Excellence in the Basics: Musicality • Energy • Rhythm • Intonation • Tone

Director's Notes

2 rehearsals until the concert!

Rehearsal Update

Sectional Schedule for 5/11 @ Skyview

Strings at 9:30 | Winds, Brass & Percussion at 10:30

Just over a month to our concert!

Sinfonia Rehearsal Plans

Progress Between Rehearsals

“I would love to tell you that this is the best moment of my life, but I feel this happy when I finish a song or when I crack the code to a bridge that I love, for me the reward is the work.”

Taylor Swift, receiving an award at the 2024 Grammy Awards

Musicality • Energy • Rhythm • Intonation • Tone

Sinfonia Repertoire Part Assignments and Seating

Sinfonia Repertoire Part Assignments

Why Good Ensemble Playing May Require More Than Just Your EarsWe’re often told to look at our conductor or ensemble colleagues at key points in the music, but how much does this actually affect the quality of our playing?

Practice Steps

Phase 0 - Listen to our new repertoire!
Phase 1 - Figure it out
- Go slow and lay out a blueprint for how to play the music: know the rhythms and counting, fingerings, bowings, dynamics, etc.
Phase 2 - Spot Practice
- Identify spots that need extra time and work on them daily so they will be up to the standard for the concert.
Phase 3 - Review
- Review easy spots occasionally so they stay fresh in your mind
Phase 4 - Play it
- Play to perform, infusing all of your playing with dynamics, emotion and musical expression
Phase 5 - Perform it
- Your practice has all musical and technical elements and is up to tempo
Phase 6 - Woodshed it
- Go back through your repertoire slowly and carefully to add detail and to find better ways to elevate your level of play

Featured Media

Excellence of the Basics

Musicality • Energy • Rhythm • Intonation • Tone

Research shows that making music changes the brain and that these brain changes have tangible impacts on listening skills, learning and cognition. -"Music, hearing, and education: from the lab to the classroom"; quoted in Northwestern University, September/October 2017.

Sinfonia Expectations!!

Listen to our repertoire or good repertoire of your instrument every day!
Practice our music a minimum of 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week or until memorized.

Musicality • Energy • Rhythm • Intonation • Tone

Building a better brain through music, dance and poetryArt can make the brain's wiring stronger, more flexible and ready to learn, say the authors of a new book, Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us.

Sinfonia... makes progress between rehearsals!

MERIT

Students in high-quality school music education programs score higher on standardized tests compared to students in schools with deficient music education programs, regardless of the socioeconomic level of community. -Nature Neuroscience, April 2007.