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Music
Music is an essential component of the SJRS curriculum.
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Pre K - Grade 2 have music class once per week. Grade 3 learns to play the ukulele throughout the year.
The Beginning Band (4th grade) helps students acquire a basic level of proficiency on a performing musical instrument. Students are given group lessons once a week based upon the specific instrument they are learning. The Beginning Band also meets once a week as a group to learn the basics of playing as part of an ensemble. Students are taught the following components:
1. Proper posture and breathing skills.
2. Instrument appropriate technical skills.
3. Proper intonation and tone quality.
4. Music reading and rhythmic skills.
5. Performance skills
The Beginning Band performs at the Christmas Pageant and Concert at The Colonial Theatre and the Spring Concert.
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The Intermediate and Advanced Bands help students acquire a higher level of proficiency on their respective instruments. Students have sectional rehearsals with like instruments once per week, and the bands meet as a full group once per week. Students in The students learn a variety of performance styles including Classical, Jazz, and Rock. In 2015 the Advanced Band performed at UMASS Band Day at Gillette Stadium.
The bands perform at the Christmas Pageant and Concert at The Colonial Theatre, Keene High School Jazz Invitational, the Spring Concert at Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College, and the all-school Memorial Day assembly at St. Joseph Cemetery.
Over the past few years, SJRS has had multiple students named to the New Hampshire Band Directors Association Middle School Honors Band as a result of rigorous auditioning. Those students have then gone on to represent SJRS at the State Honors Band Festival.
