Swinging Strings at Ennis National School

Photo John Kelly

photo courtesy of St Agnes Music Crumlin

Swinging Strings at Ennis National school Week 5

Swinging Strings Lesson 5
Class Blog 20th October

It was a very busy day today as all classes prepared to run a performance of the repertoire to date. We began by playing pizzicato quavers to Old MacDonald. Next we practised Foxtrot, Toreadors March and Vivaldi on G. We had some fun playing a really scary tremolo which had Mr Glynn quaking when he heard it before we calmed him down with a favourite of his We Will Rock You. A special thank you to Shauna Kearney who helped tune the violins . Our leaders today were Leah, Naomi and Raphael who directed the class ensembles very well indeed.

Very good progress has been made and we are ready to progress on to the next stage of learning some more notes. So get ready boys and girls to get those left hand fingers flying when we begin again after the break!

Swinging Strings at Ennis NS Week 4

Swinging Strings Class Blog 13th Oct 2010Week 4

Things really went with a swing today! All classes sidestepped and played pizzicato to our specially commissioned backing track to Foxtrot., prepared specially for us by ace piano player Michael Hennessy. Not quite perfect yet but we are getting there. Mr Corry was lightest on his feet of the teachers. We worked on our stirring Toreadors March and we learned how to read low string G on the stave. The we played along with some Vivaldi for cellos. We worked on our bow grip, we did some shadow bowing to Queen’s We Will Rock You before the final step of putting our bows on the A string. We listened to the famous waltz by Strauss, The Blue Danube . Thanks to Shauna and Chris for helping to set up and Leah for rosining the bows. Frank and Patrick added some depth on double bass.

Swinging Strings at Ennis National School Week 3

Swinging Strings at Ennis National School Week 3
It was a very important day today as we learned how to hold our bows. We played shadow bowing to Down Up to Queen’s We Will Rock You

We listened to the March of the Toreadors from the opera Carmen by Bizet and the we played along to the music using our D and A strings. We learned how to play pizzicato quavers to Old Mac Donald

Mr McInerney popped in to hear Mr Blake’s class and said they sounded terrific.

Bravo tutti!

Swinging Strings 29th September Day 2

Vivaldi

Ennis National School Class Blog Stringschool Lesson 2
This week in violin class, we learned a new tune Foxtrot using both D and A strings played pizzicato and we began learning how to use bow practicing with a pencil. Excellent attention paid by all students . Mr Corry’s class even did some dancing. We listened to another section of the Violin Concerto Winter by Vivaldi and learned the Italian words for loud (forte)and soft (piano. We also learned how to recognise some notes on the stave, the letters of the musical alphabet and how to recognise one a one and two beat notes. Friday is practice day
Bravo tutti!

Foxtrot Little Suite No 1 Peter Martin

Swinging Strings begins at Ennis National School

Swinging Strings at Ennis National School

Class Blog 22nd September. Lesson 1
I received a warm welcome when I called to see Mr Corry, Mr Blake and Ms Spring’s classes on Monday to introduce myself and the violin. I was delighted to that many of them can play the tin whistle and I look forward to hearing them play some of their tunes .

The first violin classes took place this morning Wednesday. The room was cleared of desks and relaced with 30 mats , one for everybody.

We learned how to hold our violins comfortably in playing and rest position, how to stand while playing and very important how to bow to our audience.

We warmed up with some finger exercises . Next we learned the names of the strings and how to play pizzicato to a steady beat .

Finally we were introduced to all the other members of the bowed string family Viola, Cello and Double Bass .

Composer corner today featured Italian composer Vivaldi and featured piece was 2nd movement of Winter, Violin Concerto .
The students payed excellent attention throughout and I can’t wait to see them for lesson 2 .

Bravo ! tutti