I love the first concert of the year. You would think people wouldn't get too excited about hearing a beginning orchestra after just a couple months of instruction, but the families of my students LOVE this concert and every seat is filled. That's because I have a reputation for having fun, family friendly concerts...lots of audience participation, students who sound great, and I keep it short (never over 30 minutes). I don't combine my concerts with other groups. Instead, I let the students perform for the entire concert and parents get to see their own kid the entire time. In the past, I combined concerts with other levels and tried to get the students and audience to stay for the entire thing...but here's the deal. Families are busy. Parents just want to see their kid. Some students might be inspired by watching the older students so let students choose to go to 'extra' concerts on their own. You can always use class time to show videos of amazing and inspiring performances to motivate students.
You might wonder how I can fill an entire concert with beginning orchestra students. My teaching has changed over the years. I used to teach note reading and playing skills simultaneously. I now hold off with 'real' note reading until after the 1st concert. This gives me a lot of time to focus on building proper technique. I've found that my students learn notes much more quickly after they are comfortable and confident with basic playing skills. I see my students every school day for 45-50 minutes. Here's what my students are playing for their first concert this year...without any real note reading:
1. Bluey theme. I give my students the notes written out and they taught themselves. I keep the notes on my board during tuning and students practice it over and over without me ever telling them to do it because they all want to learn it so badly! At the concert, I will introduce the orchestra using this theme. The violins will play it, then yell, VIOLIN, then the violas play it and yell, VIOLA! etc. I bought a cute little violin costume for a student to wear during the part of the concert and the student will wave their arms and point at each section as they play.
2. Twinkle Twinkle - Pepperoni Pizza Rhythm. Students will play this piece with a backtrack. While they are playing, the audience will be tasked with counting how many times the orchestra plays the 'pepperoni pizza' rhythm. I'll call on someone in the audience after we play and ask for the answer. If they are correct, I'll have a student run over wearing a Dominos Pizza delivery uniform and hand the audience member a pizza box (with a gift card inside for a pizza).
3. Regular Twinkle - Students will perform this version with long, beautiful bow strokes along with a backtrack. While we play, audience will be tasked with keeping some 'stars' in the air. I have HUGE 36 inch balloons for 'stars' and it looks super cool to have the audience bounce those in the air throughout our playing.
4. Boil 'Em Cabbage - We play a few repeats of this one...I'll have each section play the main melody one at a time while the other sections play a simple back up part. Then the entire group will play the piece using a different rhythm (I call it 'yum cookie'). The audience with stomp and clap along. After we play this fiddle tune, I'll invite young kids in the audience to come to the front to participate in a good old fashioned sack race. Each kid will get to wear a cowboy hat.
5. Sourwood Mountain - This is another fiddle tune we play. There are 2 parts to each of my fiddle tunes --- an open string pizzicato part, then the melody part. I let students choose which part to play so it's great for differentiation and the melody parts are a nice challenge. The audience will clap along.
6. Keep Your Head Up by Andy Grammar (kind of). I've posted about my version of this song in the past. I used an app to change the key of the song and wrote out a play along version for my students. I love the play along because it's great for beginner technique... (lots of repetition at setting G then playing down the D ladder). Students will play along with the karaoke backtrack. I wrote all new words to the entire song that are all about orchestra...so a student get to act like a famous pop star and sing the song with the new orchestra words while we play
7. Tip Toe Concerto - This is a piece I wrote for my students a few years ago. Students love this piece and it's very playable with the note names in the note heads. I love it because it's a real ensemble piece where different sections play different parts. Students think it sounds so cool. The challenge is teaching them to play it without rushing! I recommend adding a drum track. This year I have going to teach the audience a little body percussion to 'play' along with us during the piece.
8. Dance Monkey - I have a subscription to Tomplay which has been a fun resource to use with my students. Sometimes before school, I project a piece on my screen, start the backtrack, and students love to play along. I love how the site has music for lots of different levels. I am using the 'easy' version of Dance Monkey (viola version). I wrote the notes out for students and they will play it unison with the backtrack in the concert. While we play, 3 of my students will dress up in monkey suits and dance for the audience.
9. Clocks by Coldplay - I'm not positive we'll have time to learn this one, but hopefully we'll get there! I got this one from Tomplay as well. Students will play along with a backtrack from the site and I wrote out their parts. The audience will use glowsticks to keep the beat while we play.
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