Gabby and her viola
With the school year wrapping up comes the time to show what the students have been learning over the past year. Gabby and I have been developing our musical talents. Gabby, amazingly, has been learning two instruments and 3 clefs at the same time! I am just amazed by that. She is doing really well too.
Thursday night was the Cinnaminson Strings concert. This is the entire strings program from 3rd grade, where the students begin learning their instruments, through high school. Their teacher Mr. Hercock has done a nice job working with all the students and putting together a concert that includes all of the grades together. Here is some video from their concert.
I don’t know where Gabby is in this group. Somewhere on the left in the back I think but she isn’t seen in the video.
For contrast, from the beginners above to the more seasoned high school players below, you can see how the kids can progress as they go along. They sound really good! I didn’t get the middle progression on video – the more advanced elementary and the middle school, but they sounded good too.
Then he put them all together for one final song.
Gabby is in the back towards the right this time and can be barely seen if you know what to look for but she’s mostly blocked by a music stand. I think this is so cool that Mr. Hercock was able to put all the strings together – beginners through high-school. It was a good concert. One thing I was really impressed with is that the kids seem to be learning music, not just their instruments and how to read it. But how to put it together too. There were two pieces that were done by kids in the group. One was a piece that was arranged by one of the high school kids. Another piece was actually composed by one of the middle school kids and it was fabulous!
Gabby heading up to the stage
There she is on stage, not very clear but you can see her hair and shoulder. This is where she was for the final piece.
This weekend we had our piano recitals. Gabby had hers on Saturday:
Her teacher has been impressed with her. Gabby really has picked it up pretty well and seems to be enjoying the piano.
My recital was this afternoon at our teacher’s house. It was a piano duo, which is not the same as a duet. In a duet, two people play on one piano but in a duo, two pianos play together. I played the duo with my teacher.
I really enjoyed it and have been enjoying learning the piano. I hope I can continue these lessons as much as possible and get really good.
Samantha came to both recitals. I think she’d like to learn to play the piano too. I hope they all do!
