On November 17th, Mr. Jones hosted a County Clinic inviting students from the county into our school for a new experience, Although Blair County did something similar before COVID, it was connected to PMEA where students got one evening of their festival to go to master classes. The way that Mr. Jones laid out the format for this event has never been done at a county level in Clearfield County. Many students had mixed feelings about this new format but Mr. Jones was excited and hopeful saying it “was an opportunity to try something different.” Reassuring kids by mentioning that the clinic would not happen every year and that the traditional format would return next year. Though some students were upset about the clinic other students were excited seeing this as an opportunity to dig into their musical skills. Seeing as many students during COVID were not able to learn rehearsal skills, or how to read and understand the music, master classes were a perfect solution. 

The master classes were for all the instruments in the ensemble to learn more about their instruments, learning tricks, warm-ups, and other helpful things to know. Mr. Jones put a lot of effort into this clinic, having to find nine qualified instrumentalists to teach the master classes and even inviting Travis. J. Weller the composer of all the pieces the band played to direct them. 

Though the planning was a task for Mr. Jones he got students to help him throughout the day including Lily Jones, Samantha Stencil, Kurt English, Braeden Salter, and Matt Eirich. Lily Jones the marching band president said “I absolutely loved helping out with County Band. It was a great experience to see what happens behind the scenes of a festival like that.” As the festival ended and other schools left students talked about their opinions on the clinic and next year’s county band.