Looking Ahead to Final Assembly

I've had a request to describe my plans toward the end of the school year.  While this is not everything, this may help you and your student plan what to practice.

No instruments needed Monday and Tuesday next week   I have other activities planned for our classes.  After that, guitarists should bring an instrument (if possible) Mondays and Wednesdays, and strings players on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

4th grade  will work on ensemble playing and playing by ear with two familiar folk songs that we will play for our final assembly.  I will provide more details in a separate email because I want them to be a surprise.  As we prepare for Mayfaire, I notice how well our students are doing; some are trying so hard to play every note just right, however, that they are not noticing that they are playing at a different tempo from the rest of the group.  I think taking on some familiar songs with absolutely no sheet music--as scary as this can be for some--and no worries about bowings and other similar details will be a way to help students to listen to and observe each other as they play.

We will balance this with continued music reading from Smart Violin.  Next Thursday we will look at pages 16 & 17, the G Major Scale, Take a Walk, and Take a Rest.  For these 3 songs, we will try to all read the printed music in the book (the scale makes this particularly possible) rather than from color-coded pages I produce.  Before the year ends, we will play Smooth Sailing (probably for the assembly).  As time allows, we will skip ahead to other songs in G major--"Poetic Soul" on page 24 and "Perfect Day for Playing" on page 25.  I also know students have Potlatch, and if our playing folk songs by ear is helping the group, I will focus more on this than on Smart Violin.

That being said, some private instructors might choose to cover all the songs in Smart Violin this spring or summer, which is great.

5th & 6th Grade  will play Simon Tov, Fiddler's Frolic, Que Bonita Bandera, Pachelbel's Canon, and Hava Nagila from Strings Extraordinaire.  We will play some number of these songs at our final assembly (again, I know class trips are coming up).  We will also attempt  Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring in class again with an eye toward determining if it will work to perform it with a choir at our final assembly.

7th & 8th Grade will collaborate with our Spanish program on several songs for our final assembly.  We will also select two graduation songs from Rise Up Singing by sampling many songs.  We will also accompany the 4th and 5th & 6th strings at the final assembly.