Simon Fraser Music Parents Association

Fundraising to support our music program is facilitated through the Simon Fraser Music Parent Association. SFMPA is a group of volunteer parents who promote, support, and encourage undertakings of interest and benefit to the music programs of Simon Fraser School. They also encourage support from the community for their undertaking. The organization helps to provide, primarily student specific fundraisers to assist with travel funds. SFMPA has provided fundraisers such as World's Finest Chocolate Sales, Silent Auctions, Bottle Drives, and Silver Collections.

SFMPA is continuously looking for parent support, so please get involved! We meet once a month for 1 hour. For meeting detail and to get involved email mkandersson@cbe.ab.ca.

Practice Tips

Successful practice is measure in frequency rather than duration. Working on your instrument 5-10 minutes four times a week is lead to significant more progress that 1 hour once a week.

 Setting one, targeted goal for your practice session is important. Choose one skill, one small section of a piece, or one technique for your practice session. As you are working through the section, reflect and ask yourself the following questions:

  • Are the notes correct?
  • Is the rhythm correct?
  • Is the articulation correct?
  • Is my intonation correct?

Summer Camps

  • Calgary Regional Summer Band Workshop: a wonderful one week summer band clinic that takes place right here in Calgary. This week concludes with a concert for families.
  • International Music Camp: an excellent one week camp for students from all over the world. The week concludes with a concert for families. 

Music Theory Links

  • Breezin Thru Theory: this site is used throughout our music class. It provides structured instruction and practice drills on a wide variety of musical concepts. Once student accounts are activated, student can use their google login to access this material.
  • Tone Savvy: this site has practice drills for Rhythm Performance, Rhythm Dictation, Note Reading on piano and guitar, Key Signatures, Intervals, Chords and Scales. An excellent set of practice tools.
  • Musictheory.net: there is an excellent FREE downloadable set of drills for Note Reading, Intervals, Scales, etc. AS WELL AS ear training tutors for identifying Intervals, Scales and Chords. The Guitar note trainer and Staff paper generator are nice as well.

Music Software Links

  • Smart Music: an excellent program for students to play along with which gives immediate feedback about note accuracy, rhythm, etc. It is coordinated with their various method books and can also be used with a great deal of solo material for festivals and competitions as well.
  • Finale: One of the best notation programs available today. Great for students writing their own music, or they can just play it directly into the computer from a electric piano. There is a free version called Finale Notepad which can be downloaded from the site, although it doesn't have all the "bells and whistles"