Violin Olympics

Violin Group Lessons on February 22 were a lot of fun.  In the Twinkle Group we earned gold medals for best bow hold (Olivia A) best bow game (Mason) best Twinkle variation (Olivia G) best Fiddle song (Ethan) best Lightly Row (Sabrina) and even more Twinkle events!  We played "London Bridge is Falling Down" and Chantelle got the gold medal for getting under the bridge the most times without getting caught!!

In the Book 1-2 group we had a great time playing the Olympic Theme by ear and even the first phrase of our national anthem,. The Star Spangled Banner.  We practiced some pieces from Book 1 such as "O Come Little Children", "May Song:" and "Long Long Ago".  We reviewed our Song Words to Book 1 pieces and we played a lot of Book 2 such as "Musette" and "Hunters Chorus".  Everyone earned a gold medal for an excellent violin technique such as keeping the bow on the highway, good dynamics "piano" and "forte" with crescendos, or good Giddy Up bows on Hunters Chorus.

Miss Ruth earns a gold medal for good teaching early on a Saturday morning!

In the Book 3-5 Group we played The Star Spangled Banner in a beautiful duet version.  We also sight read national anthems from the countries which received many medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics such as Canada, Austria, Germany and Russia.

Some of our music from Advanced Group and Books 3-5

In the Advanced Group we got a lot accomplished on well known work called Canon by Johann Pachelbel, a German composer from the Baroque era or pre-1700's.  We studied and marked the fingerings and bowings.  We noticed that the three violin parts are exactly the same except for a few bars of music at the end.  Each part enters exactly two measures behind the one before it.  The Advanced Ensemble will give a wonderful performance of this piece on the Spring Recital.

Erik, Victoria, Shalese and Whitney at the Advanced Ensemble