Orchestra SURVIVOR - Outwit, Outlast, Outplay

I just finished with recruiting season.  It feels good to have all of that done!   Now I feel like there is extra time in rehearsals to revisit and reinforce some essential skills.  Today we started reviewing rhythm using my RHYTHM BELLWORK pages and students are doing so well.  Something I learned today ....have students clap and count rhythms and move clasps hands upward while holding out longer notes.  That is how I have them write the counting, and it is a great visual and kinesthetic way to 'feel' the length of longer notes.



We also reinforces position and bow hold today by playing SURVIVOR.  I showed students part of this Survivor challenge: 

We talked about how good position must stay...not too high, not too low...and it takes constant concentration to make sure everything stays in the proper place.  Then we played our own version of a survivor challenge:

Violin/Viola Challenges:

1.  Pass out large marshmallows to every student.  Have them balance the marshmallow between the left thumb and base of index finger.  Students hold their arms out in front of them, keeping wrists straight and arms in playing position.  That freeze in that position.

2.  Demonstration proper left hand technique on instrument while tapping fingers on tapes.  Good position only or the 'water' drops and a student is 'out.'

3.  Hold instrument on shoulder with only your head - no hands.  Balance for a few minutes.  

4.  Balance the marshmallow in their instruments - no hands.

5.  Pass off perfect bow hold with bow placed on the D string.

6.  Pull a perfectly straight bow - staying in the correct lane between the bridge and fingerboard.

7.  Watch and make sure all bow hair flat in contact with the string

8.  Play what I call 'F# and F natural turns' with perfect bowing, intonation, finger placement.

Cello/Bass Challenges:

1.  Students practice setting left on on cello without lifting the shoulder - keeping left hand in C shape.

2.  Students practice knocking up and down the fingerboard while keeping left elbow in the right place.

3.  Tap fingers on tapes while keeping small marshmallow behind left thumb - trying not to squish the marshmallow.

4.  Balance marshmallow on left elbow while maintaining perfect posture/position.

5.  Pass off perfect bow hold with bow placed on the D string.

6.  Pull a perfectly straight bow - staying in the correct lane between the bridge and fingerboard.

7.  Watch and make sure all bow hair flat in contact with the string

8.  Play what I call 'F# and F natural turns' with perfect bowing, intonation, finger placement.

My student teacher marked students who were 'out' on my seating chart and I gave the top 10 students chocolate coins who didn't get out.  The entire class focused so well and really worked to improve and maintain great position.  The best part is THEIR PLAYING WAS TRANSFORMED!!!!  We played a couple of our concert pieces and the students could all tell how much better we sounded after focusing on position.  It was amazing.  :)

Intonation Meme exercises

On Friday students were showing me a bunch of little meme videos from YouTube.  It made me feel old.  There's a meme from 'super sax guy' that repeats a a few notes over and over....there's a 10 hour video of this on YouTube.  Ugh.  Then they showed me the one with the apple pineapple pen.  Students think it's hilarious.

I started to think we needed our own orchestra memes.  I set out to create little short intonation drills that I will call 'memes.'  Each has words and I'm planning on having students memorize these quick little exercises.  That way in rehearsal, if I need to fix C# for example, I can tell them to play the C# meme and they should know what it sounds like and play it perfectly in tune while saying the words.  My beginners have been working on intonation with low 2's and high 2's and I think this will help a lot. 

This little piggy helps rehearsals stay on target

I went to the UMEA conference last weekend and went to a session about teaching students how to tune their instruments by Michael Hopkins.  My favorite quote from his sessions was, "If they tune like pigs, they sound like pigs."  So true!  I'm trying to be more consistent with my expectations during tuning time to make sure all students follow directions to stay quiet and tune carefully.

The beauty of that quote is that is works for ALL aspects of playing and rehearsing.  I noticed that some of my classes were getting a little lax in their rehearsal behaviors.  Students were not all stopping together and it drives me crazy to waste class time waiting for students to stop and listen.  I reviewed my expectations with them...we practiced the expectations...and it was getting better, but not perfect.

In the middle of rehearsal the other day, that quote popped in my head and I told students about it.  I told them how it applies to our rehearsals - if we rehearse like pigs, we sound like pigs.  Then I drew a PIG-O-METER on the board and gave them points on the 'clean' side if they started and stopped together, and a point on the 'slop' side if they were not together.  This little game IMMEDIATELY transformed my classes!  I did this with 7th, 8th and 9th grade - and am tracking their scores on the board each day so every class can see how other classes are doing.  We've gotten so much done in the last few days. 

Is there something that's bothering you about your rehearsals?  It's fixable.  Anything you want to change can change for the better.  Teach on, my friends.