Roanoke - Benson School District 60 Band Department

Search RB Band Website

2008 - 2009 Band Dates

Dates for performances for the 2008 - 2009 school year are now posted on the calendar webpage. Dates for the high school marching band camp will be posted within the next few weeks. Students and parents should check back for updates. posted: May 9, 2008

Update: Tree to be planted to Honor Phillip Pannier

Funds have been raised to plant a tree in front of Roanoke - Benson High School to honor PFC Phillip Pannier. Phillip died in combat on Tuesday, January 8, 2008 while serving with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq. Information on a dedication will be posted here and in the Roanoke Review.

2009 Music Department Trip to Disney

Plans are being made for the RBHS Marching Band and Concert Choir to perform at Walt Disney World in June 2009. Information will be sent home with students prior to summer vacation. Please email Mr. Hayes or Mrs. Aupperle if you would like to assist in planning and raising funds for the trip!

4th Grade Music Students Create Podcasts on Louis Armstrong

Students in 4th grade general music recently spent some time studing Louis Armstrong. Visit the 4th Grade General Music webpage and listen to the podcasts, created by the students, on Louis Armstrong.

NPR Music Website Offers Wide Variety of Music

National Public Radio (NPR) has a wonderful music website. The website has audio and video recordings of concerts, studio sessions, and interviews of musicians from many different genres. All the recordings on website are free. Check out this website at www.npr.org/music.

Important Information Regarding RB Band Students Purchasing Supplies

Instrumental supplies (reeds, oil, method books, etc…) will no longer be sold thru the RB Music Boosters. Parents will now purchase these supplies online through the website of Kidder Music Service, Inc. and have the supplies delivered to school without shipping charge. The supplies will remain the same price, but the need for the RB Music Boosters to be the "middle man" will be eliminated. RBHS and RBJH will continue to keep a limited amount of instrumental supplies on hand for those families that do not have the ability to order supplies online.

Neither the Roanoke-Benson School District nor the Roanoke-Benson Music Boosters endorse one particular music store. Parents are free to order instrumental supplies from whomever they wish to. Kidder Music is the only dealer in the area that routinely visits the school to deliver supplies. If you have any questions please feel free to call or email Steve Hayes.

RBHS Marching Rockets Dominates Parade Competition

The RBHS Marching Rockets dominated the parade contest at the Metamora High School Marching Band Contest on Saturday, October 13th. The Rockets not only finish first in the 3A division, they finished the day with the highest parade scores of any band at the contest! The highest score of the day is an amazing accomplishment considering that RBHS is significantly smaller than most of the schools.

Division 1A
1st Place Oblong 81.4
2nd Plance Bement 74.3
3rd Place Wethersfield 73.5

Division 2A
1st Place Rockridge 81.6
2nd Place Ridgeview 80
3rd Place Orion 79
4th Place Thornwood 75.8

Division 3A
1st Place Roanoke - Benson 88.3
2nd Place Olympia 84.8
3rd Place Tri-Valey82.9
4th Place Coal City 81.5
5th Place Pekin 80.6
6th Place LaSalle - Peru 79.8
Division 4A
1st Romeoville 87.6
2ns Place Normal Community 86.7
3rd Place Rich Central 86.3
4th Place Plainfield 83.5

24 RB Band Students named to the Tri-County Honor Band

Twenty-four Roanoke - Benson High School Band members were selected to perform in the Tri-County Conference Honor Band. The Tri-County Conference Honor Band was a band comprised of the best high school musicians in the Tri-county Conference. Members of the Tri-County Conference Honor Band spent the day at Ottawa Maquette High School rehearsing, and then performed a concert that evening. Roanoke - Benson musicians selected were: Mary Bachman, Mitchell Daugherty, Amy Fehr, Ben Frerich, David Harston, Colin Hodel, Jesse Hodel, Rebekah Hoffman, Rachel Kennell, Kirk Knapp, Hannah Knepp, Randell Koehler, Ruben Koehler, Clarissa Leman, Heidi Leman, Marisa Leman, Morgan Nene, Abby Robertson, Kelsey Sauder, Suzanna Storms, Chris Stustzman, Tim Wilcoxen, Joel Wuthrich, and Melissa Yount.

RSS - It's not just for Geeks!

RSS is a convenient way for you to have the latest news about the Roanoke – Benson Band Department sent directly to you as it is posted.

Read our RSS FAQ web page for information and directions on how to subscribing to our RSS feed.
To learn more about RSS read "What is RSS (Really Simple Syndication)?" @ http://www.wisegeek.comor "What is RSS? RSS Explained" @ http://www.whatisrss.com

To obtain our RSS feed, copy and paste the URL listed below into your aggregator.
www.rb60.com/band/RBBandFeed.xml

FREE Music Programs You Should Have on Your Computer

Functional Ear Trainer an amazing ear training software program that trains you to recognize notes in a context of a key that the music is played in. If you are serious about music, download this program.

Acidplanet XPress is a loop-based composition program. Create your own songs using professionally created loops. Save your song to your mp3 player!

Audacity is a multi-track recorder. Transfer music files into different formats.Plug a microphone into your computer and record yourself. Save your recordings in a variety of different music formats.

Finale Notepad is a notation program. Compose, listen and then print your own compositions!

Anvil Studio allows you to record, compose, sequence music using midi instruments.

'e' Chromatic Tuner a free and easy to use tuner.

AmazingMidiautomatically transcribes music, converting WAV files into MIDI files.

TwelveKeys is a program designed to assist musicians to transcribe music recordings. Are you in a cover band? This is for you.

Classical Music

The Classical Music Archives, the largest archive of its kind on the web, offers tens of thousands of classical music files in MIDI, Windows Media and MP3 format you can listen to at the click of your mouse. Most composers are represented - with biographies and timelines. A major award-winning cultural site which provides its own indexes and search engines by keywords or composer. This site also has a free online classical music radio station.

#1 on Google

Being ranked #1 on Google is a highly sought after position. Search for “4th grade general music” in Google, and you will find our website ranked #1 out of over 1 million hits!