The student news site of Pleasant Valley High School

Spartan Shield

The student news site of Pleasant Valley High School

Spartan Shield

The student news site of Pleasant Valley High School

Spartan Shield

Pleasant Valley band goes through its annual ability-based division for concert band season

The+Pleasant+Valley+Wind+Symphony+band+performs+at+the+2019+State+Large+Group+Festival
Spartan Bands
The Pleasant Valley Wind Symphony band performs at the 2019 State Large Group Festival

The marching band has played its last show for the year, meaning the upperclassmen have now been divided into three ability-based concert bands for the rest of the school year.

The division is based on a three part audition; each student must sight read music, play as many scales as they can in two minutes, and prepare a series of short etudes (musical pieces). These auditions take place in the last weeks of marching band, and after their completion the directors must analyze recordings from all auditions to determine placements.

This process is tedious and time-consuming. Band director Brian Gartner goes through it annually anyway because he believes it allows each student to have the best experience possible. “One of the positive aspects of having as many band students as we have is that we can offer multiple bands that meet the needs of all of our students,” he said.

When each band has students of similar abilities, the curriculum can be suited to those students. Gartner and the other band directors want students to play music at the right difficulty level. “We can choose music that is best suited to that group, rather than picking music that may be too easy for some students or too difficult for other students,” said Gartner.

Clarinetist Brenna Morley supports this organization of bands. “Being with students who play about as well as me means we push each other to become better musicians,” she said. However, Morley doesn’t love the audition process. “The auditions are stressful and don’t factor in how a student consistently plays or their normal work ethic,” she said. 

The process may not be perfect, are working to make the placement process fair for all band students. While not every student may get into the band they prefer, Gartner believes each band is a great place to be. “We have no bad bands here at Pleasant Valley.  We have high expectations of all of our groups and we expect all of our bands to be excellent,” he said.

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Taylor English, Copy Editor
Taylor English is a senior at Pleasant Valley who in addition to having been a diligent student throughout her time at Pleasant Valley, has also been involved in the band as an alto saxophone and spent much of her time rowing for the Y Quad City Rowing Team. Her long-time membership of this championship-winning crew has given her the opportunity to travel around the world for competitions. Similar to her Older Brother Justin who rows at Georgetown, Taylor plans to continue rowing in college as it gives her the chance to “challenge herself and compete”. In her free time, you may catch her painting or getting coffee with friends. Taylor is looking forward to her senior year and the chance to contribute to the running of the online Spartan Shield as a copy editor.
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Pleasant Valley band goes through its annual ability-based division for concert band season