Away We Go : Rest and Play

Great Day At Ennis 

We had a very exciting day at Holy Family Senior School Ennis  as all the 4th classes began the HFSS String  2012 programme .    Well done to the classes of Mr Griffin,, Mr Corbett and Ms Loftus .  Super attention and concentration in the first class today!

We learned the name of all four strings today.

We learned how to hold the violin in rest and play position .

Thank you to Preincipal, Ms Barnes', who called in to wish us well.

Demonstrating the Double Bass

Away We Go in Rest Position

*Mr Corbett's class  met all three members of the bowed string family.  can you remember what they were  (C_ _ _ _ . D_ _ _ _ _ _B _ _ _) ?

*We learned about low pitched and high pitch . What  is the lowest pitched string  on the violin. ?

*We learned to hold our violins in two positions ,  (a) rest and (b) play position.

We played pizzicato ( plucking the string on  lowest string G to Old McDonald track 18)

*We learned the names of all four violin strings (see above)

*We practiced a bow . 

BRAVO TUTTI !

Improvers' Group

10 students

1 Ben, Dami, Doreen, Brandon

2, Claudia, Emmanuel, Brendan, Ailish, Hayley, Emilia

Revision of Tunes 

Old MacDonald and Twinkle 

New Note C natural  (2nd finger back on A string) 1^2 

Exercise 'Jaws' Start with 1st finger on A . Place your 2nd finger next to it to make C natural . Repeat to make the 'Jaws' theme 

1---^2   1---^2   1^2 1^2 1^2

Make sure your second finger is touching the first.

Slurring  two notes in one bow 

Programme restarts

 

We had a busy day on the programme today.  I was joined by trainee teacher and violinist , Aileen Sexton.   
We learned a new bow grip , the inside bow grip. 
We put all or fingers down, to make the three down ladder. 
 We played two duets from the southern states of the USA Lil Liza Jane and Oh Suzannah. We learned the choruses .  If you have forgotton here they are . 
We learned a new rhythm Bow Ri-ver 


 Oh Eliza, lil Liza Jane 
 Oh Eliza, lil Liza Jane
 I know a girl that you don't know, lil Liza Jane 
 She lives bdown in Baltimore, lil Liza Jane 
                                 
Oh Suzannah, don't you cry for me 
 I come from Louisiana with a banjo on my knee.


3 DOWN LADDER
DESCENDING 3 fingers down  3333 3 3   lift up 3    2222 2 2   lift up 2  1111 1 1  lift up 10000 0 0 open D 




Q. In what way is your bow hand like a train? Hint .  Think of the jobs people on trains do .

We welcomed two new students today, Bruno and Ennie

STRINGSCHOOL Note for parents

STRINGSCHOOL  Note for parents   

The Holy Family String Project began with a number of introductory sessions covering violin hold , pizzicato on open strings  and a basic beginners bow hold.  In the course of the lessons we have been introduced to some aspects of music literacy including staff notation, terminology and some well known pieces from the repertoire . Given the pressure on the timetable of outdoor events and end of term activity, the last session in the introductory module will take place in September when it is intended the project will continue until May 2012. The classes have made a good start and have been a pleasure to teach.  You can review the activity on www.holyfamilystrings.blogspot.com where I have posted reports, photos and useful videos.   

The Holy Family String Project is an inclusive programme in line with the classroom music curriculum where all members of the class take part in an introduction to playing an instrument and is believed to be one of a few such projects around the country.

You can contact me with any queries on cdstringschool@gmail.com .  

 Project  Dedicated Website  www.holyfamilystrings.blogspot.com  

Here are some other useful websites

www.classicsforkids.com

www.violinist.com
www.coisnahabhna.ie

I look forward to seeing all my students again in September