Teacher's Notes for Summer

Here is all the important info you need to know for summer quarter! First of all, our Saratoga Splash performance is coming up. We will meet at my house on Saturday, June 12 at 10:00 am. We will get tuned and run through our program before heading over to our performance. We will be performing from 11:20 to 11:45. Please dress in a white shirt, blue jeans, and some type of red accessory...red hair bow, red socks, red bandana, etc. Please, please practice these pieces! They must be memorized for the performance.

Here is the program for Saratoga Splash, in order:

• Turkey in the Straw
• Little Brown Jug (play through twice)
• Old MacDonald (play through 6 times, with animal sounds)
• Old Joe Clark (if you're playing the easy version, play through 3 times. If you're playing the harder version, play the easy version once, then the harder version)
• Devil's Dream (play through 3 times, getting faster each time)
• Bile Them Cabbage Down (We will begin this one with linked arms. Practice linking with someone while you play the easy version. Then when we go to the harder version, we unlink arms. If you play the easy version, play it through 3 times)
• Cripple Creek (play the easy version 2 times)
• Listen to the Mockingbird (just Joy and Kelsey)
• Arkansas Traveler (play through easy version, or if you do the harder version, play with repeats. After solo, come back to part B and play to end)
• Orange Blossom Special (will bow partner's violin during the "mississippi hot dog" part, after the solo. Practice doing this if you can get with another violinist!!)

Sounds complicated, but it went pretty well at our first run-through during group lesson. It will be great, and fun to play with a banjo, guitar and bass!

Please check the "Phone List for Exchanging Lessons" link on the right for your summer lesson time. Let me know if you need to make any changes. Speaking of changes...I have just discovered that I will be returning from our trip on Tuesday, June 8th, the day I am supposed to start teaching summer lessons. All my Tuesday students, would it be possible for you to come on Thursday, June 10th (just for that week) instead? If not, I will make arrangements to get a lesson with you another time during that week.

Here are the important dates for Summer Quarter:
June 8: No lessons, come on June 10 instead
June 12: Saratoga Splash Performance
June 15-16: No Lessons
July 6-7: Group Lessons, come at 4:30-5:30 either day
August 17-18: Group Lessons, come at 4:30-5:30 either day
August 21: End of Summer Fiddle Concert
August 23-27: No Lessons
August 30: Fall Schedule Starts

We will be doing our traditional 100 Days of Practicing again this summer. Grab a chart and start crossing those days off! Remember the rules: you must practice every single day, not missing a day for 100 days in a row! If you are sick and can't practice, do a lot of listening while watching your music. If you go to girl's camp or youth conference and can't bring your violin, bring your sheet music and a pencil, go over your music and practice finger flexing on the pencil. Also, keep working on those key signatures. I want to award more of those fun zipper pulls!

Teacher's Notes for May

Lots of info this month! First of all, our studio recital is coming up on Saturday, May 15, at 10:00 am at Summerhay’s in Orem—note that this is a new location. Summerhay’s is located at 1006 South State Street, just a few blocks south of the Piano Gallery (where we usually have our recitals). There is a small recital fee of $3 added onto tuition this month to cover the rental of the recital hall. Aimee Ward will be accompanying, and stay tuned for recital rehearsal information, probably the Friday before the recital. Each of you will be playing your solo piece, your duet, and we will all be playing Chorus at the end, so make sure you are really practicing all three of those pieces. Try to practice with your duet partner as much as possible, but at least 4 times, in these two weeks before the recital. Also, finish up those key signatures if you want to earn your key signature keychain by the recital!

May Group Lessons will be Tuesday, May 25 and Wednesday, May 26 from 4:30-5:30. We will be working on Fiddle pieces for an upcoming fiddle performance in June (see note below). Please plan on attending!

For those of you playing in the Celebration concert in October, SAU Renewal of $25 is due this month. I will also keep you updated about all of the fun SAU activities that will be happening throughout the year.

This summer, I will be increasing my tuition rates by $2 per lesson. Summer quarter is only 10 weeks, so tuition for the entire summer is $133.00, or you can pay $44 in June, $45 in July, and $44 in August, and then in fall quarter, which is 12 weeks, tuition will be $53 per month.

I will be setting my summer schedule soon, so if you plan to continue lessons in the summer, please choose a time below and email me with your preferred time.

Summer Schedule:
Tuesday
10:00 am
10:30 am
11:00 am
11:30 am

3:00 pm
3:30 pm
4:00 pm
4:30 pm

Wednesday
10:00 am
10: 30 am
11:00 am
11:30 am

3:00 pm
3:30 pm
4:00 pm
4:30 pm

We have been asked to play for Saratoga Springs’ city celebration, on Saturday, June 12, which is the week we come back to lessons after the end-of-school break. We have been asked to play for 25 minutes, and it will be an all fiddle concert. May group lessons will be dedicated to getting ready for this performance. Please let me know if you will not be in town that day. Here are the pieces we will play:

Bile Them Cabbage Down
Cripple Creek
Orange Blossom Special
Arkansas Traveler
Listen to the Mockingbird
Devil’s Dream
Old Joe Clark
Little Brown Jug
Turkey in the Straw

Review all of the pieces that you know, and we’ll work on the ones that you don’t know. You’ll only perform the pieces that you know. Listen to the Mockingbird and Turkey in the Straw will probably be small group numbers, and we’ll have a couple of solos thrown in there. If you would like to play a solo, please let me know. This will be such a fun performance, and I think I have found a guitar, banjo and bass to play with us!

That's it for this month. I hope you all have a fun last month of school!