Letter from Ms. Mary (9/16)

Dear Philharmonia East,
Thank you for your work this week, as well as at the retreat this past Saturday. You are making progress every time that we meet! How nice it was to have a treat night and have a little bit of extra time to meet more of our Philharmonia colleagues!

At our rehearsal this week, we focused on watching. Listening and watching are so important when you play in any ensemble. We tried looking up at the beginning of every measure. This is a great skill to learn. We can all work on this in our rehearsals, as well as in our practice at home.

Our Word(s) of the Week: allegro moderato
Our Symbol of the Week: accent (yes this is the second week for this important symbol)
Our Rhythm of the Week: ti-ti-ti-ti, with an accent on the first note

For the next few weeks, we will be focusing on Accents, Chins and Pins and Sword Dance. Before our next rehearsal, I would like each student to play the beginning of Accents. This is from measure 1-37. How many accents are in this opening section? Are you playing all of them? How long does it take you to play these measures?

Next week, we will read through Turbulence, as well as review our three pieces listed above. We will continue to develop our listening and watching skills, with a game that I don’t think anyone has ever played in orchestra before!

Have a great week. Work hard, play hard.

Mary Sorlie