Warm Up Zone - a new book for beginning and intermediate players

I am so excited about this warm-up book!  I've been needing a warm-up book to use with my year 2 players.  I tend to find myself repeating the same scales the same ways, only to find that my orchestra struggled to play in tune once the notes were all mixed up in the concert music. 

This warm up book is perfect for many skill levels. There are ways to differentiate each exercise so all students can succeed as they master scales, fingerings, intonation, bowing, time signatures, and key signatures from 2 sharps to 2 flats. 

Check out the many ways to utilize this book as your daily warm-up:

1.  Help students learn the scales by having them play ONLY the first note in each measure. You can have them hold the first note as a whole note, or have them play the rhythm of each measure on the scale pitch (first note). If you have students who struggle, you might allow them to play only the first note of each measure while the class plays the other notes.

2.  Divide the orchestra into 2 groups. You can group students a few different ways:

       -By section - violins in one group and viola, cello, bass in another.

       -By row - alternate rows for each group.

 

       -By stand partner - one person in group 1 and one person in group 2.

Once students are groups, assign various ways to practice the sequence:

       -Group 1 plays only the first note, group 2 plays as written

       -Group 1 plays measure 1 as written, then group 2 echos measure 1, etc.

       -Group 1 plays measure 1, group 2 measure 2, etc.

3. Add challenge and difficulty by asking students to practice the bowing suggestions. You might have more advanced students play challenging bowings while others play the sequence as written. When experimenting with bowing, you can experiment with starting down bow or up bow. Add bow lifts as desired.

4. There are rhythm variations to help students get the feel of the sequence in different time signatures. Once students have mastered the rhythms, you could have students create bowings for those variations. You could also use the rhythm variation stems for students to create a composition or develop improv skills by coming up with ideas as to what could come next. If students struggle because the rhythms stems do not show the entire variation, have them write it out. It’s great practice!

5. After each sequence, there is a challenge activity for students to create their own variation or experiment with technique. By completing the challenges, students develop their creativity, composition, and improv skills

149 pages total includes score and parts for violin, viola, and cello/bass. Each student book is 33 pages.  Purchase at TPT or my website!

 

The secret to note reading

 

To me, teaching note reading is a huge deal.  If students don't learn to read notes in my beginning orchestra class I know they were struggle at the next level and perhaps not be able to continue playing.  Some students get very creative in their avoidance of note reading.  They guess, watch the teachers fingers, watch their stand partner's fingers, or even get really good at memorizing and playing by ear.  To help my students to learn to really read the notes, I tell them the secret to reading notes.  It may sound simplistic...but it's a real strategy!  'YOU HAVE TO READ THE NOTES!'  That's the secret.  You can't try to get around it.  You keep your eyes on the notes and play without looking away.  There will be a temptation to stop when you make a mistake or look at your fingers.  You have to keep looking at the notes, follow along with the tempo, letting your brain tell what fingers should move.

Students need a LOT of note reading practice.  There is no way for a method book to provide enough practice excerpts.  I decided to create a resource which gradually increases in difficulty with a ton of examples for students to really practice reading notes. There are 15 levels and over 300 slides for students to really practice note reading mastery. 

This resource was made in google slides, so the download is EDITABLE!  That means there are so many ways to use this with your students.  Here are some ideas as listed in the slides:

It's organized so all students can read the notes on the same screen:

Purchase at TPT or OrchestraClassroom.com!

Revenge of the FIFTH (Sith)

 Themed lesson plans are so much fun!  I just put together one for May 5th - REVENGE OF THE FIFTH!  You can access and edit your own version HERE!  

Preview my version HERE.

Hope you enjoy!

The first steps to improving intonation

 

My students are doing so well with their concert music!  We have just over 2 weeks left of rehearsal and my final steps are cleaning up intonation in a few passages and adding emotion/dynamics.  I love hearing students fix intonation and hearing them sound better and better.  Even my classroom tech has been commenting about how amazing my students have been sounded. 

Here are my 'FIRST STEPS' to improving intonation.  There are so many strategies to work on intonation...there's no way I can share everything in one post.  But here's how I start and I feel these strategies make a huge difference!

I have purchased a class set of clip-on D'addario tuners (and a ton of extra batteries). There is one tuner clipped to every music stand and all of my students (even beginners) tune themselves.  If a student is struggling, they bring me their instrument and I help.  Let's face it...some instruments are much harder to tune than others.  

Since I teach full classes of beginners and year 2 students, I find myself reinforcing left hand placement a lot!  We all know how important this skill is for students to thrive on their instruments.  I was thinking the other day about how sloppy left hand placement actually make playing HARDER.  To help students understand this, I brought up my school district's 'DARE' program.   When students are in 5th grade, a police officer visits each classroom to talk about substance abuse and impairment.  Each student gets to try on 'Drunk Glasses' and attempt to complete basic skills.  There are some sample videos on YouTube you can use if you like.  

All of my students remember the experience of trying to walk with drunk glasses on...and they agreed that the glasses made it harder to complete basic tasks.  We then talked about habits in posture/hand placement that can make playing instruments more difficult.  As we went through warm-ups and concert music, students were very conscientious about playing with great position.

Sometimes I also use a tracker to help students remember to check their posture/hand placement throughout a rehearsal:

So often, students forget to listen to each other.  Give students a pitch to play in unison.  Ask them to balance the sound...if they can't hear their stand partner, play softer.  If they can't hear themselves, play louder.  Keep stretching their listening awareness by having them listen for other sections of the orchestra.  I am always amazed how quickly students can unify their pitch when they are asked to listen more.

Refining Intonation Rehearsal Activity

 

My students are to the point where they can play all of our concert music, but there are still a few spots which scary intonation.  We drill these areas almost every day, but sometimes students need the time/space to work through those areas more slowly and intentionally.  I like do make intonation activities to do in class.  I use google slides to make the worksheets (along with flat.io to add the notation).  I often change the rhythm from the concert music to mostly quarter notes for students to focus all of their attention on the fingering/intonation.

Here are some samples:

Piece:  Viking Ships of Old by Susan Day

Access a copy HERE!

Piece:  Furiant by Del Borgo

Access a copy HERE

Want to learn how to make your own intonation activities?  I can teach you!  Check it out!  

Free Templates

 

I posted some of my resent rehearsal assessments/activities on instagram (@orchestra.teacher.life) and a few people wanted an editable template.  I created them using Canva, so you would need an account there, but there are some templates for you!

MASTERY CHECKLIST

ORCHESTRA STARS - Rehearsal Game/Activity

Celebrate the Super Bowl football season with ORCHESTRA FOOTBALL rehearsal game

 

First of all, let me be clarify that the game play for Orchestra Football is not exactly like the game play of real football.  Truthfully, I don't even know all of the rules of actual football.  Like is a football-like game meant for orchestra rehearsal to increase effort and engagement for your students.  

In my beginning class, we are just starting to work on a piece with F and C naturals.  My students learned those notes at the beginning of the year, but we haven't spent much time on them since then.  The first part of this game reviews those notes.  The second part of the game gives the teacher discretion on what measures to choose for students for them to move forward in the game.

Play this game for free using THIS LINK!

Want to make changes?  You can, but you'll need a Canva professional account. If you have an account, you can make access the template HERE.