Tuesday 3 March 2015

Congratulations!
Congratulations to all Jazz Band students on  a great performance at February Blues

Reminders
-Grade 8's are reminded to get their trip forms handed in.  Payments online are now set up, parents are strongly encouraged to pay online.

Grade 6 Band
We are continuing to prepare for our Optimist Band Festival performances.    Grade 6's from Massey, RCS, and McVeety are working on Midnight Sky and Ayre and Dance.    Grade 6's from Grant Road and Perry are working on Highlands March and Two Canadian Folksongs.     Students should now know their personal problem spots and be concentrating on those.

We tend to do different things with each group and at each school.   This week this is what we did.

Massey - We learned a pentatonic scale.   We composed individually using a pentatonic scale and then put our compositions together to hear what it sounded like in harmony.   Students were asked to write 8 measures.   Please ask your child to play his or her composition for you - they sounded really neat!  We also worked on playing in different musical styles.

Perry - We played some of our compositions from the previous week.   We also worked on Concert F scale.   This is because the opening of Two Canadian is in that key signature.

McVeety - We are split into two groups here.   Brass students worked on lip slurs and using air.  Woodwinds worked on their chromatic scale, Concert Bb, Ab, F, and Eb scales and learned O Canada. All students learned a pentatonic scale.

RCS - We worked on different styles and we are working on developing our instrument ranges.  Students also learned a pentatonic scale, and worked on musical styles.  

Grant Road - We worked on using more air, and following key signatures.   We have a few students stuck on a few notes and are working our way through fingering charts and key signatures.  

Grade 7 Band
Our first rehearsal back after the break sounded a little rough!    This week we did a lot of reminding of things we have worked on.    These include our 8 measure phrases, dynamics and articulations.    Students were reminded to make sure instruments go home and get practiced!    Our two Optimist pieces are Song for Friends and Colliding Visions.    Grade 7's were also given another new piece this week called Swahili Folk Hymn.


No comments:

Post a Comment