With how the schedule has worked out this year, a couple of the classes got to work on an extra little Halloween song called "Halloween Night". With only one day to learn it and perform it, they did a fabulous job playing together in an ensemble! So proud of you, 4th graders!
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For our last week before Halloween, we added another part to the song "Black and Gold". This second part has different words and a different melody. But, the students discovered that even though the "Trick or Treat" part has a different melody, it can still be sung at the same time as "Black and Gold". This is called a part song, when two different melodies can be performed at the same time. Finally, the students also figured out that the accompanying chords must follow the same order/pattern if the melodies are to be sung together. It wouldn't sound good to have two different chords at the same time in the background. The chords must match, even though the melodies are not identical. Some examples of the students singing and performing are below!
This week, the students are learning how to play ALL of the chords in order for "Black and Gold" on the xylophones. They have learned three chords, D minor, G minor, and A7. The students understand how to create the chords and how to find them on the xylophones. They work in groups of 3 mostly, where each student plays one note of the 3-note chord. The challenge is moving the mallets from one chord to the next at the appropriate time during the song! Challenging, but very fun! We also played the chords in two-different ways. One recording demonstrates the chords played "blocked" or all together, and the next recording demonstrates the students "rolling" the chords!
In this Halloween song "Black and Gold," the students discovered that most songs, unlike "Are You Sleeping," use more than one chord. After listening several times and working as large group, the students realized every single time the background chords changed in "Black and Gold." Once I gave them which chords were actually being used, we listened carefully to identify when each chord should be played during the song, because some chords sound good at certain times, and some do not! What a fun problem solving activity! When we figured out the order of chords, we discussed which pitches were in the chords and the various instruments in the room that could actually play the chords. Then, we rotated back and forth between all of the instruments to play the chords while we sang the song!
We are learning a third and final way of creating harmony now! It is through the use of chords. A chord is made up of three or more pitches played at the same time that sound good together. A chord is not just any three random notes, however. A chord is usually made up of pitches that are a skip apart. For example, a C Chord includes the pitches C-E-G. Those pitches sound great together. In any song, certain chords sound good at certain times. Sometimes a C Chord will sound good, and sometimes a G Chord will sound good. In the picture below, the students are working together to play a chord on a xylophone. They are trying to figure out which chord sounds best with the song "Are You Sleeping (Brother John)". They discovered that when the singing starts on an F tone, chances are, an F chord will sound best in the background!
We watched two videos on YouTube that helped us understand singing in a round. The first video shows a cool visualization of the song "Hey Ho Nobody Home," an old English carol. Each voice of the round is represented by a color. When all three colors have finally begun, the kids noticed that each part of the song is continually being heard by one of the colors. The second video shows a man who recorded himself three different times to sing the song "Bottles of Pop" in a round! He must have a lot of time on his hands! :) Now, the 4rd Graders have learned that certain songs can be split into 2 or 3 parts to create harmony. One group will begin singing the song, then when that first groups gets to the second phrase (check out 3rd grade for explanation of phrase), the second group will start singing from the beginning, and so on. This is ultimately called singing in a ROUND. Not every song can be sung in a round. For example, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" will not work. But when a song is written in such a way that it can be turned into a round, it is sooo fun!
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