3/26/2015 Intermediate Blog

Intermediate Rehearsal Blog

Musicianship Notes

Hello everyone!

Yesterday we did some rhythmic dictations with quarter and eighth notes and you guys were awesome! We later took that rhythm and used it for a short song/choral we sang together:

Come with me 

and sing with me…

Come with me 

and sing with me…

Come with me and sing the music!

Fun!

Your assignment for next week is to continue through page 29 in your yellow workbooks.

Rehearsal notes

Here are David’s notes on yesterday’s rehearsal:

Dear Intermediate, 

Doraji is starting to sound beautiful! We still don't know the words as well as we should, though. Please spend some extra time with the pronunciation guide this week making sure that you have the words pronounced correctly and memorized. If you finish that, make sure that you have your words learned for Bedu Pako Baramasa, then that will be all that you need to do for this week. Keep up your beautiful singing!

(Note: Honors, please also practice your specific part for Sesere Eeye - Soprano 1, 2, or 3. I will need your support on that in the weeks to come.)

3/19/2015 Intermediate Blog

Musicianship Notes

Great work today with telling the difference between minor and major and singing both!

Remember where's the difference? 

Is it the 1? 

The 3? 

The 5? 

Or the 8? 

Remind me next time we meet.

Besides - I remind you to sing all of page 1A that was handed out to you, using Do, Mi and Sol. (use C, E, G)

This week you do not need to do any pages in your workbook - just do the worksheet (page 1A) that I gave you.

See you next week!

Ron

Rehearsal Notes

Good singing today, Intermediate! I was particularly impressed with your three-part work.

For next week, please make sure that you have all the words memorized for Bedu Pako. I just learned that we will be doing different moves than those shown in the video, so please do NOT practice those moves after all!!

However, please watch this video of Sesere Eeye a few times (and practice with it) to get a feel for the way that the moves should look: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SATEqK2NK5Q .

I'll see you next week!

Mr. Belles

3/5/2015 Intermediate Blog

Hello everyone!

We have an exciting event quickly approaching! Thursday, March 12th, 2015, you will be treated to a clinic with guest conductor Anthony Trecek-King, followed by the Cantabile’s Festival for Young Voices on Saturday, March 14th, 2015! 

Cantabile's Fifth Annual Festival for Young Voices:

A Celebration of Negro Spiritual and Gospel Music

Workshop with Guest Conductor and Festival Clinician, Anthony Trecek-King at FCC in Parish Hall: Thursday, March 12, 5.00-7.00 pm

Festival on Saturday, March 14 at Palo Alto First United Methodist Church:

Drop Off Time: 10.00 am

Drop Off & Sign in Location: church courtyard on Hamilton Ave

Pick Up Time: between 3.30-4.00 pm

You will receive a letter containing more details (eg. attire, lunch, what to bring, pick up instructions etc) on Monday, March 9.

Musicianship Notes

Today we worked on our rhythm reading whole, half, quarter, eighth and sixisixsixsixsixteenth notes!

Your assignments for next week's musicianship are:

1. Please finish working through page 24 in your yellow workbook (and as usual whoever has passed this point should continue 4-5 additional pages from where they’re at).

2. Look at the new songs you received today - What is their DO? 

Use our maaaagical ways of telling according to the key signature (of course).

See you next week!

Rehearsal Notes

Here are David's notes on today's rehearsal:

Very good work today, Intermediate! Most importantly, you need to make sure that you have the words for Gospel Train memorized. Please spend time on that until you have it perfect.

Also, please practice:

The Storm Is Passing Over at this link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr_c7rc1vG0 

and

Peter Go Ring-a Dem Bells at this link: http://www.giamusic.com/search_details.cfm?title_id=26096 (it's just audio, not video).

And look at this link to learn who Sister Moses is! 

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/history/harriet-tubman

2/26/2015 Intermediate blog post

Hello Intermediate!

Good job yesterday! We reviewed all the dynamics beginning from pianississimo all the way through fortississimo!!

Here are your exercises for this week:

1. Yellow workbook - finish all pages through page 20 (and as usual whoever has passed this point should continue 4-5 additional pages from where they’re at).
2. Another chance for those who haven't done this: Take all the songs we are currently rehearsing and write down each of their major scales on the top of the first page, including your new Gospel song!

Great! And now to David’s notes:

Intermediate, you learned Gospel Train with all three parts in about half an hour this week. Wow – that was quite impressive! Please memorize your own part on this song now. I wasn't able to find a recording of this particular arrangement online, but you know what part you are singing, and you have the music with you, so memorizing should be quite doable.

Also, please spend more time watching the video recording of Bedu Pako Baramasa - you will be learning the moves for this very soon! Finally, don't forget to listen to the pronunciation guide for Doraji; next week we'll see if Soprano 1, Soprano 2, or Soprano 3 have the most people who have practiced with this recording!

See you next week!

2/12/2015 Intermediate Blog

Hello Intermediate!

Good job today with showing Meri Chela Elena(!) how good you are with your major scales and your 2-1, 4-3, 6-5, 7-8 exercise!

Next time we meet is two weeks from now (Feb. 26th), so please note that you have one extra week to finish your exercises, which are:

1. Yellow workbook - finish all pages through page 16 (whoever has passed this point should continue 8-12 more pages from where they’re at).
2. Take all of the songs you are currently rehearsing and write down each of their major scale on the top of the first page.

Enjoy your time off and see you around two weeks from now!

Here are David’s notes:

Intermediate, what a good job this week! You were able to hang onto your own part when we were singing in five parts, and that's no easy task! Good work also on the moves for Sesere Eeye; that is starting to look quite impressive. You have some time off now (actually a whole extra week) but that doesn't mean that you should stop practicing!

Please practice the moves for Sesere Eeye with this video [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J9MpGNIa3BA].

Also, please practice your own part on Bedu Pako Baramasa with this video and watch the movements - you will be doing these very soon! (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5jLw_eN9zAk)

Also, please use this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9MpGNIa3BA&spfreload=10

for both music and movements.

HONORS

The Little Horses sung by Thomas Hampson: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PeoP4gMZrGI

See you in two weeks!

February 5 Rehearsal notes

Hello Intermediate Group!

Right before we begin our weekend - here are our notes:

Ron:

Good job yesterday with the key signatures and scales!

We will continue working on finding our DO through understanding our key signature.

Your assignments for next week are:

1. pages 5-8 in your yellow workbook (whoever is past that point please continue 4-6 extra pages FROM WHERE YOU ARE at the moment)
2. Complete your Key signature page so that you know the scale for each key signature! I’m going to check this myself next time to make sure all of you have this completed.

David:

Intermediate - what a good rehearsal! I still cannot believe that you were singing in four parts! I am very proud of you. Intermediate Honors, you really, really did an excellent job in your own rehearsal perfecting Bedu Pako.

For next week:

Doraji - memorize the pronunciation perfectly

Bedu Pako - listen to the recording and sing along with the melody; we'll learn the harmony later.

Imagine - start memorizing this, and pay attention to the rhythms that we worked on this week.

See you next week!!

Assignments and information about Doraji

Hi everyone, good job on our last rehearsal! We're really getting to understand why we need these key signatures...

This week's assignments:

1) Begin our second workbook!! (Pages 1 through 4) ***

2) Finish marking our key signatures - make sure you write down the names of the scales that each key signature stands for. 

3) Take each and every scale and sing it, using do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do. For example: The key signature with 5 sharps is B Major, right? (why?? because the last sharp is an A sharp and then we go a half step above - of course that's why!)

So it's a B Major - go to the piano and play the note B because that is your Do! Then sing the major scale using B as your Do. Good!

Repeat this with all of the scales you have written in your key signature page.

From now on we will take a look at the key signatures of all the songs we work on! Now you are able to recognize the Do of each song you sing!! (well, with a few exceptions...) That's a great and very important skill to have!!

*** For some reason, it seems like some of you didn't understand how much you should continue with the workbooks.

So, for those of you who have already passed beyond page 4 of the second workbook - please continue for four to six more pages every week. 

Also, conductor David asked to post these comments:

1. Please use this link http://picosong.com/L5tw/  to learn precisely how to pronunciate our Doraji. Listen to it repeatedly around a kazillion times, until you know exactly how to sing it!
2. You can also watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Gb6rGycbk, but learn how to actually say the words from the previous file.

“Doraji”’s pronunciation must be perfect for our upcoming rehearsal!

See you soon…..