My Advanced Orchestra

    I know I had a few chances to tell you some things about my orchestra. Now I'm going to tell you almost everything about my orchestra. My advanced orchestra is made up of 13 violins, (6 in 1st, 7 in 2nd), 8 violas, 5 cellos, and 3 basses. Some of 2nd violins and violas are made up of 6th graders, just coming from beginning orchestra. I'm currently in 1st violin, but was in 2nd violin (with my friend, Michael H.). (We took a playing test, determining our seat placement.) When the 8th graders are gone next school year, I'll most likely be in 1st chair, when I'll be in 7th grade. Some people in beginning orchestra this year will move up to advanced orchestra. Mr. Miller, my orchestra teacher, is planning to move up a 5th grader and a few violinists. We also play at a high school level (I think a level C). John H. is 1st chair of 1st violin, and I'm in 5th chair. Mr. Miller is a cool and awesome orchestra teacher. He also teaches orchestra at another school. That's the school my best friend, Sid, goes to (he plays violin). We play (and have) the same pieces, and we practice sometimes (not as much as we used to). That is all I want to say for now. Please comment, if able. Thanks!

MPA

    MPA is a performance of three pieces where you get a rating for each piece:superior, excellent, good, fair, and poor (A, B, C, D, F). You are also asked to sight-read. For MPA we had to play Conquistador!, Canon In D (an arranged version), and Arlington Sketches (my middle school orchestra plays at a high school level). We started rehearsing for MPA in December. I was in 1st violin, but I wasn't worried. Conquistador!, I already knew how to play, Canon, I practiced the full version for 2 years already, and Arlington, I already knew how to play, too. We were already close to MPA, only a few weeks away, around the corner, on Feb. 25, 2012, and improved a lot since December, but I didn't know if we would play good enough to get straight superiors. After the next few weeks, we really did improve up to the point where we knew we would get straight superiors. The day of the performance, I wasn't nervous, but was curious what the sight-reading piece was going to be. On our way there, we knew someone didn't come (we soon found out on Monday that something had happened), because we counted the ones supposed to ride the bus.

                                    

    When we got there, we had to unpack at the cafeteria. We only had 30 min. to warm up. We then went out on the stage to play our pieces for the rating. When we started playing, I kind of doubted that we would get straight superiors. When we were done, we headed out to the sight-reading room. The title of the piece was 'Harrowland'. What was strange, the lady told my orchestra teacher to conduct in 4/4 time, when it was in cut time. She also had us end the piece at measure 55. When we played it, it wasn't too rough, but the last note, on measure 55, we had to look up at Mr Miller (orchestra teacher) and we had to hold out the last note. I only played part of the last note (I kind of told myself, that sucked).

                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                         

    After we went back to the cafeteria to pack up, after about 5 minutes, Mr. Miller gave us our results. We got straight superiors (counts for sight-reading, too)!!!!!! I was so happy because my first time playing in MPA, our orchestra got straight superiors. Hurray!!!!!!!

                                                                               

    Hope you guys liked my post! This was my first experience with MPA.

Some Things About Me

          Hey, people. I'm someone who loves the violin very much, and can play it pretty well for my age. I've been playing the violin for 2 years, this year being my 3rd. I know how to play many songs on the violin, like 'An Irish Party In Third Class' and 'Canon In D', all 1st violin! I have so much to tell about myself, like I'm 1st violin in my orchestra. We are at a high school level, and play really hard and challenging pieces. Some pieces, like 'Canon Rock Intermediate Version', I learn with my friend. It is really hard, with triplet sixteenths, and a few times during the piece your fingers feel like there moving everywhere randomly on the fingerboard, but if you practice it a lot, it'll sound really good. In my orchestra, we are currently playing 'An Irish Party In Third Class', and it's challenging. I can play the rhythm correctly and more slowly than the fast tempo. Some of my other mates in 1st can't really play the rhythm, and it goes really fast; I'm not even in 1st chair and I can play it! Especially the shift in the B section, I almost mastered it! Here is a video of a family quartet playing 'An Irish Party In Third Class', played at G major, then transitioning to D major.


                                          

                                                                                     


    Canon In D is a very beautiful song played at D major, and is normally played with three violin parts, a bass continuo, which is paired up with the gigue at the same key. Canon In D was composed by Pachelbel Canon, and today, Canon In D is played at weddings. Here is Canon In D!