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This web site is provided to supply parents, students, friends and family of the elementary band students of Mr. Mendell with news and information about the our band program. Explore the site, and if you have suggestions that would improve its usefulness, or would like to visit with me for any reason, shoot me an email or give me a call at Hoover at 328-6537.
Beginning in 5th grade, students of the Council Bluffs school district are provided the opportunity to begin the study of instrumental music within the band program. Our goal is to provide instruction through 12th grade, fostering the musical and personal growth of all of our students. Students meet twice per week; one small group or private lesson, and one large ensemble rehearsal. Our large group rehearsals meet before school at Hoover Elementary. Students from schools other than Hoover are then bused back to their home buildings for the beginning of the school day.As our students progress through the program they will have the opportunity to play in groups like Jazz Band, Marching Band Concert Band and Pep Band. Our band program also provides great opportunities for performance and travel. Our own Abraham Lincoln band is headed to New York City this year!
I have been teaching instrumental music in the Council Bluffs school district from the high school to the elementary level since 1989. I really enjoy getting to know a great new group of students every year, helping start them on this rewarding musical journey, and watching them develop into fine young adults and musicians as they move through the program. Like most of the young people in our own band program, I began playing the trombone in the 5th grade and continue to play it today as a free-lance professional player in the Omaha/Lincoln area.
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Joining our band program is just the beginning of a long and rewarding journey that can last well beyond high school. Students will discover avenues for expression new and unique to them. They will learn to feel, think, and act creatively through music. They will develop their own critical aesthetic sense. They will experience their own as well as others' cultural heritages through music. They will learn the value of setting individual and group goals, working with persistence toward the mastery of those goals, and the feeling of reward and achievement that cannot be given, but must be earned through the attainment of those goals.
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