Elementary Orchestra Solo/Ensemble, Part 2: Timeline and Documents

When planning out the Solo/Ensemble unit, I work backwards from the date of the festival itself.  Since we meet for small groups only once a week, I really have to be mindful of the S/E timeline so students have enough time to prepare.

Saturday: Solo/Ensemble festival

1 week before: Tour day!  Students perform for one classroom during their small group time.  If there's extra time, we'll go to a second performance site like the office or special education room or music room.  Students perform their solo pieces first, and we end with ensembles.  Before the school day, I set up chairs for cellists and music stands outside the different classrooms so everything is ready to bring into the classroom for the performance time and all I have to lug around the school is my camera :)  To get comment sheets ready for the Saturday festival, I use mail merge on Word to automatically add the headings (student name, piece, school, site, time, etc.) and print them on colored paper by school to enable quick sorting after the event.

2 weeks before: Dress rehearsal day!  Students get in front of their small group, say their introduction, and practice playing through their piece(s) without stopping.  I jot down final comments to help during their last week of home practice.  I do not want tour day to be the first time students are up in front of an audience playing through their piece.  I want them to get their jitters out of the way during dress rehearsal day and to make sure everyone has their introduction planned out.  Any late S/E signups should all be in, so I put together the Saturday morning schedule and share that with students and families.

• S/E dress rehearsal comment sheet (Word document)
• S/E dress rehearsal comment sheet (PDF)
• S/E dress rehearsal grading sheet template (Google Sheet)

3-4 weeks before: Rehearse!  During small groups, a big chunk of time is dedicated to rehearsing with students' ensemble groups.  Students also figure out what they're going to say for their introduction, using the introduction template as a guide. I also send out a tour sign-up sheet (using Google Sheet) where teachers can choose a time that works best for them to have students come perform for their class.

• Sample tour sign-up sheet for teachers (Google form)
• Introduction template (Word document)
• Introduction template (PDF)

5-6 (or so) weeks before: The last 5-10 minutes of small groups are dedicated to practicing individual parts of S/E pieces.  I quickly go around helping students--especially in the area of rhythm--to hopefully make the first combined rehearsal with their ensemble go smoothly.  The warm-up for each of these weeks gets a different emphasis, based on the different categories on the S/E rubric: rhythm, LH, RH, etc.  This is the time when I tell students about the Saturday morning optional festival and send home the sign-up sheet for that.  I remind students that everyone will go on tour during school, and then the S/E festival on that Saturday morning is a highly encouraged optional event.  We briefly look over the rubric to see which areas the adjudicator would be commenting on.

• Letter/permission slip sample (Word document)
• Letter/permission slip sample (PDF)
• Online registration form template (Google Form)
• Rubric (Word document)
• Rubric (PDF)
• Updated rubric (Word document)--includes a category for body format instead of tone
• Updated rubric (PDF)

2nd week of unit: During full orchestra, students form their ensembles and fill out a planning sheet, indicating which piece(s) they're planning to learn.  Every student turns one in, and there's a place to list a solo piece and an ensemble piece plus who is in their group.  I type these up into one master list for myself to make sure everyone is accounted for.  I talk with those students who signed up for just a solo to see if they also had an interest in playing in an ensemble and help set that up if desired.  Repertoire choices may change over the next few weeks, but at least everyone is leaving class that day with an idea of which piece(s) to focus their home practice on.

• S/E planning sheet (Word document)
• S/E planning sheet (PDF)

1st week of unit: Explain what Solo/Ensemble is, hand out the list of choices plus additional repertoire, and give some time to try out options.  I tell students that at the end of this unit we will be going on tour around school to perform our piece(s) for an audience.

• S/E options (Word document)
• S/E options (PDF)

This timeline covers roughly two months of school.  During this time--especially at the beginning of the unit--we are focused on more than just Solo/Ensemble in orchestra, and this advance planning helps me to balance all different areas of what students are learning during this time.


See also: 

Elementary Orchestra Solo/Ensemble, Part 1: Description and Additional Repertoire

Elementary Orchestra Solo/Ensemble, Part 3: Creating the Schedule

Elementary Orchestra Solo/Ensemble, Part 4: Festival Day!

Elementary Orchestra Solo/Ensemble, Part 1: Description and Additional Repertoire

For the elementary orchestra students in our district, we create our own Solo/Ensemble festival each spring.  Since it's not an "official" Solo/Ensemble festival, we can create our own list of repertoire choices suitable for first- and second-year players and really customize the event to make it work for our students.

This is a big unit for us in orchestra, and it's a great experience for our beginners on many levels.  They get to prepare a solo and/or ensemble (duet or trio for first-year students; up to a quartet for second-year students), so the outcome of this performance really hinges on how much individual effort each student puts into it.  Performing alone is a really different feeling compared to performing as a full orchestra.  During this unit, we take a look at the whole process of selecting and learning a piece, getting it ready for performance, and then performing it for an audience.  Once students are in middle school and can participate in the "real" Solo/Ensemble festival, they already have an idea of what to expect.

Students take time to try out lots of pieces from the list of choices before settling on their repertoire, and I give time during full orchestra for students to form ensembles.  They enjoy getting to play with students who play different instruments than them.  The month before Solo/Ensemble, I form small groups based on S/E ensemble groups, which generally includes some mixed instrumentation.  We do a dress rehearsal during small groups, where each student introduces what they're playing and something interesting about the piece or something to listen to or watch for, and this is when I do my formal assessment and give last-minute tips.

The next week during small groups, we go on tour around their school.  I create a Google Doc with available times for teachers to sign up on, and then each small group gets to perform for one classroom.  If it's a time slot I'm having trouble filling, we can always go perform for the people in the office.  This is an authentic performance experience, as students get to experience what it's like actually performing for an audience.  The audience members always have great questions for our performers afterwards, and it's built-in school-wide exposure for the orchestra program.  I make sure to bring a camera and get pictures of each solo and ensemble performing to post in the orchestra room, and on the weekly orchestra newsletter.

Then, that Saturday is Solo/Ensemble.  Since it occurs outside of the school day, not all students are available to participate.  That's another reason we all go on tour at school--everyone gets to do that, and then the Solo/Ensemble festival is the icing on the cake.  We alternate each year between the two high schools in town so students get a sneak peek at the music wings where they will be attending school in the future.  Performers dress up, families are welcome to listen, and area teachers and musicians serve as our adjudicators.

Adjudicators fill out a rubric with comments for each set of performers, and they have a few minutes to work with each student too.  These one-on-one teaching moments are so valuable for our students, and they really reinforce what we're working on at school too.

It takes a lot of planning to get all the registrations turned in, the schedule created, performance rubrics printed, the sites set up, all the instruments tuned etc. but I'm glad we do it.

Most students perform music either from their book or from this "Additional Repertoire" sheet.  "Sweetly Sings the Donkey" is the popular ensemble choice with the beginners--they like the musical "hee-haws" in the last line :)  The lyrics are: "Sweetly sings the donkey at the break of day.  If you do not feed him, this is what he'll say: 'Hee-haw!  Hee-haw!  Hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw!'"  Feel free to use or update these sheets to make them work for you:

Additional Repertoire (for first-year string players):

• Word document

• PDF

Contents: 

• Can Can
• Frere Jacques (round)
• Cripple Creek (duet)
• Sweetly Sings the Donkey (round) 
  

[Alpha notation included at the end too]

Additional Repertoire (for second-year string players):

• Word document

• PDF 

Contents:

• Old Joe Clark
• Lakota Lullaby
• Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
• The World's Best Mother 

[Alpha notation included at the end too]

Enjoy!

See also: 

Elementary Orchestra Solo/Ensemble, Part 2: Timeline and Documents

Elementary Orchestra Solo/Ensemble, Part 3: Creating the Schedule

Elementary Orchestra Solo/Ensemble, Part 4: Festival Day!

Template for a Concert Program and Concert Flyers

I enjoy making the programs for each of my schools' concerts throughout the year.  I get the program information from the band and choir teachers and then add the students' names and concert pieces to the program template.  I like to change font combinations each year, keeping the program to two fonts--one for headings and one for everything else.  Text boxes help me easily move groups of names around the page.

Students decorate concert flyers a few weeks before the concert and hang them around the school and community.  If a student shows me their completed flyer, I'll scan a copy for myself so I can include some student artwork in the concert program too.  I use Paint to select the portion of the artwork I want to use and then copy/paste it into the Word document.  I've seen some really impressive student artwork.  Using clip art is another possibility to add interest to all the text of a concert program, but I really like the personalized touch of using student artwork.

In addition to a place to list all the pieces on the concert by ensemble, the concert program template includes a place for student names for band, orchestra, and choir as well as a "special thanks" area.  This template makes a program that's one piece of paper folded in half.

• Template for concert flyer (horizontal)

• Template for concert flyer (vertical)

• Template for concert program

Feel free to use these as a starting point to create your own concert programs and flyers!

Music In Our Schools Month: Quotes

For Music In Our Schools Month, I combined student quotes and pictures with quotes from some more well-known figures.  Here are the famous quotes, and here are the pictures that match up.

The prompts for the student responses were:

§  What music means to me:

§  Music is important because…

§  Why I chose to play the instrument that I play:

§  Without music…

Check out this post for more MIOSM ideas including templates for the written prompts.

Templates for Composition Packets

 

My first-year orchestra students compose several short pieces throughout the year.  They hand write their compositions (see these posts for worksheets: Open strings, D-string notes, A-string notes, G-string notes, E/C string notes), and then I type them up to make packets of everyone's pieces, by instrument.  Students are able to try out pieces that they and their classmates have composed, and they have tons of extra material to help reinforce their newest notes on their instrument.

Typing these up is definitely time consuming, but having a template to work from makes this process go a little more quickly.  From my template document in Word or Google Docs, I type in the composition's name and composer's name first.  Then, I type up the four-measure composition in a music notation program (I have a version of Finale).  When finished, I hit "print screen," paste the screen shot into Paint, highlight the composition to select it, and then copy/paste that into the Word document.  (Using the Snipping Tool or doing a screen capture would be another way to do this.)  I did find that in Finale I had to change the background color to white, otherwise the default off-white texture stood out compared to the rest of the Word document.  I also stay as zoomed in as I can in Finale to keep the screenshot pretty sharp.

Here are Word documents for the first four compositions of the year.  I include a key of the notes on the staff with letter names and finger numbers for reference at the top of the page.  For cellos and basses, I tend to double dip and include their pieces for both packets, adjusting octaves as needed, just because there are usually fewer students who play these instruments and I want them to have a decent number of compositions to play. 

Note: Since the pandemic, I switched to Google Docs so virtual students could access them.  I have since added Google Doc templates for the first four compositions for first-year players, as well as for the two compositions my students write in their second year of study (D Major and G Major).  

Composition #1:

• Template for open string composition packet (Word document)
• Open string VIOLIN (Google Doc)
• Open string VIOLA (Google Doc)
• Open string CELLO (Google Doc)
• Open string BASS (Google Doc)

Composition #2:

• Template for D string notes composition packet (Word document)
• D string VIOLIN (Google Doc)
• D string VIOLA (Google Doc)
• D string CELLO (Google Doc)
• D string BASS (Google Doc)

Composition #3:

• Template for A string notes composition packet (Word document)
• A string VIOLIN (Google Doc)
• A string VIOLA (Google Doc)
• A string CELLO (Google Doc)
• A string BASS (Google Doc)

Composition #4:

• Template for G string notes composition packet (Word document)
• G string VIOLIN (Google Doc)
• G string VIOLA (Google Doc)
• G string CELLO (Google Doc)
• G string BASS (Google Doc)

(I don't type up Composition #5)

Template for D Major composition packet (Google Doc)

• ALL INSTRUMENTS

Template for G Major composition packet (Google Doc)

• G Major VIOLIN
• G Major VIOLA 
• G Major CELLO/BASS

From these, feel free to change fonts, headings, etc. to meet your needs, but I hope they save you a bit of time or at least give you a starting point for making your own packets of student compositions!

--

Links to composition worksheets: 

• Composition #1 (open strings, pizzicato)
• Composition #2 (D-string notes, pizzicato)
• Composition #3 (A-string notes, arco)
• Composition #4 (G-string notes, arco)
• Composition #5 (C/E-string notes, arco)

• D Major composition
• G Major composition

Birthday Bulletin Board

There's this great  set of downloadable monthly calendars with birthdays of famous composers and musicians that Music K-8 makes available for music teachers each year.  Quite a range of musicians and composers is included--from classical to folk to pop with conductors, singers, classical instrumentalists, composers...you get the idea.

Students can see if they share a birthday with a musician on the calendar, and I've printed pictures to highlight a couple birthdays for each month.  I rotate which months are posted, so all the months are up on the bulletin board at some point.  Hopefully students will recognize some familiar names, and they'll make a connection with the visual.  Seeing these musicians as actual people with actual birthdays helps to make them more than just a name.

Practice Tips Bulletin Board

Here is a list of practice tips.  The ones on the left are geared toward first-year players, and the ones on the right I have used with my second-year students.  The first couple of beginning practice tips go up on the board early in the year; the bowing related ones come up when we start to combine the left hand notes with the bow.  These give students a logical set of steps to take when presented with music that uses the bow and stopped notes.  It is easy to forget how overwhelming this can be for a beginning string player, and these steps encourage students to break the music down into more manageable bits before putting it all together.

Magnets

You can make a lot of handy classroom tools with a laminator and magnets :)

The clefs and notes come from a package of musical symbols, and I made the instrument labels with a Cricut cutting machine.  These are easy to see from even the back of the room (though my color choices were maybe not contrasting enough on the instrument labels), and having these movable notes saves on time in class and dry-erase marker usage.  Because I mostly use quarter notes on the board, I cut the dots off the dotted quarter notes and the flags off the single eighth notes (and I cut the note-heads off the single sixteenth notes and glued them on top of the half notes) to create more of the quarter notes.  The alto clef came from a Google image search.

I use these magnets most often when introducing new notes to my students.  For practice, I'll have a student come up and point to different notes and their classmates will play what they see, performing this improvised creation.  Then, if I have a small group of, say, violas followed by a cello or violin group, it's easy to move the notes up or down on the staff as needed as the kids are coming in and unpacking versus erasing the marker and drawing new notes.  One of my schools has a white board with the staff lines built in to the board, which is great for a music classroom.  For my other school, I bought a sheet that goes right over part of the white board and has three staves on it. 

Note: since then, my school bought a double-sided whiteboard on wheels for the band/orchestra room.  One side has staff lines, which is much appreciated, and the other side is plain white.  I also have enough magnets now to post the five notes for violin/viola/cello all at once so I don't have to switch them for each new instrument group.

Question of the Week

The last thing that we do in full orchestra each week is the "Question of the Week."  I read the old question, share the answer, and then draw a correct response out of the bucket.  Then I read and post the new question.  Students have until the beginning of the next week's full orchestra to submit their response.  This is totally optional for students, but it gets them thinking about lots of different aspects of music and how to use their resources to find the answers.  It also provides structure to our full orchestra rehearsals; students know that we do question of the week at the end and that it's time to start quietly packing up so they can still hear the answer.

Students know that good times to enter responses are before/after school when they are dropping off or picking up their instruments or before/after class--not in the middle of orchestra.  They also know that I do not say if their answer was correct or not--my lips are sealed until the end of the next full orchestra.

Slips are color coded by grade so everyone can all use the same bucket to drop their response into.

The prize?  I write the winner(s) a composition that they can play on their instrument, and I have it waiting on their stand at the next full orchestra.  It doesn't cost any money on my end, it's personalized for each student, and it shows that I am a composer too, just as they are.  Some weeks lend themselves to having more than one winner, but I usually keep it at one winner.  If a question has two parts (a bonus point) and the winner gets both parts, I'll write them a duet to play with a friend.

I try to include a variety of questions throughout the year--parts of the instrument, composer trivia, music theory, vocab words, a connection with one of their pieces, etc.  I use the same question for both grades each week, so it has to be something that works for both.  The answer may be something that students should already know or in their book or on the walls of the orchestra room or they may need to look up online.  I try not to repeat questions within a two-year cycle so that students are exposed to as many as possible (though there are a few questions that tend to be used each year).

When I draw the winning slip, I don't read incorrect responses (or the name of that student) out loud; I just keep drawing until I find a correct answer and congratulate that student.  I don't want to encourage silly answers or embarrass anyone for putting in the wrong answer.  Students may win more than once each year (I don't want them to stop participating once they've won), though I may draw a second winner that week just to get someone new too.

Note: Since the pandemic, I added a Google Form with the weekly question and paste the link into our class Canvas page so that students aren't congregating by the bucket to fill out their slip.  Students fill out the Google Form to enter, and then I fill out a paper slip for the different entries before class so I'm still drawing a slip from the bucket.  If someone has already won, I'll fold their slip a few extra times to make it less likely I'll pull it out of the bucket.  I still tape the question on the wall in the classroom so students have access to the seeing the question a few different places.  I've also been keeping track of which questions I ask each year so students get different questions between their first and second year of orchestra with me.  It's a few extra steps, but it doesn't take long.

• Sample "Question of the Week" questions (Word document)

• Sample "Question of the Week" questions (PDF)