View Ridge Music

Blog Episode VR06 WASL Week

2006-04-22T07:10:00.000-07:00

For all Instrumental Music Students-
There will be no morning instrumental music lesson during the week's of WASL testing. Student should still bring their instruments if they have a lesson in the afternoon or want to come in during recess to make-up or play achievement lines.

The following concerts/performances are coming soon:

Wednesday May 10th- Kindergarten musical "The Caterpillar's Voice"
Thursday May 18th- 1st grade musical "The 3 Piggy Opera"

Thursday June 8th- Spring Concert I with Beg. Band, Strings and Guitar
Thursday June 15th- Spring Concert II with Adv. Band, Choir and Jazz
Go to http://calendar.yahoo.com/mystro2b for more details

Blog Episode VR05- Arts Night Information

2006-02-11T08:18:00.000-08:00

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**READ THE PREVIOUS POST TO FIND OUT ABOUT INSTRUMENTAL DETAILS (what to practice for the week and what you need to have ready for our next lesson...)**

Family Arts night is coming soon! Thursday March 23rd, 6:45- 9:00 p.m.

What is Arts Night?

It is a celebration of the arts where you can here music performances by students and family members, view student art, participate in family dancing and attend presentations by artists and authors from our local community.

Who is Invited?

View Ridge family and friends who have a ticket. Don't worry, tickets are free. Information about how to request tickets will be sent home in early March.

How can I partipate in the music performances?

If you play an instrument, dance or sing, you should contact Mr. Pendergrass about performing at one of four venues during the evening. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind:

View Ridge students and a family member are strongly encouraged to participate. Past performances have included: father/son duets on the drums and piano; aunt accompanying a student soloist on flute and voice; we want you to share your family talents with us.

Pianists and/or violinists studying privately with a teacher who have played for at least 2 years are strongly encouraged to particpate.

Beginning band students at View Ridge will have the opportunity to audition to play "Sawmill Creek" at arts night. One soloist from each instrumental group (flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, percussion) will be chosen to represent their section.

2nd year instrumental students are encouraged to play a duet, trio or small ensemble with other 2nd year students. See Mr. Pendergrass if you need ideas.

**IMPORTANT DEADLINE**

If you want to perform at Family Arts Night, you need to contact Mr. Pendergrass by March 6th.

Send an email to kependergrass@seattleschools.org to set up an audition.

Blog Episode VR04SEND ME AN EMAIL

2006-01-28T16:26:00.000-08:00

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**PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO TELL ME IF YOU READ THIS BLOG BY SENDING AN EMAIL TO nospam2pender@yahoo.com WITH YOUR NAME, YOUR CHILD'S NAME AND ANY BRIEF COMMENTS YOU MAY HAVE AND IF YOU SUBCRIBE TO THIS BLOG USING RSS.** Thank you.

Here is what is happening this week:

4th Grade Instumental Music: Practice sheets still need to be filled out and returned each week with a parent signature. Look for a note and/or email with your child's progress, including their practice record since the beginning of the year.
What you should be practicing this week-
ALL BegBAND STUDENTS- in addition to your acheivement line work, you should be able to play all of the songs in your red book up to page 18.
ALL BegSTRING STUDENTS- you should be able to play all of the songs in you "Essential Elements 2000" book up to page 31.
ALL BegGUITAR STUDENTS- keep working on our new strum pattern on p. 30; go back and play some of your favorite songs in the previous pages with syncopated strum 1 and strum 2; "Aura Lee" on p. 27 needs to be played for me next lesson.

5th Grade Instrumental Music- Practice sheets will be checked every Wednesday. Get them filled out and signed by a parent. Lost your practice sheet? Download a new one here: http://mystro2b.tripod.com/.

Jazz Band- we had a great lesson last week! Keep on working out the parts for "C-Jam Blues" and "Frankenstein". Want to listen to the songs? Here they are as mp3 files you can download: Cjam Blues
Frankenstein.

What you should be practicing this week-
ALL IntBAND STUDENTS- I will hear you play "Rockin' Rondeau" at our next lesson. To hear the band music as mp3 files you can download, click the following links:
Bluin the Blues
Rockin' Rondeau
Stegosaurus
Brontosaurus
Pterodactyls
The Battle

ALL IntSTRING STUDENTS- Great start on "Bach March in D" let's get the second half of the piece ready for next rehersal.

ALL IntGUITAR STUDENTS- Review the note reading pages (the white pages) in your Ernie Ball book, then pick a guitar part in "Star of the County Down". Listen to it here as an mp3 file:
Star of the County Down

Blog Episode VR03

2006-01-21T10:28:00.000-08:00

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Here is what is happening this week:

4th Grade Instrumental Music: Get those practice sheets filled in. "I forgot to write down my practice times" is not an acceptable excuse. Be responsible to fill in your times and get a parent signature.
What you should be practicing this week-
ALL BegBAND STUDENTS- acheivement lines and pp. 17-18; know how to count in 3/4 time, be able to know the difference between forte and piano, and know what a natural does to a note.
ALL BegSTRING STUDENTS- practice the slur exercises on p. 29 then try them out with some real song on p. 30.
ALL BegGUITAR STUDENTS- I will hear gtr. 1 or gtr 2. of "Au Clair De La Lune" next week. Make sure you know all the note names and fingerings on the bottom of p. 21 without hesitation.

5th Grade Instrumental music- PRACTICE SHEETS PLEASE! Fill 'em out. I'll check them next lesson...
Jazz Band- know the articulation of the unison patterns for "C Jam Blues" when to accent, when to play short when to swing...Guitar Players- did you look at the video lessons yet?
What you should be practicing this week-
ALL IntBAND STUDENTS- "Bluin' the Blues" has a lot of repeated sections. See 6 measures before 29 and 53. Know those parts. "Brontosaurus" is the next piece to have ready in "Prehistoric Suite".
ALL IntSTRING STUDENTS- "Vivaldi's Autumn" and "Bach March in D" should be worked on this week.
ALL IntGUITAR STUDENTS- "Arkansas Traveler" Part 1, have the first 12 measures started slowly. Keep boom-chuckin' with "Hey Good Lookin".

Check out the Eckstein Video Podcast at my podcast site.

Practice Tips. Here is an article from "Play Guitar" magazine about practicing and is great advice for all players:
"Quality, not Quantity" Practice in short, focused bursts and you'll get better faster...My 15-year-old nephew locks himself in his bedroom for four hours a day practicing guitar, but thanks to his uncle, he has just realized that his road to stardom depends less on how many hours he clocks and more on the quality of his practice time.
A mere 20 minutes of High-Intensity-Focused Practice (HIFP) every day will help you develop control over the strings, improve your technique, and increase your speed far more than several hours of noodling will.
If you want to join the HIFP club, just follow these simple rules:

TAKE IT SLOW. One of the biggest mistakes new guitarists make is rushing to play fancy before they have internalized the basics. Walk before you run. Take it easy and slow. Speed will come, and when it does, you'll have finesse to your playing that those speed demons don't.

USE A METRONOME. The metronome serves two very important purposes. First, it forces your to stay slow (see above). And it trains you to play with rhythmic consistency, an extremely important skill if you hope to play with other people.

PLAY ONLY SHORT PHRASES...Instead of playing an entire piece during your HIFP time, play a short phrase-four to eight measures, or even a single lick. This gives maximum time to your focus area.

...AND PLAY THEM IN A LOOP. Put a digital clock in front of you and set a goal of repeating one short phrase for three or four minutes, until the clock reaches, say, 8:27. Having a clock there allows you to focus on playing without wondering when it will be time to stop.

MAKE HIFP A PART OF YOUR DAILY LIFE. You will always have great excuses for not practicing. Even five minutes is better than nothing. So if something is getting in the way, get it out of the way

-Steve Baughman from "Play Guitar!" magazine, Volume 5, Issue 1, Spring 2006

Happy MLK Day!

2006-01-16T11:10:00.000-08:00

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Here's what's happening in music at VR this week and beyond...

4th Grade Instrumental Music: Yellow Practice sheets were sent home this week. Start filling them out and have your parents sign them.
What you should be practicing this week-
ALL BegBAND STUDENTS- achievement lines and pp. 15-16.
ALL BegSTRING STUDENTS- G string notes on pp. 26-29. Get the G scale under your fingers...does the pattern look familiar?
ALL BegGUITAR STUDENTS- "Au Clair De La Lune" on p. 26 and "Aura Lee" require you to know the notes. Practice slow and review when necessary.

5th Grade Instrumental Music: Yellow Practice sheets were sent home this week. Start filling them out and have your parents sign them.
Jazz Band- Didya' give me a cd yet? Work out those Unison Patterns at the beginning of "C-Jam Blues" Guitar players: I have video lessons for "C Jam Blues" and "Frankenstein" at the following links-

CJAM BLUES: LESSON 1
CJAM BLUES: LESSON 2
CJAM BLUES: LESSON 3
FRANKENSTEIN: LESSON 1
FRANKENSTEIN: LESSON 2
FRANKENSTEIN: LESSON 3
FRANKENSTEIN: LESSON 4
These are big files (5-9 mb), but once you download them, save them in your favorites and you'll be able to acces them quicker in your browser.
What you should be practicing this week-
ALL IntBAND STUDENTS- "Stegosaurus" should be ready to play by Wednesday in "Prehistoric Suite"; "Bluin'the Blues" ms. 17-29 should be ready by Wednesday; get the chromatic scale learned on p. 42.
ALL IntSTRING STUDENTS- keep up with "Celtic Dance"and look at the new music in the packet I handed out last week.
ALL IntGUITAR STUDENTS- Continue the rhythm parts in "Old Time Rock n Roll" and start boom chuckin' with "Hey Good Lookin'"

HEY CHOIR KIDS! INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO JOIN CHOIR. New year means new music means new students...any 3-5 grader can join choir during the month of January.

CALENDAR REMINDER-
Eckstein Senior Jazz band will be playing at View Ridge Friday January 20th in the lunchroom @ 1:00 p.m. If you haven't heard them, prepare to be amazed.

TECH NOTE: If your book has a play-along cd or if you like to practice with any cd, sometimes it is difficult to play along at the tempo on the recording. There is an easy way to slow down the tempo without changing the pitch, allowing you to play-along with any cd. You'll need Quicktime (a free program for Mac and PC) and a way to import the tracks on your cd as mp3 files or or another digital format (such as itunes- also a free program for Mac and PC). Here are the steps:

After importing your cd to the computer (I use iTunes) noting where you saved the songs, usually in your "My Music" folder, open Quicktime.

Go to File>open file>and then browse to the song you want to open (in windows, you may have to change the file type to "all files" so you can see your song).

Open the song and Quicktime will display it with the play, rewind and ffwd controls.

Go to Window>Show A/V controls.

A new A/V controls window will show up.

Find Playback speed. Slide to the left to slow down or to the right to speed up.
A great and free way to change the speed of your songs without chaning the pitch. You can learn those fast and tricky parts by slowing them down. Or challenger yourself by speeding them up.

Until next post...

Welcome to my new Blog Site for View Ridge

2006-01-06T23:13:00.000-08:00

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OK- so I've sent you to another site. Let's try this for awhile...I hope you had a restful winter break. Here's what's happening in music at VR this week and beyond...

4th Grade Instrumental Music: new simplified practice sheets will be availble next week for all students. It will be much easier to note the correct day with a new format.
What you should be practicing this week-
ALL BegBAND STUDENTS- keep at your achievement lines and pp. 13-14.
ALL BegSTRING STUDENTS- know the D-maj. scale fast and accurate; it's the key to playing "Can-Can" on p. 25. Practice pp. 25-26. #102 is your next quiz.
ALL BegGUITAR STUDENTS- now you know the full chords for C and G and G7. Use that 4th finger for the G chord and put all your fingers down at the same time when you make a chord. Go back and play the tunes you've done with these new chord shapes.

5th Grade Instrumental Music: practice sheets will be available and required of all 5th graders this sememster. Some scale tests and technique tests are coming your way- let's get you ready for middle school...
What you should be practicing this week-
ALL IntBAND STUDENTS- new awesome music! "Prehistoric Suite" and "Bluin'the Blues" bring me a blank CD if want to hear the music and keep playing those scales on p. 42.
ALL IntSTRING STUDENTS- "Celtic Dance"- make it dance when you play...no robots please.
ALL IntGUITAR STUDENTS- A packet of new music that would make Eric Clapton jealous! Work "Old Time Rock n Roll" for our next lesson, the rhythm guitar part only.

HEY CHOIR KIDS! INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO JOIN CHOIR. New year means new music means new students...any 3-5 grader can join choir during the month of January.

and finally- MARK YOUR CALENDARS-
Eckstein Senior Jazz band will be playing at View Ridge Friday January 20th in the lunchroom @ 1:00 p.m. If you haven't heard them, prepare to be amazed.

SECURITY NOTE: It has come to my attention that some band kids have been leaving their instruments in the hall overnight at school...don't do it. Either I or someone else will take your instrument and sell it on Ebay! Seriously, if you need to leave an instrument at school overnight (which should be never if you are practicing regularly), it needs to be in my classroom, not in the hall where it could be damaged or stolen.
Until next post...