS: The spring concert is coming up, so we are having one dress rehearsal on Monday after school for the concert bands to go over last details for the concert. Students wear their normal school day clothes. (*a “dress” rehearsal does not mean you “dress out” for the concert. It means that you “address” any technical issues before you put on a live performance. It’s concert lingo - dress rehearsal.) The dress rehearsal times are:
MONDAY BOOSTER MEETING: On Monday, we have our monthly Booster meeting to discuss happenings in the program. The Booster Board is meeting at 6:30, and then all band Booster parents are invited to attend the general meeting at 7PM today in the band hall. TUESDAY CONCERT: This year’s annual Spring Concert will be in the Performing Arts Center, and it will start at 7PM. We strongly encourage everyone to stay until the end as we will be having a special guest conductor with the Wind Ensemble that you won’t want to miss.
THURSDAY JAZZ BAND AUDITIONS: If you are a student interested in jazz band, we are having jazz band auditions this Thursday after school. FRIDAY SAM HOUSTON STATE WIND ENSEMBLE FESTIVAL: The Varsity and Non-Varsity bands are recording this Friday at the SHSU performing arts center. The itinerary of this event is located below. SATURDAY KICKBALL TOURNAMENT: This Saturday several of our band leadership will be hosting a kickball tournament. More information will be going out on this later. The AMB is having their Kickball Tournament yet again! This is a great way to have fun with fellow band students, and well, play kickball (destroy the green team). May 20th from 1pm to 5pm (not an official time) If you are interested, sign up at https://forms.gle/6oYoHQ35QECzJjG38 Good morning fellow Eagles!
I have a LOT to go over, because the month of May is usually all kinds of bananas. So let’s go over everything you need to know in a monthly overview. For the month of May, we have the following dates scheduled:
Let’s go over the things happening this week: Class Placements: that is happening in class this week. Every student is in the Atascocita High School Band, but we need to place students in the appropriate class. Evaluations will consist of scales and a prepared music of their choice. Senior Slideshow is Due: Seniors, please go to the following form and fill out your information for the slideshow: https://docs.google.com/forms/u/1/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3wW_iJqIG_r35v78DxOGXRcPHoME-yl1P9ZYHwLp2op5U2Q/viewform?usp=sf_link&urp=gmail_link GRADES: Teachers are submitting their grades today that will impact whether or not a student REGAINS ELIGIBILITY. You can not lose eligibility, but you can possibly regain it back on this progress report if you had lost eligibility previously. Jazz Band Spring Concert: Please join us for our annual Jazz Band Spring Concert in the Performing Arts Center on Thursday May 4th at 7:00PM. We would love to see you there. High School Band Registration: Registration is May 8th for returning members and May 9th for incoming 8th graders. PARENTS, you can go now and fill out the required forms for our program at www.atascocitaband.com/register so that you won’t have to take time to do it on the day of registration. The web store is not open yet currently, it will be open next week to begin making purchases. That’s where I’m going to stop for now. There’s a lot going on, and we will keep you up to date. Regarding the BAND App, when I make a post, it usually gets about 50 glances and 40 reads by a total of 400+ students and parents. There will be a lot of information going out during these next few weeks, so please do me a huge favor and don’t swipe the notification away - please click on and view the push notifications that go out. Even if it’s to fake that you read it, it will make me feel better about myself. Okay, that’s it for the day! Hope everyone has a super awesome week, and we will see you on the other side! WEEKLY UPDATE 4/24/2023
GOOD MORNING EAGLES! I hope everyone had a super good testing week last week, as we have another week of testing for various subjects this week. While that’s going on, here are the following things going on this week:
HIGH SCHOOL BAND REGISTRATION: It is almost time to get our high school band registration going! If you are enrolled in high school band, there are several things that we need to get you started, which are physicals, calendar, uniforms, forms, and much more! There are two days as to which you can attend registration:
If you have a conflict with a specific date and need to make a special arrangement, just email me at rxbest@humbleisd.net and we can arrange something. You can go online and register today! Go to https://www.atascocitaband.com/register.html and begin filling out all of the online Google forms. They are ready. There are some things that are not ready yet - calendar, webstore, etc. We are still working on those. If you get your online Google Forms submitted early, you won’t have to do it the day of and you can save a lot of time! LEADERSHIP APPLICATIONS and INTERVIEWS: Applications for next year’s leadership team has concluded, and we had over 60 students apply to be on the leadership team. This is a huge deal, that many students are interested in stepping up and applying to serve for a higher purpose. While we love this, we need all candidates to know that not everyone will be selected, as there are a limited number of positions available. The positions will be determined by the following criteria:
DRUM MAJOR AUDITIONS: If you are auditioning, auditions are THIS THURSDAY for preliminary and FRIDAY for the finals. Auditions will take place after school, and you will want to wear comfortable clothing for Thursday’s tryouts.
CLASS PLACEMENT EVALUATIONS: High school evaluations start next week, May 1st. Students will be required to play the following two things:
Greetings Fellow Eagles! We had a LOT going on last week, so I apologize for missing out on a week of updates. But I do have some awesome news to share with you all: UIL RESULTS: Our UIL season has finally come to a close, and after earning a Divison 1 in marching band in the fall semester, the second round of UIL competition happened this week. To earn a sweepstakes in high school, a band must have also earned a 1 in marching. Here are the results from UIL Concert and Sightreading:
Congratulations to ALL of our students who worked so hard this semester. Congratulations to the staff on your vision, and thank you to all the parents who supported us and your students in music this year. Here are some updates on what is coming up:
LEADERSHIP APPLICATIONS: Applications for next year’s Military Marching Band leadership team is now live and ready to go! Click HERE to apply for the Leadership Team. DRUM MAJOR APPLICANTS: If you are interested in serving as next year’s drum major for the AMB, you will click the link above and do the application for leadership team. You will be required to come to our initial trainings on Monday and Wednesday. The first day of drum major applicant training is This Wednesday from 3:00 to 4:00. CLASS PLACEMENT EVALUATIONS: Information on class placement is being provided in class starting today. The evaluations will be significantly different than how they were done in the past. Students will be required to play the following two things:
BAND BASH: We are in the early stages of planning our annual Band Bash! Band Bash is the end of year celebration where all of the band students gather together for an evening of dancing, great food and fun, and to ultimately recognize the Senior Class of 2023! Below are the baseline logistics that we have ironed out so far: Date: Thursday, May 11, 2023 Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm We would love to have your assistance with planning this event for our students! The Band Bash planning committee will meet a few times in person and then via virtual meetings as needed. It won’t be a heavy lift, rather it will be a fun time for the Band parents to get together and plan an awesome event for our students! If you are interested in joining the Band Bash planning committee, please send me an email to ahsbandboosterspresident@gmail.com. Please let me know if you have any questions. That is going to be all for this week. Stay tuned to next week’s updates for more things. May is jam-packed with lots of events, so we will come back later with more information. Hope everyone has a great week, and we will see you on the next one! Greetings Eagle Family! We hope that you all had a super good weekend! We are down to our last week of rehearsals for UIL Concert and Sightreading which is next week. A detailed itinerary will be going out soon.
UIL Schedule for Parents:
Parents are invited (and encouraged) to attend their child’s performance on UIL day! This week, we have the following things: Monday: we are on stage for class. Tuesday: regular class day as usual - in the band hall Wednesday: Block day 1-3-5-7 periods, on stage Thursday: Block day 2-4-6 periods, on stage Friday: SHSU Jazz Festival - the Jazz Band will perform at Sam Houston State University for the Bill Watrous Jazz Festival. Itinerary posted soon. Saturday: The High School Drumline will perform at the Humble Civic Center. A detailed itinerary will go out this week, and the performances are at the following times:
Leadership Applications 2023: Applications will open up on April 10th, and they will be due on April 21st. Any and all students interested in serving on the leadership team (including prospective drum majors), will fill out the application. Go to https://www.atascocitaband.com and click on Resources -> Current Students -> Leadership Team Applications and check back for the link to open. Leadership Interviews will be on the week of April 24th in class with the band directors. Drum Major Audition Training 2023: All drum major candidates interested in serving as the Atascocita High School Military Marching Band will be required to attend trainings on Mondays and Wednesdays starting at 3:15. This begins April 10th and goes up to April 28th. Drum Major Auditions will be on April 28th, at the HS Band Hall. Go to https://www.atascocitaband.com/drum-major-auditions.html for more information regarding the auditions. 2023-2024 Class Placement Evaluations will begin on the week of May 1st. We will have more information on the evaluations, as it will be slightly different than how it was done last year. |
BRIAN BESTDirector of Bands, Atascocita High School Archives
September 2023
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