closure info 3-16-2020

Dear Lincoln band families,

Here are some ideas for instrumental music practice over the break.

All grades - please sign up for a SmartMusic account.  SmartMusic is a web-based suite of music education tools that support efficient practice, helping musicians to develop and grow.  All of the material in our workbooks is available with this software and most of it includes accompaniments that make practicing more dynamic and fun.  This company is offering free accounts through June 30 due to our current circumstances.  Please be sure to sign up using your CPS gmail account ending in cps.edu.  Do not use personal email.  

To join the class, Students need to go to https://admin.smartmusic.com/join, enter the class code, and select Next.  

5th grade code - TPQRT-HYUNN
6th grade code - EFD4Y-Q6HUZ
7th grade code - FNDFK-CTYLE
8th grade code - HG6RA-QHLUE

Once you complete the signup you will get a message indicating that an email has been sent for you to verify enrollment.  However, it seems that the email does not actually get sent because of the CPS filter disallowing people outside of our network to email students.  Never fear, I can still approve the requests on my end and I will do so several times a day.  Once I approve you should be able to login using the username and password that you created.​Thank you for your patience.


5th grade - here is a link for a list of tunes the 5th graders should continue to work on - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TURcv-Io_wlMlUbL0s1n5ZNArbRbliNs/view?usp=sharing.  I encourage students to send me audio recordings once they feel they have mastered a tune.  I'll provide feedback and additional material where appropriate.  A reasonable pace would be to master about 3 tunes per week although some students may work a little slower or much faster!

6th grade - all 6th, 7th, and 8th graders are familiar with my benchmark system for tracking student progress.  Here is a link to all three 6th grade benchmarks - http://www.lincolnelementary.org/varsity-band.html.  I encourage students to send me audio recordings or written work once they feel they have mastered a tune or completed a task.  I'll provide feedback and additional material where appropriate.

7th/8th grade - all 6th, 7th, and 8th graders are familiar with my benchmark system for tracking student progress.  Here is a link to all three 7th/8th grade benchmarks - http://www.lincolnelementary.org/concert-band.html.  I encourage students to send me audio recordings or written work once they feel they have mastered a tune or completed a task.  I'll provide feedback and additional material where appropriate.

Thank you,

Mr. K