March 10 Rehearsal

Children's Chorus
We're continuing our routine of vocal exercises, solfege hand signal reading, and singing familiar folk songs in 2 simultaneous keys (they love doing that--its so funny), and patschen.  They are getting better and better at these skills, and I think they enjoy it too!  Here's what we worked on for each song, in case your child wasn't there, or you're curious to know my teaching strategy!

• Ordinary Miracle-I checked for accuracy of notes by having part 1 sing independently while the part 2 "sang in their head" and directed the melodic contour of the song with their hand.  Then we reversed the process.  This kept everyone engaged and thinking while we focused on only part of the group.   I found that part 2 had some wrong notes they couldn't not seem to hear until until I had them stand up and while singing, bend their knees at the point the note went lower.  After about 3 times they had it. It's interesting how using the whole body helps define the abstract concept of pitch direction.
• You've Got a Friend in Me--I drew the structure of the song on the wipe off board:

Then I chose volunteers to draw a picture a key word for that section in each of the 4 boxes.  I asked them what they thought the arrows meant, and they said "it's when the song goes up or down".  I was pleased because that is what I've been drilling over the last few weeks with the arm gestures for the song.  Now they have a visual reminder, and I won't have them do the gestures much any more.  This structure will help them remember the words to the song and subtle melodic changes for the words "you got a friend in me".

• Dream Keeper--they knew this one well enough to "perform" it for the parents and Footnotes kids who were sitting in the back waiting.  We are working on dynamics and memory.  Good times!!

Footnotes


I tried something new for ear training.  After doing a solfege exercise with hand signals, I played some mostly stepwise exercises like do re mi re do, or do do mi re and then had them sing them back to me while they signed the appropriate syllable.  They did pretty well, and I think I'll continue to do this increasing the difficulty over the weeks ahead.  I reviewed the Hershey Bar Rhythm with an overhead summarizing the relationships between rhythmic values.

 
We moved on to subdividing the beat into 3's, and then clapped exercises I projected on the overhead that were from the music we are singing.  Although not all the girls were able to clap the examples accurately, I felt we made some good progress in understanding the concepts.  I want them to understand the notation of the music, so I will continue to devise exercises and activities to help them learn to read music accurately. This exercise lead into the first song of the day:

• When the Saints--we started the first section for the first time.  It's written in 12/8 time, and I've been laying the ground work for this, the hardest section these past weeks.  They did very well singing it with me, probably due to their practicing with the CD, so I'm really grateful for that tool.
• When You Believe--we sang the Hebrew section and they did great!  This is the first time I've heard them sing it since I assigned it because we only worked on Go the Distance last week due to the performance last Saturday.  I was pleased with how well they sang--I think, they think they are cool that they can sing in Hebrew!  

I GAVE THE GIRLS 2 ASSIGNMENTS FOR THIS WEEK, IN ADDITION TO PRACTICING:

1. When the Saints--mark the beats 1, 2, 3, 4 in the appropriate places for the first section up to measure 20 only.  I didn't tell them this, but I will be giving each person who does it a mini-hershey bar.  I'm serious about them knowing what they are doing!
2. When You Believe--Part 2 only is to listen to the recording and cross out words we don't sing, and write in the words we do sing in the appropriate places.

Please encourage your daughter to practice and do these assignments.  Believe me, this music is challenging and they need to be prepared for rehearsal.  THANKS!!!!


SHERWOOD CHORALE

Thanks to everyone who has come in early to audition for the solos these past 2 weeks.  You've all done a wonderful job, and there were several choices I could have made for each solo that would have been just wonderful.  I'm glad I had recordings, as I had to listen to a few people a few times before I decided!
Here is what I decided:

• Dream a Little Dream--Vicki 
• Parade-Emily
• Somewhere Over the Rainbow-Polly and Nathan
• Lean On Me-Niqui and Matt

John giving Cindy the checks for the VPA donation!

Now for more BIG news!  John Barrow presented the VPA with a donation of  about $2200 which was the result of an auction held by employees from McAfee.  The winner of the auction determined which charity the money was to be donated to.  John won the auction with his winning bid of $650, and he decided to donate the sum to the VPA for use in the schools.  He says that McAfee will match the donations of employees, so it's likely when all is said and done that the final donation will be around $5000.  We are THRILLED to have the donation which will help a great deal with the scholarships and grants we award this spring.  THANK YOU JOHN!  John also announced that he has taken a new job with the LDS church overseeing the translation of their written curriculum into foreign languages and integrating it online.  This is such a wonderful opportunity for him, but will require a move to Salt Lake City Utah.  We will miss the Barrow family tremendously.  It was kind of a bitter sweet moment for us with all that news!  WOW.