Posts Tagged ‘Skyview Jr. High School’
Posted by glennled on January 8, 2017

It snowed on 9 December, so Skyview Jr. High School in Bothell, WA cancelled all its classes. That killed that morning’s holiday season concert which was to be presented by students from nearby Fernwood, Crystal Springs, and Canyon Creek elementary schools. Belatedly, on Friday, 6 January 2017, under the direction of Charlie Fix, the two beginning bands (5th and 6th grades) played a mix of Christmas and other music for the audience of about 150 parents, relatives, and friends.
The 1st-year band performed “Good King Wenceslas,” “Jolly Old St. Nicolas” (a duet), and “Jingle Bells.” The 2nd-year band performed “Spirit of the Stallion” by Brian Balmages and “Glorioso” by Robert W. Smith. The “Stallion” piece is noted for its challenging 26 time-signature changes! Each band also featured performances by the separate instrument sections. For example, the 1st-year brass section played “Mary Ann,” and the 2nd-year brass played “Home on the Range.” I teach beginning brass, Candice Palmberg teaches flutes, Matt Simmons teaches woodwinds, and Jane Lin teaches percussion and also is the music teacher at Crystal Springs Elementary.
Please click on any photo below to enlarge it.
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1st-Year elementary band
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2nd-Year (6th grade) elementary band
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Posted in School Concerts | Tagged: band, brass, Charlie Fix, concert, flutes, Home on the Range, Jingle Bells, music, percussion, Skyview Jr. High School, Spirit of the Stallion, teacher, woodwinds | Leave a Comment »
Posted by glennled on September 22, 2016
Last April, a family from Cherry Hill, New Jersey (just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia) moved cross-country when the Dad took a new job in Bothell, Washington. At Cherry Hill, the son attended Rosa International Middle School, which offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. He’s been playing trumpet since 4th grade and took private lessons back there, starting in the 6th grade. Now that he’s an 8th grader at Skyview Jr. High School in Bothell, he has become my 31st trumpet student. Our first private lesson was on 28 July.
Listening to music at a young age, he especially liked “Star Wars” and decided, “I can play an instrument, too.” He likes percussion—“rhythm is fun”—but so do lots of other kids. So his attention turned to saxophone, flute, and trumpet. Then he realized that the sound of the saxophone usually blends in with other sounds, and the flute isn’t very versatile. On the other hand, the trumpet can either blend in or stand out and often gets to play the melody. It can play all styles from classical to jazz—“It all works!” And it looks simple–only three buttons instead of all those keys. Only later did he learn how the embouchure complicates playing a brass instrument. So that’s how trumpet became his choice, and obviously, he’s happy with that decision.
He takes private lessons because he likes to excel at whatever he’s doing and wants to play in the lead group of the trumpet section. But he has no ambition to become a professional. He will eventually choose some other career. Meanwhile, being in the concert and jazz bands is fun, and he’s looking forward to playing in the marching and concert bands at the new North Creek High School. After that, he’d like to play in college, too.
That’s my privilege and challenge: to help him play well, be a leader, and enjoy doing it!
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Posted in New Students - Intro Posts, Skyview Junior High | Tagged: band, brass, concert, embouchure, IB program, jazz, lesson, music, rhythm, Skyview Jr. High School, trumpet | Leave a Comment »
Posted by glennled on September 27, 2015

My 20th trumpet student, a 6th-grader in 1st-year band, took private lessons from me for a few months starting on 8 November 2010. Apparently, she has a great voice, because she made the Northshore School District’s Honors Choir in 2011. And when she had to register for 7th grade classes at Skyview Jr. High School in Bothell, she chose choir, not band.
Today, when I was compiling a list of all my trumpet students since 2009, I found I’d never written a blog post here about her…until now. She must have been “out of sight, out of mind.”
But now I remember. That next year, when I would occasionally see her in a school breezeway, I would tease her about leaving and try to re-recruit her. She would just smile broadly and walk on by. It reminded me of John Benson Sebastian’s song, “Did you ever have to make up your mind? You pick up on one and leave the other behind…” Here’s The Lovin’ Spoonful singing it (1966): http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=did+you+ever+have+to+make+up+your+mind&FORM=HDRSC3#view=detail&mid=670FAA7BDA3F05CECD73670FAA7BDA3F05CECD73.
She had come to a fork in the road, and “now she’s gone, gone, gone, o-o-o-o-oh.” Just kidding. Best wishes for the Good Life, Young Lady! See you in the movies.
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Posted in New Students - Intro Posts, Skyview Junior High | Tagged: band, choir, John Benson Sebastian, lessons, Skyview Jr. High School, song, The Lovin' Spoonful, trumpet, voice | Leave a Comment »
Posted by glennled on September 22, 2015

When school started this fall at Skyview Jr. High School in Bothell, there was a new faculty member in the music department for the first time in 15 years. Welcome to Mr. Charlie Fix, Band and Orchestra Director. Mr. Fix has a Masters Degree in Music Education from Florida State University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin. Like his predecessor at Skyview, Mr. Fix is a trumpeter!
Mr. Fix has previously taught at Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland, Carlsbad Unified School District in California, and Mount Vernon Community Schools in Iowa. He has taught music at all levels, elementary, junior high, and high school, in addition to teaching as a graduate assistant at Florida State.
Here at SJHS, he has three para-professional assistants to help with the 1st and 2nd year elementary bands. One teaches flutes, one teaches clarinets and saxes, and the other teaches brass–that’s me!
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Posted in Skyview Junior High | Tagged: band, brass, Charlie Fix, orchestra, Skyview Jr. High School, trumpeter | Leave a Comment »
Posted by glennled on September 21, 2015

My 25th private trumpet student wanted help this summer to prepare for entry into the 7th-grade band at Skyview Jr. High School in Bothell this fall. You see, last year he was a sixth-grader in the 1st-year band, whereas most of his classmates had started one year earlier and were then in 2nd-year band. This fall he is one of them. But they have had two-year’s experience, whereas he has had only one. Along with some other band students, he’s skipping 2nd-year band. Summer lessons were his way to catch up, as much as possible, with his peers.
His first trumpet lesson with me was on 8 July. That’s when I learned he is of Vietnamese ancestry. His grandmother, who lives with his family in Bothell, got out of South Vietnam in 1975. Welcome to America! I was there as a Navy man in 1965-66. That’s how I qualify for the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), and that’s how I became the bugler for VFW Post 1040 in Lynnwood. I have a special tie with this student.
He’s a good player with a bright future. He says he likes the sound of the trumpet, and it’s lightweight and easy to carry. He learns quickly and has a nice, solid tone. Best of all, he has a great attitude and practices often! He’ll do fine in 7th-grade band—indeed, I predict that he’ll become one of the leaders in the trumpet section.
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Posted in New Students - Intro Posts | Tagged: band, bugler, lesson, Skyview Jr. High School, tone, trumpet | Leave a Comment »
Posted by glennled on September 19, 2015
After 15 successful years as Director of Instrumental Music at Skyview Jr. High School in Bothell, Mr. Shawn McGinn is leaving for California in the coming months.
He conducted his final elementary school bands concert on 27 May at the Northshore Performing Arts Center (NPAC) at Bothell High School. The two bands (1st year and 2nd year) are comprised of students from nearby Crystal Springs, Canyon Creek, and Fernwood elementary schools.
The 1st year band played Bang the Drum All Day (I Don’t Want to Work) by Todd Rundgren, arranged by Michael Story.
As guest conductor, I then led the 2nd year band in playing Andromeda Overture by Mark Williams.
Finally, both bands joined in playing William Tell Overture by Gioacchino Rossini, arranged by Andrew Balent.
The concert concluded with a jazz trio jam session featuring piano, tenor sax, and flugelhorn, played by Mr. McGinn.
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Posted in School Concerts, Skyview Junior High | Tagged: Andromeda Overture, band, concert, flugelhorn, jazz, music, Northshore Performing Arts Center, Shawn McGinn, Skyview Jr. High School, William Tell Overture | 2 Comments »
Posted by glennled on June 20, 2014

Shawn McGinn, Director of Instrumental Music, Skyview Jr. High School, Bothell, WA
For the first time, on 28 May, the first- and second-year elementary bands of Skyview Jr. High School got to perform a concert on the big stage at Northshore Performance Art Center (NPAC) on the Bothell High School campus. Mr. Shawn McGinn is Director of Instrumental Music at Skyview.
The concert began with the first-year band playing a piece in four movements: “Alpha Overture,” “Rock-It,” “Yuki,” and “The Bingo Polka,” arranged by Jack Bullock. They concluded with “Apollo Fanfare” by Robert W. Smith.
Next came the second-year band playing three pieces: “Mystic Dance” by Michael Sweeney; “Let It Go,” by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, arranged by Jems Kazik; and “William Tell Overture,” by Giocchino Rossini, arranged by Andrew Balent.
The first-year band is comprised mostly of fifth graders from Crystal Springs, Fernwood, and Canyon Creek Elementary Schools. The second-year band members are mostly sixth graders from the same schools. There are 20 trumpeters in the first-year band and four in the second-year band.
Please click on any photo to enlarge it.
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1st-Year Elementary Band, Skyview JHS, at NPAC, Bothell
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2nd-Year Elementary Band, Skyview JHS, at NPAC, Bothell
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Posted in School Concerts | Tagged: band, Bothell, Let It Go, Northshore Performing Arts Center, NPAC, Shawn McGinn, Skyview Jr. High School, trumpeters, William Tell Overture | Leave a Comment »
Posted by glennled on June 3, 2014
On 1 April, four bands from Skyview Jr. High School in Bothell gathered before a gym-full of parents, relatives, and friends to present their “Skyview Spring with Tunes and Swing” concert in the SJHS gymnasium.

Glenn Ledbetter prepares to conduct Skyview Jr. High School’s second-year band, 1 April 2014
On Fridays, I rehearse the second-year band, and Mr. Shawn McGinn, Director of Instrumental Music, graciously let me conduct one piece (“Front and Center”) that night. It was the first time I ever conducted a band in public–what fun! The feeling was kind of like playing with a wind-up toy–first you practice, practice, practice to acquire the skill, and then on concert night, you just let it go and it does its own thing, automatically, perfectly! I was so proud of the kids.
The first-year elementary band (mostly 5th graders) played “When the Saints Go Marching In” and “Eye of the Tiger.” The second-year elementary band (mostly 6th graders) played “Front and Center,” “Clarinet Boogie,” and “I’m a Believer.” Then came the 7th-grade band from SJHS, playing “The Tempest,” “A Song for Friends,” and “Furioso.” And finally, the Skyview Jazz Band played “Dorian Journey,” “Moanin’,” “Work Song,” and “Mr. PC.”
Please click on any photo to enlarge it.
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Shawn McGinn conducts SJHS Elementary 1st-year Band
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Shawn McGinn conducts SJHS Elementary 2nd-year Band
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Skyview Jazz Band, 4-1-2014
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Posted in School Concerts | Tagged: band, Bothell, jazz, music, Shawn McGinn, Skyview Jr. High School, solo, trio, trumpet, trumpeter | Leave a Comment »