Dear friends,
Thank you for an outstanding rehearsal last night! We accomplished everything I intended with our April 21 concert selections. Lightning Fingers blew me away in terms of the"confidence" level you displayed on the first reading. Lynn and I are going to nail down the tempos as we proceed. Chorale and Shaker Dance is the most challenging piece we have in the folder. I was not sure where it would go or how far through the piece we would get, but I am satisfied with the results. Going forward, C&S Dance is going to require your A-Game each time we rehearse it. Most of the other pieces we have played settle into a repetitive and therefore "comfortable" rhythm. Not so with C&S Dance.
As you may be aware, music is graded according to its difficulty.
Grade 1 – Very Easy (middle school)
Grade 2 – Easy (middle school)
Grade 3 – Medium (middle to easy high school/community bands)
Grade 4 – Medium Difficult (high school/most community bands/some college bands)
Grade 5 – Difficult (excellent high school/community/college bands)
Grade 6 – Very Difficult (Elite music-very accomplished bands)
C&S Dance is at the Grade 5 level which requires a higher level of personal focus each time we rehearse or perform it. The more music at this level we play, the stronger YOU will become musically. Ultimately, you will begin to sight-read this level of music with greater ease.
Going forward …
1. for C&S Dance, listen to the recording with your music. Play along when you can!
2. Review Symphonic Dance no 3 (I’m not sure we will have sufficient time to work it up alongside C&S Dance. Two BIGGIES and we’ll have several of the easier but crowd-pleasing pieces as well.)
3. Go over Carmen Suite. It will compliment C&S Dance program wise.)
MARCH 31
Runthrough of our April 21 concert.
I can’t wait for the next rehearsal!
Jim