Week 3 Getting ready to play at School Bands Spectacular

NEWSFLASH  SWINGING STRINGS INVITED TO PLAY WITH  ENNIS NS BAND AT SCHOOLS BAND SPECTACULAR AT SHANNON AIRPORT

It was a busy day today . We practiced some of the new ideas that Dorothy, our guest from the National Concert Hall,  introduced last week . Every class practiced our fingers down sequence  to Backing Tracks from Magic Carpet . Can you remember it . Here it is

Open A   //// // 1 down //// // 2 down //// // 3 down //// // 3 again //// // Lift up 3 //// // Lift up 2  //// //
 Lift up 1 //// //   THE END

We made a start on our programme for our next engagement at Shannon Airport.
Mr Corry's Class  Marines's Hymn     Down Bow Retakes on D  Line 1 ,2  and 4   GD on Line 3
Ms O Dea            Santa Lucia      pizz on D and A
Mr Blake             Marines Hymn, Santa Lucia , Mo Gile Mear, Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Bravo to Mr Francis McInerney who joined the class today and made a big contribution on double bass . Conor Grogan was our second bass player today .

Ennis National School Band

Ennis National School  has a great school band .   Everybody listened very carefully as Dorothy Conaghan from  the National Concert Hall gave some tips .  The Band played   Marines Hymn  Offenbach,   Santa Lucia and Somewhere Over the Rainbow  for our guest .

Dorothy's tips

Learn at least one line  of each tune by  off by heart .  Concentrate on one tune per week
Percussion  keep an eye on the piano to stay in time

Learn and Explore from National Concert Hall

Today we welcomed Dorothy Conaghan from Learn and Explore at the National Concert Hall, Dublin.  Dorothy is a highly regarded string teacher  and has travelled widely both in the States and Europe  researching group teaching  on behalf of the Arts Council and giving workshops and classes herself. It was great to have her expert input so early in our programme.  She brought some great new tunes and rhythms .  We played lots of games and I really enjoyed playing some duets for you all with our visitor .  In the afternoon, the band played Santa Lucia, Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Marines Hymn   

Ms Desmond, Dorothy Conaghan, Mr McInerney, Mr Blake with memmbers of ensemble

Up on the shoulder

Bow work

Beautiful posture everyone

Smiles all round Cian sees a spider

Dorothy Conaghan from the National Concert Hall with Ms O Dea

Ms O Dea and Mr Corry with Dorothy Conaghan

No slacking in the back row

Mr Blake  and Ms Mantel do some  ghost bowing

Patrick and Dorothy discuss a point

'I really enjoyed visiting the Swinging Strings Programme  and the band at Ennis National School today. I am very impressed by how well you all play already  .  Well done and keep up the good work'  Dorothy Conaghan  Learn and Explore  at  National Concert Hall

Practice Guidelines Week1 Term 2

Swinging Strings

Rainy lunch times ?  Bored ?   Use one of the classroom fiddles to try out the two new notes we learned this week. Term 2  Week 1 Practice Guidelines

Exercise 1

Try the following     (i)BBBB BBBB repeat   x4

                                 (ii) BBBB AAAA repeat 

                                 (iii) BBBA BBBA

                                 (iv) AAAB AAAB        all on A Str

             Now try Nee Naw  1010 1010 1010 on any string 

Exercise 2                 All on D String

(i)        EEEE EEEE repeat (ii) EEEE DDDD repeat (iii) EEED EEED

(iv)      DDDE DDDE  

Exercise 3              Down Up Bows on   B   (A1)   first finger on A  

                               Check fingers well Over  Bow/ Hold not too tight / Bow on in middle

Term 2 begins



Guest  Violinist Aileen

 After the stunning debut performance by the 4^th class Swinging Strings Ensemble, it was back to work again to prepare for our next performances. 
 

*After a quick play through of our favourite repertoire, we learned how to put our first finger down firmly in the right spot to make new note B , first finger on A String and

* we revised our first finger down on D string ,  nearly new note E.

* We played our new note E to a jazzy backing track.  

*We practiced our ambulance siren sound lifting up and putting down first finger. 

* We did some bowing  to  our old favourite  ‘Rock You’ on A and B.

Our visitor today was Aileen  Sexton, a first year student from Mary Immaculate College. She and I  played a duet,  Mango Walk , a Caribbean favourite on cello and violin to finger clicking accompaniment from the class.     Ay Calypso!

NEWSFLASH!  The National Concert Hall Education Department  will be sending renowned  teacher, Dorothy Conaghan to visit the Swinging Strings project next Wednesday to conduct a workshop with each class.  I am really looking forward to the visit.  Check out www.exploremusic.ie  to check out the games on this cool website from the NCH team . Can you see anybody from Clare in the Hall of Fame ?