okay this year my school is having a half hour of chior in the morning and a half hour of band in the after noon. I think that is stupid because our band isn't that good to have that short of time. putting away instruments and getting them would take maybe tens min. giver take. talking errors probably5-10 mins so that leaves 10-15 mintues to play that to me is stupid. i would like to hear from people on what they think of this. me i think it is stupid.

Sounds to me like they're not taking this music thing seriously at all, rather just an attempt to have it show on the curriculum. I'm not sure how US schools work these things into the timetable, but things like bands and choirs tend to happen during lunch breaks and after school and pretty much always for at least an hour. I'm involved with a beginners' band that meets in the evenings (not a school band, although many of them go to the same school). The kids are all between about eight and twelve, but they're expected to rehearse for a full hour each week. It's the only way the director can get anything done.

that is pretty dumb.
we have to have hour classes for band, or else NOTHING happens.

they decided to do the half hour because no one was going to do choir because they said it was because they needed study ahll. I quit and said that was the reason like almost everyone else though it wasn't i jsut don't like the choir i have. so that is the reason i think it is dumb because we have a half hour of study hall and you know not everyone will use it. i think it is dumb but it is only in the middle school so i will only have to have a 30 min. band for one year

We have jazz band at 7:30 in the morning (school starts at 8:10) until 8:00. It's really annoying because there's 10 minutes to set up and put away instruments and not everyone arives on time, so we usually start at 8:40

we have band for a full block, as a class. so it ends up being 100 minutes every other day (block scheduling), except concert 3, which is the constant period(7 periods doesnt divide by 2 days) and so has 55 minutes a day.

half an hour definitely doesnt seem like long enough for a band rehearsal.

Forgive me for wandering off-topic, but do you folks in the US of A have such things as community bands? Doesn't matter how old you are and doesn't always matter how good you are - you can just join. It's nothing to do with school or college or anything and it's not competitive either - just a sort of serious fun thing for everyone to get involved in. Many of the kids that join our band do so because there's nothing decent in the way of school bands. With us, they know they're going to get a decent rehearsal to a decent standard, and that they're going to be playing gigs regularly.

I just wondered whether such a thing was feasible for you if you really want more band experience than you're currently getting in school.

we have a community band see our jazz band starts at 7:15 and if you aren't there we start with out you we play untill 7:55 or 8:00

i wish we had community bands... err...

alot of places do have community bands, although they might not be very well advertized. I didn't know about one around here until they happened to be playing at a fourth of july event that my girl scout troup was selling hot dogs at, lol.

i think i've seen this site where you can find community bands all over the country- i'll see if i can find that again.

<Added>

this wasnt the one i was thinking of that i saw before, but it might be useful. i couldnt find the other one.

http://www.boerger.org/c-m/commUSA.html

:)

i live in a rural community and i'd have to drive like and hour to get to one and thats outta the picture till i learn to drive.

that community band website doesn't have all the bands in my state there are a lot more like my town isn't on there. another thing i found out about my school is that we don't get our schedules till the first day. i hate that.

That's annoying...

In high school, they send us our schedule, but it doesn't have the teacher's names on it. Yesterday, we had this thing called "Arena Day" where we turn in all our forms, buy yearbooks, sign up for clubs, get updated schedules (with the teachers names), and stuff like that.

It's kinda nice because you can find your friends and compare schedules...

"Forgive me for wandering off-topic, but do you folks in the US of A have such things as community bands? Doesn't matter how old you are and doesn't always matter how good you are - you can just join. It's nothing to do with school or college or anything and it's not competitive either - just a sort of serious fun thing for everyone to get involved in. Many of the kids that join our band do so because there's nothing decent in the way of school bands. With us, they know they're going to get a decent rehearsal to a decent standard, and that they're going to be playing gigs regularly."

Yes, I do, at least. I am SO happy we have one. Its so much better than our school band, and there are alot of professional people in it.

I also go to music camps and competitions, so I'm never really "bored" by music or don't have enough of it.

Yes, we have community bands. I play in one every 4th of July for a few days. There's also one during the school year at our community college that practices every Thursday night at 9 (I think). I want to play in that this year, but I'm afraid I'll have too much homework and stuff...