The Ice Cream Social is right around the corner and I couldn't be more excited!!!  Not only do we get to combine with Covington and work with one of my favorite middle school directors, Mr. Hall, and we get to eat ice cream, but we also get to play one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite composers, "I Got Rhythm" by George Gershwin.

First, lets talk ice cream!!!  It takes quite a few gallons to pull off this social, and anything you can donate is super helpful!  The link below takes you to a a website which will help us organize all of the donations we need to make the evening a success.

Now let's talk Gershwin!!!  The song I Got Rhythm is featured in the 1951 musical film An American in Paris. Gene Kelly sang the song and tap-danced, while French-speaking children whom he had just taught a few words of English shouted the words "I got" each time they appeared in the lyrics.

Gershwin also had great fondness for this piece, so he orchestrated " I Got Rhythm" and added variation for a tour in 1934 with the Leo Reisman Orchestra.

I Got Rhythm originally came from the 1930 musical, Girl Crazy. Ethel Merman made her stage debut in this musical production and it also turned Ginger Rogers into an overnight star.  Between the syncopated rhythmic figure and the chord progression, they make "I Got Rhythm" the most quoted piece of music to date.  Quotes can be heard in pieces such as "Salt Peanuts" by Dizzy Gilespie, "Rhythm-a ning" by Thelonious Monk, and "Meet the Flinstones" by Hanna & Barbara.

In the mid-1920s, Gershwin stayed in Paris for a short period of time, during which he applied to study composition with the noted Nadia Boulanger, who, along with several other prospective tutors such as Maurice Ravel and Arnold Schoenberg, rejected him. They were afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style. Maurice Ravel's rejection letter to Gershwin told him, "Why become a second-rate Ravel when you're already a first-rate Gershwin?" ~wikipedia.

There were many “firsts” for Gershwin: the first to combine serious and popular music in his jazz concerto, “Rhapsody in Blue” (1924); the first to score a Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Of Thee I Sing (1931), which was one of the Gershwin brothers’ “serious” musicals employing social satire; and the first to write an American opera, Porgy and Bess (1935), further distinguished by its all-black cast, its roots in African culture, and hits such as “Summertime.”  ~excerpt from Jazzbiographies.com

​Gershwin started his musical endeavors as a "song plugger," or someone who demonstrates new songs in a public setting to promote new sheet music in Tin Pan Alley in New York.  He then was found by a recording company where he began arranging and recording piano rolls.  Piano rolls were continuous pieces of paper punched with holes relating to the pitch and duration of notes.  These rolls were sold to be used in player organs or pianolas in peoples homes to reproduce live performances without the performer needing any knowledge of how to play the piano!  Gershwin's piano rolls have been collected and recorded on many albums today.  From here, Gershwin teamed up with his brother Ira to write for Broadway until moving to California to write for film.  It was in Los Angeles that Gershwin died at the early age of 38 from a malignant brain tumor.

Gershwin's music was extremely popular during his lifetime and after, which is why so many critics and historians categorize him in the Pop genre, although his classical works stand up to under the same scrutiny used to measure his contemporaries in the classical genre.  Despite which category you put him in, this prolific composer demonstrated creativity, collaboration, and innovation which made him extremely successful.  These are also the skills the Ice Cream Social and Concert inspires in students by bringing together so many talented musicians and artists!!!  This year we are including guest artists: Thomas Mann, jazz pianist; Piper Smith, arranger; and Crockett's own Duncan on drums.  It will be awesome!!!  Happy Practicing!!!

January is going to be busy and fun!!  Students have chosen solos and small ensembles to work on for UIL Solo and Ensemble on January 30th.  I am available at lunch and after school for tutoring, students just need to schedule a time with me a day in advance. We will be performing for each other in class and learning proper etiquette for contest in the process.  Each entry will have a time slot, and as soon as I have information from the contest, I will post the schedule here and on our Facebook page.  As a preparatory performance for the contest, all students will be performing at the Pancake Breakfast on January 23rd.  We need parent volunteers and donations to make the breakfast a fun time for everyone!!!  Please visit our volunteerspot.com to sign up to help!!!

http://vols.pt/fsNkkD

There are a few things you can do at home to help prepare for the Solo & Ensemble.  First, practice!!  Mindfully.  Set a goal for a particular part of the music and try to meet it through your practice session.  Second, listen!!  Listen to many different recordings of your solo or ensemble to figure out what you want to do with your interpretation.  This will also help you identify the form and memorize the piece easier.  Lastly, perform!!  It takes stamina, mental and physical, to perform a piece in its entirety.  If you don't practice it, you can't do it.  Gather an audience, anyone will do, and perform with the stage presence you want to achieve.  Practice getting nervous and then dealing with the nerves so that when the contest comes, you are as prepared as you possibly can be. (If you need help with performance anxiety, check the blog archives for a very helpful video.)  

Now for the Ice Cream Social!!!  We are inviting our Bedichek and Covington beginners to join us in a pops style concert and enjoying some yummy treats afterwards!!  This event is right before the beginners will be getting their choice sheets for next years electives.  We want to make a good impression and let them know how much fun it will be for them if they continue to take orchestra all the way through high school.  I need a couple of students to play an excerpt from their solo and talk about what orchestra has meant to them or the positive influences it has had on their school experience.

We will be playing two pieces; Stand by Me will be with the sixth graders, and Royals will be our stand alone piece.  There are only a couple of weeks from when we return to school until the Ice Cream Social, so we have to work very fast to get the pieces performance ready!  The trickiest thing about pops music is by far counting the rhythms, so be sure you isolate measures that you are unsure about and practice counting them out loud using your subdivision syllables and a metronome at a very slow tempo.  Remember to "sandwich" the measure by practicing getting into and out of it, and increase your tempo gradually.  Happy Practicing!!!