Every year there is a group of band students that assemble to participate in County Band, a music festival that encompasses the talent of students from a variety of schools in Franklin County. These students gather at a different school in the county each year to perform a variety of songs together. This year, this music festival was held at Central Fulton in McConnellsburg, PA. 

The former band director of Southern Fulton is directing the challenging and fun pieces of music for County Band this year, and the students have a variety of musicality levels they will be performing in multiple pieces.

“They have some tough pieces. They have ‘Three Ayers’ and they have ‘Military Selection,’” Mrs. Sheryl Deike (Faculty) said. “That is a tough piece, but not as tough as it is fast. There are some tough pieces, but then they have some mellow ones. They have ‘Hymnsong that we played last year in our concert band and the kids really liked that one.”’

Only a few select kids from James Buchanan get to go to County Band, but these kids earn the privilege to be part of this festival. 

“15 students are going. The major determining factor for those participating in County Band are those who put forth the effort to audition and go out for District Band,” said Deike.

The band directors from the different schools feel honored and privileged to have talented kids that have the opportunity to go to a festival like this.

“I feel very proud. I am always excited to show off my kids,” said Deike.

The students are very excited to participate in this festival, and the band directors, as well as the students, look forward to this time of year when they get to play with a new group of students they don’t get to play with on a daily basis.

“I really enjoy these festivals. It is fun to kind of get away and take the kids away and enjoy the time together,” said Deike.  “Hearing the kids come together and the sound. When you put your best in and all of them come together and just knowing we are all a community.”

Deike loves hearing the music that comes together after hard work to participate in a festival like County Band, so she works with these kids daily to make them the best musicians they can be and enjoys the time she spends with her kids every day.

“The kids and making music with the kids are my favorite part of being the Band Director at James Buchanan High School,” says Dieke.

February is the time of love thanks to Valentine’s Day. There’s another type of love in the air at James Buchanan High School—the love of music.

Planning for the Rocket Band’s “I Love Music” concert starts as far back as November at the end of marching season. Students received a selection of music, which was narrowed down as the concert approached. Even though the Band works on the music every day from the end of marching season, the band director, Mrs. Sheryl Deike (Faculty), chose to fill the February concert with easy music because it runs the risk of being snowed out and cancelled.

“My February concert is different from my May concert,” said Deike. “My February concert, if it gets snowed out, you know, I don’t want to put a lot of time and effort into music that we don’t get to play.”

The February 14, 2019 “I Love Music” concert had a total of four songs, all of which came from a movie, musical, or TV show. The concert opened with a medley of songs from The Lion King, including “Circle of Life,” “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” “Hakuna Matata,” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”

“I try to pick things that we kind of enjoy playing, nothing really heavy that’s fun and enjoyable for the crowd that comes out,” Deike said.

The crowd is something Deike always takes into account when choosing music. She doesn’t choose classical pieces that are so “off the wall” that the audience wouldn’t recognize them or enjoy it, hence the inclusion of The Lion King.

“I ask the seniors if there’s a song they would like to bring back,” said Deike, “or a couple songs that they would like to bring back, kind of like their finale.”

“Selections from Phantom of the Opera” (dubbed “Phantom” for short by the band) is another piece loved by the Band. It was also the song that the graduating class of 2019 chose to bring back. It serves as a swan song of sorts, a callback to their time as sophomores, when they last performed it. The piece, like “Lion King” is a medley of songs from the musical, The Phantom of the Opera. It included the titular number and the famous scream when the Phantom removes his mask, this year performed by Zach Slodysko (11).

“It was exhilarating,” said Slodysko when asked what it was like doing the scream. “I felt like a little kid again.”

Bringing back childhood memories with medlies such as “The Lion King” and “How to Train Your Dragon,” as well as high school memories for upperclassmen with “Phantom,” the band gave a lovely performance at their February concert, despite being at a disadvantage due to two snow days prior to the performance.

200 little princesses from four kingdoms—St. Thomas, Montgomery, Mountain View, and Mercersburg—arrived with their royal escorts to a ball held at James Buchanan High School. Little girls from the four elementary schools were accompanied by their fathers at the first daddy-daughter dance hosted by the Rocket Band.

On December 14, the James Buchanan High School band hosted a fundraising event in the form of a dance for girls in elementary school. The mastermind behind the night, band director Mrs. Sheryl Deike (Faculty) said she got the idea for a daddy-daughter dance from her daughter.

“My oldest daughter did it down in Appomattox, Virginia,” said Deike. “They didn’t do any pre-sales, they just advertised it, thinking maybe, you know, twenty or thirty [fathers and daughters would come]. They said the gym was filled.”

Deike did not expect to have the same large turnout as her daughter. By selling tickets ahead of time, Deike expected to have a few more fathers and daughters, but not enough to fill the cafeteria, where the dance was held.

“50, maybe 75 tops,” Deike said. “It came out to 200 hundred kids.”

200 daughters meant 200 fathers, the only ones that had to pay for a ticket. The daughters got in free, and dads paid five dollars. In ticket sales alone, the band brought in $1,000, plus what they made from dads buying the snacks and carnations that were for sale. Aside from earning money for music programs, Deike wanted to bring the community together.

“I just wanted to do something sweet for the community,” said Deike. “I thought it was a nice idea.”

Along with having the dance for the community, Deike wanted everyone to see the Band.

“I guess it was a selfish thing, trying to get kids or people coming up to the high school to see us,” said Deike. “We’re not just about making music.”

The dance was staffed entirely by Band students that volunteered to help out, as well as instructors. Band members ran games for the girls in the band room and played Frozen in the auditorium. Others ran snack tables in the lobby, giving out free punch and pretzels and selling bags of chips, cookies, and candy.

Deike already has plans to hold an event for mothers and sons in the spring. She also plans to hold another daddy-daughter dance next year. According to Deike, the daddy-daughter dance is the band’s “golden nugget.” It’s the special fundraiser they do that’s specific to them, but it also gives little princesses from Tuscarora School District’s four elementary schools a special evening with their fathers.

When you think of your teachers, you probably think of them staying in one classroom, teaching the same class throughout the day, but that’s not the case for Mr. Eric Poe (Faculty).

For eleven years, Poe has been the James Buchanan High School’s Chorus teacher. Throughout his day he travels to three different schools, teaches five different classes, and instructs kids ranging from fifth to twelfth grade.

To be able to teach his students, Poe has to be “performing” at all times. He has to sing in his vocal classes to teach proper techniques and demonstrate how to sing the notes properly, as well as be able to play the trumpet and piano for his music theory and elementary band classes. Even when he’s not having a good day or not feeling well, he still has to perform and be at his best to be able to teach his students.

Starting out his day on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Poe reports with Messa Voce, a special choral group, to the high school at 7:15 AM. At this time, they rehearse chamber, more classical repertoire, and popular, or “pop” music. The popular music they put to choreography.

First period, Poe teaches high school Chorus. During this period, some students have band, so he and Mrs. Sheryl Deike (Faculty) have to trade the students off every other day, having a “full Band” one day, and “full Chorus” the next. Here, they practice music for their Chorus concerts.

Messa Voce returns to Poe second period. Most days, he mainly focuses on Messa Voce, but on Wednesday he rehearses with the Five-Point Band, Messa Voce’s music ensemble.

Everybody in Messa Voce is encouraged to try out for District Chorus, and most make it to County Chorus. Since these activities are at the beginning of the year, during that time they mainly focus on the music for that appropriate activity. When not working on that, they’re working on their concert music.

Third period, Poe teaches AP Music Theory. This class involves teaching students the mechanics of music. He teaches notation to his students, as well as ear training, to get them prepared for the AP test at the end of the year.

Period four, Poe not only has his lunch period, but also his planning period. While simultaneously eating his lunch, he also sends emails, writes his lesson plans, and completes anything else he needs to before 

he heads down to the middle school around 12:30 PM. By getting there early, he has to have enough time to prepare the auditorium and get organized before his students come.

“There’s a lot of different things happening during that period [middle school activity period], so it’s hard to get the students to our practice,” said Poe.

At the middle school, Poe teaches not only seventh and eighth grade Chorus, but also sixth grade Chorus. Like the high school, the middle school Chorus period also has Band that happens at the same time. In addition, this period serves as a free period for students to do make-up work and attend other clubs. Sometimes Chorus only gets to meet once a week, and with everybody asking to leave and signing out, it takes up around ten minutes of his period, making it go from forty to thirty minutes. At times, this period is one of the most stressful times of his day, according to Poe.

Around 2:15 PM, Poe heads either to Mountain View or St. Thomas Elementary schools to teach Beginners’ Band. He brings his trumpet along to show students how to play the different rhythms and what the notes should sound like. Many of his students ask how to play the notes and the correct finger positioning of them. At 3:15 PM, his students are picked up and he is able to go home.

Poe’s crazy schedule at times leaves him stressed and exhausted to a point where he does not have the time to help teachers out as much as he’d like

“I’m not complaining, I just want my colleagues to understand,” said Poe.

Although Poe has a crazy, busy day, he gets satisfaction from being able to teach so many kids and bringing music into their lives.

Twirling flags, beating drums, counting, and lights.  Practice, practice, practice is all the indoor program has done since day one in preparations for championships.  On April 7 and 8 the James Buchanan High School Indoor program attended championships in hopes that all their hard work and dedication during the season had paid off.

“We start out with a really good warm-up,” said Mrs. Sheryl Deike (Faculty), “We kinda chunk things along the way.”

Each rehearsal begins with a warm-up that can include anything from running, to rhythm exercises, to tossing flags.  To ensure the best possible outcome, each Indoor member must be fully loosened up and ready for each rehearsal.

Both indoor guard and percussion practice every day after school.  After their warm-up they move to the show. This year Indoor Percussion performed “The Noise Inside” and Indoor Guard performed “Evil Alice.”

This year’s Championships began with the Indoor members arriving at the school at 9 a.m.  They began to do run-throughs of both of their shows trying to perfect every detail. Shortly after their arrival. the Indoor program left bound for Chambersburg Area Senior High School.  

Once they got there they sat and relaxed before their performance at 1:30 p.m.  The pressure continued to build as the Indoor members guide took them to their practice spot.  Keeping the members updated on time, the guide, would periodically tell the members how much time they had left.  Each update brought on more nerves as the performance became closer and closer. Soon the time came for performance and the guide took the indoor members to a waiting spot before performing.

“We were excited, nervous, but confident,” said Deike.

The nerves between regular competitions and championships have grown more tense as the clock continues to tick towards the finale of the season.

“This is their moment to shine that each one of them has been given a gift and a talent and there is no one else that can take their spot on the floor, off the floor,” Deike said. “It is up to them now to go out and take everything that they have learned and just put it out on the floor.”

Guard took fifth place with a score of 80.980 and percussion took third place with a score of 84.20.  

Deike said,“There’s no next week, no next time, it is now, now is their time to shine.”

As championships came to an end so did the season.  Each group had a very successful season and look forward to having a successful season next year.

After the Christmas concert in December, Mrs. Sheryl Dieke (Faculty), director, and the Orchestra dug deep in the music library to acquire fun music to prepare for both their adjudication and District-Wide Orchestra concert that takes place this month.

The Orchestra will go to South Hagerstown High School to participate in an adjudication on March 13.

There are many other schools that participate in the adjudication. An adjudication is a formal judgement. The Orchestra gets the chance to listen to how other schools play. However, the James Buchanan Orchestra is one of the only schools that participates that is not eligible to advance to Districts or Regionals because it is in Maryland.

This is the Orchestra’s second year participating. The group will leave in the morning and go during the school day to play for a group of judges that will record them and then critique their performance.

“Intonation is just an ongoing thing that just comes with maturity and listening”, said Dieke.

However, Dieke has confidence that this year the orchestra is better prepared.

“Improvement is all the time”, said Dieke. “It’s still things we struggle with that we have to just keep pushing forward on.”

The Orchestra practices every day during second period and works through their music to ensure they are prepared as much as possible in order to receive a good score from the judges.

“We’ve been putting in a lot of hard practice lately,” said Rachel Kimmel (12). “I think it’s sounding pretty good so far.”

Throughout the adjudication, the students go through three different activities.

During the warm-up, the Orchestra will run through music, work out any last-minute details, and prepare for their performance.  

In the presentation area, the orchestra will play their selection of songs that they prepared for the judges.

The judges sit in separate parts of the room so that they aren’t distracting each other as they are judging. They record themselves making comments about the strengths and weaknesses that the Orchestra has while playing. They later give these recordings to the directors so that the students can listen to the judges’ evaluations in order to improve future performances.

Lastly, the Orchestra will go to a sight-reading room. Every student, along with the director is handed a folder. They have a couple minutes to study the music. They can analyze things like the key signature, look for incidentals, and tap out rhythms. However, the students cannot use their instrument to practice the music.

When time is up the director conducts as the students play the piece of music. There is one judge in the room who again, judges and listens as they play and gives direct feedback on how the orchestra sight reads.

“You hear and listen to the tapes but for a judge to actually talk to you, I think that gives you more feedback than just listening to some voice,” said Dieke.

Even though this is their second year participating, there is still going to be some pre-performance jitters, even from the conductor.

“I always take it as, ‘Did I prepare them enough?”” said Dieke. “‘Did I do what I needed to do to make sure that they were ready?’”

Students also experience some nerves as they prepare to play on stage because everything they do is judged. This is different from their normal routine of just playing at their concerts. However, to some, it’s more like a rush of adrenaline.

“I like walking up on the stage right before you play because you get this nice nervous, jittery feeling because there’s judges there,” said Kimmel. “It’s a good nervous, it’s a nervous that you want to do good and play your best.”

Despite the nerves, the orchestra will play at the adjudication and celebrate by ending their busy day out of school with lunch and treats at the Valley Mall.

“Tis the season to be jolly.”  We hear that so much this time of year.  However, what does this season actually mean to you?  Does it mean presents, food, lights, and decorations?  

    To the James Buchanan High School Tri-M members it means something different.  To them this is the season to give back to the elementary school students.  They are able to do this through Elf on the Shelf with a kindergarten class at Appomattox Elementary School.  

Rebecca O’Brien, daughter of Deike, is the teacher of the class at Appomattox where Tri-M sends the letters and goodies.  Even though Deike and her family had everything under control she decided to hand the baton to another group.

“Our family took upon her [Rebecca O’Brien] class… so we wrote letters to the kids, we were in contact with them, we even followed them throughout the year a little bit,” said Band Director and Tri-M advisorMrs. Sheryl Deike (Faculty)

Deike said, “I presented it to Tri-M and we decided to take two classes.”

Tri-M is a National Honor Society for musically-inclined students.  This year the club has 27 students.  Each member had a specific student to whom they wrote and sent presents.

“She said that they just sat and cried because the way these kids just took to the letters that you guys wrote…” said Deike, “it was so cool because things that you, that the kids had written to their kids unbeknownst how fitting it was.”

Each year the letters are written in the perspective of their Elf, whose name was Chippy.  The letters contain words of encouragement to the children.  The notes are handwritten by the Tri-M students themselves and were sent December 12.  The goodie bags containing erasers, pencils, crayons, coloring books, and different kinds of snacks were sent out Dec. 15 to 22.  Each club member was in charge of bringing these items in for their student.  This year they were only given a few days to get these gifts for the children.

“We should get the names 

of the kids sooner so we have more time to work on it.” said Kierstyn Martin (12).

Martin, the president of Tri-M, hopes that next year the members will have more time to work on this so that the elementary students can have an even better Elf on the Shelf.  She enjoys being able to know that these elementary school children can get these gifts around Christmas time.  The Tri-M members don’t know the backgrounds of the students so they try to make this a fun, memorable event for the children.

After all of the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes have been eaten, all the pumpkins are carved and the leaves are done falling and changing colors, with all of these signs, we know a new season is quickly approaching: Christmas time! However, this is old news for the James Buchanan High School Orchestra.

Director Mrs. Sheryl Dieke (Faculty), and the Rocket Orchestra have been preparing for the Christmas season since the beginning of this school year. In September, the students received some of the selections of music that could be featured in the Christmas concert.

The orchestra’s Christmas Concert will take place in the high school auditorium on Dec. 16 at 3:00 p.m.

From the time the Orchestra received the music, they have worked and practiced every day during second period to perfect it.

“They just have a lot of basics under control” said Dieke. “They sight read phenomenally and understand key signatures very well.”

All violins, violas, cellos and bass must break the music down measure by measure with their sections to play their parts in the music successfully to be prepared to perform it for the concert. Each instrument plays an essential role in the orchestra because they all bring the piece of music together with their various parts.

“Being that we have put it into a classroom situation where we’re practicing every day, rather than hit and miss during an activity period, the only direction to go is up,!” said Dieke. “And the students prove that every day!”

Megan Hoffeditz (12), the Orchestra’s only viola player, has been playing since the fourth grade. She believes practicing is a crucial. She has also learned what it takes to get through difficult pieces and to succeed as the only viola.

“Just sitting down, playing through it really slow, working out the notes and then speeding it up as time goes on,” helps her explained Hoffeditz.

During second period, the students have been working on a variety of songs including “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” “Babes in Toyland,” “Ukrainian Fantasy,” “Sleep, Holy Babe,” and “The Christmas Waltz.” Practice is important to the orchestra, because they want to make sure everyone is able to play their part.

Lana Donahue (12) has been playing the violin for 8 and 1/2 years. She is first chair violin in the orchestra. She has learned what tips and tricks it takes for her to overcome difficult parts in the music.

“I play by ear so I mostly search the music online.” said Donahue. “Then I listen to it and I go home and I can just put earphones in and I just play the music by itself.”

There are also students who work on the music during their own time because they didn’t have enough room in their schedule to fit in Orchestra throughout the day. For the concert, both groups come together to play.

With a variety of music pieces comes a variety of difficulty. Pieces are rated for difficulty by grades. The grades range from 1-7, with 1 being the least and 7 the most difficult. The highest grade the Orchestra will be playing is a grade 4 piece called “Wizards in Winter.” The piece is by Paul O’Neill and Robert Kinkel and arranged by Bob Phillips. The song has many sixteenth notes and changes fastly from playing “arco,” or with your bow, to “pizzicato,” or plucking the strings with your fingers.

“Lots of things are happening layer on layer which is really cool,” said Dieke. “The tempo, the sixteenth-note runs, and all the little intricate pieces that are in there.”

“Wizards in Winter” will be the Orchestra’s closing piece. However, the group seems to have some tricks up their sleeves to intensify the closing song: the closing piece will also feature a light show.

The light show will be put together by Claire Alfree (12) and Hannah Mellott (12). Both Alfree and Mellott are in Sound and Lighting, taught by Mr. Eric Poe (Faculty). The girls are working on using their skills that they have learned from the class to make the lights “dance” with the rhythm of the music. They plan to make the song more intriguing to the audience and do something out of the ordinary.

Students know there are some things to still work out before the show. However, they have confidence they will perform nicely at the concert.

Hoffeditz says, “I feel we will do pretty well. We have a lot of solid songs so far.”

Although, the orchestra has shrunken in size over the last couple of years the director has no fear that the orchestra will be nothing but successful for their Christmas performance.

“The kids are great and have worked very hard,” said Dieke. “It will be magnificent! It will be a great concert!”

During the 2017 JBHS Marching Band field show, you get to watch the insanity unravel throughout the band as they perform, “Classical Madness.” As the story unfolds, the students’ seemingly cohesive minds turn mad with pieces of music that mesh and intertwine together, and tunes that never finish.

“Classical Madness” is a combination of 40 different pieces of music, including pieces from famous composers Beethoven, Holst, and Copland. The song is arranged by composer John Fannin.

The band is under the direction of band director, Mrs. Sheryl Deike (Faculty), assistant band director Mrs. Christine Metcalf (Faculty), color guard instructor Rachel Deike (Staff), and drill writer and percussion instructor Michael Seville (Staff).

“It’s the hardest show, us as a band, has ever done,” said Abby Carbaugh (11). “It pushes us in a good way.”

Led onto the field by drum majors Claire Alfree (12) and Ashley Grove (11), the first song of the show exhibits sanity. With only limited bursts of red, the band builds up for the absurdity to come. The featured soloists for the first song are Jarrett Iverson (11) on trombone, Kirstyn Black (12) on clarinet, Emily Newman (11) on mellophone, and Noah Shank (12) on snare drum.

The second song features dancer Chelsea Wareham (11) as she tempts senior soloist Macey Keefer with a flute to entice her, as well as the rest of the band, to join the “madness.” As the song progresses, Wareham will start to win over others, bringing them to the side of musical insanity.

At the beginning of the show, the Color Guard members are dressed with dark purple vests with black lipstick to accentuate the “madness.” The Color Guard opens their show with limited pops of the color red.

As the show progresses, the color red is presented more to the audience. With the final push of the last song, the Color Guard switches their ascots that were once white, to dark red, to show the audience the exact moment they have been consumed by the “madness.” It is also accompanied by red flags and scarves that are used to dance with in the “tango” part of the third song.

The band also displays this theme, because what the crowd doesn’t know is that every band member has a red scarf tucked away inside their uniform jacket. Then at the given time, the band members drape the scarf out of their jacket and the color red coats the field.

The JBHS Rocket Band doesn’t just perform half-time shows at football games; they also travel to competitions in the area. Being part of USBands, the band competes against other schools in the 3A Division, which is determined based on the numbers of participants.

On Sept. 17, the band traveled to a competition in Urbana, MD, where the Color Guard came in third out of five and the percussion took home second.

On Oct. 21, the band traveled to Westminster, MD where the whole band came in seventh out of nine competing bands.

The band will continue to prepare for the USBands championships that will be held on Nov. 5, in Allentown, PA.

With three-hour practices on Mondays, after-school practices on Wednesdays, and the all-day competitions that take place on some Saturdays, the band members always find ways to bond and create memories.

“Last year Emily Newman broke her glasses and we taped them with duct tape and she wore them the whole time,” Dawson Green (11) chuckled as he shared his favorite memory.

As the 2017 JBHS Marching Band season is quickly coming to an end, Indoor Guard and Percussion sign ups are posted outside the band room. No previous music background is required for this activity. An Indoor Meet and Greet will be held on Nov. 14 at 6 P.M. inside the Band room for anyone who is interested.