Parent Corner


Welcome, Parent, and thank you for giving
 your child the opportunity of MUSIC!

Whether you were a star musician in your high school band or can't carry a tune in a bucket, your support and encouragement will have a TREMENDOUS impact on your child's progress in band! Here are some ways you can help your child's musical growth: 
  • Support the goals, policies, and procedures of the director. Your child succeeds when the band director succeeds.
  • Require regular practice at home. Provide a daily time and place where your child can practice without distractions or interruptions. Having an alarm clock or kitchen timer is a handy tool for your student to keep track of his or her own practice time.
  • Help your child learn responsibility by making sure he or she consistently has an instrument and all materials every day, and keeps up with his or her practice records on a daily basis.
  • Ask your child to play for you and encourage performance.
  • Teach your child to care for his or her instrument by cleaning and maintaining it regularly.
  • Enthusiastically attend all band functions to show your support. Get involved! If you are excited about your child's progress, so will your child!
  • Give strong consideration to providing private lessons for your child.
  • Check this site often for new updates and information!
Students must understand that their actions will have a tremendous impact on their lives and the lives of others. The nature of that impact (positive or negative) is up to the individual.
Remind your child that, when the challenge becomes tough, teachers, just like parents, set high standards because we care! 

Though you may mean well, please refrain from the following as parents:

  • Belittling or making excuses for your child’s playing—a beautiful sound comes after much patience, and even the pros make mistakes!
  • Using practice as a punishment
  • Pressuring your child to play for other when he/she does not want to
There are countless lessons a student can learn from band, such as personal responsibility within a group, working cooperatively with peers, self discipline and motivation, introspection, expression, creativity, multi-tasking--the list goes on and on (see below). In order for your student to receive these skills and gifts from music, it is imperative that he or she STICKS WITH IT! It never fails that, sooner or later, every musician falls into a "rut," when playing music is just not as exciting anymore. We ALL have experienced it, but PLEASE encourage your child to make a commitment to the program before he or she decides to call it quits. Purchasing a book of fun, familiar tunes and some encouragement may be all a child needs to get over a bump in the musical road, but when a child quits as soon as something loses it's initial excitement, it may cause more harm than good!

Lastly, here are some wonderful things we have learned about how music helps students in all aspects of life--check out these great links!

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