Trumpets, Cornets and Clarinets in Jig Time



Dan Demonstrates the Trumpet


oday our special guest was a  former member  of Ennis Brass Band .  Daniel Foley brought a trumpet and a clarinet and showed  us how they were played . We  talked about the woodwind and brass family of instruments.  He also spoke about being a band member and what sort of events they played at .  He played a fanfare on trumpet and a groovy clarinet piece.  Here is a quick quiz on some of the points today

1.The ______________ is the highest pitched brass instrument in the orchestra
2. Brass instruments use _ _ _ Pressure and  V__ _ _ _ _ _  to make different notes
3 Why is the trompbone different to other brass instruments .
4 Oboes and clarinets  and bassoons are known as  r_ _ _  instruments
5  The S_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  resembles the Clarinet in the way it is played
6   There are _ small beats in a Jig

Echo Twinkle
1All classes worked on Twinkle . The notes are on last week's post

2We also worked on Blues .  Notes on blogpost

3 Finally Mr Blakes classed learned how to play triplets which will come in handy to play jigs
    rasp-ber-ry straw-ber-ry   1 2 3 4 5 6     tip toe beat = quaver beat
   

Ms Spring's class: Patrick
Mr Corry's class : Mr Corry  
Mr Blake's class : Bradley
 These students  worked very hard to day and made good progess . Keep it up !

Practice Mentors  Ms Larkin , Ms Odea 
This week work on Twinkle and Blues.  Friday is practice day !

You can  find out more information on the  band at www.ennisbrassband.com

Stars and Stripes

Barack Obama President US

Martin Hayes from Feakle

Daylight may be getting longer this week but it was all about stars today in class . We worked on our special version of echo Twinkle leaving plenty of time to put those  fingers down . We talked about events in the White House this week  including Martin Hayes who played at the St Patrick's Day Party at the White House. Martin is from Feakle in East Clare and he is a very  famous fiddle player . He  travels all  over the world  to play.  Our own star performer was Ellen in Mr Corry's class who played  a well known Clare song Spancil Hill . Maith an cailín! Ellen Terrific!  Well done also to Patrick who played the duet part of Wintertime in Russia . 

We tried out a new bow grip putting our thumb inside instead of under the frog   Remember Bend Your Thumb  .

Here is todays programme

Wintertime in Russia      
Cross Lake Blues           String Crossing D to A   crotchets
Athacama Crossing                     "                     quavers and semiquavers
Darling River Monkey     Scale on D
Athabasca Monkey         Scale on A
EchoTwinkle


Echo Twinkle
Section A

0 0     0 0      1 1     0 _ 3 3    2 2     1 1   0                   A                   B                 A                   D            G               F#               E               D
Green  Notes on D string

Red Notes on A string

In echo Twinkle, say the note names or fingerpatterns before you play them. Can you

 Musical Feature today was structure    Twinkle Twinkle  A B A
 Congratulations to Cadhla  in Mr Blake's class who won a €10 book token in the draw for correct quiz entries
The answers were

1Oom pah pah was the title of the song from Oliver
2 G D or A open strings   were all correct
3Sweet Symphonies  was the headline in the Irish Examiner
4 Ms de Buitléir was the teacher playing outdoors
5 Tom swung on a rope to get at the violin

**Merit points today go to Suzie , Emma and Raphael . Although in the back rows, all three  paid excellent attention in the lessons today
NEXT WEEK  Triplets, Jigs and back to Blues

Marking St Patrick's Day at Swinging Strings

Bhí ceol tradisiunta ar an chláir inniu .  

John Ryan's Polka  
The Green Rushes  Reel concertina  fidil agus feadóg stain James, Ms O Dea agus mé  féin
 Sally Garden  Reel  Megan  ag damhsa


Today we looked at some Irish dance tunes . Mr Corry's class took a closer look at a polka .  Mr Blake's class learned about reels with the help of Megan's dancing feet and Ms O Dea and James demonstrated a reel on tin whistle and concertina . Stephen told us all about his trip to the Fleadh Ceoil in Cavan last year. (Check out his cool sweat shirt in the photo)

Can you remember how many parts make up most polkas and  reels . James played a reel on his concertina . Why do dance tunes have strong regular  rhythms ?
                         **********************
We  also worked on our Blues  first finger tune and Mr Corry's class worked on putting all three fingers down on G for We will Rock You with Frank on drums
                         *********************   
We Will Rock You riff

C   B    A    G   AA    We Will Rock You  finger pattern on G string
3    2     1     0    11            REMEMBER 2 AND 3 CLOSE TOGETHER

Dá Téada ag an t-am céanna  - Double Stopping  Everybody learned how to play two strings together at the same time .        



 Fleadh Ceoil Sweatshirt




Megan ag damhsa




Stephen , Sarah and Naomi with the Blues Board




Niamh meets leader and Conductor at Oliver



James plays a tune

check out the trad section on  www.exploremusic.ie



Seachtain na Gaeilge

Bhí a lán Gaeilge againn sa rang inniu . Seo iad cúpla focail.

Téada -String
Méar   -Finger
Veidhlin
Téada Oscailte Open String
Cinnlínte - Headlines

Today we learned a new song ' Blues '    Well Done .  Sr. Montfort visited  Mr Blake's class today . She was busy distributing Ashes for Ash Wednesday as part of the Cathedral team but she had time to listen to a tune .

'Check Out the video tutorial   on the right .  
Notes on D 
 Notes on G
Notes on A


D  E  D  E    G  G  G_    x4
0   1  0   1     0   0   0 


A B A B     D  E  D  E                          
0  1  0  1     0  1    0   1


G G G G     G  z  D  z  


 Answer the questions on the quiz and put your name on the sheet to be included in the draw
Who is the character on my tee shirt supposed to be ?

Oliver  with several pupils from Ennis NS  continues all week with a matinee on Saturday


Further national  coverage of our project on  www.iayo.ie website of Irish Association of Youth Orchestras

Here is a link to an article about the string project  that appears in the Irish Association of Youth Orchestras' Newsletter
http://www.iayo.ie/?cat=8

Swinging Strings Blog nominated

Swinging Strings 

 Dear Parent

The Swinging Swings violin project at Ennis National School is progressing very well and all pupils have made great strides. You may wish to have  a look at the project’s dedicated website to get an update on the project. You will find some clips of the music, notes and great photos. Please feel free to add your comments. The website is nominated for an award  in the annual  Irish Blog Awards.  www.swingingstrings.blogspot.com

                                                            Cathy Desmond, Director, Swinging Strings

Dear Pupil,

A reminder that you can catch up on what you learned in class ever week. To mark the nomination of the www.swingingstrings.blogspot.com website for an award I am running a small competition. All the answers are on the website

      1. What song from the musical Oliver is on the website ? ………..        

     2. Name one ‘open string’ mentioned  in the ‘Playing the Blues’ video ?…….

     3. What is the headline in the picture from the Irish Examiner?  ‘Sweet …………

     4. Which Ennis National  teacher is playing the violin outdoors?................

     5.  In the Tom & Jerry Cartoon what does Tom swing on to get at the  violin?.........

  All winning entries will be entered into a draw for a book token

                                                                                    Miss Desmond

Al Fresco - 'Oliver' song played outdoors.

Bows aloft

pizzicato Twinkle

Perfect posture Lee

Lee gives  Ms de Buitleir and her guest  some pointers

The unseasonally balmy weather in Clare this week meant we held our rehearsal outside in the school yard. Here's hoping we get the chance to play outdoors again soon. The acoustics were ok in between the buildings and the Under12 hurling team practising had competition for an audience. We practised Oom Pah Pah from Oliver. The song is and music from the show is written by Lionel Bart and is on in Glor Ennis all next week.

Sunshine stringendo

Conor

Violin line

Arco

Fresh start in Spring sunshine

 

NEWSFLASH   ENNIS MUSICAL SOCIETY perform  OLIVER by LIONEL BART  at GLOR
8th -12th March   Sat Matinee

It was back down to work again today after the excitement of our first public performance .

 We warmed up with some open string pizzicato pieces .  (Mr Blakes's class loved the two string reggae.)
  We spent some time on perfecting our bowing rhythm; Win-ter-time-in  Rus-sia.  We worked on  finger placement , string crossing  and  finally we previewed one of the popular     songs  from Oliver

Vivaldi in G pizz
Toreadors pizz     warm ups
Foxtrot

Wintertime in Russsia    bowing work
Athacama Crossing       D to A

Darling River Monkey
Ardnacrusha  Monkey    scales   all fingers down

Practice tips   1 Practice River Monkey starting on D open strings  make sure your fingers go down on tips
2 Practice Fox trot using your bow instead of pizz

Chorus
Oom pah  pah Oom pah pah thats how it goes
Oom pah pah    Oom pah pah  every one  knows
They all suppose what they want to suppose
When they hear oom pah pah !

Good news ! Welcome back to Shauna to Mr Blake's class  . Hurrah , Danielle hopes to have her cast off next week .