Hudson Hawk Band Updates

Week of 4/24/23

First EVER GISD All-Star Beginner Band Success!

On Saturday, 70 of our Beginner Band students auditioned for the first ever GISD Beginner All-Star Band. They worked very hard to learn their scales and music and showed so much growth and courage throughout the process. We are proud to say that 43 of our students earned a chair in one of the All-Star Bands and will put on a concert on Saturday, May 13th! This is the most from any school in the district and we are so excited to hear them perform in a few weeks.

**See this link for details on the All-Star Band clinic and concert on May 13th. If your student is involved, we will take a bus from Hudson at 8:15am on Saturday, May 13th.**

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BAND FEES DUE THIS WEEK

Final payments for the Spring Trip were due Friday, March 31st. Feel free to send the remaining balance by cash or check (made out to Hudson Band Boosters). All band fees (including school-owned instrument usage fees) are due by April 28th. Band fees can be paid online on the band website or through Charms. Please see the bottom of this Smore for details on how to pay online.

As a reminder, band fees must be paid in full for students to attend the spring trip on May 12th.

Pictures Wanted

This year at end our Oodles of Noodles ensemble concert on May 22, we are putting together a slideshow presentation to celebrate all that our band students have done this year. We would love to add pictures that our families have taken throughout the year. We would especially LOVE to have all of our 8th grade students represented to celebrate your time in our program.

Please use this link to add pictures for the slideshow.

2023-2024 HMS Band Auditions - THIS WEEK!

All current 6th and 7th grade band students will audition beginning the week of April 24 for their placement in one of the 3 HMS Advanced Bands for the 23-24 school year. Audition materials can be found here.

**There has been one change to the audition schedule - current advanced band flutes, oboe, and bass clarinets will have their audition after school on THURSDAY.**


Regardless of whether your student will be continuing in band next year, ALL 6th and 7th grade students are required to complete the audition. The audition is a culmination of the skills they have learned over the year and will be treated as a test grade for ALL 6th and 7th grade students.

Wind Symphony Peak Festival

Thursday, April 27th, 2pm

2351 Performance Drive

Richardson, TX

The Wind Symphony will be performing at the Peak Festival at the Eisemann Center in Richardson to record their music for the TMEA Honor Band competition. This concert is free and open to the public. Please come out and see us in this beautiful venue if you are able.


Click here to see the detailed itinerary.
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Beginner Solo Contest

Our Beginner Band students will be performing their solo at Coyle Middle School on Saturday, May 6th. They will have their first rehearsal with the piano accompanist this week. Most rehearsals will take place during their band class, but a few will need to come before school. Use this link to see when your student has their piano rehearsal for their solo.

**If your Beginner Band student is not on this list, they will not be performing their solo on May 6th. Instead, they will be performing their solo after school on May 10th. Percussionists already completed their solo requirement, so they will not be involved in this contest at all.**

Percussion Marimba Rentals

Percussion Marimba Rentals

Our percussion lesson teacher, Mr. Seltzer, has a number of practice marimbas that he is able to rent out to families who need a practice marimba at home. If you are looking to rent a marimba for the summer or the rest of this school year, please contact Mr. Seltzer to set that up with him.
Percussion Marimba Rentals
Incoming 5th Graders

Incoming 5th Graders

If you know any students in the 5th grade (or any other current middle school students who wish they had joined band this year) and are coming to Hudson next year, please tell them to be on the lookout for a chance to sign up for one of our Instrument Selection Drives on our band website.

We are thrilled with the growth in our program this year and look forward to welcoming tons of new Hawk Band members next year! Our best recruiting tool is our current and former band families - please help us spread the word about joining band and getting more amazing students to be part of our band family!

Incoming 5th Graders

WS Drumline STAAR Pep Rally

Our Wind Symphony drumline travelled to Lister Elementary with the HMS cheerleaders (including some of our awesome band students) to put on a STAAR pep rally. They represented us so well and helped get the students excited about the upcoming test.

Good luck to all of our students taking the STAAR test on Tuesday this week!

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Looking Ahead to May

There are a LOT of events coming up in May. Please make sure you know what needs to be on your calendars.

May 3 - Percussion Ensemble & Jazz Band dress rehearsal @ SHS after school

May 6 - Beginner Band solo contest @ Coyle Middle School

May 8 - Jazz Band and Percussion Ensemble Concert @ Sachse High School - 6pm

May 10 - Last booster club meeting of the year @ HMS - 7pm

May 11 - Rehearsal after school for Beginner Band (not select band) - 4:15-5:45pm

May 12 - SoundPost Music Festival and Spring Trip to Splash Kingdom Waterpark

May 13 - All-Star Band Clinic and Concert for those students who earn a spot after auditions on April 22

May 17 - ALL HMS Bands Spring Concert @ SHS - Beginner Band 6:00pm, Advanced Band 7:15pm

May 22 - Oodles of Noodles Ensemble Concert & Dinner Fundraiser

May 23 - Spring Practice Challenge movie night

High School Marching Band Movement Camps

If your student will be participating in marching band at any of the 7 GISD high schools next year, use this link to keep up with when they have movement camps.

More information about colorguard and drumline camps will be sent out when it is given to us.

Summer Band Camp Options

Summer Band Camp Options

If you are looking for something for your student to do this summer, please consider sending them to a band camp around the metroplex or state. There are day camps and overnight camps that offer lessons, electives, and performance opportunities to give your student the chance to keep their skills up over the summer and make some new friends. This link is a list of camps we know to be reputable and we will be adding to it as we learn of more opportunities.
Summer Band Camp Options

Spring 50 Day Practice Challenge

We passed out the last practice challenge of the year just before Spring Break. Students must practice for 50 out of the 63 days available during the challenge to earn the prize. We will be renting out a movie theater to see a movie together with all of the students who complete the challenge!

Click here to find a copy of the challenge paper.

Repeat Information

A Word About Braces

We know that many of our students will need braces during the course of their middle school years. Every band instrument can be played with braces, however, it is a big adjustment that often takes weeks or months for the student to feel "back to normal" once they get them. As you are scheduling this big change for your student, please be mindful of the band performance calendar to help our students be able to perform their best this semester.

April 27 - WS Peak Festival

May 6 - Beginner Solo Contest

May 12 - Spring Festival for All Band Students

May 13 - All-Star Band Clinic/Concert

May 17 - HMS Bands Spring Concert for All Students

Click here for any needed handout.

School-Owned Instrument Usage Fees

School-Owned Instrument Usage Fees

If your student is using a school owned instrument (or is a percussionist), the school-owned instrument usage fee has been added to your student's Charms account. Woodwind and Brass players will now see a fall and spring fee for $25 each, or $50 for the whole year. Percussionists will see a fall fee for $25.

Oboes, bassoons, bass clarinets, tenor saxes, bari saxes, French horns, euphoniums, tubas, and the few students who play a different instrument that is owned by the school will see that fee now and can pay it by cash, check (made out to Hudson Band Boosters), or through Charms (using Paypal).

This fee was originally supposed to be paid in Skyward, but we are adjusting the process for ease of charge and payment.

If you have any questions or have any issues logging in to Charms to check on fees, please let me know and I am happy to help!

School-Owned Instrument Usage Fees
Band Fees

Band Fees

Because our school band budget is so small, we have to charge a band fee so that we can provide the best music education experience for all our band students. This band fee covers all instructional materials (band binder and all its contents), band shirt, contest entry fees, solo accompanist fees, performance music, music theory subscription, transportation, meals before performances, incentive days, and so much more. We set up our band fees to be collected up front (or split into payments), so that we are not constantly asking for $5 here, $7 there, etc.


This year, you can pay band fees through cash or check (made out to Hudson Band Boosters), Paypal through Charms (watch this video to walk you through the Charms system), and for the first time - credit card through the band website. Visit the band website and enter the password HawkBD2223 to enter the secure page and pay online. Please consider adding the optional donation to your cart to cover the credit card fees we incur using this convenient service.


If you have a financial hardship, please communicate with us so we can help you. We never want a student to be unable to participate due to finances and will do everything we can to work with your family and ensure your student is included.

Band Fees
Log in to Charms

Log in to Charms

Please take a moment this week to log in to Charms. www.charmsoffice.com

Log in as a parent/student/member

The school code is hudsonsoundmachine

The password for first time users is your student's GISD ID number (should be 6 digits)

For non-first time users, your password should be your student's ID with their capitalized initials in front (i.e. HB123456) unless you've changed it to something else.

Please update contact information (add adults as necessary), check your student's birthday ID, instrument, etc. and make changes as necessary. If you have questions or have difficulty logging in, please contact Mrs. Becker.

Log in to Charms

CLICK HERE TO READ THE BAND HANDBOOK

Advanced Band Supplies

Advanced Band Supplies

Please make sure your student in the Wind Symphony, Honors Band, or Symphonic Band have their required supplies for this year. We are using the Foundations for Superior Performance book in all band classes and many students do not yet have the book. We are also beginning to work on tuning and if your student does not still have their tuner/metronome from beginner band, they will need one ASAP.
Advanced Band Supplies
BAND App Links

BAND App Links

Because our band has grown so big, we can no longer use Remind. We have reached the maximum participants in multiple classes and do not have space for more unless we upgrade our account (which costs more than we wish to spend). We will be switching messaging services to the BAND app (which the Sachse HS band also uses) to align our cluster. Please sign up for the appropriate class(es) for your student. We will NO LONGER be using Remind, so if you were just signed up for band, you will not need that app/number any longer. Thanks for understanding!

22-23 ALL HMS Band Students/Parents

Beginner Band

Symphonic Band

Honors Band

Wind Symphony

22-23 HMS BAND PARENTS ONLY

BAND App Links
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About Us

About Us

About Us

Heather Becker - Director

Dan Urban - Assistant Director

hdbecker@garlandisd.net 972-675-3070 hudsonband.org