Recorder Tutorial

I've created several video segments on how to the play the recorder.  The first video outlines the basics, how to hold the recorder, breath and tonguing.  There is a segment on how to read the fingering chart and BAG on the staff.  Another on how to practice and play Hot Cross Buns, Closet Key and Merrily We Roll Along.  I've included a trouble shooting video and improvising with BAG.   I hope this guide will be helpful to our musicians as they work to master the recorder.  Practice builds confidence and skills as students work to produce the most beautiful tone; demand excellence, you can do it!

Recorder Basics
How to Play BAG
Recorder Troubleshooting 
How to read BAG

Playing Hot Cross Buns - part 1
Playing Hot Cross Buns- part 2










Playing Closet Key

How to play Merrily We Roll Along

Improvising to Higgelty Piggelty Pop

5th Grade Blue Group Sings The Little Birch Tree

The 5th graders are working on a choral arrangement of a Russian folk song entitled The Little Birch Tree.  The blue group sounded so good I had to record them.  Click on the link below to hear them sing.  Enjoy~ The Little Birch Tree

1st Graders Sing Purple Light

First grade singers are working on building their confidence, singing independently with a clear beautiful tone and matching pitch using a singing voice.  Enjoy the piece Purple Light; click on the text to watch each link.  Yellow Group   Red Group   Blue Group

4th Grade Red Group Shares Rhythmic Compositions

4th graders composed four beat rhythm patterns with a partner using quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes and rests.  Here they are performing their pieces with a partner interspersed into the song Dog and Cat.  Each composition should include one sixteenth (tikatika) rhythm; listen for partners who are playing together.    4th Grade red

Kindergarten Students Sing Solos

Kindergarten students are working on finding and using their singing voice.  As part of this work they take turns singing on a microphone a lot during music class.  This method allows students to hear themselves, build their confidence and their performing skills.  In the excerpts below, you will hear our fabulous student teacher singing the call and students echoing her.  Listen for children who are using their singing voice, if they match pitch bonus~ that's the end result we working toward!  Click on the links to hear the children sing.
 K Yellow Group.    K Red Group       K Blue Group

5th Grade Graduation

5th graders sang Dream Keeper, music by Rollo Dilworth and text by Langston Hughes at their graduation celebration.  The students sang in harmony in this beautiful piece about a dream keeper who keeps their dreams safe from the "too rough fingers of the world"  The students had the opportunity to share one of their dreams (personal, societal or global) with the audience.  We also had tryouts and a fine fifth grade gal played with us.  Listen for the round at the end;  the boys sang first and then the girls.  I'm proud of them.
5th grade graduation piece

4th and 5th Grade Arts Night

I've posted video of students sharing their pieces from arts night.  We had a terrific turnout.  60% of 4th graders and 50% of 5th graders attended the evening.  Thank you to parents, relatives and friends for supporting the arts!  Enjoy the clips below.
4th Grade Sings My Paddle
4th Grade sings Cindy 
4th Grade Sings My Goose 
4th Grade Chant w/Recorder Improv
4th Grade Recorder Pieces
5th Grade Marjorie
5th Grade To Stop the Train 
5th Grade Little Birch Tree
5th Grade Duke's Place
Unfortunately, I cannot post the jazz ensemble playing; I used our student names, sorry.

2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th Grade Melodic Compositions

Upper grade students will be bringing their melodic compositions home this week.  Students learned a poem and then composed a melody (tune) to match the rhythm of the poem on a xylophone.  2nd graders used do re mi sol and la, 3rd graders added high do and low sol and low la and 4th and 5th graders composed in G major utilizing a flatted 3rd (Bb).  These are the same pieces the 4th and 5th grade students shared at Arts Night.  After improvising melodies to the rhythm of the poem, students wrote down their favorite musical ideas and then published their ideas by using musical notation.  Then they played them for the class.  Next we saved our compositions for the keyboard unit.  Students took their pieces and learned how to play them on keyboards.  2nd and 3rd graders used the black notes of the keyboards and 4th and 5th grades were in the key of G (on the white notes with the added Bb).  Have your student sing or play their piece for you, look for pieces that end on do (the tonal center) use repeating musical ideas (the first and 3rd lines are the same or similar) and are easy to sing (don't have multiple huge jumps that are hard to follow).  Enjoy!

2nd and 3rd Grade Writing Test

2nd and 3rd graders will be bringing home their transcription tests this week.  Students were ask to use standard notation to write the pitches drm (in 2nd grade) and drm sl (in 3rd grade).  They also had to add the appropriate rhythmic marking; quarter (ta) and 2 eighth notes (ti-ti) in second grade and sixteenth notes (tika-tika) in 3rd grade.  The students were using F= do which means we were writing in the key of F major.  The students were graded on both melodic and rhythmic concepts.  Incorrect answers were circled.  See if your student can sing what they wrote!

Arts Night is Tonight

Tonight is 4th and 5th Grade Arts Night!  The gym will be transformed into an art museum and we'll sing and play instruments with a guest jazz musician~  See you there!  (6:30-7:30 p.m. please start in the cafeteria).

2nd Graders Sing

2nd graders are working on singing and matching pitch.  They sing mostly acapella (without accompaniment).  This helps them build independent singing skills; pitch matching, intervallic singing,(intervals = the distance between two pitches)  maintaining a steady beat without rushing or slowing down, and staying in the same key from start to finish (not getting higher and lower).  If they sing with the guitar, piano or a teacher, then they will rely on the teacher.  Listen to them sing here in a group and then ask your child to sing it solo.  Compliment them on the skills they have already mastered!  Yellow group sings Alabama Girl,  Blue Group sings Che Che Kule. Red Group sings Bump Up Tomato

Arts Night Invite for 4th and 5th Grade Students and Families

You are invited to attend the first ever 4th & 5th Grade Arts Night!

 Come help us celebrate our musicians and artists with an art show and music presentation.  4th and 5th graders will be singing and performing pieces from music class and they will also have a collection of their artwork on display.

When: Thursday, May 1^st 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Where: South Gym

We request that all students attend and arrive at 6:20 p.m. so we can begin promptly at 6:30.  This is a

special event to celebrate the artistic talents of our students, please make every effort to attend and show support for your child’s arts education. 

See you there!

Mrs. Gransee-Paral & Mrs. Werner

4th Graders Sing in Harmony

4th graders are working on singing in harmony.  This includes rounds, ostinatos, partner songs and descants.  A round is when the same song can be sung at different times creating harmony.  An ostinato is a repeated pattern that vamps over and over again.  The trick is not to slow down, speed up or lose your sense of pitch as you stay focused singing the same pattern over and over again.  In partner songs, two entirely different songs are sung at the same time.  A descant has complementary notes to the melody that are sung higher than the original song.  Can you figure out which way the students are creating harmony?   Yellow Group sings My Paddle,     Red Group,   Blue Group

1st Graders Sing Solos

First graders are working on using their singing voices, matching pitch and adding their own personal style to the pieces we are singing in class.  Here we are singing the echo song, Candyman.  Click on the links below to watch your child singing with style!  Yellow Group,   Blue Group,  Red Group

Kindergarten Sings No More Pie

Kindergarten students are working on finding and using their singing voices.  We start singing in class with echo songs or call and response pieces.  Our musical goal is to have your student use their singing voice consistently.  If they are already matching pitch, bonus!  Encourage your child to experiment with their voices at home.  Click on your child's group below to hear them sing. 
Red Group    Blue Group     Yellow Group

2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Rhythm Compositions

Students in grades 2-5 have been creating rhythm compositions.  2nd and 3rd graders are creating eight beat rhythm pieces and students in grades 4 and 5 are composing 16 beat rhythm work.  Each grade level is using the new rhythms for their grade level.  2nd graders are using quarter note & rest, two eighth notes, and half notes in their compositions.  3rd graders are using the rhythms from 2nd grade plus sixteenth notes.  4th graders are adding eighth and sixteenth note combinations and 5th graders are showcasing dotted quarter and eighth note patterns.  There are two grades on the sheet.  The one on the right side of the paper is the writing grade.  The grade on the left side of the paper is the performance grade (students clapped their rhythms for me.)  Look for these assignments coming home this week.  Have your child clap and say their rhythmic composition for you!

March is Music in our Schools Month

To celebrate you are invited to musical "informance." Come and watch a typical music lesson and see how we approach music teaching here at school.  See your child participate in music making in a classroom setting.  Check out the times below.  Look for a note with dates, times and your child's group coming home soon.  Hope to see you there!

Kindergarten   1:25-2:10 p.m.

1st grade   11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

2nd grade  2:20-3:05 p.m.

3rd grade 8:35-9:20 a.m.

Wednesday, March 12, Yellow Group

Thursday, March 13, Blue Group

Friday, March 14, Red Group

5th Grade Take Five Movement Pictures

The 5th graders moved to the jazz piece Take 5 performed by the Dave Brubeck Quartet.  Their task was to work with a partner and create a pose (like a statue) to the music that was a response to their partner's work.  For example, one student would strike a pose like the letter X and their partner would take an aspect of the pose, lets say the outstretched arms and invert it, or do it while lying on the floor or create the image parallel to their partner.  This would all take place in a matter of seconds, the music is also in 5/4 meter which is not the typical 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4 feel of most popular American music.  Here are some of the ending poses.

3rd Grade Ensemble Playing

The 3rd graders learned the chant A Wise Old Owl and then we set it to music.  The students in the back with the microphones are either creating a tune together or chanting the words of the poem.  The back row of instrumentalists are playing a steady beat to keep the group together (like the bass drum in a marching band).  The second row of instrumentalists (soprano xylophones with red mallets) are improvising a melody to go with the rhythm of the words.  Watch for students whose mallets are in sync with the microphone singing/chanting students.  Also, the improvisation should use a lot of neighboring tones, the students should look like they are playing with a plan, trying out new ideas, not just randomly hitting bars of the instrument.  The front row of instrumentalists (glockenspiels- metal bars) are playing the color part.  They are playing during the rests or pauses in the chant, the sound should ring and be precisely together with their neighbors to add a "shimmer."  The students rotated through all of four rows, so even though I only captured one on video, everyone got to play each part.  Fun!
  3rd Grade Blue Group    3rd Grade Yellow Group   3rd Grade Red Group (hat day)

5th grade Yellow and Blue groups singing together

The school had an assembly that cut into the 5th graders' MAPE time and the gym was full of equipment so for the last 15 minutes I was able to pull the yellow and blue groups into my room to sing~  Listen for harmony in Red are Strawberries.  The students are learning a choral arrangement for Little Birch Tree and reading from sheet music to help the students be prepared from middle school choir.  Enjoy their pure unchanged voices, the Little Birch Tree has some gorgeous moments! Little Birch Tree & Red are Strawberries + a verse of The Little Birch Tree too pretty to cut

3rd grade yellow group playing Chattanooga Choo Choo

Listen for the melody being played by like instruments, the soprano xylophones, the glockenspiels and the alto xylophones.  Each group has a distinctive timbre (musical color).  Great job 3rd grade!  Chattanooga Choo Choo

3rd grade & the Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra

The 3rd grade students are studying the families of instruments in the orchestra to prepare for a visit from a Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra musician.  They are also creating works of art in art class that may be displayed at the State Theater in conjunction with their next concert.  The featured piece of music is Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.  Mrs. Werner and I are collaborating: I'm introducing the music in music class, and she's doing artwork with the students in art class.  I found this terrific website that introduces the musical themes, the story, and the overall work of music.  Many students expressed interest in the site- so here it is~  Scheherazade  Enjoy!