October 8th, 2014 7:13pm
Depending on the length & difficulty of the piece you might want to begin by prepping the areas where the Middle School students might have performance issues (I.E. Notes, Ryhthms, Musical style changes such as Legato vs. Staccato). Keep the pace of the rehearsal going or you might have issues with attention lapses. Basically, think in terms of what you might expect to do if you were rehearsing an ensemble piece of music & run larger sections of the piece at first in order to familiarize the students with the music as well as identify any areas that may need additional work. Again, keep the initial rehearsal from becoming a major woodshedding session. That should only occur if the students are not able to work out any performance issues on their own, or if section issues occur that cannot be eliminated by individual/lesson practice.
Good Luck ... And have fun !!!