Orchestra teacher

Top tips for school orchestra directors!

Oh happy day! This week I taught my beginners how to tune and I wish I would have done it months ago. They were excited to learn how to tune. Students want to be able to tune their instruments because it's not fun practicing when your instrument is way out of tune. Sometimes we assume that students can not tune their instruments and we don't want to risk it because strings are expensive. I usually don't have my students tune themselves until their 2nd year, but I teach how to tune at the end…

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It's no secret; I am a fan of tech in education! Here are my favorite apps for beginning band and orchestra.

After seeing a fingering poster online that another orchestra teacher had created, I knew I wanted to make a set for myself. I cut strips of black paper at various widths to show the strings from thickest to thinnest (1/4", 1/2", 3/4", 1"), laminated the poster, then used Velcro to mark where each note would go. Each letter name bubble was cut out, laminated, and Velcro-ed. I also taped a plastic baggie to the back of the poster to store the unused notes. At one school, I have a strip of…

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Wanna be a cool orchestra teacher? Try this idea with your beginners! I've been listening to the song 'Keep Your Head Up' and I love it! Perfect for bow exercises...but it got me thinking... If I could change the words a little - especially in the chorus - it would be perfect to use to teach proper instrument position. So I changed the words to the song: I plan on having my orchestra learn the words (at least to the chorus) and sing them while we are setting our left hand positions. I…

I just survived the first 9 days of school. Wow...it's been busy! After a long summer break, it's always a shock to my system to start getting up early and working again. I love the first few weeks of school. Students are motivated and excited and I love seeing them delight in learning and developing their talents. It is so important to give students a great start. I am passionate about setting up beginners with the best possible position. When students develop poor position it can be very…

Bow games are a big part of my daily routine in beginning orchestra and I have students do bow games every day for many months. That means that I need to keep bow games interesting so that students don't get bored with doing them. At the start of the year, students are in a new school as 7th graders and they tend to be extra quiet and a little reserved. I want them to bond in my class and start making friends in orchestra as soon as possible. This is one bow game that really helps students…