Heat, Humidity, Looking to the New Year

As some 4th to 6th graders may have reported, I have had to spend a great deal of class time in the past 2 weeks tuning instruments with pegs that refuse to stay put. The unusually cold and dry weather made the heaters at school have to work extra hard, which made the air unusually dry. On many instruments, the pegs and peg-boxes contracted at different rates, and the pegs would no longer stick. If we lived in Colorado or Minnesota, the instruments would probably adjust (or a luthier would adjust the pegs). While I encourage students to avoid leaving an instrument in a cold (or hot) car or the like, some of the most difficult to tune instruments were ones that never left the 4th or 6th grade classroom--it was the dryness rather than the coldness that was the most problematic.

With the return of rain and warmer weather, the instruments seem to be staying in tune much better, and I at least am hoping for damp weather the rest of the winter (or if it is cold and dry, may we have snow with it).

Below are notes looking ahead to the New Year and our assembly on January 28 (at which grades 4 to 8 will all perform on instruments).

4th Grade Your student should bring Smart Violin (and her or his instrument) on our first Thursday back after the break. We will return to the initial exercises and move quickly through the initial pages--both as a review and an introduction to note reading (n.b. many students have learned note reading with private teachers already), with the intention of moving to and beyond Dana the Manatee in the first few classes. I will set our assembly program after our first few classes.

If you cannot locate your student's copy of Smart Violin, you may buy another copy at smartviolin.com

5th & 6th Grade Students might benefit from previewing the following from Strings Extraordinaire: Chorale (8), Processional from Water Music (9), Gavotte in D (11), and King William's March (12). We will play these 4 pieces when we return, and some of them will be on our January 28 program.

7th & 8th Grade For the January 28 assembly, we will likely accompany 4th to 6th grades for their performances. We will also accompany at least one class for a song they will sing from the Spanish curriculum. It is possible we will collaborate with the middle school choir for a song.

I encourage students to look through Rise Up Singing over the break, to find songs that appeal to them, practice them, and bring them back to our group in the New Year. We should be able to play the following chords: C, A, G, E, D, Am, Em, Dm, F, Bm, B7. Many students can also play A7, D7, C7, G7, and E7.

One way to practice switching chords is to take a simple song such as "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and transpose it into different keys:

DDAD is the progression we have learned. Students should also try

CCGC
AAEA
GGDG
FFCF
EEB7E

and

DDA7D
CCG7C
AAE7A
GGD7G
FFC7F

I have done this in individual lessons I have given this week and will present this idea to the group on Monday.

With Warmth and Light,

William Dolde

5th & 6th instruments Monday, Guitars Tuesday

4th Grade
Had a delightful final class today. They can keep their instruments at home to practice over the break. I gave students 2 somewhat familiar songs from Waldorf vocal music in a format meant to lead into note reading (which we will do as a class in the New Year).

5th & 6th Grade

Please remember that 5th & 6th graders need to bring their violins, violas, and cellos to school on Monday, December 21. We will play first thing for the Advent Assembly for the other grades.

6th graders may bring their cases and instruments to the Butterfly Room to warm up. I will move any instruments left in the 6th grade room over the weekend to the Butterfly Room.

We will be playing without music (for the challenge and because the lobby will be crowded). Our program will consist of Pat-a-pan, What Child is This, and Carol of the Bells.

There will be no strings classes on Tuesday. I encourage students to take their violins, violas, and cellos home on Monday.

7th & 8th Guitar We will have class as usual on Monday. 7th & 8th graders will come directly to the nursery room on Tuesday morning with their guitar cases, Rise Up Singing, and Backpacker's Songbooks to tune and warm up. Once we have opened, we will play in the lobby as a gift to the other students and parents as they arrive. Our program will be

Hey Jude
Silent Night
3 Ships (Pending Our Success With it on Monday)
What Child is This
Let it Be
Moonshadow
Amazing Grace

We will conclude around 8:35 or so.

December 21 and 22

4th Grade With some apologies, we are going to work on a favorite song the 4th graders sing (apologies because we don't have sheet music). We will also work on March of The Crazy Ants and Dana the Manatee from Smart Violin. In the New Year, students will bring their books to school, and we will play from and improve our skills in reading sheet music.

5th & 6th Grade will reprise 2 or 3 of our more tender Christmas songs at, before, or after our final Advent Assembly on Monday, December 21, morning in the lobby. 6th graders can bring their instruments to the Butterfly Room to unpack and tune. Because of space, violins and violas will play standing, and we will do our best to play from memory the following 3 songs: What Child is This, Pat-a-Pan, and Carol of the Bells.
In class we will look at Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring to see how it sounds for the ensemble as a whole. We will also start playing other music in Strings Extraordinaire to prepare for future assemblies.

7th & 8th Grade On Tuesday, December 22, at 8am, we will play guitar and sing in the lobby as others come in. Many of our students know the chords well, and I have observed that playing some slower songs would help some students feel even more confident in playing the chords. We will play and sing some of the more tranquil Christmas songs (e.g. Silent Night and possibly What Child is This) as well as other songs that fit the mood (e.g., Let it Be, Brahms' Lullaby). I've given students the chance to look through Rise Up Singing to come up with other suggestions (one was Amazing Grace).

Quinn and Elizabeth's Workshop

Dear Families,

Elizabeth has asked me to pass information along about a workshop she and Quinn are presenting for guitar and violin on Sunday, December 20. Visit this link to see their brochure.

Thank you to students in grades 4 to 8 who donated their time to play music during a day filled with other options. I think it was just right to have this be optional (and I think the bold 4th graders will be all the more confident in a future assembly because they have already performed).

With warmth and light,

William