Oh my goodness!  Arnie has done it again!  Yet another fun, dynamic piece of original music for our group to play at the Nisswa Stamman!

We held our first of 5 summer session practices last night at the Crosby High School Band room.  We had a good turn out, but even with a full room, there were some students missing.  Imagine us at full strength!  We even had some snow birds show up!

As a reminder, if you are planning to play in the Nisswa Stamman on June 7th, you need to get signed up!  There is a sign up sheet on the blackboard in the band room, or you can call Lynne Foot or myself.  Another reminder is to either *find* your Yellow T-Shirt from last year, or to get a new one ordered!  They are $10 each.  Again, call Lynn or myself, or sign up this coming Tuesday. My number is 218-829-3818.

The Fiddler's Parade songs will again by "Arnie's March" and "Applebo"  It's highly recommended to memorize these two, for *obvious* reasons!    ~~See you Tuesday!

Attention Arnie's Fiddlers! Dig out your yellow T-Shirts!

The Summer Session Practices will be held ontuesdays after all. The first one is Tuesday, May 6, 2014 from 6:30 to 7:30pm at the CI  High School Orchestra room. The other dates are May 13, 20,27, and June 3.

Arnie will be handing out the music at the first practice.  If you have Black Bear mazurka, Ko Polska or The Wikstrom Tune, bring them along.  Arnie has also written a couple new tunes for us! 

This is in preparation for the Nisswa Stämman June 6 and 7, 2014 as well as any other gigs that may come up! 

Spread the word about going back to Tuesday's!

February Notes from "The Quarter Note"

God Fettisdag!

Lynn has mailed out the Quarter Note information for the upcoming Orchestra session and I will repost the pertinants here in case you misplace your copy.  It will always be here for reference.  The schedule is as follows:

Ripple River Strings Spring 2013 practice times will be Tuesdays in the C-I Band Room
            Mandolin Orchestra from 5:00 to 6:00pm
            Ripple River Orchestra from 6:00 to 7:00pm

The practice dates are as follows:  Beginning Tuesday, February 19, 26, March 5,12,19 and 26, April 2 and 9.

The Spring Concert Dates are Saturday, April 13th at 7:30pm at the Salem Lutheran Church in Deerwood.  Then Sunday, April 14th at 2pm in the Aitkin High School Auditorium.

Here are the songs!
                             
"Frog in the Oatmeal"                               (A.Anderson)
"Mandolin Chase"                                     (A. Anderson)
"Anna's Visa"                                            (Arr. A. Anderson)
"Evening Bells" "In the Moonlight"          (Arr. A. Anderson)
"Fiddling with Bach's Notes"                    (A.Anderson)
"Orsa Valse"                                              (Arr. A. Anderson)
"A March with a bunch of Notes"              (A. Anderson)
"Nothing but the Blood of Jesus"               (Arr. A. Anderson)

Arnie has indicated he is fine with his music being scanned and emailed.  If you'd like copies, please drop me an email and I will get them right off to you.  As for the other songs, there are copyright issues we need to respect.

                                                                      *********

The flyers are also out for this Summer's Nisswa Stamman!  You can go to the website for more information www.nisswastamman.org. I imagine soon Paul will want to know how many will be attending from our group so he can get name tags made.  The dates this year are June 7th and 8th.  Friday the 7th are the workshops and the concert.  Saturday the 8th is the parade and the performances.

See you all in a couple weeks!  Please spread the word about the blog being here for your reference!

~~Rachel

We certainly spread some Holiday Cheer!

The Caroling went off beautifully on December 22.  The weather cooperated pretty well, and we had an ok turnout, although from what I hear, it was down from last year, probably due to having to reschedule so close to Christmas.
~
We're on a break now, until practice begins for the Spring Concerts.  The dates for the Spring Concerts are Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7th.  Lynn Foote will be arranging for the locations, most likely the same as in the past.  I will post that information as it is comfirmed.

Once the Spring Concert is done, we will have another short break and then morph into "Arnie's Fiddlers" for the summer!  This will include the Nisswa Stamma in June!  I have some of the Swedish Fiddle Tune sheet music that I have found in the public domain online.  If you are iterested in it, I can mail or scan them off to you.  They are the songs played at the Allspell at the opening, where all the groups gather around the main stage and play the traditional old time favorites.  Email me at akkamarie@gmail.com if you are interested in having the sheet music to practice before the Stamma.  It's really quite rewarding to be able to play these songs with the big group!  Maybe we can see about arranging a special practice time this spring just to go over these songs, if there is interest in doing so.

So!  Keep practicing!  Devote some time to those scales.  Listen to your "Inner Arnie" saying "Long bow!"  :~)

Keep Warm ~~Rachel

Caroling Postphoned! Rescheduled to Saturday, Dec 22.

Same place, same time!  It was a wise and prudent move on Arnie's part to postphone our gathering until the weather was better.

Of note, there were 53 people at the rehearsal!  Arnie said he thought maybe an additional 10 would be coming to Carol as well!  Goodness, that's over 60 sets of strings vibrating at once!  What a force for good we're becoming.  Which brings to mind the recent news.  As Mr Roger's said of his mother's response to bad news, she would say "Yes, it's bad, but look for the helpers, there are always good people stepping up to help."  Her intent was to help her then young son process tragic events and realize that even though awful things are hashed and rehashed in the news, a wiser choice may be to "look for the helpers".  We can be those helpers on Saturday as we spread our cheer, smiles and talents to those who may wander by as we're playing!

Until Saturday!  ~~Rachel

Christmas Caroling, 2012

Planning is underway to do some Christmas Caroling, "String Style" again this year.  Arnie has made arrangements and they are as follows:

Tuesday, December 4th, 6 to 7pm, practice at the CI High School Music room.

Saturday, December 15th, 3:00pm.  We will meet at the Westgate Mall at the Herberger's inside/mall entrance (by their shoe department, for those of you who are familiar with Herberger's)  We will play for approximately an hour.  Consider getting to the Mall by 2:45 to tune up and get ready.

Saturday, December 15th, 5:30pm.  We will then travel to Crosby and play at the Heartwood Senior Living Center.  The address is 500 Heartwood Drive, Crosby.  After we play, we will have Pizza!

If you need further directions or clarifications, please feel free to call me at 218-829-3818.  I will have my phone with me on the 15th.

If you have the Christmas music from last year, please bring it with you to rehearsal.  These would be good pieces to memorize as well if you haven't done so already.  Arnie didn't mention anything about attire.  What you wore last year should work.   Maybe something festive?  Let's hope the weather cooperates!

Happy Holidays to all,
Rachel

"Well, that's sounding better"

Those words, from Arnie, are music to OUR ears as we practice deligently each week in preparation for both our lesson and the Tuesday evening Orchestra rehersals.  Attendence was down this past Tuesday as there were many competing events, from sports to baby showers!

Arnie did share a tip for this week.  He says we need to be mindful of the lack of sharps in Izy's Waltz.  He had the group work on finding C natural and F natural, reminding us to use a "low second finger" for both.  It was helpful to run up and down the scale on both the A string, finding C natural, and also on the D string, zeroing in on F natural.  For most, this may seem like an easy feat, but most of our songs have been in the key of G with both F and C being sharp.

With the concert less than a month away, the next topic for Arnie's input will be about concert etiquette.  I am sure he will have some guidance for us to prepare us as some of the students will move on to bigger stages!