Fun Google Doodle

There is a doodle that celebrates Oskar Fischinger's 117th Birthday.  He was a film maker who created wondering visuals connecting music and art.  Here's the link, I had fun playing with the doodle.  I bet Mrs. Janke would love it too!  Music and art connections happen all of the time.  Do you have any ideas of how music and art are connected?  Send me an email with your ideas!

Dance, Dance, Dance

Have you been moving to music at home?  Do you dance when you hear your favorite song?  Here are some moving ideas:  Play the freeze game, have a family member stop the music and you have to freeze in a statue shape!  When you make your statue experiment with the components below.

• Balance- which body parts are in contact with the floor?
• Facing- which direction is your body facing?  Is your head facing the same direction?
• Levels- which level of space are you exploring with your body?

Next try exploring balance, facing and levels when you are moving!  In this video, Someone You Loved, The Piano Guys have added dancers.  Watch as the dancers explore different levels, different facings, and balance.  It's so beautiful!  I hope you enjoy it.

  

Peter and the Wolf

Hi Lakeshore!  We study Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev in first grade so many of you have acted out the story and learned about the instruments in the orchestra.  Here is a beautiful video of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra performing this popular story.  Enjoy Peter and the Wolf.

Dream Drum Girl

Hi Lakeshore!  Today's post is a book called Dream Drum Girl by Margarita Engle which is based on a real person,  Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, Cuba's first female drummer.  Listen to the story first, then listen to her group play in the video below.

Dance with the Piano Guys!

Hello Lakeshore!  Today, I want you to show off your dance moves!  I miss dancing with you!

Lullabies

Hi Lakeshore!
I bet you know what a lullaby is?  If you are thinking, "It's a song to help you fall asleep," you are correct!  Here are a few lullabies you can listen to and sing a-long.

In Lady, Lady, I like to use a shaker instrument to add a sweeping sound.  At school we use goat hoof rattles, at home we have to make do, see what you have around your house to create the soft swishing sound.  I found a little bag with metal marbles in it and an egg shaker.

This lullaby, Hush Little Baby, is special to me because my mother sang it to me when I was a little girl.  I remember sitting in her lap in a rocking chair and laying my head on her chest.  I could hear her heart beating and her voice reverberating as she sang!  Grab a plush animal or doll and rock it to sleep as you listen and sing a-long.

I love this old song, Mama, Buy Me a China Doll.  This song is about a country girl who sees a doll she can't afford in a peddler's cart.  The doll has a face made from porcelain, or china.  Have you seen a fancy cup and saucer, or a china tea set?  These toys would have been very breakable, this was before plastic was invented!  Liza Lou, the girl in the song, tells her mother how they could afford the doll.  It's a silly, yet heart warming tale.  If you would like to make a rag doll like the one I was using in the song watch this video on how to make your own, no sew rag doll out of scrap fabric and string.  Pioneer Rag Doll

Fun Group

Have you heard of the group Walk Off the Earth?  They take popular songs and add their own twist to them.  Here are some fun videos to view.  In the video, High Hopes , they have used some unusual instruments.  Can you find them-  there's a gigantic thumb piano, a theremin (which follows the movement of your hands) and an instrument I've never seen before that Gabriela calls Gary!  What!!!

In this video they aren't playing any instruments, just having a contest Hold On.    Enjoy

Throw it Out the Window

We have another silly song for you today called:  Throw it Out the Window.  This song interrupts nursery rhymes.  After you learn the song (which won't take you long).  Have a family member say a nursery rhyme or chant and then interrupt them for hilarious results! 

Playing Together Popular Songs

Hi Lakeshore,
Do you know what the inside of a grand piano looks like?  Typically a pianist plays the keys.  Well in these videos, the musicians are playing more than the keys!  I love the group, The Piano Guys and I use their videos a lot in class with grade 3-5.  So some of you may have seen this video before.  I like it better than the original to be honest!  What Makes You Beautiful

This next group is a family of kids who are playing in the same manner as the piano guys!
.....and Dance with Me

Listening Scavenger Hunt

Hi Lakeshore Students-  Here's a listening scavenger hunt for you!  Can you find these sounds as you move around your house?  Can you find any of the sounds on a walk?  Miss you!

Bantam of the Opera

Did you enjoy the book Bantam of the Opera?  The aria the rooster sang, La Donna e' mobile can be heard here in this video of Andrea Bocelli, a famous Italian tenor, singing this popular song at an outdoor concert.  La Donna e' mobile.

If you'd like to tour an opera house like the one mentioned in the book there are several famous opera houses you can tour online.  Vienna, the city of music, has an old beautiful State Opera House with rich history; many of the greatest classical musicians walked, rehearsed and performed their operas in this building.  You can push the arrows and take a self guided tour- you can even visit backstage and the roof.  During the opera season, which is during our school year, they put on a different opera every night!  I went to many operas in Vienna when I student taught in the city.  You can purchase a standing only ticket the day of the opera, you mark your place with a scarf and can pay under $10 to hear an opera!  It's a good deal.   Vienna Austria's Staatsoper link.

The Opera House in Sydney, Australia is known for its architecture.  Here is a tour of the building, it is on the water and an iconic building in Sydney.  All major cities have a performing arts venue and we have the Pablo Center for the Arts!  Have you been there yet?  Here's a link to the different rooms in the Pablo. 

The Pablo also sent out this list of musical performances:

Performance Art

• National Public Radio is compiling a broad list of performances for streamingorganized by date and genre. It's incredible to see so much variety!
• Opera fan? Now's the best time to learn more about this art form as the Metropolitan Opera is streaming its "most thrilling, thought-provoking, and uplifting" performances for FREE. Here are this week's performances.
• Best known for Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar and Cats, Andrew Lloyd Webber is streaming a musical every Friday, available here throughout the weekend. 

Happy Spring!

I have a silly post for you today!  I especially love the moral of the song~. Have a great long weekend.  Enjoy your family, sing, dance and get outside to play.

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Fun Videos

Hi Lakeshore,
Today is my youngest son's birthday and I know several of you are celebrating at home during this time away and I can't give you a birthday stamp and sing you the birthday song.  So, I thought I'd post some fun videos for you to enjoy whenever you have your birthday!  Happy Birthday Jazz version.

I learned about this quartet through my friend Mrs. Mosher.  She sent me a link to MozART.  The quartet has three types of string instruments in it:  two violins, a viola and a cello.  They play all kinds of music and make me laugh.  This video shows the men in casts-  they are pretending to be injured, yet are still able to play.  MozART: Playing while "injured".

This video features the famous piece by Vivaldi called the Four Seasons.  They insert a whole bunch of other songs into the mix.  See if you can hear Summertime, La Bamba, Jingle Bells and White Christmas!  Click here.  I hope you enjoy this group.  The concert halls that they play in are beautiful too.  Have a great day!

Keyboard Resources

Hi Lakeshore Kids-

I know some of you have piano keyboards at home and like to play.  Here are some fun websites that have ways to practice and learn at home!

Creative Piano Academy offers some nice basic techniques for beginners:  Creative Piano Academy

This video shows you how to play the melody (tune) of a song.  This website has falling colors that show you where to place your fingers on the keys.  It helps if you place your iPad close to your keyboard.  5 Easy Songs to Play on the Keyboard

On this video from Pianote, you learn how to play harmony parts (open chords:  basically do and sol) on the keyboard.  If you want to play a harmony background while you sing a song, this is a video for you.  We play harmony parts in class when we play a heart beat or an ostinato (repeated rhythm pattern) on xylophones and ukuleles.

It's fun to apply what you are learning and play with others.  Here is an example of melody and harmony parts being performed together.  Fish and Chips and Vinegar.  The singing and recorder parts are playing the melody, the piano and ukulele are playing chords (harmony parts):  the piano is a heart beat and the ukulele is playing an ostinato strumming pattern.  We also sing in harmony, each of us on a different verse; can you hear it?

Good luck!   Mrs Gransee Paral

Creative Movement

Hi Lakeshore Students,
At the beginning of class we enter to the drum exploring and moving musically in our space.  Here are some creative movement activities you can do at home in your space!  I've organized them by concept.  These ideas come form Feierabend's Movement Exploration book.
Awareness of Time:
Divide your room into two areas-- fast land and slow land.  Move around the room quickly when you are in fast land and go into slow-motion when in slow land.  You can pretend you are a super hero that has incredible speed or you've been trapped in a time warp and need to calculate each move!
Awareness of Parts and a Whole:
Play some fun music that you like to move/dance to.  Glue a body part to the floor.  (Not literally, just pretend!)  So try dancing with all of your other body parts except the part glued to the floor.  Try glueing one foot, or one hand, or your head!  The sky is the limit.  Send me a video if you like!
Awareness of Flow
Are you still playing fun dance music?  Turn on the radio if you need to.  Oh no!  You are a robot that's been left out in the rain and snow.  You are rusty and you can't move in your typical robot way, your joints are hard to bend!  Move this way across the room until you find some oil and then dance your typical robot dance!

Miss You!
Mrs Gransee Paral

Garage Band

3rd, 4th and 5th grade students,
Did you know that there is an app called garage band on your iPad?  If it isn't already loaded onto your iPad, you can find it in self-service and load it onto your iPad.  It's a fun creative musical app that lets you create songs a ton of instruments like piano, violin, drums to name a few.  You can use the black keys on the piano keyboard and play s,l, drm sl d' songs on it or strum guitar chords to your favorite songs!  Check it out~. Miss You!  Mrs. Gransee Paral

You are My Sunshine

Hi Lakeshore Students,
The boys and I decided to sing and play a song for you today!  Try to get outside this morning, it's going to rain all afternoon, but don't fret- You are My Sunshine.  I miss you-  Mrs. Gransee Paral

Create

Hi Lakeshore Students~
Have you had a chance to check out Chrome Music Lab yet?  Mrs Janke said she loved the Kandinsky tab that lets you draw lines like the famous artist and then attaches notes to your drawings.        Wassily Kandinsky used music in his creations and you can too!  I also like the part that lets you practice naming absolute note names (ABCDEFG) this one is for 4th and 5th grade.  They need to know their musical ABC's to ease recorder playing!  Check it out!  Mrs. Gransee Paral

Dance Party

Hi Lakeshore Students-
The weather outside today looks beautiful!  Have you had a dance party yet?  What are you waiting for?  Get outside, crank some tunes and dance!  If you have sidewalk chalk you can draw pathways to follow for dance moves... curvy lines, far apart lines so you can jump.  Dance with abandon!  Have fun and sing along.  I Like to Move it, Move it!  Miss you!  Mrs Gransee Paral