Our first official song on ukuleles! "Row, Row, Row Your Boat!" We are working so hard, that I forget to take pictures and capture recordings for each class! I will try to remember more next week!
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This week, we learned that there is actually a variation to the away chord. The kids have learned that chords are typically 3 pitches put together, but other chords may have more than three pitches. For example, when the Home chord is C, the Away chord is G, but it can also be a G7 chord. The G7 means that you add a fourth note to the chord, the 7th note away from G. The G7 chord adds a little bit more tension to the chord, really drawing the listener back to the C Chord, or Home Chord. If you haven't read about the Home and Away Chords yet, please check out the last few posts!!!! So, here are a couple examples of the 4th grades playing the C and G7 Chord in the song "Bottles of Pop"!
If you did not read the blog from last week about Home and Away Chords, make sure you check it out first for a little background info before you watch the videos below! The students now understand that chords are always changing beneath a melody. Sometimes one chord will sound good, but sometimes, a chord needs to change to something else. The most common chords that are used together are the Home and Away chords. In this particular song, the home chord is an F chord, and the away chord is a C chord. Together in a pattern, these chords work together to create the background accompaniment. :) Back in the fall of 2014, the 4th grade students learned all about making harmony in music. We learned three distinct ways of creating harmony, including an ostinato, a round, and chords. We are digging a little deeper into chords for this unit, however. The students are learning that a song with only one chord, like "Are You Sleeping" is pretty unusual! In fact, most of the songs we listen to have at least two or three chords, if not many more. Certain chords sound good at certain times, and we are beginning to learn some of the "rules" about adding chords to a song. For example, there is usually one chord, called the "home, tonic, or I chord", that begins and ends a song. However, at some point, the home chord will have to change based on the melody. The most common chord used along with a home chord is what is called an "away, dominant, or V chord". These two chords work so well together, giving a sense of tension and release when moving from the away to home chord. The home should always feel comfortable! Below are some pics of the student figuring out how to find and play the two chords, which happen to be an F and C chord for our song "A Ram Sam Sam". By next week, we will record the entire song, and you will be able to hear the difference between the home and away chords! |
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