Jump Start on Next Semester

Today in the email I received the music - audio and printed - for next semester's first orchestra concert - Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony, Schumann's Spring Symphony and Saint-Saens's Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso In A Minor. We don't have a rehearsal for about 4 weeks, so now is a great time to listen, follow along with the score and get familiar. Think maybe I'll do the practicing after the holidays.

Perils of String Playing

Being a string teacher, I have seen it all, or so I thought. In concerts I have seen bows break while a student was playing (she bravely muddled on), I actually dropped a violin and broke it while tuning it for the concert, I saw a bridge snap while a child was playing.

Last night, at our Winter concert, one of my beginning viola players came to me with his bridge which had fallen out. I put it back in, but probably not as carefully as I should have. While we were playing Jingle Bells, I heard a pop and knew that the bridge had come out. I looked at my player and mouthed for him to just keep playing. He did. After we were finished, I told him that I would put the bridge back in at the end of the concert, but he said that the bridge had actually fallen INSIDE the viola! Amazing! It had to turn 90 degrees to do that, and it did.

I worked on it for 15 minutes later at home, then Hal managed to get it out after about 10 minutes, and I was able to put it back in, with a lot more care this time. I took it to him at school today, and he was amazed that it was fixed. I know he'll be practicing over break. He's just that kind of kid.

Concert Weekend

The semester has ended for the Claremont Concert Orchestra with our final concert. True to form for us, the Sunday afternoon concert was better than Saturday night (which was not true for the October concerts). On the program was Brahms' Academic Festival Overture, Concerto for Two Pianos by Poulanc and Romeo and Juliet Overture by Tchaikovsky. The audience was quite enthusiastic, and I feel as though we have improved greatly since September.

While the Brahms and Tchaikovsky are fairly well known, the Poulanc was new to me. It is an odd piece with a variety of ideas and styles sprinkled throughout the three movements. Since we've worked on it for the past month and a half, I have grown to like it, but it might have taken the audience a little while to get used to it. Of course, the two Scripps student-pianists were wonderful and captivated the audience. To hear the piece, you have several choices on youtube. This version (first movement) features Poulanc himself as one of the soloists. The other two movements are also on youtube.

Pitch Matching

I am working with Vista students with their songs for Winter Sing next week. Last week I introduced the songs and we started working on them. One of the songs I didn't know too well, and I taught a few pitches wrong. Now those are stuck in their heads, and when I worked with them this morning, they have the wrong pitches in their minds. So, I am trying to get them to sing the right pitches (which are actually easier), but I don't think it will happen. They can sing them in isolation, but not within the context of the song. Well, if they miss those pitches (which happen twice), no one will really know but me.

Trepak

These are my sweet Kindergarteners in the middle of a dance to Trepak (Russian Dance) from the Nutcracker. The story is this: you have a treehouse that you can paint any color you want, and you can paint it with your fingers. So on the accented beats, we fling our fingers (like jazz hands) and jump, and then we "rub" the paint. In the middle section we stop and ponder our lovely artwork. This is where I caught the sweet expressions with fingers on the chin. The children LOVE this activity.

Strings Karate

My beginning strings class is particularly good this year. Yesterday we had our first test of the year - our white belt test. Over the year the students will take harder and harder tests until they pass their black belt tests. For the first test, I give students the option of choosing from three tunes, with various degrees of difficulty. All 9 students chose the "hot shot" song - Morning Dance (which we call Jolly Turkeys) and all of them passed. They are so excited to be learning violin and viola.

Klang and Goodman

I just saw this video of James Falzone's current project. Now, not only does the music sound intriguing to me (modern interpretations of Benny Goodman classics), but the site Kickstarter looks interesting to me. It seems as though it is a way to raise money for a project. You make a video about your project, write about it, then people who want to will pledge money for it. For various incentive levels, the donors may get something. In this case, for various levels, you get a prerelease of some of the album's MP3s.