The fourth grade students have learned yet another way of creating harmony....playing chords. Chords are three or more notes played at the same time that sound good together. There are rules about the notes of a chord, however, and the general rule is that a chord is built by notes that are skips apart. So, using the musical alphabet (ABCDEFG), a C chord would be CEG.
Chords are often heard in the background, accompanying a song. But it is very unusual for there only to be one chord in a song. 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! Here are a couple pics of the students playing chords on xylophones. You can see that the mallets are skips apart. The next step is learning how to play the chords on ukuleles!
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Yet another way to create harmony is a Part Song. Similar to a Round, a Part Song is basically two or more different parts (melodies) sung all at the same time. Each part can also be sung separately, and can basically be its own song by itself. We watched this video below to give us an idea, and then we tried it ourselves!
The next way 4th grade learned how to create harmony is through an ostinato. An ostinato is basically a fancy way of saying a repeated pattern. It's very important, however, that the repeated pattern be a melody, and not just a rhythm on a drum. A drum does not create harmony because it is not a certain pitch. Therefore, the pattern must be played on an instrument that has pitches, like a xylophone, piano, etc. Since we were experts at singing "Are You Sleeping," we added a repeated pattern on a xylophone to be played along with our voices, creating harmony. If you listen carefully, the repeated pattern was actually taken right from the song. It's the "ding ding dong" part!
4th Grade is FINALLY beginning the long-awaited unit on Harmony. They have been waiting and waiting to start the ukuleles, and the Harmony unit is the unit that will take get them on the ukes! But first, we are learning different ways to create harmony (high and low pitches at the same time), starting with music that goes in a "round." Below, is a great example of a song in a round. The song is "Hey Ho, Nobody Home" and the melody is represented with three different colors on the video. The first "voice" begins the song, and when that first voice gets to the second phrase of the song, the second voice begins at the beginning. The same thing occurs with the third voice. This is called a round. The 4th grade then sang "Are you Sleeping" in a round to experience singing in a round, and creating harmony with voices, where some voices are singing higher parts while others are singing lower parts!
Below are the final ABA Compositions from the 4th Grade students! I am truly amazed at the final products. If you walk by the music room while the students are practicing, it literally sounds like mass chaos! But it's amazing how wonderful their pieces turned out! I'm so proud!
4th Grade is working on creating their own songs that follow an ABA structure. Other than have an A and B, the order of the song, along with the introduction, ending, and transitions are up to the students! They have been doing an amazing job, and I cannot wait for you to hear!
4th Grade is really working hard to grasp the concept of form. Here are a few more images of the students analyzing the form of "Trashin' the Camp" from Tarzan. With a strong foundational understanding of form, the students will be more confident with creating music that is organized and meaningful. Next up, the students will be doing just that....creating their own piece organized in a particular way! Can't wait!
Below are images of the kids working together to solve the form of "Rockin' Robin." This is definitely another favorite for the kids, especially since they know Michael Jackson sang it so many years ago!
Just as any good writer would plan and organize a paper, story, or narrative, musicians do the exact same thing! Of course, there are moments where the creator will just go with the flow, but for the most part songs, like stories, will have some sense of organization.
In music, we call this the "form". Just like a sculptor will form clay in the shape he desires, the musicians will order or form the song in the way he wants it to go! Most often, people will identify the sections as verse and chorus, but musicians can also label differing sections of a song with letters. The sections of a song are usually big musical ideas or statements. Right now, we are beginning to identify what might change in the music to make a new musical idea or section. Musical elements such as the melody, rhythms, instruments, and textures may change to indicate to the listener that a new section has begun. In the pictures below, the students are listening to two rock n' roll pieces, "Happy Days" and "At the Hop" to identify the form, or the order of the sections they hear, kind of like a puzzle! One of my favorite Halloween songs to do in class is called "Halloween Night." The piece includes a great background arrangement for xylophones and metallophones. We spent a couple class sessions learning the various parts, and we finally put it all together as a large ensemble. The parts were fun and challenging, yet the real challenge was putting them together so that we play simultaneously with the beat. Only Mrs. Guy's class had enough time to make the actual recording, however, Miss Kalmus' class also did an amazing job! We were playing "catch up" from the missed music class a couple of weeks ago on a Monday, which is why we ran out of time for a recording. :(
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