Wednesday, March 25

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am doing much better, and will be back at school on Friday.  Please practice really, really hard, since Friday will be our last rehearsal before the piano joins us next week.  Thank you so much for all your good wishes and prayers.

Concert Information!

Our concert will be on Thursday, April 9, 2009 at the Recital Hall inside Summerhays Music at 1006 South State in Orem.  We will begin at 7 p.m. but call time for the kids is 6:40.  I need them there early to tune, and warm up.  Dress is Sunday best -- Gentleman, please wear a tie if you have one, but you don't need to go out and buy one.  Ladies, please wear a dress or skirt.  

Summerhays Music has graciously donated the use of their hall at no charge to the school.  However, there are other costs with associated with the performance that Liberty is unable to pay for.  I am asking that those parents who can, make a concert donation to the front office at Liberty to help offset those costs.  For example, there is the accompanist cost, and she will be spending our last rehearsal with us at school, so you parents don't have to try to fit in another extra rehearsal or two into your schedules.  This is NOT REQUIRED, but if you are in a position where you are able to make a donation, and feel that your children deserve a high quality, professional performance, and that it is worth a small financial cost, I would greatly appreciate it.   Any money donated that exceeds the recital costs will go toward the costs associated with keeping the program running through the summer.  Again, this is NOT REQUIRED.

Thank you for all your hard work, and your kids' hard work.  I'm really excited about this performance.  Please contact me directly if you have any questions or concerns.

March 13, 2009

First of all, I should again apologize for the late update.  I spent all weekend down with morning sickness, and it just didn't happen.  Hopefully this is soon enough for everyone to get something out of it, though.

1st Period -- We are working very hard to finish all our concert songs this week.  The songs we will be performing are:

May Song  (A 2 E 3 1 3 1 E)  (I think . . . remind me if we didn't get this far)

Go Tell Aunt Rhody (2 2 1 a a . . . )

Lightly Row  (E 2 2 3 1 1  . . .)

French Folk Song ( 3 3 3 2 2 2 )  (Don't panic, we learned it around Christmas)

Twinkles

Bile (slang for boil) 'em Cabbage Down

We will finish working on Bile em' Cabbage Down next class, and re-fresh French Folk Song. (it may get cut if it doesn't go well)  What I need everyone to do this week is to make sure the rest of the Suzuki songs are polished and memorized as perfectly as possible!  Thanks!

2nd Period -- We decided to not push for Pirates, and will learn it over the summer instead.  Our assignment this week is to memorize Turkey in the Straw, and finalize any issues with the rest of the pieces.  Our performance list is as follows:

Minuet 2

Puppet Show

Turkey in the Straw

Allegro

May Song

Go Tell Aunt Rhody

Lightly Row

Twinkles

Bile 'em Cabbage Down (I'll post the notes for this song at the end of this entry)

3rd Period

Our assignment is to finish up our pieces for the concert, and really work on putting our fingers on the tapes.  Even though we've been playing for awhile now, we still need to watch our fingers, or we won't be playing in tune.  Our pieces for the concert are:

Go Tell Aunt Rhody

Lightly Row

French Folk Song

Twinkles

Bile 'em Cabbage Down

Please focus on the Suzuki pieces, and get them as polished and perfect as possible.  We'll work on the fiddle song next time.

4th Period

We learned so much this week!  We are going to continue working on Pepperoni Pizza, Caterpillar (or Elevator), and Strawberry, Raspberry.  We also added Ice Cream shh Cone, AND Twinkle Theme!  Mom's, don't panic if Ice Cream doesn't come easily -- it's hard.  We'll work on it on Friday.  Focus on Twinkle Theme.  If Ice Cream doesn't work out, this group will play a drone A during the piece with the correct rhythm, and we'll finish it up during the summer.

Bile (Boil) 'em Cabbage Down

Vamp (beginning)-- Open A & E together to the rhythm Strawberry, Raspberry, Strawberry, Stop

Body of song -- All fingers are on the A String, AND we play this part twice.

2 3 2 1 2 3 2 1 a  (the regular notes, we play both Strawberry, Raspberry -- the ones that are bolded, we play only Strawberry)

Tag -- Ending -- All fingers are on E String

3 E E 1 E 2 3 -- no repeating rhythm -- just single notes.