January 27, 2026 Rehearsal Recap & What’s Ahead
What a great Monday morning together — thank you for your focus, curiosity, and willingness to jump in and try new things. Here’s a recap of what we covered this week, plus a look ahead.
Music Reading & Rhythm
We began by reviewing the treble clef and confirming everyone’s individual favorite line or space on the staff. This is an important early reading strategy — it gives your eyes a safe “home base” from which you can figure out other notes using mnemonics or by counting alphabetically.
We also talked briefly about ledger lines, which extend note reading above and below the five-line staff.
Next, we reviewed note values from last week and introduced the concept of the dot — which adds 50% of the note’s value to itself. We worked through a few examples together (yes… a lot of math for a Monday morning! ) and discussed how dots work the same way for rests as they do for notes.
Next week, we’ll review all of this and begin doing some hand-clapping exercises to help solidify rhythm concepts.
How to Band
I shifted the agenda order this week and moved How to Band earlier — a format we’ll keep going forward so the Instrument of the Week can flow more naturally into break time if needed.
This week’s topic was being a good steward of your music. In any ensemble, you are responsible for your music — it’s expensive and time-consuming to replace. Some key takeaways:
Please use pencil only on original music (no pen or highlighter), and erase markings before turning music in.
Bring your music in the rehearsal order if one is provided — and always bring all your music, even if something isn’t listed.
Copyright laws are complex — when in doubt, don’t copy or share and please ask.
Keep music in a folder to prevent damage.
Storing music alphabetically will save time during rehearsal.
We also discussed going digital with music — not required, but very much the wave of the future. Benefits include easy transport, no paper damage, backlit visibility, simple page turns, zoomable music, and powerful organization through tagging.
For those interested, the typical setup includes:
An iPad (12.9” recommended, smaller sizes are fine)
Apple Pencil (model must match your iPad)
Foot pedal for page turns
ForScore app (one-time purchase)
Genius Scan app (for scanning paper music)
Optional textured screen protector to reduce glare and improve writing feel
Instrument of the Week – Percussion
This week we explored non-tuned percussion — instruments that provide rhythm and color without multiple pitches. We tried tambourine, claves, maracas, triangle, sleigh bells, finger cymbals, gong, and more.
A huge thank-you to Alan M. for bringing such a fun collection, plus drumsticks and practice pads so we could all learn basic grip and technique. It was especially entertaining (and enlightening!) to discover just how much our non-dominant hands had to work.
Rehearsal Highlights
After break, we jumped into full ensemble rehearsal:
We revisited the 3/4 section of Go With the Flow and talked about how it’s intentionally exposed — meaning everyone needs to play bravely and without fear. You did exactly that, and it sounded very good.
We continued through the end of the piece and ran it in full.
We reviewed Shining Moments, listening again and playing it through.
We returned to Beginners Rock!, bumping the tempo up to ♩ = 120 — super fun!
We took Go With the Flow up to 120 as well.
Finally, we listened to and played through Fandango Festival at about ♩ = 100.
You should all feel proud of the progress you’re making — musically and in confidence. I’m really enjoying watching the group grow together.
Looking forward to seeing you next week!