Second Year Orchestra
Oct 13th 2016
October Updates
With the change in the weather comes music for the colder season! Orchestra has begun working on songs for our concerts in December. I am working on scheduling dates with the elementary schools, our December concerts will be assemblies during the school day. Thank you for helping your student set and keep a good practice schedule, make sure they turn in their practice records to keep earning stars that they can redeem for prizes!
October 26th 7:30pm at Olympia High School
Come hear some fantastic music performed by the Reeves Middle School Orchestra and Band. Hear ensembles from each grade, and our spooky finale, Michael Jackson's Thriller, featuring band and orchestra together. The concert will be in Olympia High School's Performing Arts Center.
Private Lessons
The second year of orchestra is a great time to begin taking private lessons on your specific instrument. By the second year of playing students are invested in their instrument and the time it takes to practice their music. Private instruction can really help accelerate their learning process, providing individualized instruction and additional performance opportunities. If you are interested in looking for a private instructor email me and I can send you contact info for great local musicians with private studios.
Schedule Update
The last week of October there will be no elementary orchestra Tuesday-Friday, due to the half day conference schedule. I will give students practice goals, and they will still record at home practice minutes on their practice record. In class we will learn how to make sound effects, and have a song writing project that they will work on over the week at home.
Practice Strategies
In class we will work on efficient home practice, and how to self-evaluate. Some good steps to follow are:
1. Play through the song, make a mental note of a spot that is hard to play, or stop when you get to something you can't play.
2. Work on that one or two measure spot
a. clap the rhythm slowly
b. pluck the notes in rhythm slowly
c. try playing the spot with your bow slowly
d. play the measure again, speeding it up a little every time until
3. Once you have worked the problems out, try starting the measure before and playing through
4. If you still have trouble repeat step 2, focusing on the original measures, or with the new measure that you added in step 3.
5. Once you can play the measure accurately try playing through the whole song again, and then evaluate your performance.