NA Orchestra Students Flourish in Cello Practice Club
This past year has been difficult for many beginning string ensemble players. Online learning can be challenging in a large group setting, and students, particularly those for whom studying the instrument is a new endeavour, can enjoy their experience more with a little extra attention between rehearsals. The parents of Cello Practice Club told me how helpful our meetings have been, as a supplement to their school program, since their children just started the cello journey. One parent stated that her child loved the “patience and fun” included in our class. Thank you!
During Cello Practice Club, I focused on a few pieces in the Essential Elements book with students Coleton and Drew. #43 “Mozart Melody” and #86 “Ode to Joy” were assigned by their school orchestra teacher, Carrie Semanco. The students went through these pieces focusing on intonation, rhythm, and posture. Once comfortable with the pieces, Drew and Coleton recorded themselves with a click track. These were sent to Ms. Semanco to be put together with other strings students’ recordings to create a virtual orchestra. What an exciting project!
This was Drew and Coleton’s first experience recording pieces with the click track technology. This kind of recording for ensemble work has become more popular this past year due to all the remote learning. The process emphasized keeping a steady beat, and knowing your part really well. Both Drew and Coleton gained their first real recording and ensemble experiences through this project, which was really fun for them.
Outside of this school assignment, one of the highlights Cello Practice Club was the introduction to C string notes. Drew and Coleton are strong sight readers for first position notes on the A, D, and G strings, so they were eager to expand their knowledge and learn the lowest notes on the cello. They found that playing on the C string requires a bit more bow weight to get a rich, beautiful cello sound!
I asked Coleton and Drew to keep track of their practice in a time log each week, with a goal of 60 minutes per week. The practice log helped keep the students organized and motivated to practice. Consistent practicing is such an important skill to have as a musician, and this month’s Cello Practice Club helped them begin developing and sticking to individual practice goals.
Coleton and Drew worked through lots of repertoire in the Essential Elements book. We covered additional pieces such as Long Long Ago, French Folk Song, Ode to Joy, and Grandparents Day. Worksheets were assigned as homework to practice this skill, and then these sheets were reviewed during our meetings. Another highlight was Cello Jeopardy! During the last meeting, we played an online game of Jeopardy that covered sight reading, note identification, parts of the cello, pieces, and a listening game.
Drew and Coleton grew in various technical and musical areas such as sight reading and playing through a piece with confidence. Since we spent a lot of time working on repertoire, focusing on playing with accuracy and learning to memorize music. One highlight was expanding the one octave C Major and D Major scales to two octaves! As the boys became more comfortable with notes on the G and C strings, we were able to build on knowledge of scales on the D and A string. Another highlight of this month was exploring Jazz improvisation. When given a set of six notes, the kids used their creativity to find different combinations of those notes over a repeated bass line. Very cool!
These short meetings really benefited student focus and attention to detail. It can be difficult to spend a long period of time dedicated to one thing, but I found that these young students did a great job! Half an hour flies by when having fun with different activities, and the Cello Practice Club students always kept a wonderful attitude toward learning. Cello Practice Club is a wonderful way to make friends and work together on building cello skills. I really appreciate your family’s efforts in supporting your son’s cello studies and am glad to have had the opportunity to work with you. Thank you very much!