CRESCENDO: Welcome back from Winter Break! Hope it was restful! Time to get back to work! :)

Warm up: pg 8 Hopscotch and Morning Dance, working on straight bows, keeping bows close to the bridge, opening our hinges, and producing good tone. We are also still focusing on our excellent bow holds! Please review bowhold exercises (all year this will be very important for a good foundation).

Review: pg 12 Natalie's Rose and Song for Christine, working on reading our new notes, memorizing their names and what finger we use.

Current: pg 15 Matthew's March and Christopher's Tune, working on our expanding our reading skills by learning new notes.

Please have your child practice each of these songs until they have all the notes learned and are comfortable playing them without mistakes.

ANDANTE: Welcome back from Winter Break! Hope it was restful! Time to get back to work! :)

The students were given new music for our next concert (MAY 9th at the HCPA) that we sightread on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday last week. They are four movements of a Celtic Suite. We read through the first two movements, John Ryan's Polka and The Dark Island.

We discussed the sightreading strategy STAR. "S" stands for signatures, key and time. John Ryan's Polka is in the key of D Major, with two sharps and in 4/4 time. The Dark Island is in the key of G Major, with one sharp and is in 3/4 time. "T" stands for tempo marking. John Ryan's Polka is to be played fast and lively. "A" stands for accidentals. We reviewed what the term means, and discovered that there are no accidentals in either movement. "R" stands for rhythm and range. We discussed our fastest notes and slowest notes and then talked about our highest and lowest notes for the range.

Please work with your child on the notes and rhythm. My goal is to sightread through the next two movements of the Celtic Suite next week and then start working on getting the pieces performance ready!

CHAMBER: Welcome back from Winter Break! Hope it was restful! Time to get back to work! :)

Review: Swallowtail Jig and America the Beautiful

Current: The students were given three new pieces of music. We will be performing J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto Movement 5 for the HUSD Board Meeting on Thursday, March 24th at 6:30 p.m. at the District Office. They will need to be there at 6:00 p.m. in concert attire, to tune and warm up. The other piece we sightread last week was Bach's Air on the G String.

Preview: We will sightread and start work on All the Pretty Little Horses next week.

Please help your child practice the new music. They will be our performance pieces for the MAY 9th Concert at the Higley Center for the Performing Arts.

Good to see all the children again!
Mrs. Leigh