Beginning

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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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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 🙂

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

Beginning Orchestra

This week was taping week! Everyone needs tapes on their instruments to prepare us for learning to put our fingers on the strings, so unfortunately that took a long time.

Our goal for this week is to learn the first 7 notes of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. I have explained it in this video below:

If your student is dying to know how to play the rest of that line, here are videos explaining how to play those notes — we will go through this next week, so there is no need to do it unless they really want to!

Violin:

Viola:

Cello:

We will review everything next week, so don’t give up on me! I promise it will all be easy soon enough.

Intermediate Orchestra

This week, we started our playing check-ins. Unfortunately we didn’t get to everyone, so we will do recordings next week as well. If you didn’t record your check-in last week, make sure to practice Maiden’s Rescue measures 5-13. Here’s what we did this week:

• Rustic Dance — We played from the beginning until measure 21. We also played measure 29 to the end — although the end is a little bit different, everything else is the same as the beginning! As a heads up, our playing check-in for October will be in Rustic Dance: measures 21-29.
• Rain Dribs — This is sounding great! This week, we learned from the beginning until measure 21.
• Maiden’s Rescue — We practiced from the beginning until 21.
• Christmas Train — We didn’t get to this this week, but make sure to still practice it at home! Please try to practice through to measure 23.

Advanced Orchestra

We started our playing check-ins this week, but unfortunately we didn’t get to everyone. We will finish the recordings next week and then I will let you all know where you sit the week after. If you didn’t record this week, make sure to prepare Fantasy on Greensleeves — violins will play measures 5-21 and violas and cellos will play measures 37-53. Here’s what we did this week:

• Appalachian Hymn — Well, you guys are too good and we kind of played through the whole thing. We don’t know measure 65 to the end as well since we just sightread it, but you all will be ready on this one way too soon!
• Beyond the Thunder — We learned from the beginning until measure 46.
• Velocity — We practiced until about measure 37. Seconds and violas, you need to practice from measure 25 to 45. This will be your most difficult part! Our October playing check in for 2nds and violas will be measures 37-45. 1st violins, yours will be measures 45-53 and cellos, your will be measure 17-25.
• Fantasy on Greensleeves — We sightread the whole thing at the end, but didn’t spend a ton of time practicing it.