August 31, 2005
The Mabry Symphony will have their first rehearsal on Thursday, September 8th. At that time we will discuss whether to continue on Thursday or move the rehearsal to Tuesday. Right now it looks like Tuesday might have the fewest number of conflicts.
Auditions for 6th and 7th grade strings are Friday, 9/2 and Monday 9/5. That's a change from the announcement letter which you can see here. The sign up sheet is on the orchestra room door. Audition material was passed out on Monday. Please email me at Chris.Doemel@Cobbk12.org with questions.
Posted by Doemel at 05:53 PM
Click on the link below to view or print the 2005-2006 Orchestra Syllabus. Please read carefully the section on grading. We will use practice records as a method of recording home practice time. A link to view or print a copy of the practice record can be found here. You can print only what you need by holding down the left buton of your mouse and dragging it across the section, then click File>Print, choose the Selection button then click OK.
Posted by Doemel at 05:26 PM
August 28, 2005
The link below will take you to a MSWord document. In the document are the following items:
Orchestra Equipment List
Orchestra Syllabus
Class Expectations
Concert and Activity Calendar
Orchestra Absolutes
Instrument Repair
Parent Communication/Due Dates
Uniform Information
Parent Volunteers
Private Lessons
Attendance
Use of School Owned Music
Parent Guide
How to Practice
Solo & Ensemble Festival
All-State Orchestra
Practice Record
You can save or print as you choose. You can print only what you need by holding down the left button of your mouse and dragging it across the section, then click File>Print, choose the Selection button then click OK.
Posted by Doemel at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)
August 25, 2005
The orchestra room will be open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday beginning at 8:00AM for student practice, small ensemble rehearsals, etc. On Thursday mornings the Mabry Symphony will rehearse and the room will not be available.
Students arriving from 8:00 - 8:15 must enter through the new cafeteria hall doors at the back of the school. Cars should enter the campus from the bus entrance on Steinhauer Rd. This is the same entrance used for the Sweat Mountain baseball fields. For safety reasons, no cars are allowed in the back bus lanes area after 8:15AM.
After 8:15 students should be dropped off at the front door and check-in at Study Hall before coming to the orchestra room. To speed-up the checking in process, Mrs. Sumrell has made passes. You can simply drop a pass on the table and come back to the room. Study hall passes are available in the orchestra room.
For the safety and accountability of all students, once a student has arrived at the orchestra room in the morning they may not leave to go to any other part of the building until 8:45AM, so please plan ahead.
Posted by Doemel at 12:22 PM
August 20, 2005
Please click on the link below to access the 2006 All-State Orchestra information. Please note the September 9th deadline for returning form and fee. All-State is early again this year. The district level audition is October 29th, the final audition is January 14th and the event is February 23rd-25th.
Posted by Doemel at 08:33 PM
The GMEA Solo & Ensemble Festival will be held Saturday, October 8th at Smitha Middle School. Solo & Ensemble Festival is an event for which students prepare a solo or small ensemble performance for a judge who gives a written evaluation and rating (I, II, III, IV or V). Solo and small ensemble preparation and performance are valuable musical experiences, very different from the school orchestra experience. It offers an additional performance opportunity and enhances the development of individual musicianship.
Please click on the link below to access more information and the registration form. Please note that the registration form and fee are due by Friday, September 2nd.
Posted by Doemel at 07:46 PM
August 14, 2005
Here are a couple of links I'd like you to check out.
The first is a link to the Boston Symphony Orchestra On-Line Conservatory. There is in-depth information on composers and performers from Beethoven to Stravinsky and Yo-Yo Ma to Wynton Marsalis. Scroll down to the links under the heading "Checkout the Online Conservatory!"
http://www.bso.org/itemB/detail.jhtml?id=12300008&area=bso
The next is a link to "Year of the Blues 2003", celebrating 100 years of the Blues. Here you can find all thirteen episodes of 'The Blues' Radio Series. Click on "All thirteen episodes of The Blues Radio Series" to start learning about the form of music that shaped all of American popular music.
http://www.yearoftheblues.org/index.asp
Posted by Doemel at 11:07 PM
Music educators have always believed that a child’s cognitive, motivational, and communication skills are more highly developed when exposed to music training. Now, study after study proves that music instruction is essential to children’s overall education because it improves their academic performance. The positive effects of music education are finally being recognized by science, verifying what music teachers have always suspected.
Music enters the brain through the ears. Pitch, melody, and intensity of notes are processed in several areas of the brain such as the cerebral cortex, the brain stem, and the frontal lobes. Both the right-brain and left-brain auditory cortex interprets sound. Feza Sancar (1999) writes that the right-brain auditory cortex specializes in determining hierarchies of harmonic relations and rich overtones and the left-brain auditory cortex deciphers the sequencing of sound and perception of rhythm.
Many studies have been performed to examine the affect of musical instruction on the brain. For example, researchers at the University of Munster, Germany, (1998) reported that music lessons in childhood actually enlarge the brain. The auditory cortex is enlarged by 25% in musicians compared to those who have never played an instrument. According to the study by Frances Rauscher of the University of California, Irvine, (1997) links between neurons in the brain are strengthened with music lessons. Dr. Frank Wilson’s study (1989) involving instrumental music instruction and the brain reveal that learning to play an instrument refines the development of the brain and the entire neurological system.
Curriculum areas that music instruction affects most include language development, reading, mathematics, and science. Music itself is a kind of language full of patterns that can be used to form notes, chords, and rhythms. Exposure to music helps a child analyze the harmonic vowel sounds of language as well as sequence words and ideas. Another curriculum area enhanced by music participation is reading. A child who participates in music activities experiences sensory integration, a crucial factor in reading readiness. Wilson’s study (1989) reveals that music instruction enhances a student’s ability to perform skills necessary for reading including listening, anticipating, forecasting, memory training, recall skills, and concentration techniques.
Mathematics is the academic subject most closely connected with music. Music helps students count, recognize geometric shapes, understand ratios and proportions, and the frameworks of time. Researcher Gordon Shaw (1993) found that piano instruction enhances the brain’s ability for spatial-temporal reasoning, or the ability to visualize and transform objects in space and time. This translates into a student’s heightened ability to understand fractions, geometric puzzles, math problems, and math puzzles. T. Armstrong (1988) reports that music educator, Grace Nash, found that by incorporating music into her math lessons, her students were able to learn multiplication tables and math formulas more easily. Teacher Eli Moar (1999) believes that arithmetic progressions in music correspond to geometric progressions in mathematics and that the relation between the two subjects is logarithmic.
At every age, exposure to music training effects academic performance. Susan Black (1997) reports that newborn babies have mechanisms in their brains devoted exclusively to music. These mechanisms help the newborns organize and develop their brains. Rauscher’s study (1997) indicates that just fifteen minutes a week of keyboard instruction, along with group singing, dramatically improved the kind of intelligence that is needed for pre-school students to understand higher levels of math and science. Her test results showed a 46% improvement in the spatial IQs for the young musician compared to only 6% for non-musicians.
Grade school music students also show increased learning in math and reading. The Public Schools of Albuquerque, NM, conducted a study (n.d.) which found that instrumental music students, with two or more years of study, scored significantly higher in the California Test of Basic Skills, (CTBS), than did non-music students. High school students also achieve greater academic excellence when exposed to music training. A study by Mission Veijo High School in Southern California (1981) shows that the overall grade point average of music students is consistently higher than the grade point average of their non-music peers. The music students achieved a 3.59 average while the non-music students achieved a lower 2.91 average.
Almost every college bound high school student must take the SAT college entrance exam. The College Entrance Examination Board at Princeton, NJ, (1999) reports that music students continue to out perform their non-arts peers on the SAT. The students with coursework in music study or music appreciation scored 61 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 42 points higher on the math portion than students with no reported music coursework. Additionally, music majors have the highest SAT scores in all areas.
High SAT scores are necessary for acceptance into college, but according to Nancy Biernat’s study (1989), those scores do not necessarily predict collegiate success. Success in college can be more accurately predicted by individual levels of achievement in student activities such as drama, debate, and music. Also, the students with the least amount of participation in school activities such as music have the highest drop out rates.
The scientific evidence is abundant, obvious, and compelling; there are strong connections between music instruction and greater student achievement. Regardless of age, exposure to music helps to develop and fine-tune the workings of the brain. Music training, whether instrumental, vocal, or music appreciation, helps develop a child’s cognitive and communication skills. Music education is linked to higher test scores, grade point averages, and success in college. Franz Roehman (1988) tells of one researcher, Dr. Jean Houston, who goes so far as to say that children without access to arts programs, such as music education, are actually damaging their brains. After reviewing the scientific evidence, it is clear that music instruction is essential to children’s education because it improves their academic performance.
Teresa Gagne
Posted by Doemel at 09:30 PM
August 09, 2005
An exciting year is ahead for the families and members of the Mabry Orchestra! The program continues to grow, in quantity and in quality and I anticipate this to be our strongest year yet.
We have a new room (with new carpet and paint) that provides more rehearsal space. The Mabry Symphony has received and accepted a prestigious invitation to perform at the 2006 Georgia Music Educators Conference in Savannah in January. We have commissioned a new work to receive its ‘World Premier’ at this performance. I’m looking into some other great ideas that will take the Mabry Orchestra and our study of music to higher levels.
Please check this space often. I’m determined to make this a valuable communication tool. In the next few days and weeks I will post important information here that will include our calendar, All-State Orchestra and Solo &Ensemble information, the orchestra syllabus and behavior management plan. I will also post here weekly on what we are working on in class so you can better monitor and aid your child’s musical development.
We’ve got a lot of exciting things happening this year that I hope you will want to be involved in. Don’t hesitate to contact me to talk about how you can help.
Thanks Mrs. Crane, Katie, Mark and Jenna for your help painting the room. It looks awesome!
Posted by Doemel at 02:06 PM
