It's summer break! As we start the summer, we take an opportunity look back at the year, and share out some of our successes as well as some areas of growth as we look toward the future.

Tiffany, an expert in solfege for sight reading with string instruments, discusses the powerful role of singing in developing string musicianship. She shares insights from her 2021 ASTA presentation, illustrating how solfege enhances sight-reading skills. The conversation delves into the cognitive benefits of singing, including improved pitch recognition and musical accuracy. Techniques for creating an engaging environment for vocal practice are highlighted, along with the importance of intertwining singing with instrumental education for better musicianship.

We share out amidst our Spring Break as we get ready for our final weeks before festival, then discuss how we approach the skill of sight reading in the string class in general, and more specifically how we go about the festival sight reading process.

On this episode, we spend some time talking about the progress of our classes as they head toward the end of the third quarter and into festival season.

We're back after a long winter hiatus! On this episode, we talk with Kyle Smith of The Growing Band Director Podcast on what you need to know before entering the string classroom, as well as some of the differences between teaching strings vs. band. Subscribe to The Growing Band Director Podcast here.

On this episode, we debrief after our winter concerts, then dive into the topic of seating. We share our philosophy on the goal of seating, how we handle the social and emotional components of seating, and how we practically do seating in our groups throughout the year.

On this episode, we talk with our guest and local Bay Area music educator Isabel McPherson about setting up string bass players to develop healthy and successful habits. Isabel is the Director of Orchestras at Redwood Middle School in the Saratoga USD. We discuss all things bass, including many topics they addressed at a 2022 CMEA Bay Section Conference session, “Baffled By Beginning Bass.” The slides from the session can be found here.

On this episode, we discuss how we work to create a true ensemble sound. We talk about the aspects of uniformity in sound, what kind of fundamental material to use to build awareness, and strategies to find a model and create a matched sound in the ensemble.

On this episode, Tiffany and Pat talk one-on-one about what has been happening at each ensemble level throughout the first quarter. We talk about our fundamental goals, what repertoire each group is playing, and how things are going so far!

On this episode, we welcome Dr. Angela Ammerman from George Mason University! Dr. Ammerman shares her experience using play-based teaching strategies in the ensemble classroom. She provided some excellent strategies for recruitment in her new book, The Musician's Guide to Recruitment and Retention. Find more about Dr. Ammerman here: Dr. Ammerman's Website Instagram #MusicEdLove Podcast The Musician's Guide to Recruitment and Retention