No Worries

Dear Families,

With field trips and travels, we have some off days from classes in the coming weeks, and I do not want students and parents to take on unnecessary stress. So here are some updates.

First, note that strings classes are not performing at the year-end assembly. Students would do well to bring their instruments home after their final regular class.

4th grade will have class as usual this Friday. Next week 4th grade will be on a field trip on Tuesday, and I will be at an early childhood festival on Friday, so we will have no strings classes next week. On Tuesday, June 7, we will have our final class and play our new songs (Devil's Dream and Turkey in the Straw) and try to remember songs from the year. After this, students should take their instruments home.


5th grade will be on a field trip tomorrow, and we have no class on Memorial Day. The Tchaikovsky Festival seems too much for the group to take on with limited classes. We will work on the three new fiddle tunes (Devil's Dream, Turkey in the Straw, and Cluck Old Hen). We will have class on Wednesday, June 1, Monday, June 6, and perhaps on Wednesday, June 8 (that is the final regular class of the year). We will likely reprise songs from earlier this year (and maybe see how much we remember from last year).

8th graders will definitely play guitar and sing at graduation. Two songs come from Simon and Garfunkel arrangements: Bookends, and Scarborough Fair. We will also play and sing Moon River, which has been a favorite of that class for a number of years.

It has been a challenge this year to integrate the guitar with a regular orchestra class, so it is nice to end the year with something the guitarists feel very confident on.

Some to many of our other strings players note that our bowed instruments do not yet sound as smooth as the 8th graders on these three songs. While the 8th grade is on their trip, I will rehearse these 3 songs with 6th and 7th grade. If we are ready, we will accompany the 8th grade at graduation. If it is not coming together, the 8th graders will sound great by themselves, and since it is their graduation, it will not be tragic if they are not joined by violins and violas and cello and bass. I will let you know after our last class on Tuesday, June 7, whether students should bring their bowed instruments to the graduation.

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