Laura Jeffrey Academy Music

This week we will start discussing and preparing for our summative assessments. We will practice composing sight reading exercises and begin our first draft of the actual composition on Thursday and Friday. Students will also be asked to begin thinking of a question about the music industry that they would like to research and present on. Students need to have a question by Thursday or Friday (whatever day they have music) that they can discuss with me.

Violinists have started bowing and will continue to bow on the D and A strings, as well as tune their own instrument.

The choirs will begin two new pieces, El Vito, a song in Spanish and Soon I will be done, a spiritual.

This week in music we will be learning about what marketing is and how music is marketed. Students will create and act out commercials for a given product. We will also be learning more about record companies and the disputes that arise between artists and record labels.

The choir has been hard at work reading 2 and 3 part music using solfege (do, re, mi). Although it has been tough work, it is paying off as students develop music literacy and improved intonation. Not to mention reading music has been proven to increase math and reading comprehension!

Violinists are working on reading notes on the staff. Up until this point the letter names have been given in their music. This week I expect students to move away from reading the letter names to reading the notes on the staff. I expect that each student be able to play one piece on the staff before they progress to bowing. 

Students must be practicing violin at home in order to progress and be successful in the classroom. If your student is struggling or not enjoying playing please let me know so that I can arrange a time to meet with her outside of class.