Jia-Senior Thesis

Course requests input for sophomores and AP registration.

Week 3: private lessons with Cassandra I noticed she had trouble sight reading so we did exercises to make sight reading faster, such as playing a g major scale and naming the notes. I would also ask her to play a note on a certain string to break down sight reading. I went over accidentals (flats and sharps) and the difference in playing a c sharp as opposed to a c natural. I also went over slurs, ties in rhythm, and keeping a strict tempo. Every week we go over short pieces in the Essentials for Strings books, and I send her recordings of the pieces through email as a reference.

Community Center plans: I went to Wesley Rankin again for music club, but since I didn't bring my violin I had trouble getting the kids to listen to me. Next time I plan to bring the violin, ask kids what songs they like to listen to, learn how to play arrangements of those pieces for the next week. I also will bring blank sheet music scores for the kids to practice writing notes and possibly a bunch of pencils from robotics as prizes. I reviewed notes and rhythms, since they had mostly forgotten from last time. For the next class, I will play Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (the solo I've been working on) and play more to get their attention. I am looking at various simple musical instruments to give out to keep the class more hands on.

Week 1: reading notes, basic rhythms (half, quarter, eighth, whole notes). They learned the notes  pretty quickly, but had trouble processing the concept of rhythm (when I asked to clap twice as fast, they just clapped really fast, not two claps per beat. I explained how many notes per beat they should clap, but most of them only learned by imitating my clapping pattern, not by reading the notes.) Week 2: I should go over basic rhythms again and try to reemphasize the concept, and review notes. I also need to go over rests again, and introduce time signature. I am working on making a printout that covers each lesson's basic information in a simple format using noteflight and ms paint.