Contra Dance Sunday, what we are working on

On Sunday, October 11, 3 - 6pm, Deer Lagoon Grange, the Swinging Nettles (which includes Kat Fritz and William Dolde as a guest fiddler player, possibly other familiar faces) will play jigs and reels for a family contra dance. There is no admission fee, though Kat is seeking donations to cover the cost of the excellent caller and the hall rental--feel free to bring your student to some or all.

At the summer contra dance, we played a few sets of songs that might be familiar to your students and welcomed students into the band. Here is the set list below; your student should feel free to bring an instrument and sit in when she or he feels comfortable. Some of the guitar chords are relatively easy, too (some are not).

Set List

Jigs

Jump at the Sun (Dm)/Fair Jenny (D)

Morrison’s Jig(Em)/Kesh (G)

Cowboy Jig (G)/Coffee (Am)

Irish Washer Woman (G)/Haste to the Wedding (D)

Tobin's (D)/Old Favorite (G)

Reels:

Flowers of Edinborough (G)/Staten Island (A)

Turkey in the Straw (D)/Arkansas Traveler (D)

Bumble Bee in a Jug (D)/ Girl I left Behind Me (G)

Whiskey Before Breakfast (D)/Red Haired Boy (A)/June Apple (A

Cripple Creek (A)/Old Joe Clark (D)/Boil Them Cabbage Down A

La Bastrainge

Waltz:

Amelia’s (D)

Far Away (Bm)

Tear Drop (D)

Here is what we have been working on--what students can be practicing at home.

4th Grade -- From Smart Violin, Exercise in A major. Thursday I introduced "Green Light," and we will spend a good deal of time with this on Tuesday.

5th & 6th Grade -- From Strings Extraordinaire, Harvest Reel, Tumba, Country Gardens, and Goblin Walk. Pairs of students have been portraying goblins as the rest of the orchestra plays; it is both fun and helps us all work on contrasts in dynamics, accents, tremolos, and dramatic playing.

7th & 8th Grade -- Is learning chords quickly; each student now has a sheet of 8 beginning chords, C, A, G, E, D and Am, Em, and Dm. Students should be proficient with all these chords by next Wednesday. We are playing many songs.

For the nursery, students are working on a play of "Three Men in a Tub" with sea songs. "Row Row Row Your Boat" in D and "We Roll the Old Chariot Along" (which alternates between Em and D).
We also played and sang Skip to My Lou, This Land is Your Land, and Yellow Submarine, among others.
More students are comfortable playing rhythm for the 12 bar blues and we have begun working on improvising melodic lines above the rhythm section.