International Day Public Debut






Flying Fingers Fire Brigade View




F F Trio Turlough, Mark  and Joe 



Mark tinkles the ivories

The Flying Fingers Violin Ensemble made their public debut last Friday in a live performance on the school grounds as part of the International Day Festivities at Ennis Educate Together National School .  Both classes combined to make a super group with teachers Claire and Gemma  .  The rain threatened but held off long enough to allow the performance . Here is our programme

Foxtrot
Two String Reggae
Toreadors March
Wintertime in Russia
First Finger Riff
Vivaldi in G

Ayoub made his debut on double bass and Romanca led the ensemble . Bravo tutti !  Mark , keyboard supremo from 3rd class accompanied the class on the last number and followed with an uptempo Slovakian  number of his own choice .  Amongst the other entertainment on offer, the barbershop quartet  'Chill' followed with a performance and  I joined Conor Keane on accordion to play some traditional Irish  duos with fiddle and box . Congratulations to all the ensemble on a wonderful debut . Looking forward to the next one !

Conor Keane on Box

Week 7 Rehearsing for Intercultural Day

We rehearsed our programme for next week.   We did the same programme as last week.  We really nailed the sring crossing today.  There was a big improvement in bowing work today. Some people were really good. Debbie , Treasa and Natalia made great leaders .   Can't wait for our first performance !!

Week 6 New open string E

Classes came in reverse order today with Gemma and her 4th class first in to the parents room.  Keyboard supremo Mark worked on a new song today.  We revised the open strings  G D and A Claires class went on to open string E . We worked on Wintertime in Russia. - Remember small bows for Win-ter-time -in .

Here is todays programme

4th class  Gemma
Vivaldi in G
Two string Reggae
Toreadors March
First finger riff  on D 
Wintertime in Russia    with bow

5th Class Claire
First finger Riff on D
New  Slovak Song  D A E A       Chord sequence
Vivaldi in G
Two string Reggae
Wintertime in Russia
Athacama Crossing   crossing from D to A

Really good attention paid throughout by both groups. 

Week 5 Two String reggae

Programme today

Vivaldi on G
Two String Reggae   Gz G z    D zDz   GG DD   Dz G z
Toreadors March
Foxtrot

First finger riff   EEEEEEEE DDDDDDDD EEEEEEEE DDDD  E_ E_   Count to 8

Bow grip   Rus sia   Down Up     remember bend your thumb

Well done to Mark for improvising on keyboard .

Lesson 4

Maire Ni Cathain visited our class today . We played Foxtrot and Toreador's March for her .  We worked on a cool new riff. see below

E E E E E E E E  D D D D D D D D    E E E E E E E E  D D D D  E_ E_

1  1 1 1 1 1 1 1   0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0   1  1 1 1 1 1 1 1   0 0 0 0      1 1

We worked on our bow hold    Remember  Bend your thumb and make your rabbit's ears

Can you remember the notes of the three lowest strings? 

We played Rock - You on open string A  to a rock accompaniment

Twins

Mark  keyboard  supremo joined 5th class on keyboard as accompanist

Joe

3 Foxtrot and Tremelos

Today we had some new students Daniel and Sabrina who caught up very quickly. Mark joined us on keyboard

Here is our new tune today  . It features the open strings D and A

Foxtrot

D D D_  A A A _  D D D_ A A A _

D D D_  D D D_  A A A_   A A| D z

Bow Grip
Make a ring  with thumb and middle finger  

Rus sia   Down Up 

We learned how to play a scary tremelo  by moving our bow very fast on the string .

  Next week  We will rock you

Things to  practice this week
1 Bow grip with  a pencil 
2 Toreadors March 
3 Foxtrot

Toreadors March New Note A

We moved on today to do some new things in music class . We played pizzicato to

Toreador's March and learned a new note A . We learned how to read  new note A and D  on the stave ( 5 lines).

Our new instrument today was the double bass . Check it out on the photo !

You can click on the link  below to listen to one being played

 http://www.dsokids.com/listen/instrumentdetail.aspx?instrumentid=7

Well done to Peter and Debbie who were leaders today!

Can you remember what a Toreador does?

 What three strings have we learned?

Off to a flying start at Ennis Educate Together NS...

The "Flying Fingers " music programme got off to flying start at Ennis Educate Together National School with 4th class and 5th class taking part in their first lesson on Thursday 24th March . The meeting room was transformed into a music studio for the afternoon and each class in turn came in for their session. To begin, twenty mats were placed on the floor with a violin on each.



Rest Position



4th class

Pupils stood beside a mat each, and were taught how to hold the instrument in 'rest' and in 'play' positions. They learned the names of the strings and how to play 'pizzicato' (plucking the strings). They listened to music on CD and played along with some Vivaldi and some reggae . Smiles all round!
 

 

5th class lesson 1







Rosining the bow