Acampamúsica Veteranos 2011

The ALPHA Jr. High Band is off and running with Band Camp 2011. These are our returning band students. Besides eating, swimming, devotions, a wee bit of sleep, and just plain fun, we crammed more than a week's worth of practice in less than 24 hours.


Kids arrived just after 3pm on Friday afternoon and stayed on through Saturday morning, leaving just before lunch.

Relaxing a bit before ANOTHER practice.

The GROUP!

and we're...BACK!

Normally, an absence of more than 6 months might be called a sabbatical...don't I wish! Many excuses for not posting in 10 months, but none I will mention right now. If you are just DYING to know, I could be convinced to entertain your question, but otherwise, I'll just move on.

What's this MESS? Just the beginning of ALPHA's band instrument repair shop. For now it is mobile...meaning the little tool box comes and goes from home to school all the time.

Since school let out in mid December, my "vacation" project has been to do a custom-made course in band instrument repair. Starting with 5-6 flutes to practice on, I took apart the first instrument with my heart in my throat and trembling hands. My VERY gracious teacher, who lives in Kansas, has given me instruction and tips (via e-mail) every step of the way. Oh, the questions I manage to come up with! I have been pleasantly surprised at how much I have been able to do and, so far, haven't managed to destroy anything beyond repair.

The motivation behind all of this is to cut costs and diminish downtime when an instrument is not playable (for whatever reason). If we manage to refurbish an instrument ourselves, the school will be able to save $250 + per instrument in repair bills. Our closest repairman is 3 1/2 hours away; the turn-around time is simply way too long. A student often times has been without his/her instrument for several weeks.


But there is more. Our budding repair shop is being made possible in a unique way. Sondra Koehn, a life-long friend of Ken's, and then mine since Bible college, passed away this last year after her battle with ALS. The family has designated a part of the memorial funds to help us get set up with tools and supplies. Sondra's love for music will live on in a special way by helping ALPHA kids get a start in playing in band.

What to do when a student gets his trumpet mouthpiece stuck? Never fear, Bobcat is here! Before this dude came our way, we had to send the instrument to the repair shop in Fortaleza over 3 hours away to do a job that could be done in 5 minutes if we had only had the right tool!


Some of the supplies for repadding flutes...

Old pads removed

New pads installed and even new bumpers for the "feet"

Polished, cleaned, adjusted and ready to go!

Acampamúsica 2010

Mara teaches pre-school music at ALPHA on Monday mornings, goes to the university during the week to get her music degree and plays flute in her church's orchestra.

ACAMPAMÚSICA literally translated is CAMP - MUSIC...just our version of Band Camp. This year was our first attempt at such a venture. It turned out to be a great experience.

Gisele is also getting her degree in music at our local university. She got the percussion section started reading music and learning some of the different instruments they will use during this next year.

The kids arrived at "band camp" (our house!) Friday afternoon for orientation and then had their first REAL LIVE lesson. Various teachers taught the students how to put their instruments together, basic care and how to make their first music or "noise". :)


Milton, my co-teacher at ALPHA gets the reed instruments (alto sax and clarinet) going. Since we have so many new students we now have two bands...returning students and new students. He directs one of the groups while I direct the other.

Swimming, eating, playing games and just plain old hard practice took up the majority of the time.

Marcos came to give a mini-presentation on the clarinet, trumpet and saxophone (not all at the same time!!!) He plays first trumpet and is the assistant director of the city band in Mossoró.

It always helps to have a little window into what the future holds, so we wanted to give the beginning students an idea of what they will be able to do if they are dedicated. Several people graciously came to play for our audience of beginning musicians.

Daniel, a former ALPHA student and Alicia presented a clarinet/trombone duet.

Ron prepared the devotional for Saturday morning.

Part of being in band means that the kids have one of their practices while their homeroom is having Bible class. These kids have Bible at a separate time every week.

ALPHA'S Beginning Band 2010

ALPHA Jr. High Band 2009 Parent's Night

ALPHA's 2009 Jr. High Band is off to a bang with it's first concert. Of the 20 students in band this year, only 8 are returning students. The other 12 have only been practicing for 2 months. Because band is not part of the "school culture" in Brazil, many of the parents don't have a feel for the big picture. They hear their child practicing at home and wonder, "is this all there is to it?"


Our first presentation is dedicated to our band parents in an effort to draw them in, let them catch a glimps of the "big picture" and encourage them to put up with the squeaking and squawking for just a little while longer. It really will get better!


Below are two video clips of our presentation. First clip is everyone (new and returning students) together and the second clip is 7 of the 8 students who have been playing for at least a year. With no trumpets in our advanced band, an extra "student" filled in to cover the part. :)

I.D.K. is fun to perform with each section taking turns standing in the middle of the song,

and Big Beat Boogie is a "swing" piece for all you jazz lovers.

Welcome Home!

Ivonete, Cristina and Bete getting ready to hand out the "dogs" that Ron and Dad cooked up for the crowd.

I know it has been almost two weeks since we got here, and I shouldn't be allowed to do this post any more, but I am going to rebel and do it anyway. Can't let the opportunity pass me by!

In reality, I just now got up the courage to open Windows Movie Maker to save this little video clip in a size that I can upload it on my blog. I discovered that I don't need a rocket science degree to do it after all. Whew!

The video is of some of my band kids the night after we got back to Brazil. They came out to the church where some of our school and church friends held a "welcome home" bar-b-que for us. Over half of the band kids were able to make it and played 5 of the songs that they have been working on since we left for the US. It was quite a concert. ENJOY!!!