Mrs. P's Singers and Ringers Blog

Is everyone ready for the new school year?  The train is going to leave the station on Monday, and it’s going to pick up steam pretty quickly.  I’m excited for the new year.  I have some great things planned, new music ordered, and I’m looking forward to getting started.  As you may have heard, we have a new principal, Ms. Bennett, and she loves music.  I wouldn’t be surprised if she drops into the chorus and handbell classrooms on a regular basis. 

You might want to mark the following dates on your calendar.  I think I have all of them up on Edline, but I want to keep this up-to-date, too.

• September 14:  Our Enjoy the City coupon book fundraiser kicks off.
• September 15:  Concert Chorus will sing for the PTO volunteer breakfast.
• September 24:  All-State Chorus musicianship and sight-singing tests.
• October 11:  Combined choral concert at Wellington High School for both beginning and concert choruses.
• November 18 and 19:  Solo and ensemble MPA.  We’ll be talking about this very soon.
• December 3:  Beyond the Stage performance at the Kravis Center for  Concert Chorus.  This is also the date of WLMS Day at Barnes & Noble, and I may take Beginning Chorus for that, too, if I can figure out how to clone myself
• The dates for Winter Arts Festival aren’t finalized yet.  I’ll let you know as soon as they’re approved.

And that’s just first semester!  I’m tired just typing it!

I know that some of you are interested in trying out for All-State Chorus when we come back to school.  If you want to get a head-start on things over the summer, here are some things you can do:

First, mark these dates:

• Saturday, September 24:  musicianship testing, at Dreyfoos High School of the Arts
• Monday, October 17th: audition for those people who pass the musicianship tests.  This will be after school, place to be determined.
• If you pass the audition AND receive a place in the All-State Chorus, you will be going to Tampa for three days, January 12-14, 2012.

The test and audition are earlier than usual this year, so anyone interested in All-State will need to get a quick start.  You can help yourself get ready by using the following websites:

Musictheory.net.  This is a fantastic website that will help you with lessons and practice exercises.  To prepare for the test, I would go through all the lessons under “the basics.”  Under “rhythm,” read simple and compound meter; under “scales and key signatures,” read major scale, key signatures, and key signature calculation.  Under “intervals,” read generic intervals.  For “chords,” just do introduction to chords.  The exercises to do are: note identification, key signature identification, generic interval identification, chord ear training, and interval ear training.  Any of the exercises can be customized, but it is especially important to do so with the ear training exercises.  With these, you will be listening to either a chord or interval, and identifying it by its sound.  For chord ear training, click customize, then use only major triad and minor triad.  Allow no changes during the exercise, and root position only.  As to how they are played, pick the pattern on the bottom left, which is the lowest note, then the middle, then the top, then all three together.  For interval ear training, customize to play major and perfect intervals only (you will see what I mean when you do this) and have them played low note-high note-both notes together (the fourth choice.)

At the Florida Vocal Association website, you will also find a lot of valuable information.  This link will take you to a page where you can find musicianship exams from past years, to see what the test looks like.  Especially important is the vocabulary study guide for 7/8.  There will be a lot of questions on musical terms and symbols, and this list is an important guide.  Finally, practice sight-singing examples and the actual sight-singing test from 2009-2010 will help you practice for the sight-singing portion of the text.

Finally, there is a listening portion of the musicianship test, as you will see if you look at past exams on the FVA website.  Through this website you can purchase a CD-ROM that offers practice in this aspect of the test.  However, the CD is expensive ($38 plus tax and shipping) and only works on IBM-compatible computers; in other words, it won’t work on a Mac, and is not something you can put in an audio CD player.

Because of the early test date, I’m probably going to have to register interested students by early September.  So if you are planning to try out, let me know as soon as you make your decision.

I hope you are all having a great summer!

I’m pleased and excited to announce that Katherine H. from Concert Chorus has been selected to participate in the 7-8 All-State Treble Chorus for 2010-2011!  Katherine will be going to Tampa for three days in January.  She will spend most of her time in rehearsals, but the result will be a fanastic concert.  The choir she will be in will be directed this year by Dr. Lynne Gackle.  Dr. Gackle is now on the faculty of Baylor University in Texas.  She is well known for her research on girls voices and how they mature.

I’d also like to thank Deanna M. for her hard work in preparing for the All-State audition.  Deanna also passed the audition, and her total score was really close to Katherine’s.  Deanna went to All-State last year, so maybe she can give Katherine some advice!