Hi everyone,
My orchestra teacher (I have a class at my school with
alot of other people) said that I might end up in
the symphony that she plays in but I'm afraid
that my playing is slipping from me...
I only just started in sept. of 07 but she said
that me and a couple other people in my class
are higher than our 6th grade level...
Is there any tips that you can give me to keep
up good playing? (I try to practice everyday also for
atleast a half hour.)
If you can give me some tips that would be great!
thanks,
sweetreddancer

Getting a good private teacher would help a lot.

I played for about 5 years without private lessons (except what the school provided. My orchestra teacher is not the most reliable person for lessons though.. i had like 5, 15 minute lessons last year)

anyway, I played without private lessons for 5 years and it was pretty hard to keep up with everyone as almost everyone in band/orchestra has lessons (or the people that are pretty good at it) although I did manage to not be terrible.. i was 2nd chair all through middle school in band (flute), and always pretty high (3rd/4th chair) in orchestra.

Now that I can drive my mom lets me take lessons and I've improved SO much in 8 months, I even got 1st alternate for the Iowa All-State Orchestra after 4 months of lessons as a sophomore. I really wish do wish I had been able to start them sooner, but I love my lessons now.

If thats not an option, practicing every day when possible. As you get better your practice time will probably increase as you have harder/more music to practice.

thanks so much!
I guess I focus too much on one song or something
that I can never get very good at the other ones
too. I'm not sure if I can get private lessons
but ill just have to see what the future brings for me!
thanks agian,
sweet

Practice site reading.
What I did for percussion (it will work just find for violin becuase its just a practing thing) is I found a book that had the main themes of classical peices, so that each song was about a page long. Each day, I site read on of the songs. If you want, you can probably find music on 8notes to site read.

as boring as they seem practice scales and arpeggios (sp?) all with three octaves. it may seem boring, well atually it is going to be boring but this will help you a lot. try finding a scale book and practice one of them daily. Also try learning some caprices and etudes