Orange Roots #11

NEED TO KNOW

Orange Roots #11: I'm so proud of your musicians! 

COMPOSITIONS: Thank you for sending your students to finish their pieces! Their compositions are looking and sounding amazing. I'm so proud of them! They should be practicing these with their other daily practices. I put final copies of their pieces taped in the front of their songbooks. I am expecting the draft taped in their book to be the final draft. If they want to make changes, please let me know asap so I can do the edits before I print out the final versions. I am a huge proponant of practicing and will never tell you to stop practicing things. But if you're in piano survival mode, drop the practices for the other songs and focus on their composition. This is what they'll play at the recital and I want them to feel confident and prepared.

END-OF-YEAR RECITAL: Our everybody-recital will be held on Saturday, April 25 at 5pm. Third year students will wear dressy clothes, and will introduce and play their composition. If they want, they can ask you or I to play one of the hands. Whatever will make them feel successful!

We are not a performing group, and the recital is more of a celebration of what we’ve learned rather than the pinnacle of the year’s activities. If your child can’t (or doesn’t want to) participate, is really no big deal. What we do in class is the real payback. With that being said, it would help me to know what folks are not planning on attending so that I can know what to expect for that day. Thank you!! And thank you to those who have already let me know they won't be there.

SO CLOSE TO THE END!: We have three regular classes and one party-celebration class left. Can you believe you're almost there?!? GREAT WORK! 

NEXT YEAR: If you don't have plans yet for what your student is going to be doing musically next year, check out my blurb on post-LPM options!  For more details on Bridge and other ideas of what to do next year, check out this post.

GOOD TO KNOW

HOMEWORK HELP: COMPOSITION INTRODUCTION: The homework for this week is to prepare an introduction for your student's composition. They'll introduce their composition before they play it at the recital. Look how cute Lucas the Spider is as he introduces his composition!

To get a visual of what an introduction should be, check out these clips of the winners from the 2020 LPM National Composition Contest introducing (and performing, but it's the introductions I want you to see) their compositions. 

ALL THE OTHER SONGS: If your student is feeling solid on the composition and wants some extra help on the regular curriculum things, check out this video. The LPM company has made the virtual "Lesson 11" (which we don't do in live classes because of the composition private lessons) available for everybody to watch! Totally not required, but an option if you'd like!

FUN TO KNOW

YoYo Ma, one of the most accomplished cellists in the world, began a worldwide movement of music with #SongsofComfort in March of 2020. It started with the pandemic, but has continued. The hashtag is still in use because comfort never goes out of style. One of the first was Dvorak's "Goin' Home," which is one of my favorite songs from the Orange Roots semester.