Music

About the Teacher: Ms. Reece can be a bit stern at times, but she is an amazing teacher. She really knows her stuff, and can teach you so much!

Sight Reading Factory: Every week you will have an SRF assignment to do online. She will get you all set up with the website, and how to do everything you need. You will just be singing in there, so don't feel pressured since no one else can hear it but her. Focus on improvement.

Reece's Pieces: Every week, Ms. Reece will choose a piece of music and play it for the class. There will be a ssss.

Personal Pick: What is your favorite song? At the beginning of the year, she will have you send her your favorite

WORK IN PROGRESS

Teachers: Mr. and Mrs. Shea

Room: Band

Hour: 3rd

Prerequisites: Cadet Band

Length: 1 year

Offered to: Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors

Info:

Varsity Band is for Sophmores, Juniors, and Seniors who are interested in improving their musical skills over the course of a year-long class. It takes place during 3rd hour but there are many events and practices outside of normal school hours.

About the teachers:

Mr. and Mrs. Shea teach Varsity Band throughout the year. Both are great teachers, are very knowledgable, and are always willing to help.

Varsity Band does multiple different activities over the course of the year, which can be seen below:

MARCHING BAND

Marching band begins before school even starts in the summer, when we spend two weeks starting to learn our field show. A field show is a show that a band performs on the football field that incorporates both marching and playing music. Check out the link below for this year's show. If marching isn't your thing, you can also join the front ensemble, or the pit, who play instruments such as the xylophone, bass drum, or gong. Once schools starts, we have practice every Tuesday night and in-class where we continue to work on our field show and improve it until our last performance. We play before football games and we perform our field show during half-time. We also compete against other schools across Illinois from September to October where we are scored based on how we were able to perform our field show.

Check out our field this year, titled Per Aspera Ad Aspera and featuring Moonlight Sonata, Mars, Jupiter, and To Boldly Go...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXU9-73mtAI

CONCERT BAND

Concert band is where we play music while sitting down. We have multiple different concerts throughout the year, including the Winter and Spring concerts. In December, we have our Winter concert along with Cadet Band, Orchestra, and Jazz Band where we play many winter/Christmas songs. In March, we have our Spring concert with those same groups. Our Concert band also competes all around the state

PEP BP BAND

Pep band goes from November to February when we play at the Dunlap home basketball games. We play a vast array of different pieces, many of which are well known such as Sweet Caroline or We're Not Gonna Take It. We also play the National Anthem, the Dunlap school songs, and the opposing team's school song.

SOLO AND ENSEMBLE

Solo and Ensemble is an event that occurs during the second semester where we perform a musical piece of our choice individually or in small groups and are judged based on our performance.

ART IN THE PARK

In April, we participate in Art in the Park. This is an event when the band, chorus, and art classes perform at the Peoria County Courthouse. MORE INFO TO COME

Authors: Steven Ohlson

Teacher: Mrs. Shea

Coaches: Mrs. Main & Mrs. Cazel

Room: Band

Hour: 3rd

Prerequisites: None (preferably had experience in Cadet Guard)

Length: 1 semester (first semester)

Offered to: Sophomores - Seniors

Info:

"Students perform in parades, field shows, and other events as an integral part of the Varsity Marching Band. Students utilize various materials and equipment in their performances and travel with the Varsity Marching Band" (DHS Curse Selection Guide 2021-2022)

Summary:

Varsity Color Guard is a great way to participate in an afterschool activity and meet people! To get into Varsity Color Guard you need to go to the tryouts and there is no experience required! In Varsity Color Guard you are able to learn/ improve flag twirling techniques, dance, and working together as a team. Varsity Color Guard practices for 2 weeks in the summer and then during the school year they practice every day during 3rd hour and every Tuesday from 6-9. After many long practices, there are many performances during the halftime show for football games and compositions almost every other Saturday. The Varsity Color Guard is usually on the smaller side (the 2021 team had 12 members) but they are always looking for more people. Whether you have been doing Color Guard for years or you are just starting we would love to have you join!

Helpful Resources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0jC-je7z_o (Here is the performance from 2021)

Information for tryouts 2022 will be coming soon!

Author: Arabella Chan

COMING SOON

Teacher: Mr. Shea

Room: Band

Hour: 0

Prerequisites: Must be currently enrolled in Cadet or Varsity band, unless you play piano, bass, or guitar.

Length: 1 year

Offered to: All students

Info:

Mr. Shea teaches Jazz Band

Jazz Band is for anyone who is interested in improving their musical skills over the course of a year-long class. It takes place during 0 and there are a few different out of school activities we participate in. It is important to note that you are welcome to repeat the class for multiple years (which I encourage).

We practice about every day. We play a wide variety of pieces from different genres, including Swing, Latin, and Rock. Usually we pick a fiew to play at events such as concerts and we focus on practicing those.

Some of the pieces we play have solos in the middle of them, but they are usually optional so you do not have to do a solo in front of an entire audience if you do not want to.

Jazz Band allows you to learn about the basic fundamentals of Jazz Music, including properly producing sounds, improvisation, the history of Jazz, and sight reading.

The different instruments played in Jazz Band are the Saxophone, Trombone, Trumpet, Piano, Bass, Guitar, and Drum Set.

Authors: Steven Ohlson