Letter from Ms. Mary (9/9)

Congratulations Philharmonia East!

We have started the new season with our first rehearsal!  Thanks for bringing so much energy and excitement to our first rehearsal.  We were able to sample three of the pieces that we will be focusing on in the coming weeks.  A special welcome to those students who are new to GTCYS this year!

During rehearsal each week, we will cover a word of the week, a rhythm of the week and a symbol of the week.  Do you remember what they were for this week?  The word was repertoire, the symbol was an accent mark, and the rhythm was ta-ti-ti (quarter and two eighth notes).  We focused on the rhythm pattern in Sword Dance.  You will see accent marks in most of the pieces that we play.  Think of these three things as you are plyaing your music at home this week.

I will sometimes include listening or video links of some of the pieces that we are working on.  The listening link for this week is for Sword Dance.  As we talked about last night, this melody is hundreds of years old.  How fun it is for us to play this tune that has been around for so long!  The link can be found here.

Before next Tuesday, play as much of Sword Dance as you can!  Our retreat is this Saturday, and we will spend much of our time on this.  We will also delve deeper into Accents and Chins and Pins.

Remember to bring everything that you need to each rehearsal: instrument, stand, music, pencil and accessories (rock stop, rosin, etc.).

I am looking forward to our retreat this Saturday!  It is going to be a great time of playing our pieces and getting to know everyone.

Thanks again for a great start to our year!

Mary Sorlie