News from Recorder Class 1/27/15

Important upcoming events

February 5th will be a very busy day for all of us. Not only is Practice Log #2 due, we also have our first cummulative quiz and our first playing test! The first playing test is #27 Hop Old Squirrel. Please note that all playing tests are pass-fail. To pass the playing test, a student must play the entire piece with three or less note or rhythmic errors. A study guide for the Cumulative Quiz #1 will go home on Thursday, January 29th.

Practice Tips

• Go through the song and sing the note names
• Go through the song and clap and count the rhythm
• Play in front of a mirror so you can check your fingering
• Use a metronome or find one online. There’s an app for that!
• Ask someone to listen to you play and give you advice
• Circle all notes that you find hard
• If you have a piece with a part that is hard, practice it 10 times by itself. Then put the difficult part with the rest of the piece.

1st Practice Log

Just a reminder, your 1st practice log is due on Thurday, January 22nd. To receive full credit for your practice you must have all of the following filled out.

• 10 separate days of practice for 10 minutes each day
• The numbers of the pieces practiced each day
• Verification that you cleaned your recorder every day
• Verification that you washed your recorder with soap and water once during the two weeks
• A parent signature beside EVERY SINGLE DAY.

A note to parents/ guardians:

Please do not sign for any practice in advance. Only sign for a day practiced if you or someone else personally witnessed the practice and can verify that it fulfills all of my requirements. If a student attempts to hand in a practice log with fraudulent information, that practice log will receive no credit. 

Welcome to Recorder Class

Congratulations! You've made it to the Savannah Classical Academy 5th grade recorder class! This class is a new step in your journey as a musician and will challenge you in new and exciting ways. This year you will have a lot of responsibilities, like taking care of an instrument and recording your practice logs. It will be tough, but if you persevere and practice every day, you will get the hang of it in no time. Be sure to involve your parents and ask for their help.

Missing Materials

Remember how our homework for the first day of class was to get the music movies permission slip and the recorder contract signed? 

A couple people still need to turn their slips and contracts in. Remember, you cannot get your recorder without a contract in my hand!

Musical Movies List

In class we have the opportunity to listen to great works of the classical tradition. Several of these great works have been set to animation and/or captured on video. I would like to show our students these video recordings in an effort to enrich their experience and understanding of those great works. The works that we will be viewing in class are as follows.

• "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" by J.S. Bach from Disney's Fantasia
• "Pastoral Symphony" by Ludwig von Beethoven from Disney's Fantasia
• “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by Paul Dukas from Disney’s Fantasia
• “Carnival of the Animals” by Camille Saint-Saens from Disney’s Fantasia 2000
• “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin from Disney’s Fantasia 2000
• “Peter and the Wolf” by Sergei Prokofiev from Disney’s Make Mine Music
• The Magic Flute an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, selections
• The Marriage of Figaro an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, selections
• Hansel und Gretel an opera by Engelbert Humperdinck
• The Nutcracker a ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreographed by George Balanchine
• Swan Lake a ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

I will send home a permission slip for all of the students that I would like signed before I show them these works. If you have an objection to any of the works, please let me know so that I may exempt them from watching that selection