had the first cello choir meeting at CWS this saturday!   it was refreshing to play with the band (true, canned in the music room stereo) using martin norgaard’s jazz cello book.   norgaard’s two lessons on improv are awesome, and the focus on the minor pentatonic -> blues scale dovetails nicely with steiner pedagogy.   at waldorf, the 3rd and 4th grade is the time to move away from the pentatonic toward the diatonic (7 note) scale.    the pentatonic was seen by steiner as a great musical foundation since the five tones “float” directionlessly, and it’s basically impossible to play a “wrong” note.   the diatonic scales add the complexity of structure and harmonic “direction”,  a subsequent developmental step.

i think we’ll call it the “freestyle cello ensemble”,  since i realized that adding the word “freestyle” to any other word makes the whole phrase sound hip, rugged and fashionable.   like hip-hop.  bmx bikes.  figure skating.  and like the cello.