Hi everyone! Look below for the review for your group.
Beginning Orchestra
This week, we reviewed the songs we already know, which are:
- Twinkle, Twinkle
- Rolling Along (Mary Had a Little Lamb)
- Lightly Row
- Old MacDonald
We then learned our last song for this concert, which will be Jingle Bells (p. 14). These 5 songs are what we will play for the concert, so be sure to practice them at home!
IMPORTANT: Next week, students will record Jingle Bells for playing check-ins during class. This will help me know how we are doing, but it will also determine where students will sit for the concert. If you want to sit near the front, be sure to practice! You can also send me a video of you playing Jingle Bells if you would rather record it at home — it just needs to get to me by noon on December 17th.
Intermediate Orchestra
We began our final playing check-in for this semester. As a reminder, this final check-in is on Christmas Train, and will be the following measures:
- Violins and Violas: measures 15-23
- Cellos and Bass: measures 23-33
Here’s what we did in rehearsal:
- Rustic Dance — Your dynamics on this are phenomenal! I’ve never had a group make such great dynamic contrasts. We still need a little more confidence on measures 21-29, but it’s getting there!
- Maiden’s Rescue — We took some time to add some dynamics to this piece. If you had to miss our rehearsal, please come talk to me to get the dynamics, because there is too much to type! Overall, this piece is sounding great — we just have to work on people playing when my baton goes DOWN, not before.
- Rain Dribs — At first we went too slow, but it was better at a quicker tempo. We also worked on the dynamic change between measure 21 and measure 25.
- The Christmas Train — This is sounding great! I’m so proud of you all for practicing. Now we are working on incorporating the accents and making sure we are all together.
Advanced Orchestra
We began our final playing check-in this week, but maybe I didn’t do enough reminders because a lot of people forgot! That’s okay, we will continue the check-ins next week, and you can also email me a copy of your playing check-in if that’s easier. As a reminder, this final check-in is on Beyond the Thunder for the following measures:
- 1st Violins: measures 62-end
- 2nd Violins and Violas: measures 46-54
- Cellos and Bass: measures 29-37
Here is what we did in rehearsal:
- Appalachian Hymn — This is sounding so great, and with the bass it’s just the cherry on top!
- Fantasy on Greensleeves — I’m perplexed by this one. I can tell that you all are bored by it, but I think it’s pretty and not a bad arrangement, I’m just not sure how to make it more interesting! We experimented with changing the tempo this week — at first we did it pretty quick and we didn’t like it, but an in-between tempo seemed to help a bit. I will brainstorm more ideas this week.
- Beyond the Thunder — Our cellos can be cellos again! Thanks to our bass player for really rounding out our ensemble. This one is also sounding great, we are just working on getting the balance right and putting in some phrasing.
- Velocity — We are still working on our usual things (louder 2nds at 25, louder 2nds and violas at 37), but we also tried to add in the piano at measure 45 and on. We are also slowing down on the main rhythm when we have quarter notes, so we need to work on that.