Updates

Hi everyone! Look below to find the review for your orchestra.

Also, please note that we will not be having rehearsal next week, Monday, February 19th due to President’s Day. Our next rehearsal will be on Monday, February 26th. Make sure to practice at home!

Beginning Orchestra

This week, we worked on tuning our own instruments and I also had to make sure that everyone had tapes on their instruments. This took up a ton of class time, but it needed to be done!

We then played The Salamander Samba and quickly went through the whole thing. You should be able to practice the whole piece at home now! I am extending our playing check-ins to our next rehearsal since we didn’t get a lot of time to record in class this week. If you would prefer, you can also send me an email with your audition video or upload it onto our Google Drive folder.

After that, I taught the new students how to put their fingers down on the D string, while students who were here last semester tried to figure out the notes in Royal Promenade. New students should practice “Rolling Along” in their books on page 8. Returning students should practice Royal Promenade from the beginning until measure 21. New students, you can look at the video below if you forgot how to put down fingers on the D string. Happy Practicing!

Intermediate Orchestra

We recorded playing check-ins during class this week. While I usually give you two weeks of in-class recordings, with President’s Day next week, we just had one day of in-class recordings. If you would still like to send me your playing check-in, you can send a video via email or upload it onto our Google Drive. As a reminder, we are playing Icicles for this playing check-in — bass and cello will play measures 17 through 25 while violins and violas will play measures 25-33. Look below to see what we did in rehearsal!

• Momentous — We haven’t been as consistent about practicing this, but I will make sure we rehearse it more now that some of the easier pieces are doing well. We played from the beginning until 17 and worked on getting the parts together. Please try to practice at home at least until measure 37.
• Icicles — This is sounding great! We can now play the whole thing, although it is a bit rough! We worked a lot on the music between 17 and 33. Since this song has so many staccato notes, make sure to use really long bows when you don’t have staccato, since we really want to bring those out!
• Guldfaxe — I would like everyone to practice until at least measure 27 this week. Violins and violas, your hard part is from the beginning until measure 19. Violas, cellos, and basses, you have hard music from 19 until 27. So, that’s right violas, it’s all hard for you! Figure out as much as you can at home this week.
• The Abandoned Funhouse — We were able to play through the whole thing this week, although of course it has some rough parts. I will try to get practice videos made so that it will be easier to practice at home.

Advanced Orchestra

We recorded playing check-ins during class this week. While I usually give you two weeks of in-class recordings, with President’s Day next week, we just had one day of in-class recordings. If you would still like to send me your playing check-in, you can send a video via email or upload it onto our Google Drive. As a reminder, we are playing Turbulence measures 33-40 for this playing check-ins. Look below to see what we did in rehearsal!

• Appalachian Sunrise — I made sure to start with this since we didn’t get to it last week. We kind of made it to the end, but only in pieces. There are some higher position notes at the end for 1st violins and violas — we decided that the 1st violins to shift will be Braden, Christine, Sabella, and Ella, and the Violas to shift will be Griffin, Riley, and Layel. Everyone else will take the bottom notes in this piece. This split will only be true in this song — otherwise, we will split by last name like we did in Turbulence.
• Turbulence — We were able to get through the whole thing! We learned the end this week and worked on a few weird timing sections.
• Bones — This is sounding great! You all were nervous at first, but it’s already coming together. We worked on learning a new section, from measure 24 to 47. We have some tough stuff coming up, so please violas and cellos practice measures 47 to 52 and violins practice measures 51 to 56.
• Momentous — We didn’t get to it this week! We will make sure to get to it next week.

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Hi everyone! Look below for the review for your orchestra.

Beginning Orchestra

This week, we reviewed our open strings and how to tell what strings to play on The Salamander Samba. We learned how to play from A to B on the Salamander Samba and then played it with the piano part. If you’d like to practice with the video, you can follow this link.

We then learned how to hold our bows and did some bow exercises. Watch the video below for an explanation of the bow hold:

We quickly went over the beginning of On A Swing, which is also all open strings! You should be able to write in the notes in this piece the same way we did for The Salamander Samba. The difference of this one is that it uses bows instead of pizzicato. Check it out!

Intermediate Orchestra

• Abandoned Funhouse — we went through the parts from the beginning until 25. Please practice until measure 53 at least, but if you can do the whole thing that would be great!
• Momentous — We played the G major scale to prepare us for playing on the G string in Momentous. If you don’t know how to play any of your lower notes, check your scale sheet! We played through measure 9. Please practice until at least 17, but further if you can!
• Icicles — For this piece, we want to bounce the bow a bit and let it ring with the staccatos. We worked on getting the right sound for that and then played through to measure 33.
• Guldfaxe — We didn’t get to this piece this week, but I want to start with it next week. Please practice at least until measure 19 this week.

Advanced Orchestra

• Turbulence — This is already sounding great! Violins, we decided that for the divisi sections we are going to split it up by last name. If you last name starts with A-H, you will play the top part. If your last name starts with I-Z, you will play the bottom part. We practiced through measure 25, and then sightread through 48-ish.
• Bones — This piece has a lot of low 1’s, high 3’s, extensions, etc! Watch out for those and let me know if you have any questions. We practiced through measure 19 and then sightread through 24.
• Appalachian Sunrise — We started by playing a C major scale, because I am nervous about us remembering all of those F naturals and C naturals. 2nd violins and violas, we reviewed your rhythm that starts at measure 5 — just think of it as “short-long” at the beginning, and you should have the right feel. We practiced through measure 21 and then sightread until 37.
• Momentous — We played from the beginning but it kind of fell apart around measure 17. Please try to practice through measure 37 at least.

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Hi everyone!

Look below to see the review for your orchestra. Our concert is coming up quickly, so be sure to practice at home!

Beginning Orchestra

We began our rehearsal by reviewing the pieces we already know — Twinkle Twinkle, Rolling Along (aka Mary Had a Little Lamb), and Lightly Row.

Once those were going well, we learned about the notes on the A string from pages 10 and 11. Here are some videos about how to play the “A ladder” on different instruments:

Try to start memorizing where these notes are now, because pretty soon the names of the notes won’t be inside of the noteheads!

Intermediate Orchestra

We gave out new seating charts this week, so thank you to all of you who recorded playing check-ins! We will have only one more playing check-in, focusing on The Christmas Train. The violins and violas will record measures 15-23, and the cellos and bass will record measures 23-33. We will start recording the playing check-ins after Thanksgiving Break.

Here is what we did in rehearsal:

• Rustic Dance — We haven’t focused on this one for a while, so I wanted to makes sure we got to it today. The section between 21 and 29 is sounding a lot better! We definitely need to work on some confidence, especially with the 2nds and the violas. We then worked on having really big dynamic contrasts between measure 29 and 45 — if we only do it halfway, it’ll sound like a mistake! So we need to make those sound really dramatic.
• The Christmas Train — We worked on this for a while, mainly focusing on measures 15-33. Make sure you know these measures! We also had to work on watching me in the beginning and at the end.
• Maiden’s Rescue — This is sounding great! We had to work on the violins and violas not tuning out between 13 and 21 while they have half notes, but once I pointed it out they had no problems. I will bring pencils next week and hopefully we can write in some dynamics to make it more interesting.
• Rain Dribs — We only had time to quickly run through this, but I would like to work on it more in detail in the coming weeks.

Advanced Orchestra

We gave out new seating charts this week, so thank you to all of you who recorded playing check-ins! We will have only one more playing check-in, focusing on Beyond the Thunder. The 1st violins will record measures 62-end, the 2nds and violas will record measures 46-54, and the cellos and bass will record measures 29-37. We will start recording the playing check-ins after Thanksgiving Break.

Also, we are having a party next week! We are extremely prepared and still have several rehearsals left, so we are going to have a pre-Thanksgiving party. Bring a snack or treat to share if you would like, and I will bring some small group music that people can try out. You deserve a break!

Here is what we rehearsed this week:

• Beyond the Thunder — This is sounding great! We had to work a bit on 46-54, mainly because the rhythms are a little weird. The 2nds and violas are doing something totally different from the 1sts and it’s confusing! Other than that, this one is sounding great.
• Appalachian Hymn — I LOVE THIS ONE! And you all are playing it so well. We worked with the violins and violas on measures 69-71 because we had some intonation problems, but other than that I feel like we are ready.
• Velocity — We are losing our tempo sometimes, and I think it’s because our quarter notes are a bit too long. And 2nd violins, don’t forget to be super strong on measures 25-28 — that’s my favorite part!
• Fantasy on Greensleeves — We just played through this one. It’s sounding great, but I have to figure out a way to make it more interesting! You all have done your job, though