Here are some pics of the 4th grade students working in groups to create their own music with non-traditional instruments. Next, here are some pics of the kids playing instruments for our unit on "Texture." Textures in music include all the different layers that are put together to create a certain sound or mood. We are working on an arrangement of a Halloween song, "Halloween Night". There are 3 different textures or xylophone parts that are all played simultaneously. The challenge for the students is to stay on their particular part, even while other textures are playing. It's also a challenge to make the parts fit together and actually sound good together!.
I will hopefully post a recording soon! Meanwhile, here are a couple pics of the kids working with partners on their particular parts.
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Welcome to the new 2017-18 school year! We have been working hard so far this year! Our first unit consisted of thinking about what music actually is! We talked about the significance of music having a beat, being organized, and making sense. It's not just playing '2-year old style.' Therefore, the students explored creating their own music, but without traditional instruments. Because music doesn't necessarily have to have real instruments either! Below are some examples of the organized music the kids put together! They basically sat in groups and jammed together until they figured out rhythms and 'instrument' parts that made sense and had a nice steady beat. It was fun exploring with non-traditional sounds!
The 4th graders have been learning about how music can be structured, or organized. Music is usually divided into varying and repeated sections or parts. In current popular music, the most common titles for these sections would be 'verse' and 'chorus.' However, for decades, musicians have named these sections with letters...such as the A section or the B section, etc. Giving letters names to sections allows for music without lyrics to more easily be identified, when there is not a 'verse' or chorus.'
One of the most favorite activities so far in this unit included the addition of movements or dances to represent the sections. After we solved for the form of the classic Rock and Roll song "Let's Go to the Hop," the kids were asked to create movements for each section, Intro-A-B-Bridge(transition)-A-B-Coda(ending). They were so excited to dance in front of their friends! And they definitely were not shy! I loved it! After great discussions, the students realized that anything (not just instruments) can really make music, as long as there is organization, patterns, a steady beat, and creative rhythms. The students were then able to create their own compositions with non-traditional instruments. Below are the rubrics each class put together as a guide for their composition. And finally, recordings of their performances are posted as well.
Welcome to a new musical school year! I hope you will be checking back every couple weeks for new musical updates. I will try to capture the fun and unique learning experiences that we are doing in music this year. I look forward to some great times!
I absolutely love teaching the ukuleles in 4th and 5th grade! However, every child is different, and some children may prefer other instruments, such as xylophone or recorder. So, we first started "In the Jungle," learning and identifying the home/rest/away chords in the song, and began to play on the ukulele. But then, we switched over to learning/playing the melody on xylophones and recorders. Some kids shine playing different instruments. So, I want every child to have an opportunity to TRY every instrument part for "In the Jungle," but they are eventually going to choose their favorite part to practice more and perfect. It always seems to work out, and we will have a good number of students on each part. Once they practice their individual part and learn it well, we will put all the parts together for a class "cover" of the song "In the Jungle." Below are some pics of the kids in progress!
We have put the ukuleles aside for a short moment...we have more to learn about chords! We've already learned that two chords go really well together, the home and away, but another chord comes in at a close third....the resting chord! The resting chord is a very comfortable chord, but it doesn't quite feel like home. We may want to stay on the resting chord for some time in a song, but we cannot end a song on the resting chord if we want the song to feel finished.
To experience this chord, we studied the song "Happy Birthday." I asked the kids to listen for the chords in the song, and they eventually realized that the two chords we already knew were not enough for the song. During the part where we sing the name of the Birthday girl/boy, both the home and away did not sound right. It must be the resting chord! After learning a little more about the chord, we played all three chords with the song on xylophones! Next up...three chords on the ukulele! The next song we have learned on the ukulele is "Down in the Valley," which also contains two chords, the C (home) and G7 (Away). The kids are working hard to go back and forth between the two chords! They also learned how to strum a little differently for this song. The song has an "odd" feel, which means that we count "1,2,3,1,2,3" like a waltz. Therefore, instead of strumming down-up-down-up like Long, Long, Ago, the students need to strum in a down-up-up pattern to fit the three beat repetition.
The kids are discovering how difficult it is to go back and forth between the home and away chords on the ukulele! We are definitely trying to go slow so that we can really feel comfortable changing fingers for each chord. I keep telling the kids that if we can just get the basics down and feel comfortable with the chords, then we will be able to progress faster in the long run. But if we don't get the basics down, we will struggle later on! A couple of the classes are starting the first song with two chords, a traditional folk song called "Long, Long, Ago." We actually took a lot of time learning how to read and sing the music first, considering both rhythm and melody, before we were able to add the ukuleles. Below is a visual of the music we are following. The letters tell us which chords to play, and the slashes tell us when to strum. Each strum represents down, up, down, up, etc. If you really think about it, the kids are performing so many different tasks all at one time! They are strumming on a beat, they are fingering the chords, they are changing chords at specific times, and they are singing! I love music! It really engages the children and gets their brains going!
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