BandNotes Logo

BAND NOTES

Notes on Making Music, especially Wind/Percussion Bands

~~ WELCOME ~~

Art is the transfer of emotions from one person
to another. ~Tolstoy


This website started out as a site for my middle school students, then I added some things that might interest my adult band members (Sudbury Valley New Horizons Band). Now that I've retired from teaching middle school, it has become a generic band website, with information that may be useful to all musicians. Feel free to email me if you have any questions or comments.

(I'm still in the process of updating the site, so some pages will still be WMS pages...)

rule

note Need to purchase some music? Good music stores are hard to find these days and I, personally, really miss being able to walk into a store and browse for things.. There are a couple of really good on-line stores -- Sheet Music Plus and JW Pepper are two of them.

note Purchasing a new instrument?? -- Exciting! PLEASE beware of instruments that have a cheaper sticker price -- they look great, but there is a reason that they don't cost as much, and usually they develop major wear problems very quickly (we sometimes call them "Band Quitter Models"). Ask a private teacher or your band director about the brand you are considering. Don't just buy off the shelf! I would say never buy from a discount store, and I would be cautious about buying from a store that seems to deal primarily in guitars, keyboards, drumset, etc. I have found that even though they look like they have a band/orchestra instrument department, they often don't have people who really know the instruments and the instruments are often not good quality. Even some of the beginning drum kits that come from these stores are often not worth the money - I had a terrible time trying to adjust an elementary student's drum at the spring concert (I never did get it to sound right). When I asked, he said it came from a local store that really deals mostly with guitars. Follow link for more info on cheap instruments and why it is a bad idea.

rule

Looking for the Wayland Middle School Band site?
https://sites.google.com/a/wayland.k12.ma.us/wms-bands/home