Welcome to an exciting new year for the newest ensemble in Rose Bay’s ever expanding music ensembles program. This week Rock Band began talking about the plan for the year, how each term will run, what opportunities exist for the Rock Bands and what needs to be done to work towards them. You can download an introductory letter here https://rbscmep.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/rock-band-term-1-student-letter.pdf. There is also a Participant Form that students need to fill out and return to the school. Please download the form here https://rbscmep.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/rock-band-participant-form.pdf. Some people still need to return these, even if you were in rock band last year please fill this form out and return it to c-block.
There will be a big focus this year on developing the skills to write music in a band situation, writing songs basically. Each group has been set the goal to come up with one original song per term and this will be the area where we will be focusing alot of attention in the sessions.
This is also something I would like to develop across the whole program and something I hope our school will be renowned for in the coming years. There are various competitions throughout the year that cater for school based bands writing original music and it is our goal for our students to enter as many as we can. The first is called Youthrock and happens in Youth Week which is coming up soon. Hopefully we can enter all our bands, if that is too soon there is also the Triple J Unearthed High Competition and Motorola My Band which happen later in the year.
There is also the great social aspect of playing music with people which can sometimes be overlooked. The skill acquisition involved in learning music and the gratification that comes from playing it is highly motivating and a great way to build self esteem. It’s something that alot of musicians would attest to, I believe in it because I’ve experienced it myself.
So moving forward, there are some things that need attention in the short term:
The RSBC Rock Band facebook group is still alive and kicking and I would like all those students to search for it and join. http://www.facebook.com/groups/rbscrockband/
All bands should be thinking about a band name and perhaps creating their own facebook page so they can promote performance opportunities and other news.
I’m excited for a big year of rock music!
Ben Bryant
RBSC Music Ensemble Program 