Hermanson's Orchestral Wonders

For your convenience, I have uploaded the current two-week guided practice record for both 7th grade classes:

7-1:
Download guided_practice_log_71_spring_music.doc

7-2:
Download guided_practice_log_72_spring_music.doc

Enjoy! These are due Monday, May 12th.

Wow! What an amazing concert I heard on Saturday! The Cobb County Middle School Honors Orchestras performed Saturday at 3pm. These two groups are composed of middle school students from Cobb County who auditioned earlier this semester. They only had Friday evening and Saturday morning to rehearse their music and WOW how impressed I was!

McClure had three participants this year: Kristen, 8th grade, Maggie, 8th grade and Chelsea, 7th Grade. The groups each played 4 pieces with only approximately 7 hours of rehearsal time as an ensemble. Great job, girls!

This opportunity is one of the reasons Cobb County is ranked highly in the "Top 100 Places for Music Education" in our country. It is students and parents like YOU who make this possible! 

Have any summer plans yet?

Thinking beyond our next concert, there are many summer camps available
for string players of all levels, just in our area alone. I HIGHLY
recommend attending one or more of these camps during your long summer
vacation. They allow you to meet new people who are interested in
similar things to you and develop life-long friends. Summer camps also enable you to continue developing your
skills as a player and allow you to play more music that we get time
to work on in class. There are all kinds of camps: over-night, day only, couple days a week and more, with costs varying accordingly. There is a camp (or three?) with your name on it! I will be sending home a sheet listing area camps
in the next week, but if you want a heads-up, here is a link of camps
all over the country listed chronologically (in time-order):
Camp Links

Local Camps and more! Check out the McClure Orchestra Webpage of Summer Camps

Happy Earth Day!

Thanks to everyone who came out to see the CSO rehearsal Friday evening. I’ve heard lots of positive reports about being able to see such a group rehearse!

Thank you as well to everyone for behaving so well while I’ve been out sick. The flu seems to like me this year, but I should be back in class tomorrow, so be ready to play! What a nice break from sitting for the CRCT.

Current 6th Grade Students:
I am wanting to create a beginning class for students next year (your 7th grade year). If you know anyone who wants to play a stringed instrument now that they see how rewarding and fun it can be, please ask them to see me for a sign-up sheet. I will need these sheets back by Friday, May 9th.

All Students:
I won’t get to see you every day during CRCT, so that means that rehearsal and practice time falls to you to find. We’ve got some awesome music for this concert and I know we all want to sound our best! The way to do that is to play and practice outside of class.

Please look at the calendar to remind yourself of after-school rehearsals. The calendar can be found here.

In 7th grade we’ve been learning about our third position on our individual instruments these last couple of weeks. Each student has been making a poster showing where the notes in a particular key are in third position for their instrument. These posters are due Wednesday, April 16th. For the procrastinators among us, I give you the requirements below (if you’ve already turned it in, congrats!)

Third Position Project:

On a posterboard, have the following components:

Your instrument
Name of the Key
Notes in the Key (ex: C D E F G A B C)
The interval pattern between the notes in the key
4 parallel lines to represent your strings (labeled!)
All note positions played in third position in your key labeled with note name and finger number

Your name on the BACK of the poster

Correct intervalic relations between the notes on each string and across strings (whole/half steps correct and barred notes in line (ex: D on A is in the same spot as G on D)

Creativity and neatness will play a factor in determining the final grade! Some submissions may be chosen to be displayed on our room walls!

Welcome back from Spring Break. I hope everyone had an enjoyable, restful week and is ready to hit the ground running! Our Spring Concert is Thursday, May 15th at 7pm – mark your calendars now!

Information for all interested parties:

Friday, April 18th the Cobb Symphony is having its Open Rehearsal before our performances this weekend.
This Open Rehearsal allows students to chat with the conductor of the CSO about the music and the Symphony as well as witness a rehearsal by a professional orchestra – you get to see us in the classroom, as it were.

We are playing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (Ode to Joy is the final movement) along with William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony – the first symphony written by an African-American, and featuring a banjo among other instruments!

I highly encourage students to attend our rehearsal – it is a wonderful experience AND it counts as an outside performance (extra credit!). Reservations are required, though so I need a count by Thursday.

Transportation will need to be arranged by each student. I have sent home an information sheet requesting number of people attending. McClure Orchestra will cover the cost of attendance for all students and their parents provided we know on Thursday you want to attend.

Where: Murray Arts Center (part of Mount Paran School) on Stilesboro Road, just north of Barrett Parkway
When: Friday, April 18th. Conductor talk begins at 7. Rehearsal runs from 7:30-10, with a break at 9 for discussion with the musicians on stage (you may leave after the break).
Who: All interested MMSO students!
Transportation: Provided by individuals.