Here is a recording from today in class. Please encourage your student to listen and use pencil to mark their part for things they need to improve by Tuesday!
Dear Parents and Guardians,
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Christina Carrigan and I will be your child's orchestra teacher at CMS this year. I am so excited to get to work with all of the awesome orchestra kids and am greatly looking forward to seeing them all next week. As I work to get things ready for the school year, I need to determine who will need to rent a school instrument. If you have not yet rented or purchased an instrument for your child, I encourage you to do so ONLY from actual music stores (in person or online). There are many great things that can be purchased from big suppliers online, but if the online store also sells Instant Pots, Socks, Slip N Slides, snacks, and tools, it is not a music store. If the price seems too good to be true, it likely is. Student level violins/violas run about $200-$400. Student level cellos start about $600-$800. Student level basses are about $800-$1,000. Before purchasing a used instrument from a friend or pawn shop, I encourage you to check it out with Luke at Whittlesticks. He can give you an idea of if it is an instrument worth playing. Students who own or rent their own cello or bass can leave their instruments at home for practice and just rent one for use at school for $50/year. Students who do not own their own may also use one at home they are unable to rent/buy one. Fee waivers apply to this rental fee if needed. Students who own or rent their own violin or viola should plan to bring it to and from school every day. If a family cannot afford to rent from a store, you can rent from the school for $50. Fee waivers apply to this rental fee if needed. My goal is for every student to be successful this year in orchestra. One of the best ways to set up a child for success is to make sure she/he has the materials necessary to make that happen. A quality instrument will make all the difference. A $50 instrument is more like a toy and will be difficult to tune, difficult to play, and will not sound good. I will have different music store hand outs available on Monday night at Back to School night. These are the supplies kids will need in addition to an instrument: notebook pencils Cello/bass players: Rock Stop Violin/Viola players: Shoulder rest Beginners: Essential Elements Book 1 Make sure the method book matches the instrument your child will be playing. If you know right now that your child will need a home cello, a home bass, or a school violin/viola, please respond to this email with your child's name, instrument, and which class they will be in next week. I will do my best to accommodate everyone. Students who have played in previous years will have first priority. New beginners might consider being willing to play a second choice instrument like viola instead of violin. We always need more viola players!! See you next week! Dear Parents and Guardians,
In this e-mail: 1. Shirt Orders Due! 2. Instrument Rental Contracts (school owned instruments) 3. What's we've been learning, upcoming tests 4. Practice 5. Grades 6. Required materials 1. If you are planning on ordering an orchestra shirt for your child, please send the order form in by Friday, September 8th! Even if you cannot pay for it yet and will pay for it in a month, please get it sent in by the end of next week so I can place the order for the shirts. 2. If your child is using a school instrument, the instrument rental contracts were all sent home last week or the week before. Please make sure you have paid the rental fee or filled out the appropriate fee waiver paperwork at the office (6th grade registration fees do not cover instrument rental or orchestra shirt purchase). Also, please make sure you have signed the rental agreement and that your child has returned it to me. 3. The beginning orchestra students have been doing such a wonderful job so far this year! I am SO impressed with them. We've been learning to count and clap rhythms as a class, how to write down rhythms and their counting as individuals, how to play rhythms together by plucking and counting. We've also been learning how to draw treble/alto/bass clef and the notes of a D major scale (D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D), as well as how to read and play the notes on the instruments. The students will have their first playing test NEXT WEEK!! The playing test will be on Line 22 in the book - Lightly Row. The students will be graded on their instrument position and posture, correct finger placement (intonation), playing the right notes, and playing the correct rhythms. Students will also have their first NOTE NAME QUIZ next week - this is a 1 minute timed quiz on the 8 notes we have learned so far. 4. Students are expected to practice every day. The amount of practice time will vary by the student - they need to practice for the amount of time it takes them to master the material we have covered in class. For some students this will be 10 minutes, for others, it may be 30 minutes. Some good practice strategies are: counting and clapping the rhythms, saying the notes, pizzing and saying the notes. The play-along tracks are available for download online (see the front of your child's method book for more info). These can be downloaded onto a home computer, an ipod, a tablet, etc. Playing along makes it MUCH more fun for kids to practice so if possible, I highly encourage you to help your child get the play-along tracks downloaded. 5. So far, we only have 2 grades in the gradebook - the course disclosure which was sent home the first day of school - it tells about the class, what materials are required, and when our concerts are. If you have not yet seen this, please ask your child about it so you can sign it and he or she can return it to class. The other grade in the gradebook was a collection of our first two weeks of rhythm bellwork. Students copied down the rhythms we were learning and added the counting to it. As is true for ALL assignments in orchestra, students are always welcome and encouraged to redo any assignment that was less than 100%. My goal for all students is mastery of the material. Students may redo assignments and playing tests during 9th period advisory/SMART time or after school. 6. There are still a few students who have not yet purchased their method books or have not purchased a shoulder rests (for violins/violas) or rock stop (for cellos/basses). ALL students really need to have a book so they can participate fully in class and practice at home. ALL violin/viola players must have a shoulder rest so they can hold their instruments comfortably and accurately. Have a great three day weekend! Dear Parents and Guardians,
In this e-mail: 1. Concert Tuesday!! 2. Playing tests 3. Scale pass-offs 4. End of year 5. Summer Orchestra 6. Concert Attendance Opportunities 1. Our final CMS concert of the year is Tomorrow, Tuesday May 10th at 6:00pm. Please have students at CMS by 5:30 so we can get them all tuned. If you are available to help supervise a group of students prior to the concert, please let me know. We will end the night with a big combined piece that will include 5th grade, middle school, and high school students! 2. We have been working on playing tests on our concert music for the past two weeks. Every student had the opportunity to play their test during class. Some students said they would come after school instead. I stayed after school until 4:30 on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday last week and until 4pm today to accommodate all of the students who chose to stay after school. However, I believe there are still a few students who did not play their tests. Each test is worth 100 points. I will work on getting the tests done today entered hopefully before class tomorrow. 3. After our concert, we will begin working on our scale pass offs. Students have been working since January to memorize their scales and arpeggios in different keys. These tests will be pass/fail since scales can either be played correctly or incorrectly. This will make up a large portion of the Q4 grade. Please encourage your children to keep practicing. 4. As the end of the year approaches we have several things to take care of: 1. Advanced Orchestra plays on May 19th 6:30-7:30 for Open House 2. ALL students will turn in their music 3. Students using school instruments will turn in their instruments along with a note about any repairs that need to be made to them. 4. All assignments will need to be turned in by May 19th (concert attendance, in-class concert evaluation, scale pass-offs). 5. Summer Orchestra will be June 6-June 23, Monday-Thursday for one hour a day. Please let me know if your child will be participating by filling out this form (once is enough if you've already done it): Summer Orchestra 2016 I will have registration forms available at the concert. 6. Concert Attendance Opportunities: Thursday, May 12 - 7:00pm Suzuki Strings - Free Tuesday, May 17th - 7:00pm Cedar High School Orchestra - Free Wednesday, May 18 - 7:00pm Canyon View HS Orchestra - Free Thursday, May 19 - 6:30-7:30pm - CMS Advanced Orchestra plays for CMS Open House Christina Carrigan Dear Parents and Guardians,
In this e-mail: 1. Summer Orchestra 2. Playing Tests 3. Concerts 4. Scale Pass-Offs 5. Concert attendance opportunities 6. Individual 1. Summer Orchestra will be June 6-June 23rd Monday-Thursday each week. We will have a short concert at the end. If your child will be participating in summer orchestra, please fill out this google form: http://goo.gl/forms/GsztRlOjjE Then, please fill out and send payment with the registration form (I'll attach to this e-mail and also have paper copies available in class). 2. I wanted to give the students as much time as possible to learn and perfect their music before beginning playing tests. However, we had to start tests last week and will have another test this week. Each piece we are playing for the concert will be tested during class or after school if the student prefers. All of the completed tests have been entered into powerschool. 3. Our last CMS Concert of the year is on Tuesday, May 10th at 6:00pm. Call-time for students is 5:30pm. We will end the concert with over 200 students from grades 5-12 playing Orpheus in the Underworld (aka The Can-Can). Students in Advanced orchestra only will be performing for Open house on Thursday, May 19th from 6:30-7:30. Call time is however much time they need to get tuned and set up in the cafeteria. 4. We will begin our scale pass-offs as soon as we are finished with our concert. The scales and arpeggios must be memorized (3rds too for advanced). Each scale will be graded as pass/fail. Failed tests may be redone after school. Students may complete these before our concert if they want to stay after school to do so. This is a large portion of the student grade for the class this quarter. We have devoted a great deal of class time to learning scales. 5. These are the concert opportunities I am aware of for Q4: Thursday, May 12 - 7:00pm Suzuki Strings - Free Tuesday, May 17th - 7:00pm Cedar High School Orchestra - Free Wednesday, May 18 - 7:00pm Canyon View HS Orchestra - Free Thursday, May 19 - 6:30-7:30pm - CMS Advanced Orchestra plays for CMS Open House 6. Please encourage your child to practice every day. A student is unlikely to show great enough improvement in skills if he or she only plays during class. Individual practice time is essential to building muscle memory and individual understanding of the musical concepts presented during class. Have a great week! We are learning Storm and March of the Czar right now in orchestra. We will have a playing test on Storm this week and a playing test of March of the Czar next week. We are also working on learning the combined piece, Orpheus in the Underworld.
After our concert on May 10th, students will begin their scale pass-offs. Students must memorize their D, G, and C major scales and arpeggios. These are pass/fail tests. Students should also plan on attending one more concert for the year during this 4th quarter. At this point in the year, the students should feel comfortable reading, counting and playing rhythms, reading and performing notes on all strings of their instruments, and be able to play with confidence on the pieces we've worked on during class. As always, students are expected to practice EVERY day for a minimum of 20 minutes (two 15-20 minute sessions a day is even better! Dear Parents and Guardians,
In this e-mail: 1. New music 2. Playing tests 3. Concert attendance project 4. Practice expectations 1. We are continuing to push forward in our method book. This week, the students have learned about 2/4 time (counting, playing, and conducting), have continued to work on reading their notes of the D major scale more fluently, and have really been focusing on getting a good tone while bowing. We have talk about using bow placement (parallel to bridge, between bridge and fingerboard) with good bow hold, enough weight on the bow and enough bow speed. Later this week or at the start of next week we will be getting new sheet music and collecting the old "Tune-A-Rumble". 2. We will have a playing test on No. 76 in the book ("For Pete's sake"). We will do the playing test on Thursday and Friday this week. As always, if a student would like to redo a playing test, I stay after school on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. 3. Q2 Concert Attendance Opportunities:October 28 – 7:30pm SUU Orchestra @ Heritage Center. I’ll have free tickets available in class October 28 – 7:00pm Canyon View HS Orchestra @ CVHS Free November 12 – 7:30pm Orchestra of Southern Utah @ Heritage Center $5/students. I have a few free tickets available for this concert for families who otherwise couldn't afford to attend. Please contact me for tickets. December 2 – 7:30pm Manheim Steamroller @ SUU Centrum (tickets start at $54) December 4 – 7:30pm SUU Orchestra @ Heritage Center (I can probably get free tickets to hand out for this one too). December 13 and 14 – 7:30pm Orchestra of Southern Utah – Messiah –@ Heritage Center - Free (get there early) December 15 – CVMS Orchestra @ Canyon View MS time? Free December 16 – 7:00pm CHS Orchestra @ Cedar High School There are more string concerts down in St. George, Vegas, and up in SLC. This is just a quick list I was able to find online around Cedar City. Any string concert will work. 4. It is so great when I ask the class who practiced last night and almost every student in the class has a hand raised! Thank you for all you do to encourage your child to practice every day. It helps your child improve and it helps our orchestra sound its best! Have a great week! Christina Carrigan It has been so great to start to get to know the students this year. We have a fabulous group of students in the beginning class. So far, the students have been working on reading, writing, counting, clapping, and pizzing rhythms, correctly identifying the parts of the instrument, beginning note reading, and holding the instrument with good posture and instrument position. We have also just started working on correct bow hold on a pencil. Students need to correctly demonstrate good bow hold on a pencil before we begin working on holding the actual bow.
We have had one note name quiz and one parts of the instrument quiz. The week of 9/14 we will be having our second rhythm quiz and our first note name quiz. We have begun working in our book. I highly recommend that students practice with the recordings that come free with the book (CD or online). It makes practicing more fun and it also helps students adjust their fingers to play in tune. Every night, students should practice the material we cover in class. Please make sure students have their nails clipped short, students have a copy of the method book, and all violin and viola players have a shoulder rest. |
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