QCSD Orchestra Festival 2024

Overview

The Strayer Middle School (SMS) Orchestra program is an exciting music program that builds a community of instrumental music students. The SMS Orchestra program consists of orchestra classes, orchestra sectionals, and concert orchestra. All SMS instrumental music students perform in the Winter and Spring concerts. Any student can join the SMS Concert Orchestra even if the student has never studied a music instrument before. YES -- we start students on instruments at SMS, too. Click the buttons below this section to learn more about the instruments you sign up to take lessons on in the SMS Orchestra.

ORCHESTRA REQUIRED SUPPLIES

To participate in the SMS Orchestra students must have

• Orchestra class scheduled in their SMS schedule (contact the school office for this). Most 7th grade and new students will be in Orchestra Level 1. Orchestra Level 2 is an advancing class which requires approval from Mrs. Edinger.

• An Orchestra instrument

• A Sound Innovations for String Orchestra Lesson book (specific to each instrument - double check that you’re purchasing the right book!)

  • • • ORCHESTRA LEVEL 1 students: Sound Innovations, Book 1

      • ORCHESTRA LEVEL 2 students: Sound Innovations, Book 2

• A folding music stand (this stays at home for at-home practice)

  • Shoulder rest (Violin & Viola ONLY)

  • Endpin anchor (Cello & Bass ONLY)

  • Bass bow quiver (BASS ONLY)

• Practice mute ( violin / viola /  cello / bass )

• Tuner/metronome

    *Please do not hesitate to ask Mrs. Edinger if you need help getting any of these supplies! The only supplies you will need for the start of school is the Sound Innovations book 1 and necessary supplies to play (shoulder rest, endpin stop, practice mute, tuner/metronome). Please aim to have the supplies by Monday, September 12th.

     **Students are NOT permitted to share equipment, which is why the supply list is detailed. All students need their own materials.

GROUP LESSONS

Orchestra lessons are scheduled class times; they are not pull-out classes. SMS Orchestra students will see a class time listed on their SMS schedule and will no longer need to miss another class to participate in their musical instrument lesson. Group lessons help students strengthen their instrument playing technique, develop an appropriate sound on their instrument and build the confidence and independence on their instrument needed for playing with different musical instruments in an orchestra.

ORCHESTRA REHEARSALS

Orchestra rehearsals bring all different sections of the orchestra together to prepare for the SMS Winter and Spring concerts (see our CALENDAR page for dates, times and locations). Orchestra rehearsals are pull-out rehearsals that meet once every few weeks during the school year. Orchestra rehearsals help students develop their listening skills required to play in time and in tune with each other.

PERFORMANCES

Visit our website Calendar page to view the date, time and location for our Winter and Spring concerts.

COMMUNICATION

During the school year, all orchestra-related information is shared online in Canvas.  SMS Orchestra parents need to create a Canvas Observer account to access information. Parents are discouraged from using their child's Canvas account as accessing their Canvas account can make it appear on access reports as if your child is off-task when in fact it is just you using their student account. Please avoid this by creating your own Canvas Observer account using the Canvas Observer account directions linked here.

For individual communication, contact me any time by email at mkedinger@qcsd.org. Email works best since I do travel between different school buildings.

Grading

Strayer Middle School uses a traditional letter grading system; this is how SMS Orchestra students are graded for their report card grades. Using your Canvas Observer account you can review all of your child’s submitted music performance recordings, read teacher feedback, and avoid end-of-marking-period report card surprises.

• All assessments must be aligned to PA State Standards. Teachers will work with students and each other to ensure that students do not have more than two major assessments due on the same day.

• Report Cards will include percentages and letter grades (A through F)

• Grade Scale (Passing for course: 60%)

A – 100-90

B – 89-80

C – 79-70

D – 69-60

F – 59-50

• Grades cannot be changed after the next marking period has ended with the exception of incompletes.

• Lowest percentage grade for a marking period is 50%. Marking period grades lower than a 50% will be raised to a 50% on the report card, not in Canvas. A comment will be included on the report card stating the original grade the student earned.

• Final Grade for the year will be based on an average of marking period percentages. 

• It is understood that teachers may need to adapt the components of this grading policy to conform with IEP or 504 requirements for students with special needs

SMS Orchestra Assessments

Types of SMS Orchestra Assessments 

SMS Orchestra students submit their SMS Orchestra Assessments using Canvas. Each marking period students are graded on Homework (10% of the marking period grade) and Evidence (90% of the marking period grade). The following types of assignments are assigned to students in SMS Orchestra throughout the year.

Homework Grade (10%) Assessments

Orchestra Handbook Confirmation (MP1 only)

Hello Introductory Video (MP1 only)

Perform at Concert Night (MP2, MP3, & MP4)

Evidence Grade (90%) Assessments 

Instrument Performance Recordings (every MP)

Practice

"Must orchestra students practice each day?"

Yes. This includes weekends. Every once in a while there will be times when your nights are just really busy and you will not have time to practice. That's OK! Just make up the time by practicing a little more the night before and after. The time of day that practice happens can change if some days morning work better than evenings, but it is essential that musicians practice every day to succeed.

"Why do orchestra students need to practice each day?"

Students practice each night to work on what they learned in lessons from their teacher. Practice not reinforces mentally/cognitively what the student learned from their teacher, but it also trains, develops and strengthens all of the muscle memory a musician needs to perform correctly. For example, a viola student needs to coordinate the following skills while they perform:

• bowing technique and tone production

• left hand technique to start and finish every note correctly

• toe tapping for keeping the beat

• monitoring the metronome or conductor which guides the toe tapping

• coordination of left hand finger placement and right hand bow technique

• music pitch reading fluency,

• rhythm reading fluency

• loud/soft reading fluency

At orchestra rehearsals there are even more skills that are required for student musician success:

• self aural monitoring for playing accuracy

• section aural monitoring for section intonation and staying together

• cross-orchestra aural monitoring for playing together with another section sharing the same music

• whole-orchestra aural monitoring for staying together with the large group

When the student returns to the next lesson and demonstrates to their teacher that they learned the skill, the teacher can assign new skills that help the musician play even better. Without practice, students forget WHAT is taught and HOW it is to be played. These students need to be re-taught and review the same lesson. This holds back not only the individual student, but also the other students in the lesson group who did practice and come prepared to learn new music skills to move forward during the lesson time. Their time is being taken up because the teacher now needs to work with the students who did not come prepared after practicing.

"How does practice help me in orchestra?"

To do well at anything in life, everyone needs to practice.

• Dancers need to dance in and out of the studio to stay flexible.

• Batters need to practice their swing for fast, curve, and slow pitches.

• Quarterbacks need to practice their spirals and aim on their throws.

• Illustrators sketch regularly to draw shadows on their illustrations just the right way.

• Programmers need to code regularly to stay on top of ever-changing needs of mobile apps.

• Race car drivers go to the track with their crew trying to shave even more time off of pit stops for the upcoming race.

• Wrestlers practice new moves on the mat with their teammates so they can use these moves automatically in the next match.

Orchestra musicians are no different. Orchestra students are expected to practice each and every night to improve on their music instrument. Without practicing what your orchestra teacher teaches you in lessons, the skill goes undeveloped. Others will advance in their music instrument skills while you continue to review basic skills that are necessary to move forward. Students practice to improve because they want to learn how to play music instruments better tomorrow than they can today.

"Our family does not have a music background. As a parents, what can I do to help my orchestra student?"

Parents/Guardians arguably, have the most challenging job of all: making sure that your child practices each night. There are a lot of student musicians who do not need help to practice each night. They know what they need to work on, they find the time to work on it at home, and each night they complete their daily, at-home practicing having made it part of what they just naturally do each night.

Other students need more support. Parents/Guardians know their children the best. This is why it is up to the parent/guardian to find the way to help their child practice each night.

• Some families "anchor" daily at-home practice time to an existing daily event such as "practicing always happens immediately after dinner" or " before your nighttime bath, it's time to practice."

• Some families with different activities at different times each night, created a schedule showing when practice time is on Monday night and how it changes on Tuesday night because of scouts, and then when it is time to practice on Wednesday because of a weekly after-school club, and so on.

Some families put all of the responsibility to practice on their child. If you see this approach works for your child, that is great. However, if they are consistently not practicing each night, or maybe they are skipping too many nights due to being busy, please step in and support your child's music education by helping them find success. Consider one of options listed above to help motivate your child to fulfil their responsibility.

Being a member in the orchestra is absolutely a team effort. Just like any team it is important for your child to practice and come prepared to learn new skills to be successful on their instrument and to help their teammates in performance.

"My child practices, but they do not stay on task. As a parent, is there anything I can do to help?"

Many students need reminders to stay on-task while they practice. It is very common for a student to think they are practicing correctly but they might not be. Reminding your child to time themselves playing 30 minutes of "sound" or of "playing songs" on their instrument is important to helping them monitor their time-on-task. Here are some ways to help your child stay on task with their at-home practice.

• Remind them to practice first what their teacher assigned them to practice. Typically this is scales, arpeggios, and lesson book exercises. As students approach concert season, this will also include concert music.

• Students should use a timer to practice and stay vigilant. Although some teachers will require different amounts of time, below is an example of daily practice expectations for orchestra musicians. Timers will help students stay on task and change practice areas accordingly.

  • 5 minutes of scales+arpeggios 

  • 15 minutes of lesson book songs

  • 10 minutes of concert music

• Some families ask their child to teach to them what they are learning in orchestra lessons. This not only helps the parent understand music instruction, it helps the student retrace their own learning steps when they teach what they know to someone else.

• Some families ask their child to perform for them after their practice is done. This "mini concert" approach helps the student prepare and set goals while also familiarizes the student with playing in front of an audience.

• Some families find it useful for leveraging screen time. "Before Nintendo Switch, you need to practice."

Whatever the situation is for your family, it is important that your child practices what and how their teacher taught them in lessons so that they can improve and move forward at the next lesson.