Hi everyone! Look below to see the review for your orchestra.
Beginning Orchestra
This week, we began our playing check-ins. Students are asked to record themselves playing Jingle Bells for this check-in. I will have my computer to record students next week as well, or you can send me a video if you’d rather record it at home. I need all recordings by noon on December 17th. Your performance on this will determine where you sit in the orchestra, so be sure to practice!
This week, we did a run-through of our concert pieces and practiced going into rest position inbetween each one. As a reminder, these are our pieces for the concert:
- Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
- Rolling Along (Mary Had a Little Lamb)
- Lightly Row
- Old MacDonald Had a Farm
- Jingle Bells
If you don’t feel confident on these five pieces, please practice at home! There is only so much I can do in a rehearsal — practicing at home is incredibly important.
Intermediate Orchestra
We finished up recording our final playing check-ins for this semester. If you didn’t get to record yours, you still have time! You can still send me recordings until noon on December 10th. Remember, this playing check-in will determine where you sit for the concert, so it’s very important. This playing check-in focuses on The Christmas Train, on the following measures:
- Violins and Violas: measures 15-23
- Cellos and Bass: measures 23-33
Here is what we did in our rehearsal:
- Rustic Dance — This is sounding so great! We had to work on the middle section a bit (measures 21-29), but overall you all sound great and confident on this one. I definitely want to start or end our portion of the concert with this one!
- Maiden’s Rescue — We reviewed the dynamics and worked on making them dramatic. Our biggest problem is people trying to beat me to the downbeat — wait until my baton is down to play the note!
- Rain Dribs — This week, we worked on listening to each other. When you listened to each other, you stayed together naturally. That’s what I want! We also worked on having good transitions from measure 21 until the end.
- The Christmas Train — This is sounding really great! We had to work on people not beating me to the downbeat on this one, as well. This piece is supposed to sound like a train slowly accelerating in the beginning and slowly decelerating at the end. We have to all be together for it to work.
Advanced Orchestra
We finished up recording our final playing check-ins for this semester. If you didn’t get to record yours, you still have time! You can still send me recordings until noon on December 10th. Remember, this playing check-in will determine where you sit for the concert, so it’s very important. This playing check-in focuses on Beyond the Thunder, on the following measures:
- 1st Violins: measure 62-end
- 2nd Violins and Violas: measure 46-54
- Cellos and Bass: measure 29-37
Here is what we did in our rehearsal:
- Appalachian Hymn — This sounds so great! Our sound is great, our dynamics are impressive, and you all are using nice long bows. I want to open with this one for the concert.
- Beyond the Thunder — We worked a bit on slowing down going into measure 46 and speeding up starting in measure 52. It’s only a slight change, though. 1st violins, be sure to have a nice strong tone when you have the melody!
- Fantasy on Greensleeves — You all are playing this well — I tried to think of some ideas to mix it up, but I didn’t like them. I think we just need to be okay with beautiful simplicity on this one!
- Velocity — We worked on trying not to drag on the main theme, and it sounded GREAT! It was a bit faster than we were used to, but I like it a lot. Make sure you practice if it was tough going so fast!