Year 2 Swinging Strings at Ennis NS

We are delighted to announce that the Board of Management and Principal Mr. McInerney have decided to continue the Swinging Strings programme with all incoming 4th class students commencing  in early September . The project will again be coordinated by Fíona de Buitléir


Attention- 4th class students !   Have a good look at  this site  to get an idea of what is in store in the classes ahead.






***NEW for September2011*** 


It is planned to offer an optional after school orchestra class. The class will be open to any 5th class student who would like to continue learning a string instrument.  Places will be limited . Further details will be made available in early September.  Send  an email to cdstringschool@gmail.com if you wish to pe placed on an mailing list for updates. 
Cathy Desmond BA HDip LTCL

Swinging Strings Violin Teaching Project Completes Year 1 With Performance

Information note for parents;
The in school violin  programme has concluded for this academic year.   We are very pleased with the students' progress over the course of the programme .  It is proposed to offer an after school orchestra programme next year for students who would like to pursue study of a stringed instrument further and  details will be available shortly. There are many good local instrumental tuition providers available locally and I will be issuing a guide to what is available in the next few weeks.

Should you wish to purchase an instrument, I recommend the Stentor Student 1 available from local supplier Custy's Music Store , Most students will be ready for a 3/4  size at this stage  with taller students ready for a full size instrument. Mention you are a student of the programme.

I wish to acknowledge the  excellent work of  Fiona de Buitleir in coordinating this project, Ray McInerney and Tom Glynn for their support and encouragement.   The enthusiasm with which teachers Dara Blake, Liz Spring , Eamonn Corry  and support staff Deirdre Larkin engaged in the project was crucial to engendering similar enthusiasm in their students. I enjoyed working with the students and their teachers very much and look forward to the next stage.

Sincere thanks to you all .


Cathy Desmond  BA HDip LTCL
Director Stringschool   email cdstringschool@gmail.com

Visit from NCH

Mrs Carrick, Dorothy  and Mr McInerney talk to the band

Big crowd for last lunchtime concert

Today we welcomed a return visit from Dorothy Conaghan, a violin teacher all the way from the National Concert Hall Dublin  who visited us last November . She worked on the  inside bow grip .  Mr Corry's class worked on a Swedish Folk song . Here is the riff

E E E E E E E E (x8) D D D D D D D D (8) E E E E E E E E (8)  D D D D (x4)  E_ E_ ( long x2)
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1           0  0 0  0 0  0  0  0

Ms Spring's Class  worked on a Twinkle Variation to  the rhythm Down  Em Ma  Up  Em ma  

Bend your knee means changing down a string and all 3 fingers go down   (Aon Do Tri  Trasna )

Mr Blake's class worked on another variation starting on A and going on to the highest string E  This time the rhythm was  Eist liom is Eist Liom.

In the afternoon we all joined the audience for the last lunchtime concert and to cheer on  Tara and Ariadne, Shauna, Shauna, Rana  Sarah and Aoife  who volunteered to play violin .

In the afternoon we worked on the Swedish Folk Song with the band .

What the pupils are saying......

1.  "Swinging strings is an enjoyable project in Ennis National School. 
Every Wednesday morning we have a practice and we learn lots
of things from songs to pizzicato (playing by plucking) and
how to use our bow.
The teacher's name is Miss Desmond. She is a nice lady 
Two weeks ago we listened to some music by Vivaldi.
We also listened to some rock music. The name of the song
was We Will Rock You. Then we played along!
It is amazing and I enjoy doing it.
On Monday Miss Desmond calls in to see us and
gives us a sneak peak at what we will do during our next lesson.
Thank you for reading this.

By NAOMI OBADEYI

 2. "In Ennis National School we have a kind visitor.

Her name is Miss Desmond and she is the violin teacher
we learn pitsacoto and bowing. It's not just classical, it's fun!
I really look forward to Wednesday.
It is only  for fourth class so I feel very special.
Its great craic.Just before Hallowe'en we listened to some scary music and I loved it."

By Rían Corey

3. "In  Ennis National School we are having violin lessons.

Our teacher is called Miss Desmond. Every wednesday we have our lessons. We learn pitsicato which is playing by plucking the strings with your fingers. Recently we have started using our bows.

All the classes are having a big show at the end of the year for the whole school. My favorite song is 'We will rock you'.

 learned how to stand;you have to position your feet like a butterfly's wings. We learned rest position & playing position. .

4th classes only are playing. We do not have to pay for violins.

We get 30 violin lessons altogether.It is a fun break from work.

It is a very enjoyable project for all the class.

It's not just classical, its groovy music too!

By Zoe Kayla Brigdale Age: 9
Teacher:Miss Spring

 

Swinging Strings Debut performance at Ennis National School Hall

The Swinging Strings Violin Ensemble                

The 4^th classes at Ennis National School   in their inaugural performance at

             12 pm Wednesday 15^th December.

With director Cathy Desmond  and Ennis National School Band, director Mrs De Buitleir  and  class teachers Mr Dara Blake, Eamonn Corry and Ms. Elizabeth Spring

Programme         

Mr Corry’s Class    O Come All Ye Faithful

                                Away In A Manger   

                                Rudolph Retakes  featuring Frank on Bass

                                Leader Leah

                                 **********************************

Ms Springs Class    Toreadors March    Bizet   

                                We Will Rock You Queen  

                                Fox Trot 

                                Leader Naomi                

                              ************************************

Mr Blake’s Class     Good King Wenceslas   (quavers on  G and G’)

                                Crescendo and decrescendo tremolo

                                Finale Jingle Bells (Down Up Bells )    featuring Patrick on bass                 

                                Leader Raphael

                               *****************************************♫

The Swinging Strings programme; The aim of this project is to deliver an inclusive group music making experience through whole class participation in an instrumental music programme. It aims to widen access to the Ennis National School Band and enhance our effective delivery of the Primary School Arts Curriculum Over 80 students and their teachers are participating.

Check out the project’s dedicated website www.swingingstrings.blogspot.com which contains some great photos, regular updates  on the programme and  videos clips etc.

For further information  email;   cdstringschool@gmail.com

Acknowledgements:  Thanks to the Clare County Council Arts Office for its   support from the Artist in Residence Scheme  and to those who donated instruments including the Flanagan, McEnnis and Hobbs families, and Custy’s Music  Shop in Ennis

Well done 4th classes and Ms Spring, Mr Blake and MrCorry . Great concert today!  The house band were brilliant . Congrats to director, MsDe Buitléir 

The Swinging Strings Violin Ensemble   

Over 100 students were involved in today's performance

Bond with a Classical Twist

We started today  with finger warm ups , some Left Hand  pizzicato and strumming .
After some revision of open string tunes , it was on to first finger down on D string to revise  new note E . Ms Spring's class and Mr Blake's class went on to put 1  23  down on  D string . We had some fun with Old MacDonald .  We split into Blue and Brown squares and took turns to play and sing .
Mr Corry's class took the next step in bowing , non stop quavers .  No stopping ye now!
We played a game with  musical  cards . Here is a sample of four . Tempo;  Arco : Pizz. : Waltz
( Play with bow)  (Speed of music  )  (Pluck string ) (Dance  in 3 time)

Well done to our  leaders  today Maeve,  Leah and Patrick  who lead our ensembles today.     Ms Spring's students   Cadhla  and Sarah  were highly  commended for effort today. A special thank you to  Shauna , Aoife and Leah  for acting as practice mentors this week.  Great. Well done girls .  Ye did a great job!
Check out our two new clips. Vladimir Jablokov  who sends his best wishes to Swinging Strings  following his brilliant gig at Dolan's Limerick plays his  Bond/Mozart mix  on the LateLate Show and  a clip from the movie  by composer James Barry

Quiz next week on the website clips .
 Some questions

1 In one word describe  how Vladimir Jablokov is using his bow at the opening. 

 What instrument from the wind family also features in the clip?

2 Now You Has Jazz Clip 1 How many instruments can you identify  in the clip ?

3. Complete  the sentence  The Jaws theme is based on a   S_  __ _  _ _ _ _

4 What is a Toreador . The Toreadors song come from the opera    __ _ _ _ _ _

5 In The   Kerry Dances with fiddle players Stephane Grapelli and Frankie Gavin ;
  Describe how the tempo changes when the second fiddle  player Frankie Gavin  joins in .  _____________________________________________________
    _ _ _ _ _______ _____________________________________

Swinging Strings Ennis Trad Festival week

Ms Desmond and assistants  in  her Custy's T Shirt

Week 7 : Well done everyone , the class filed in and took their places very quickly and after our bow we practiced placing our violins in playing and rest position quickly without making a sound .  The class are really good at this now.   We raced through some of our repertoire from the last few weeks . We practised Vivaldi in G and used the same rhythm  for O Come All Ye Faithful.  It worked really well. 

We did two new things today .We did some left hand strumming playing all four strings like a guitar with our left finger 3 .   We jazzed things up with a new backing track for This is E putting our first fingers down firmly on our D strings.   Remember you have to press firmly to get a good sound . We finished with our down up Down Up  Rock You riff  to Jingle Bells .   

Thanks to Custy's Music shop for their donation to our instrument bank and for their designer teeshirt which I wore today .

Check out our youtube clip of trad fiddler Frankie Gavin  and jazz fiddler Stephane Grapelli?

 Can you remember what instruments used in traditional music were on my tee shirt ?

Is new note  low  E on a line or a space  ?  Counting from the bottom , which one?

Can you name all 4 members of the string family . Which member is found  in jazz bands . ( Hint : there is a picture in your music book of a jazz band)

Which one features most in Irish traditional music ?


Mentors and students dont forget Friday is official  practice day

Jazz & Jaws

This week we learned what a semitone sounds like and I played a solo violin version of one of the scariest movie themes ever that featuring a certain well known shark and,  as it was Halloween,  the jig the Lilting Banshee.

We learned what a # sign does to a  note .
We  worked on our hushed tremelo for a prelude to  When a Child is Born       (G )
We adapted our Rock you riff to Jingle Bells (Down Up Bells )    G or D
We played pizzicato on our new open string E  in our accompaniment to Away in a Manger 
Composer Corner featured  a piece by 20 century American Composer Cole Porter  Now You Has Jazz  featuring a jazz band .  COOL ! We took a close up look at a clarinet. Check out jazz legend Louis |Armstrong on our Video Clip
A  special thank you  to Shauna Kearney  who worked very hard  to have everything ready for start of classes.   Friday is practice day.

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!