Lisa Parker

February 23, 2024 | Review

Hi everyone!

We had great rehearsals today, and unfortunately DGSN doesn’t have school next Friday so it will be another two weeks before we can meet again. If you would like to see our calendar, you can find it here. I’m so sorry for the inconsistency — I am looking at switching the day of rehearsals next year so that it’s not so chaotic. Please have your students review the material below and practice in the meantime.

Middle School Orchestra

We did a lot today! I showed students how to practice with the practice videos, which can be found on our website here or on my YouTube channel here. The videos can be slowed down in the settings if they are too fast right now!

Meanwhile, here is what we got accomplished at today’s rehearsal:

Seven Nation Army — We decided that we won’t plan on doing the whole thing for the concert. You shouldn’t feel like you need to practice anything past measure 33. I will write a new violin part for Eleanor to bring some of the notes down into the range that we already know. However, work on the first part a lot! Practice with the practice video to see if you can get it fast enough.
Royal Promenade — We reviewed the whole thing and learned the end. This song is very repetitive, so once you know part of it, you know most of it! Keep practicing it and use the practice videos to help you get a feeling of how it will sound with all of the instruments.
The Abandoned Funhouse — We went through the whole thing with the people who were there. We just need to get used to being a little more confident on our parts and then I think we will be good!
Canon in D — We ran out of time, but I’m hoping that you can all figure this one out over the next two weeks during your practice. I will work on getting practice videos up for this song soon.

Elementary Orchestra

This week, I introduced how to put fingers down on the D string. I have it all explained in the following videos:

Violin D String Notes

Viola D String Notes

Cello D String Notes

Bass D String Notes

We are just getting used to these for now, but we will be using them in Royal Promenade. Students who were here last semester should be able to start learning their instrument’s pattern that begins around measure 5 and ends at measure 21. For those new to their instruments, I let students know their notes for measures 9 through 13. The cello and bass parts are different though, so I will teach them their parts at our next rehearsals.

We then used the videos to practice the beginning of The Salamander Samba (until letter C) and then we learned from the beginning until measure 45 of On a Swing. If students haven’t already, they should have the note names written in for all of The Salamander Samba and On a Swing (unless they don’t need them, of course!) Try to use the practice videos to help you at home!