At Graham, we currently have four levels of orchestra:

• Beginning Orchestra (Orchestra 1) for students with limited or no experience.
• Intermediate Orchestra (Orchestra 2) for students who have one or more years of experience.
• Advanced Orchestra (Orchestra 3) for students who have two or more years of experience.
• Chamber Strings, a select group of students who enter by audition. Students in this group are likely to have extensive experience in private lessons and/or have three or more years of playing experience .

How does orchestra benefit the student?

It will give the student leadership, organization skills, teamwork, confidence, listening skills, problem solving strategies, cross-curricular advantages in social studies, math, language arts, and self-discipline. Please click on the following articles to see how playing in orchestra will prepare one for skills in college and beyond:

• Playing an instrument gives higher executive brain skills than just listening to music (courtesy of common health website)
• Playing in an orchestra gives you career benefits courtesy of oxford-royale website.
• Reasons why you should join orchestra- courtesy of connolly music

What will one learn in this class?

A student will learn:

• How to listen when tuning and/or how to tune their own instrument.
• Executive skills to perform on their instrument with both the bow and left hand.
• Performance of rhythmic patterns.
• Scales, arpeggios and warm-ups.
• Sight-reading music at first sight from easy to progressively difficult levels.
• Tunes/Songs in multiple keys.
• Bowing patterns and bow distribution for an even melody and tone.
• Left hand finger patterns for increasingly complex chromatic patterns and accidentals
• Technique for producing a beautiful sound with musicality.
• Musical phrases that say something beyond the mere notes.

For more resources on string skills, please visit the following website: String Skills

JOIN THE ORCHESTRAS!