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- Conductor's Notes - Sept. 13
Conductor's Notes - Sept. 13
- By Jennifer Holcomb
- Published 09/3/2009
- Alabama Youth Symphony
Jennifer Holcomb
Administrative Assistant
Music Opportunity Program
Conductor’s notes -
Thanks for the last two weeks. We are well on our way with Ballet Parisien, Marche Militaire and Bratislava, and have begun to explore Berceuse and Finale and L’Arlesienne. We are already ahead of last year. You work and rehearse very well. We should be terrific by the time of the concert. Be sure and take your music to your teacher so that we can make the best progress possible.
I hope that you are as grateful as I for the input of Mr. and Mrs. Pipkin. The Pipkins, Ms. Holcomb, Dr. Salzberg, and our teachers all combine to make us better.
Thank you as well for your knowledge of scales. Most of you know your scales well. Please make a regular practice of them, and work to make them faster and more accurate. We have not worked arpeggios yet, but we will. Scales and arpeggios are the DNA of music. If you know them well, all of the music that you encounter will be easier and more fun. From now on, I will be leaving most of the scale and arpeggios work up to you and your teacher, expecting to see incremental progress in all the scale and arpeggio passages we encounter. The keys that our music is in include C, G, D, A, E, Ab, Eb, Bb, and F major and e, d, and c minor. Many other arpeggios are in the music, and we will explore them along the way.
When we harmonize scales in our warm up, we explore intervals of major and minor 3rds as well as major and minor triads. As we explore chord mutations we come to comprehend major, augmented, minor, and diminished triads. All of these types of chords and more exist in our music, and in order to tune them effectively, we must learn how they sound and how they are constructed.
Berceuse and Finale offers us opportunity to hear non-traditional sounds that are often constructed horizontally instead of vertically. I’ll write more about Berceuse and Finale next week in Conductor’s Notes, so stay tuned. In the meantime, following will be the plan for September 13:
Tune
D major scale and arpeggio, long tones
Harmonize D major scale
Chord mutations
Ballet Parisien
Bratislava
Marche Militaire
4:15 - at break
Berceuse and Finale
L’Arlesienne
Remember, no rehearsal this Sunday, Sept. 4. I’ll be practicing m part, so make sure you practice yours. Have a great Labor Day weekend and we’ll see you Sunday, Sept. 13!
Thanks for the last two weeks. We are well on our way with Ballet Parisien, Marche Militaire and Bratislava, and have begun to explore Berceuse and Finale and L’Arlesienne. We are already ahead of last year. You work and rehearse very well. We should be terrific by the time of the concert. Be sure and take your music to your teacher so that we can make the best progress possible.
I hope that you are as grateful as I for the input of Mr. and Mrs. Pipkin. The Pipkins, Ms. Holcomb, Dr. Salzberg, and our teachers all combine to make us better.
Thank you as well for your knowledge of scales. Most of you know your scales well. Please make a regular practice of them, and work to make them faster and more accurate. We have not worked arpeggios yet, but we will. Scales and arpeggios are the DNA of music. If you know them well, all of the music that you encounter will be easier and more fun. From now on, I will be leaving most of the scale and arpeggios work up to you and your teacher, expecting to see incremental progress in all the scale and arpeggio passages we encounter. The keys that our music is in include C, G, D, A, E, Ab, Eb, Bb, and F major and e, d, and c minor. Many other arpeggios are in the music, and we will explore them along the way.
When we harmonize scales in our warm up, we explore intervals of major and minor 3rds as well as major and minor triads. As we explore chord mutations we come to comprehend major, augmented, minor, and diminished triads. All of these types of chords and more exist in our music, and in order to tune them effectively, we must learn how they sound and how they are constructed.
Berceuse and Finale offers us opportunity to hear non-traditional sounds that are often constructed horizontally instead of vertically. I’ll write more about Berceuse and Finale next week in Conductor’s Notes, so stay tuned. In the meantime, following will be the plan for September 13:
Tune
D major scale and arpeggio, long tones
Harmonize D major scale
Chord mutations
Ballet Parisien
Bratislava
Marche Militaire
4:15 - at break
Berceuse and Finale
L’Arlesienne
Remember, no rehearsal this Sunday, Sept. 4. I’ll be practicing m part, so make sure you practice yours. Have a great Labor Day weekend and we’ll see you Sunday, Sept. 13!