Greetings!
I hope you are all resting, recovering, and resetting after a long school year. (Personally, I think I slept for an entire week!)
While winding down, I realized I have a new summer project that I’m incredibly excited to share with my orchestra colleagues!
🪐 Rest, Reset, and... Rocket Ships?
Between the regular concert and the Story Concert, I only had two class times with my elementary students which is not enough to get some new music under their fingers (especially when they aren’t practicing!)
Do your students always practice? Grrr, right?
To keep them engaged, I passed out a silly open-string piece I’d written called "Motoring to Mars." Because string instruments excel at glissandos, the kids absolutely fell in love with it. They enjoyed it so much that I quickly created "Vacationing on Venus" to pair with the Mars piece for our performance.
Seeing how enthusiastically my beginners responded to these easy, high-reward pieces made me realize we need more resources like this. So, I decided to write an entire book of planet songs!
🚀 Introducing: "Orche-Stars in Orbit"
(Yes, I love alliteration way too much!)
Targeted specifically at absolute beginners, this collection is designed to motivate students with silly, short melodies while secretly reinforcing fundamental skills.
Here is what makes these pieces special:
- Instrument-Specific Techniques: Each song highlights a technique that string players love to do, including tremolo, glissandos, shifting, slides, pizzicato, and col legno.
- Built-in Posture Checks: Every piece incorporates a physical focus to help students naturally fix common bad habits, like straightening the left wrist or keeping the left elbow up.
- Maximum Fun, Minimum Stress: Perfect for those tricky gaps in your performance calendar when you need a quick win or something silly to keep them motivated!
☄️ Help Me Avoid a Total "Uranus" Disaster
The book should be ready by August 1st, 2026, but I’ve hit a bit of a cosmic roadblock...
I need a title suggestion for the planet Uranus.
As we all know, no matter how you choose to pronounce that name, it is a guaranteed recipe for giggles, distractions, and absolute chaos with elementary school students! 🙄
So if you have a creative, clever, or safely disguised title idea for this specific planet track, please hit reply and let me know. I am completely open to suggestions and kudos if there is alliteration!
Take care of yourselves this summer, and happy resting!
To great teaching and great tunes!
