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Weather, STAAR, 3 day weekends

Posted by Judged on 1/30/2026, 7:58 pm

How many weeks do you actually see your band for a full week between January and contest?

Welcome to open any can of worms between overcoming, under programming, empathy from judges, and anything in between!

Re: Weather, STAAR, 3 day weekends

Posted by DesertJazz on 2/1/2026, 8:17 pm, in reply to "Weather, STAAR, 3 day weekends"

January is a pretty good month for rehearsals minus our couple days off for MLK and the first day back from break. I think we get to have the kids all here until Thursday this week when things are starting to get busy. After that I won't have a full week between now and the first of April when we go to contest where we see all of the kids in the same room every day. Some of those kids I probably won't see more than once a week if I'm lucky with their involvement in things. (One year I had a super involved student I didn't see for two straight weeks)

Can only rehearse to the kid who you do have when that happens. The thing to take solace in for me is that normally those kids that do miss tend to be the brightest and get caught up relatively quickly. I'm grateful our campus has a calendar also that I can see just how full everything is! (Might raise the stress level a bit, but at least I can see which days are going to be rough)

I'm grateful I didn't have your weather up north this past week. I'm still in disbelief by how long schools were shut down up that way! (We just had a delayed start with bad attendance on Monday)

Re: Weather, STAAR, 3 day weekends

Posted by Big guy in a small school on 2/1/2026, 6:25 pm, in reply to "Weather, STAAR, 3 day weekends"

I doubt I'll have a full 5 day week with everyone in class before contest. Between snow days, sports, testing, field trips...

The only time we get serious work done is after-school rehearsals. I have to schedule them carefully around sports. I'm always looking for the easiest pieces on the list to play. I wish we could do more serious literature, but I just don't have the time.

Re: Weather, STAAR, 3 day weekends

Posted by ovwrkdnundrpd on 1/31/2026, 7:06 am, in reply to "Weather, STAAR, 3 day weekends"

We are required to play a grade 2 and 1 for contest. Normally we play a 2 and 3 but it being a little earlier this year, we will stick to the 2 and 1. That being said, I have under programmed. We have all three tunes down and are putting the final touches on. Also, I will never have all the kids in the same room till the contest. Every February I have at least 10 or more missing everyday. One day last year, I only had 6 out of 45 in class. I have all of them the whole month of Jan and then not again till contest.

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