October 27 5th period orchestra

Things we are doing when we aren’t playing

Every day Mrs. Buehl sets out cans with options of activities that we can do. For example, we put our Popsicle sticks in the can that says “I would like to blog today.” Our sticks got chosen, and here we are blogging. Another example is we watch different videos that are examples of different musical variations. We watched a video representing a Fugue and it had people singing different parts of a song at different times, kind of like a round. We also watched a video on ostinato on the potter puppet pals. They all made different noises to make a rhythm. After we watched the video we made our own ostinato. We got with a group and said our names in different ways. It was really fun! We also wrote poems called cinquains about our songs. We have learning communities that we do puzzles and work together to learn more about the music we are playing. Sometimes, we even do non related things to music on half days or non regular school days, like making up stories or skits.

Shelbey Hagen and Peter Kissling

October 27 2nd period orchestra

In the past few weeks we have working on the songs: Postcards from Russia, Variations on a Well Known Sea Chantey, Sansa Kroma, An English Folksong, and we also watched a variation piece on Tinkle Twinkle Little Star. This piece was played by a little boy who is very talented at playing the piano, and the piece lasted 7 minutes. On Tuesday the 24th of October, we did an exit slip called If I Were a Variation, for this slip we had to write a variation on what the certain person would, such as a slow tempo but Fortissimo. For the week of the 24-29 we had WKCE testing and we didn’t get to come to orchestra every day and practice. In our small group lessons we are still working on Vibrato. We are also very excited about our winter concert this November. The four of us just wanted to say that Mrs. Buehl is a very talented Orchestra teacher.

Blog written by,
Morgan Espich, Lauren Reid, Arianna Nasserjah, and Jessica Forster

6th period 7th grade orchestra

Hillo Peeps,

We play wonderful music, like English Folksong and Variations on a Well Known Sea Chantey. We have been practicing for 4-6 weeks and we have gotten very good at these pieces. Also in small group we have been learning vibrato. Vibrato is hard at first but then when you get used to it, it gets easy. We are all very talented players on our instrument. We practice and play every day really hard so we can be better than any orchestra in the world. We always tune in the beginning of orchestra so we sound our best when we play music.



- Cameron, Paige, and D.J.

8th grade orchestra

Week Six of Orchestra
Kyrie: This week in Orchestra we have been working on vibrato and also our concert pieces. My favorite piece is dance scenario. It is really cool! But all of the songs that we are playing are cool. And we are learning lots of new things this year. :D

Ana: This week in Orchestra we have been working on the 16th notes in Russian Sailor’s Dance. My favorite piece is Japanese Lullaby. Its fun to play and somewhat of a challenge! :D

Caitlin: This week in “La Casa de Orquestra” we’ve been working on the 16th notes in “Fughetta in G” it’s helping us overcome the challenge of the 16th notes so we can go full speed! My favorite piece is “Folk Songs of Israel” because I know the words to the song because of my religion, so it is fun to connect the lyrics to the piece we play! :)

DeEtte: This week in orchestra we have been working on the bowing at the end of Dance Scenario. My favorite song is Dance Scenario because I like how fast it is and the contrast of it. 

7th grade 2nd period orchestra

October 5, 2010

Orchestra 1st Quarter Blog

We love orchestra!! We love the song Ridin’ the rails. Ridin’ the Rails is a fun piece that uses mostly eighth notes with a spicatto at the beginning. This piece was composed by Richard Meyer. The next piece our everyday orchestra students enjoy playing is Sansa Kroma. This piece is a call and response piece with percussion, the percussion instruments are a drum, claves, shaker, wooden blocks. This piece was arranged by Felicia Sandler. And those are only some of our fun pieces for this quarter.


Mrs. Buehl students, Morgan Espich, Kristen Odorico, Anika Sande, Laura Reimer, Kailee Lessner, Arianna Nasserjah, Brianna Schwanbeck 