ABOUT JMS BANDS
MUSIC IS A SCIENCE:
It is exact, specific and it demands exact acoustics. Printed music is a chart, a graph, which indicates frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once and with the most exact control of time.MUSIC IS MATHEMATICAL:
It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on paper.MUSIC IS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE:
Most of the terms are in Italian, German or French and the notations are certainly not English -but a highly developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas, not unlike the symbols found in computer language. The semaphore of music is the most complete and universal language.MUSIC IS HISTORY:
Music usually reflects the environment and times of its creation, often even the national or ethnic mood. Civilization is often defined by its arts.MUSIC IS PHYSICAL EDUCATION:
It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lip, cheek and other facial muscles, in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragmatic, back, stomach, and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.Music is all these things, but most of all, MUSIC IS ART:
It allows a human being to take all these dry, technically boring (but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion. That is one thing science cannot duplicate: humanism, feeling, and emotion.The JMS Beginning Band is made up of all 6th graders interested in
learning how to play a band instrument. Members learn how to play the
instruments they chose during their last days as 5th graders at JES. They
also learn how to play scales and exercises that help them in playing music
as well as in auditions starting in 7th grade. They learn to count in 3/4,
4/4, and 2/4 time by practicing rythmic dictation Through participation in
the Winter and Spring Concerts, they have the opportunity to perform in
front of parents and fellow students twice each year.
JMS Concert Band (7th and 8th Grades)
The JMS Concert Band consists of all 7th and 8th Grade band members of Jefferson Middle School. Some 8th graders are also members of the Jefferson High School Marching Band and Color Guard. This group also has the opportunity to represent JMS at the GMEA District XIII Large Group Performance Evaluation every year in March. Students of this group also participate in All-State auditions and the University of Georgia's Middle School Band Festival every year in order to enhance their band experience outside of the regular school day.
About Mr. Cotton. . .
Mr. Cotton is a 2005 graduate of the University of Georgia where he was saxophone section leader and Historian of the Georgia Redcoat Marching Band, a member of the baritone section of the UGA Basketball Band, and was principal saxophonist of the UGA Symphonic Band. He has also been on staff for the past 2 years with the UGA Summer Music and Marching Band Camps. Mr. Cotton has worked with numerous schools across the state during summer marching band including Cartersville High School, Rockdale County High School, and Monroe Area High School. His professional affiliations include MENC, the Georgia Music Educators Association, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
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Jefferson
Middle School · Howard McGlennen, Principal
100 Dragon Drive · Jefferson, GA · 30549
Phone 706 367-2882 · Fax 706 367-5207