Hermanson's Orchestral Wonders

Many deadlines are coming up this week:

All Grades: Honors Orchestra (mostly for 7th and 8th graders)

• Applications are due NOW
• $15 Audition fee due at time of application turn-in
• Auditions are Thursday, April 1st.
• I am happy to work with any student auditioning before school any day until the 1st.

7th Grade: LGPE Permission Slips were due Friday. We have only had 31 turned in (of 50 students!) Please download, sign and turn in the attached form if you have not turned them in yet:

7th LGPE Permission

Parents, if you are able to chaperone, please let me know. I currently have two offers, but would prefer a third.

6th Graders: Jamboree Permission Slips are due this Friday, along with $3 to cover food and transportation costs.

E-mail me if you have any questions!

This Monday, March 8th, Angela Baddock from Harrison High School Orchestra will be taking over my role at McClure – and I will be taking her role at Harrison – for the day.

This is a wonderful opportunity for the 8th grade students to meet one of our feeding schools and see how a high school director leads her class, as well as for the other students to work with another director. This is especially helpful just before LGPE given a new set of ears and eyes to experience students’ playing.

If you have any questions, please e-mail me.

On a different note, here is an interesting article about the Mozart effect and how our subject can positively affect the brain:

Playing along with the Mozart effect
If you want music to sharpen your senses, boost your ability to focus and perhaps even improve your memory, you need to be a participant, not just a listener.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-0301-brain-music-20100301,0,3251510,full.story

Honors Orchestra audition materials have arrived! They will be available for pick-up Friday. All students are encouraged to audition!

Honors Orchestra is for Cobb County Middle School Orchestra students. Upon acceptance, you will get to rehearse and perform with the top players in the county with some wonderful music. There are two orchestras formed from auditions, both of which will be conducted by highly respected directors in the Atlanta area.

Auditions will be held on April 1st at East Cobb Middle School.Applications are due Friday, March 12th.

Honors Orchestra will be help Friday, April 16th and Saturday April 17th at McEachern High School, with a performance Saturday afternoon.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Cobb County Schools are closing an hour early today. This means the ORCHESTRA FIELD TRIP THIS EVENING IS CANCELED.

CSO Rehearsal tonight is also canceled, if anyone was wanting to come out with your family. We will be rehearsing tomorrow from 1:00-3:30 if you want to see us then!

I will let you know plans for a future event or refund for those who were planning on participating this evening.

I hate that everyone will have to miss the rehearsal tonight.

If you are able, we will probably still have our rehearsal at 7:30 this evening. You are welcome to join us if you are able. I will update by 4:00 regarding rehearsal this evening.

All students need to take their instruments home this evening – I will be checking lockers after school is out. Students have been alerted to this in class as well.

Have a wonderful long weekend!

Our field trip to the Cobb Symphony Orchestra is tomorrow!

Since we are leaving directly from school, please do not bring your instruments to school tomorrow. If you do, there will be room on the bus as well as a place to leave them at the Murray Arts Center during the duration of the rehearsal, so you will still be able to take them home to learn these last pieces of music.

Chaperones: We will be at McClure from 4:30-5:45. You may come any time during that window. We have almost 70 students attending, which is fantastic. I cannot wait to share my passion of playing with a symphony with my students!

E-mail me if you have any questions!

Class Updates:

All Grades: If you have not turned in your descriptions of the Playing Rubric, that needs to be done ASAP. Pinnacle does not like missing grades, and it has hurt many an average out there!

- SmartMusic assignments will be added this weekend. If you just can’t wait, there are tons of fun solo pieces to look at, or you could find a song we might play at the Spring concert!

8th Grade:

Added Concert: Tuesday, February 23rd (already scheduled as an after school rehearsal for everyone)

• We will be playing with Harrison High School – both by ourselves and side by side with the wonderful high school students! Concert at 7pm. I will provide dinner and transportation to Harrison. Parents are responsible for transportation home. There will be a permission slip coming home next week for this concert.

General Music: We are concluding our drum and rhythm unit with a percussion ensemble composition. These are due tomorrow when we begin recording your performances. In our next unit we will constructing our own instruments!

7th Grade: You have gotten 2 pieces of music. Rhythms and notes should be completely learned on Avatar by Monday (you can find this on SmartMusic). Midnight Tango’s first half should also be learned by Monday.

6th Grade: We have been learning slurs and 3/4 time this week, as well as training our ear with our tuners. We will have a videotaped test for bowing on #116 tomorrow. Practice in the mirror to make sure you know what your bow is doing.

Next Week:

Due to Conference Week and the Georgia Music Educator’s Association’s conference, I will see classes on the following days next week:

• First Hours – Monday and Wednesday
• Second Hours – Tuesday ONLY

You may keep instruments at home all other days. All instruments should be home by Wednesday night. Behavior cards will be marked for any instruments left after Wednesday.

I hope everyone had a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving Break! Now it’s time to gear up for the final three weeks of 2009, which includes our Winter Concert! The following will also be sent home with students later this week, though please feel free to let me know now if you are able to help in any way!

Winter Concert Reminder

Concert: Thursday, December 10^th, 7pm, McClure Theater

Report Times:

• Full Orchestra: 5:30                                                  
• 8^th Grade: 5:50                                                           
• 7^th Grade: 6:10                                                           
• 6^th Grade: 6:30

Dress:

• Full/8^th Grade: All Black
• 6^th and 7^th Grade: Black on Bottom, White on top
• (Black socks/hose and shoes for everyone)

After School Rehearsals (4:30-5:30 in the Theater)

• 8^th Grade: Monday, December 7^th
• 7^th Grade: Tuesday, December 8^th
• 6^th Grade: Wednesday, December 9^th ~~~ If you are able to help supervise students during the 6^th Grade rehearsal, assistance would be much appreciated. ~~~

We have traditionally had a reception for all guests and performers after the Winter and Spring concerts. We are in need of a new coordinator for these events to have everything go smoothly, as our past coordinators’ students have graduated on to high school.

If you are willing to be the Reception Coordinator, please e-mail me at McClureOrchestra@gmail.com.

In addition to a coordinator, we will need many to help bring in food and drinks for us all to enjoy and reward the students for a job well done. If you are able to bring in something for the reception, please also e-mail me so I can put you in touch with the coordinator.

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend – it was beautiful!

Congratulations to the members of the Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra. I attended all three concerts this weekend and everyone played beautifully! We have many members from our orchestra gracing the stage with GYSO, current and alumni alike.

Updates for this week:

SmartMusic Update: The computers are finally fixed, which means we will begin having SmartMusic rotations during class for those without subscription access at home. If you have received an e-mail saying you had an assignment due, don’t worry about it at this point – they are automated messages, and you will be able to catch up in no time. The first several rhythm assignments are easy, and meant to get you used to the program. Please e-mail me if you have any questions about anything.

The Winter Concert is coming up soon! Thursday, December 10th, with after school rehearsals for each grade level in the days leading up to the concert. Make sure it’s on your calendar!

8th Grade: The after-school workday is rescheduled for this Thursday, November 19th. Please return signed permission slips to participate – only the first six will get to stay!

Disney Poinsettia Orders are due NOW – money should be turned in to the black box and the order form placed in your bin. To find additional order forms, please see November 4th blog post.

Seventh Grade: Keep working on the Carol of The Bells with your A melodic minor scales. Those G#s are important!

Sixth Grade: Due to my illness last week, your Ode to Joy tests were postponed until this week. Good for you, but not so good for me. Tests will begin today and finish tomorrow. More note-reading sheets will be going home today, as they were meant for last week, but I did not get to see everyone. You WILL have a snake over Thanksgiving – all the more reason to play for your relatives! Show them what you know already.

I hope everyone enjoyed their beautiful day off yesterday!

There are several things coming up for everyone this week:

All Grades:

Please check out the new links on the right side of your page:

MetronomeOnline is a FREE metronome accessible on the internet. Never be off tempo again!

StringSkills has all kinds of practice materials available for FREE, and is where the Rhythm Lessons we use in class came from – find the lesson you need if you lost yours!

SmartMusic – a link to the website and program we are using in class. Free to download, but to access the full range of music available, a subscription is required.

Eighth Grade:

-Disney Payment #3 ($125) is due this Friday.

-Disney Poinsettia Fundraiser begins tomorrow. We are selling red, white and Ice Punch (Red and white marbled) poinsettias from Home Depot. If you participated in the Music Dept. fundraiser you will earn $6 per plant sold. If you did not participate in the Music Dept. fundraiser you will get $3 towards the cost of your trip. Money and orders are due Monday, November 16th. Plants will be delivered the first week in December, most likely on Thursday, Dec. 3rd. If you have any questions, please e-mail or call me. Download another order form here: Disney Fund Raiser Order Form.

-Home Learning Assignment Friday: Rhythm Lesson Three, line 6, arco, QN = 92 (from www.stringskills.com)

Seventh Grade:

-Home Learning Assignment Friday: Beginning Counting Lesson One, line 5, pizzicato, QN = 92 (from www.stringskills.com)

Sixth Grade:

-11/6 snake now available on the Practice Snake page should you need it.

-Please be aware there are two assignments on the back of this snake, which are also on the PS page. These will count as a separate grade – don’t be left out!

SmartMusic Update - All 7th and 8th Grade students should have enrolled in SmartMusic in class today. Sixth grade will begin enrolling next week – and parents are welcome to come help out! I have assigned students exercises that they need to complete with SmartMusic. Students may do this in the Orchestra room before and after school, in class (though time is extremely limited here due to student-class length ratios) or at home with a subscription.

To begin with, SmartMusic assignments will not count towards the student’s Orchestra grade to give everyone a chance to become accustomed to the program and its requirements. Next semester this will change, however, so I highly encourage students to use it as much as possible in the next couple of months. There are literally hundreds of things to play along with at any level beyond what I assign students – SmartMusic makes practicing more like a game – how high can I get this time?

Should you wish to have a subscription for student use at home (remember, multiple students can play with it at someone’s house with only 1 subscription!) please visit www.SmartMusic.com and click on the “Support” tab. Look for this icon:

and follow the directions. The download is FREE! You can still access many features without a subscription, but the concert music and my assignments will not be viewable without a subscription. Students have already enrolled, so please click “Log In” when logging on at home.

The good news: Being a member of the CCPS means you will get a discount of almost 40% – $18.50 for the year instead of $30. When you consider how many books and exercises this includes, not to mention a chromatic tuner and metronome, this really can’t be beat.

SmartMusic does require a stereo microphone so it can hear your performance. Any microphone with two colored bands (stereo) will work – most computers come with one, and they can be found at any computer hardware store.

Please let me know if you have any questions at all. This is a new system for us, and I expect there to be some kinks we will need to iron out as we incorporate it into our instruction, but I really believe this will help your students progress much faster than studying with me alone.