This year I've had about 50 students throughout. A couple of students dropped at Christmas, but then I gained a few that wanted to start. Instrumentation has been tricky with this number and we have absolutely no school instruments left which is a good problem. I had 10 starting alto saxophones which is a LOT!!!! But this class surprised me with their internal motivation. I have had anywhere from 5-15 students in practicing during recess time. Yes, some days it was to avoid the bitter winter, but they were practicing none the less.
Our Christmas concert was their first performance and they squeak out "Jolly Old St. Nicholas", "Good King Wenceslas" and "Jingle Bells". These are all out of their beginning book and for the first debut it's not bad. It's not great, but not bad.
After Christmas we move out of their books and on to sheet music. They're feeling pretty proud of themselves by now. We played for one of our school assemblies and did a very nice job. However, they were playing a piece that shouldn't have been playable until April. I had the joy of choosing a little harder music for our concert. We played 2 pieces that were 6th grade material.
Since our concert we are playing songs just to challenge them a little more, but I continue to have to pull new pieces as they sight-read them on the spot. Another good problem.
During lessons is when students are pushed individually and I can meet their needs and challenge them directly. Several students are already in their 2nd book and continue to "wow" me on a regular basis. The following video is an example of this as they are adjusting to each others' part while playing a duet. This is usually something that has to be taught and comes with time, not as 5th graders.
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