Orange Roots #6

NEED TO KNOW

Orange Roots #6: I love Composition Private Lesson Days! I had so much fun with your students! Everyone came to their private lesson with an idea of a story or motif, and they all developed it into a full A section! Many of them got a great start on a B section also! Every student felt successful and happy with what they had accomplished. (I hope! I sure felt successful and happy with what they had accomplished!)

COMPOSITIONS: Every student left with a copy of their composition. If they had their songbooks, we taped the composition into the front cover for easy access. I was so proud of what they created! They can play around with these and explore different ways to make it theirs.

HOMEWORK: I checked homework for Lesson #5 during private lessons. There IS another homework lesson and a new practice sheet for Lesson #6. I stickered and beaded most of your students, but I'm sure I forgot some! Just make sure your students check their books and move over to Lesson #6.

THIRD YEAR GOES FAST!: We cover a LOT of information in just a little bit of time. If you or your student feels overwhelmed, don't worry! The goal is to introduce them to different aspects of theory and playing concepts. Not perfection. They are doing great!

GOOD TO KNOW

COMPOSITION SOFTWARE: Some of you asked about how I put the music onto the computer. I use a program called Musescore to do my music notation projects. It is a free software download and works great. Like all software, there is a learning curve, but if you'd like to experiment with it, you can check it out here: Free music composition and notation software | MuseScore.

PRACTICE WALKTHROUGH: There is a new list of things to practice even without class! Most things we have done in class already, but here is a walkthrough of the practice this week from the virtual video classes if your student would like some guidance.

FROM THE NEW WORLD: From the New World is one of my favorites! During Part III, the 'blue chord' hand position at the top of the second page and the special 'bass C' position on the last line. We talked about it last week in class, but it can be tricky. Here's a video that can help!

FUN TO KNOW

I know some of your kids have been worried about the composition process. Hopefully they feel empowered and happy about things now!