Orchestra Karate - LSE

This year, Strings will be implementing a new instructional system called Orchestra Karate. Students may be familiar with this concept from their general music class, as some music teachers use a similar system when teaching the recorder, called Recorder Karate.

Orchestra Karate is a system that offers a leveled approach to learning a stringed instrument. After a student has mastered a particular set of skills, they will earn a belt. Much like a student studying martial arts, in Orchestra Karate, students will begin by earning a White Belt, and eventually work their way up to a Black Belt. This system is designed so that each student can move through our curriculum at their own pace and work to master the particular skill that they need. Orchestra Karate has been designed to help students move through both the 5th and 6th grade curriculum, and as such, the average student will being Orchestra Karate in their 5th grade year, but won't earn their Black Belt until they are in 6th grade (though it is possible to move through at a faster pace). In order for a student to move to the next Belt Level, they will have to show accomplishment in 4 areas. Those areas are:

Home Practice - Students are expected to practice at home to master the skills they have learned in class. They will record their practice minutes on the class website. Each belt level will have a minimum number of minutes each student will need to have submitted before they can move on to the next level.

Note Reading - Students are expected to be able to read music in the clef which their instrument reads. Students will be expected to learn new notes for each Belt Level, and will take a short test over them before they can move on to the next level.

Responsibility - Each student is expected to show a high level of responsibility if they are to succeed in Strings class. Students will demonstrate that responsibility by completing assignments and bringing their supplies to class every day.

Performance - After a student has passed the Home Practice, Note Reading, and Responsibility aspect of a particular Belt Level, they will need to perform an exercise from our book demonstrating that they have mastered skills needed to play a stringed instrument. Since it is essential that a student has mastered a particular skill before they move on to learning the next, it will be required that each student pass each performance assessment with a 100% success rate before they move on to the next. If a student does not pass a performance assessment on the first try, they will get to try again until they do.