North/East September Update

An update from the North TR/IMM group:

Repertoire:

• We did a lot with Sally Gardens the first two weeks, then put it aside. Pulled it out this last week in September and it was beautiful! They have it well-learned and memorization should be no problem. ---What worked as far as phrasing was "painting" the phrase in the air. I have tried various ways of getting them to sing the phrases, and this was the first that got immediate results.

• The North kids know Kitty Alone really well. It's a big group-- and a very consistent group-- which means we were able to get into two parts really quickly. They maintain their parts well. But we are having a hard time with musical details such as cutoffs because they won't read it in their scores and they won't respond when we give it to them in our conducting. It makes it especially tricky in the verses where the two parts are in canon, if they aren't counting how long to hold a note. I did finally get them to hold out some of the long-duration notes yesterday, but only when I had them put down their music and watch me. With a bit of focus, this is a really solid piece for them.
  
• Give Us Hope-- we have done each section, and done the alto part. They just need to experience the song in its full form. They all want to sing melody on this anyway, so no problem for int'l dinner.
• Sesere Yeye-- They can sing it well, but we haven't added any movement. (I can do the movement, but I need to clarify if what I know is the mirrored version or the correct version, so I don't teach them left/right incorrectly.) I actually did introduce the soprano part on Wednesday, which they picked up immediately and sang well.
  
• Caroline and I had great success teaching the Dvorak melody at camp, using count singing. So we went ahead and started it with these kids; so far they have made it through the first two pages, soprano, count-singing. We figured that even though the IMMs aren't singing it, it doesn't hurt for them to learn the melody.

Other:

• We've worked a lot in warm-ups on breathing and vowel shape, and it has really showed during rehearsals.
• Lots of solfege practice. Learning arpeggios and intervals with hand signs, and mystery tunes at the beginning of rehearsal and after break.
• Again, the size of the group and their good attendance has really benefited us. We're making a lot of progress. Looking forward to getting them part assignments: the consistency will help some of our youngest new friends, and some old friends with talking problems!

East:
We're making good progress on the repertoire, but we are having to spend a lot of time on the basics of theory. Solfege and intervals are a real struggle, as is reading simple rhythms. The ability is there, we just need continued work and persistence!