Backyard Swing for String Orchestra (Grade 2)

Grade 2. This piece, in ABA form (D major/D minor), teaches multiple left-hand skills, including chromatic fingerings (in all parts) and a key change (finger pattern change). Bowing skills include articulation changes (in all parts), bow speed/control, and terraced dynamics. Written for the 2007 Ohio String Teachers Association's Middle School String Camp and named for the location of the premier, the "backyard" of the main building on the camp ground, it uses an eighth-note swing.