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!