Hi! I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!
Look below to find the review for your orchestra. Happy Practicing!
Beginning Orchestra
We began rehearsal by reviewing Twinkle, Twinkle. It’s really coming along! If you are feeling bored with it and would like the harmony part instead, let me know!
We then worked in the book and reviewed Rolling Along (p. 8 #19) — also known as Mary Had a Little Lamb. We then started learning our 3rd concert song, Lightly Row (p. 9 #22). The hardest part of this song is the first 2 measures, so make sure to practice them!
We also started working on reading the notes on the staff — for now, the names of the notes are inside of the notehead, but that won’t always be the case! Try to memorize where the notes are on the staff to help you in the future.
Intermediate Orchestra
We continued recording for our playing check-ins. If you didn’t get to record during class, you can send me a video sometime before Sunday at noon and it will still count. As a reminder, this month’s playing check-in is on Rustic Dance, measures 21-29.
Here is what we rehearsed in class:
- Maiden’s Rescue — I finally remembered to rehearse Maiden’s Rescue! Luckily, you all sound really good on it. We had to work on 21 til the end a little bit. Violas and cellos, make sure you look at measures 33-35.
- The Christmas Train — I’m a little worried about The Christmas Train! We are sounding fine on the beginning, but not may of us knew the music from measure 23 to measure 33. Please practice these at home! As a reminder, next month’s playing check in will be in The Christmas Train — measures 15-23 for violins and violas and measures 23-33 for cellos and basses.
- Rain Dribs — We just have some detail work to do on this one, but it’s mostly there!
- Rustic Dance — We didn’t get a chance to play this, but we will next week.
Advanced Orchestra
We continued recording for our playing check-ins. If you didn’t get to record during class, you can send me a video sometime before Sunday at noon and it will still count. As a reminder, this month’s playing check-in is on Velocity — measures 17-25 for cellos, measures 37-45 for 2nds and violas, and measures 45-53 for 1st violins.
Here is what we rehearsed in class:
- Fantasy on Greensleeves — We reviewed some different ways to do dynamics during our warmups, which we used in this piece. I would like this piece to have tilted bows, lots of bow speed, but a light pressure. We are also working on shaping the phrases.
- Beyond the Thunder — This is sounding great! We had to work with the 1st violins on having a more confident sound, but they pulled it off! And 2nds and violas, you absolutely rocked measures 54-62! Woohoo!
- Velocity — We worked with the 2nds on measures 25-28, and wow it was sounding good. Please play that confidently every time! We also worked on adding the dynamics in measures 37-53 — a lot of this section is piano, with some crescendos leading to forte and then immediately piano again. If we can pull this off, it will have a very cool effect.
- Appalachian Hymn — This is just sounding great! We had to work on the offbeats for the 1st violins in measures 49-57, but they had it down by the end of rehearsal.
Thanks for everything! As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. See you next week!