Thanks to the social networking site, Facebook, and a former colleague and good friend I am a member of the "School Orchestra and String Teachers, v.2" group. Now one of my favorite and almost addictive sites, I check it regularly for questions, answers, stories, pictures, and website links posted by my now over 3,000 colleagues in string education from around the world. Talk about a big personal learning network!! I have found many funny, inspiring, and thought provoking posts over the past few months. Questions about bow holds, classroom management, and working with students with learning disabilities are followed up in a matter of minutes with five to ten answers or suggestions and sometimes more questions to clarify what is lost in translation through the internet. One post that I found memorable from a few weeks ago was this link to a page of the London Symphony Orchestra's website. Not only do you get to hear and see a world class symphony orchestra perform, in its entirety, Ravel's "Bolero", but you can change the view if what you are seeing. You can watch the conductor head on as if you were the principal violist, sit in the woodwind section and watch the oboist play his solo, have a panoramic view of the string section, or just simply watch that poor sucker of a percussionist play his snare solo over and over again for the 15-ish minutes that the piece lasts. What a fun way to see a symphony perform from so far away. Who wouldn't want to be up close and personal with a world class orchestra?
The London Symphony Orchestra plays Bolero
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