Marimba

During my fourth and fifth grade classes today, Mr. Huestis (percussion teacher at Griffin, Lakeview and TCHS) brought over one of his very talented marimba students to perform. The students were so well behaved and had great questions.  Tyler performed a few pieces: Étude #1 and Land.

Students were shown proper mallet technique as well as how to hold four mallets. They were shown the difference between a marimba and the xylophones that they play in class.  In fact one marimba costs the same amount as our entire class set of 25 xylophones!!

Tyler and Mr. Huestis stayed for about twenty minutes in both classes.  Students were very interested in all that was shared and taught.  It was a great morning!

Thankful Eagle Lunch Day Two

Yesterday we had three grade level performances: first, third, and fifth.

Mrs. Tucker's Golden Music Note Day

Every class works hard to earn points in music class.  They have the opportunity to earn five points each class in the following areas:

1 - How they enter the room
2 - How they behave
3 - How they handle supplies and instruments
4 - How they participate as a class
5 - How they exit

The class in each grade level that has the most points at the end of each grading period earns a Golden Music Note Day.  The class then chooses what they want to do during that class and they have the following choices:

1 - Music Technology Day: iPods, iPads and Computer stations
2 - Centers
3 - Song and Game Day:  singing and playing music games that students have learned during the year or years
4 - Computer Lab Day

The students in Mrs. Tucker's class earned the Golden Music Note for the first nine weeks and voted to use their iPads in class tomorrow as their reward day.  Students will have choices in using music apps only and downloading new apps to experiment with.  Everything from composing to listening to music theory, notes and much, much more.  I'm excited to see what I can learn from students as well as what they think about the class.

Below is a fantastic link that another music teacher put together that lists great music class apps.  And from what I can tell, they are free!!  (at least, the ones I checked and clicked on):

http://musicwithmrsdennis.blogspot.com/2013/01/110-free-music-education-apps.html

Thankful Eagle Lunch Day One

Today Kindergartners, Second Graders and Fourth Graders performed for families and friends.  It was so great to see them so proud of the music that they created and performed.

Kindergarten is always a guess as to what will happen.  We practiced several times as to where to stand, how to walk, where hands go, voices quiet between songs, and of course learned the songs and material in class.  I love that they are so energetic and that they were so proud of how they did.  One of the highlights for me was when a student called out to his parent to see if his lunchbox was brought for him.

Second Grade learned a short poem and then performed several songs.  They were so well-behaved and did a fabulous job as well.

Fourth Grade performed a two-part song using The Pledge of Allegiance and America the Beautiful.  Each class performed their own xylophone piece.  Students had control as a class over the order of the song, who performed each part, how it ended and the overall design of the piece.  I found out afterward that our zone leader Mrs. Macdonald was at the performance.  I was thrilled to find out that it was a great way for her to hear how we are incorporating student driven learning and for her to experience the huge amount of work that students put into their pieces.

It was my first time ever to direct any sort of instrumental ensemble.  I was quite worried as it is very much a new thing for me and out of my comfort zone.  Thrilled to do it and very excited.  Pushed me so much as a teacher and I'm so thankful to have run with it.  Has been a great year of learning for my students and myself.

Thankful Eagle Lunch

Fourth and Fifth Graders - Click on the link and share your thoughts!

https://docs.google.com/a/staff.lisd.net/forms/d/1dEaJvbFAMb_afLAn1eg7LktfwcZufJ4MMRN0rzAcxxE/viewform

Fifth Grade Arguments

The title of this post indicates what happened at the end of my fifth grade class today.  But not in a way you might think!  I'll explain how amazing our class was today and what students accomplished and the post title will make much more sense.

I had Mrs. Childer's class today.  A very musical class with high energy.  They love to do anything and everything and they are passionate about it.  We are working on our piece "Xylophone Rhapsody" for our performance coming up in a few weeks.  The students have learned three parts with challenges in each one.  Best part:  the students have risen to the challenge and are conquering all of them with impressive musicianship.  So thankful to get to teach them!

The beat is a steady beat throughout the song, but is a moving bass line that moves by intervals of 4ths and 2nds with large jumps at the end.  In other words, it moves a lot and students must concentrate not only on counting the beat, but remembering where the next note moves to.  It is not a typical steady beat on the same two notes and that presents a new challenge!

The harmony portion must also be a steady beat.  But instead of each note holding for three beats, each note is one beat that plays while moving down the scale in thirds.  And students must keep their mallets in distances of a 3rd apart.  This is also a challenge.

The melody line is fast and moves quickly up and then down again.  There are very large leaps at the end and students must have their mallets in the right places or it creates a very off-putting sound.

The piece of music is also in 3/4 time with three beats in every measure.  Another challenge because it is much easier to have students feel and count when there are 4 beats in every measure.  A lot different for them to count dotted half notes (bass line) and eighth note pairs, quarter notes, rests (in melody) and steady quarter notes and dotted half notes (in harmony line).

Every student in class has learned all three parts.  Today's class was similar to the 4th grade class I just blogged about.  They are in the same spot where they are putting the parts together and making choices as to how many times each part is played, when parts leave or enter and so on.

I guided the students to where they are now and we had a discussion about the intro (Bass Xylophones play it), how many times the harmony plays (a student chose that) and how many times the melody should be played (another student chose that).  Then came the intense portion of the class:  creating an ending.  Which instruments should drop out first and which part should play the last sixteen measures?

We tried it three different ways.  Students had SO many ideas it was incredible.  And their terms were so musical: "Mrs. Grant, I don't think the bass xylophones should end the song.  We need to end the song with the glockenspiels because the higher sound and the melody will end the song so much nicer than the beat."  "I think the bass xylophones should end the song because it is always best to end with the bass and the lower sounds."  "Could we fade their part out?"  "Could we all play together and then we end because we didn't get to play as long as the other parts?"  "Mrs. Grant, we could all end by playing this pattern (student plays the pattern) because it would sound amazing."

So we tried playing the piece and the ending in particular several ways.  And students still had ideas.  It was a complete bummer that students had to leave as they were so involved and excited about what they had created.  And there were so many hands in the air with students wanting to share their ideas.  We ended by voting for which ending was their favorite and it was almost a tie with 13 voting for the bass xylophones to end the song and 11 votes for the glockenspiels to end the song.

The students were truly thinking like musicians.  I told them that they were thinking of the things in the song that I think through when we are doing any piece in class - tempo, dynamics, parts, etc...  It was truly a great class.

Now for the argument:

As we lined up to leave, a student came to me and said "Mrs. Grant, there are three boys arguing in line."  I had heard them talking animatedly so I walked over to listen to their conversation.  Only to find that they were arguing about their version of the best way to end our song and very adamant about it.  It was so incredible hearing the students each share how they wanted the song to end, what the instruments should sound like, which part would sound best and using musical terms that we have used in class.  They described their ideas in detail and had fantastic thoughts.

It was the best "argument" I have ever heard from fifth grade students about music!  I can't wait to see what ideas they bring to our next class together.

Ah-ha moments

Today was one of the best days of my teaching career.  And I truly mean it.  There have been moments in class where students faces light up from understanding a new concept.  Moments where students fall in love with a piece of music and sing it from the depths of their hearts.  When students work together to create their own song and stay after class to sing it for me with pride.  When we laugh at a funny moment in class or discover that a teacher can make mistakes too (and not on purpose!).

There were so many moments from today that I will always remember and look back on with pure joy inside.  The day started with Mrs. Lewis' class.  They are a group of 4th graders and a great group to teach.  We have been working on a piece of music called "Shepherds Song."  It is actually a piece of music that some of my piano students work on when learning the pentatonic scale (five note scale).  I loved the melody of it and decided to add a bass line, change a few things around and create a canon out of the piece.  It's a really beautiful song.

The students have all learned each part (bass line, melody line).  Today we added it in a canon using two parts.  Students practiced with fingers first to make sure they had it.  Then added the mallets.  I loved watching their faces as they enjoyed the process and counting of making sure they were playing on the right beats to create a beautiful piece.

We then had a discussion in class about who should start first.  They decided the bass should go first.  Then a student chose how many times we all play the melody together.  They agreed on 8 times.  *** I must admit I thought this was a long time to play the melody, but when we practiced it, the students loved it.  And being that they are in charge of the piece and played it so nicely, they voted afterward as to if they wanted to keep it or change it and every student agreed that it was so beautiful that they should play it eight times.  So eight times it is!**

Another student was asked to decide how many times they should play the canon.  Then we chose how to end the song together.

The students played through the song.  When their version was finished, they stopped playing and looked around with sparkles in their eyes.  It was so amazing to hear their comments:  "Wow... that was amazing."  "That was SO cool!"  "I loved that!"  "Can we do it again?"

This was definitely a class period I will remember and one of the reasons I love my job!!!

What exactly it is that I do

When I was in music class as a kid, I remember sitting and listening to "The Hall of the Mountain King" and imagining what was happening in the music.  I remember singing patriotic songs and performing.  I remember walking in a parade at my elementary school while holding the American flag.  Music class was a place where you sat, you sang, you listened and you might have even gotten to play a small tambourine or jingle bells if you were lucky.  Or of course the recorder.  Mine was yellow in third grade and I loved it.  (though to be honest, I was terrible at it when I was younger.  Embarrassing to admit, but true!)

My role as a music teacher is so incredibly different than what it was when I was a kid.  We still sing.  We still listen.  But there is so much more to it.

By the time students leave Ethridge, they should have a numerous amount of information and skills that will help them in middle school, high school, college and beyond.  If they choose not to participate in music after elementary school, it still affects them as music is everywhere and I hope that what they learn here at Ethridge helps them appreciate it.

Here are some skills we work on throughout the year in each grade level:

Kindergarten:
pitch (high/low)
dynamics (students confuse that music getting louder is higher and music that gets softer is lower... BIG one to teach in kinder)
tempo (speed)
steady beat (another HUGE one that is reinforced in as many ways as can be thought of)
voices (singing, talking, shouting, whispering)
movement (self-space, group space, moving in a circle, in, out, back and forth, and moving with a partner)
patterns (AB, ABA form)
listening skills (can you hear ____?)
instruments (four families of instruments, what they look like, sound like)

First Grade:
Reinforcing Kinder skills
Quarter Notes - what they look like, what we call them, finding them in patterns
Eighth Note Pairs
Quarter Rests - what does a rest do, why do we have rests, how many beats does a rest have
Repeat Signs
Writing note patterns from our songs
Finding notes and rests in songs we are singing
Beat vs. Rhythm -  beginning stage - one group keeping beat, one group keeping rhythm
Instruments - in the four families, identifying key instruments in each family

Second Grade:
Reinforcing previous skills
Half Notes
Half Rests
Tied Quarter Notes
Whole Note
Whole Rest
Ties - what does a tie do, how do we show it and how does it change the way the words are spoken
Ostinatos - adding repeated patterns while another group keeps the beat or speaks the poem
Melody and Harmony - what are they?

Third Grade:
Reinforcing previous skills
Sixteenth Note Patterns
Sixteenth note rests
Introducing the Music Staff - lines/spaces
Treble Clef
Reading basic patterns on the music staff
Forms:  Rondo form, ABA form, Canon/Round
Instrument Families - learning how the orchestra developed through the music time periods

Fourth Grade:
Reinforcing previous skills
Dotted Quarter Notes
Tempos (learning Italian words for six key tempos and practicing how they feel)
Dynamics (learning more than just forte and piano)
Crescendo and Decrescendo
Forms: Theme and Variation

Fifth Grade:
Reinforcing previous skills
Sixteenth and Eighth Note combinations (tika-ti and ti-tika)
Minor/Major sounds
Scales
Reinforcing Solfege and Hand Signs
Playing and singing in three and four parts  **Our fifth graders this year do an AMAZING job at this!!
Teamwork as an ensemble

Book Character Day

One of my favorite days of the year is Book Character Day at Ethridge.  The staff and students dress up as their favorite book characters.  There is a parade where students walk the halls to show their costumes.  Students are always excited throughout the day.

Yesterday our fine arts team dressed up as the Pinkilicious series with each of us taking a color - Pink, Gold, Purple and Silver.  It is great fun to work with such fabulous teachers!

In class, students participated in a few activities.  We learned a dance to the song "Monster Mash" and I performed a song on my guitar for students.  The students smiles were contagious and it was fun to take three minutes out of class away from the theory, rhythm reading and focused musicianship to do a fun dance with the students.

Kindergarten students learned a movement activity where they acted out various characters as well as a poem with rhyming words.  They also learned a poem:

With my little broom I sweep,sweep, sweep
With my little toes I creep, creep, creep
With my little eyes I peep, peep, peep
In my little bed I sleep, sleep, sleep

We act out the motions, talk about the rhyming words and experiment with what the words mean.