For our orchestra students, the goal is to perform often, learn as much new repertoire as possible, and play fun gigs. Rehearsals are intense but fun, and with a wide range of student abilities, the focus is on continual improvement as individuals and as a group.
Our school is located in a high-poverty, inner-city neighborhood and has a tremendously diverse student body.
We have a significant number of disadvantaged and minority students as well as mainstream students planning on attending four-year colleges.
The nearly 200 students that participate in our three different orchestras have a wide range of abilities, but work hard as a team to present nearly a dozen high-quality performances every year. These students take great pride in the level of music-making they are able to accomplish and the long-standing tradition of excellence in orchestral music at our school.
My Project
With a high-quality digital recorder, the orchestra students will be able to easily record and play back portions of rehearsals at any time. This will allow the students to get instant feedback on the sound they are creating and to assess their own playing on a regular basis.
Self-evaluation through listening is critical to students' musical improvement, and in a large orchestra setting, it can often be difficult to hear the sound of the whole symphony while playing their individual parts. Having the ability to record and listen to the orchestra as a whole will be a significant tool in the students' learning to play both as individuals and as a group.
For our students, being able to record orchestra rehearsals on a regular basis will vastly improve their critical listening skills and be both informative and inspiring.
They will develop a better understanding of where they need to practice and how to improve their sound, and they will be also be able to hear when their hard work pays off with a beautiful performance!
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