September 17, 2009

As of the end of today, all 6th grade violinists and violists should have attended a lesson in school, with the exception of anyone who added orchestra to their schedule on or after Monday and those students who study privately. If you missed your lesson, forgot to pick up your lesson card, or could not attend for any reason, I will begin makeup lessons during activity period next week.

We are almost finished sight-reading during our orchestra periods, and all students will have practice parts by the end of next week. Sixth graders all have practice parts for the following pieces:

Carmen, Carmela, a traditional piece arranged by Betty Dardess
Miniature Symphony by Richard Meyer
Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky; arr. Larry Clark

During our first rehearsals, we read Clog Dance, but I have decided not to continue work on this piece because it was recently performed in Guilderland Elementary.

Sixth graders in orchestra on A/C days have been assigned:
Carmen, Carmela: measures 1-28
Pictures at an Exhibition: measures 14-26


Eighth graders have been assigned:
Gauntlet: measures 1-33

The order of importance for preparing these excerpts are:
-Speak all the rhythms while maintaining a steady beat.

Use “du” for quarter notes, “du de” for eighth notes, and “du da de ta” for sixteenth notes.

Can you speak the rhythms and add dynamics?

-Pluck the music. Isolate difficult measures, then put them all together.
-Play the music as written.

I will be checking homework for understanding by either calling on students to plaly shorter excerpts individually or by team.




In eighth grade rehearsals, we have sight-read the following pieces (listed in order of popular approval):
Mambo Incognito by Doug Spata
Fanfare and Frippery by Richard A. Stephan
Dramatic Essay by Mark Williams
Summer Dance by Alan Lee Silva

Gauntlet is another piece by Doug Spata (which we have not yet read as an ensemble). It is a personal favorite of mine, and if the eighth grade likes it as much as I do, I’ll gladly order the parts for performance.



The seating arrangement today in 7th grade proved to be a bit more difficult than past arrangement, as certain sections had to deal with the absence of stronger players and more confident sight-readers. However, I observed some very impressive reading from the backs of the violin sections. I urge students who have confidence in their playing to recognize the importance of combining their skills with the conductor’s direction so that the orchestra can stay together!

Seventh grade has read a bunch of music, and I can only imagine how much work we could get done if we could cut down on the chattiness. So far, here’s what we’ve sight-read:
Czech Folk Song Suite of Traditional songs; arranged by Merle Isaac
Saturday at the Symphony by John O’Reilly
Variations on a Ground
Concert Piece for Strings by Elliot del Borgo
Fantasia on Amazing Grace by Elliot del Borgo
Fiddle-a-Jig by Percy Hall

I’ve warned the 7th graders that they should do whatever they can to enjoy the beautiful weekend we have ahead of us, because come next week I’ll be expecting a higher level of focus and concentration, and I will be assigning a soon-to-be-regular workload of music to practice.