Blog – Page 4 – Delicious Music

Today’s lesson in Mrs. Young’s and Mrs. Graham’s PM classes (3-6-15)

Today I forgot to review our ascending and descending scales, and I didn’t take time to review the songs or harmony/melody/dynamic markings, etc. We’ll do that next week! But I was delighted when I told the children at the end of class the “secret” to learning a song: SLOW (I whispered). Practice a song slowly. If you aren’t getting it, practice it even more slowly. One boy piped up, “Practice it adagio”, he said with emphasis. There was our review, and the evidence once again that even with learning something one time, children can learn and retain that knowledge, at least for a while! I laughed and said, “YES! Don’t play it prestissimo or moderato, unless you have learned the piece. Practice it adagio.” Moments like that make my day! It is great fun to be a music teacher.

Today, before I asked them what their first instrument is: (yes, their BODY!), I introduced the topic. In the morning class, I had just gotten a class photo with the children’s names and told them that I was going to study it to learn their names better. I explained that when I see them only one day a week for a short time, I don’t remember their names as easily as if I saw them every day and was using their names over and over. I asked them if it is easier to learn something if you practice it ONCE a week, or EVERY DAY. They all agreed: every day! Then I told them that it is the same with learning an instrument. If you want to be really good at playing an instrument, you need to practice it often.

For the afternoon class, I asked them what their favorite thing was that they had learned so far this year. One girl shared that she loved learning about how sound makes vibrations, and she sang a little bit of the song they heard in that lesson. I built on that idea of vibrations by slapping the seat of a plastic chair next to me and asking how I made that sound. We agreed that the seat vibrated. I explained that it is hard to see some materials vibrate, while it is easier with other materials. I asked the teacher for a rubber band and stretched it between my fingers. Then I asked a child to pluck one side. She did, and we saw it vibrate. I walked around the children so that everyone could pluck the rubber band. I asked them, towards the end, what our first instrument is? Yes, our body. As I am speaking to them, I said, in my throat I have some vocal cords that are a little like this rubber band, vibrating by the air passing by them.

I sat down and explained that every person has a different body, and the shape of our head, mouth, teeth, tongue, lips–all of our body, actually–makes it so that every single person in the world has their own unique, special voice. “Steele,” I pointed out. “There is no one else in the world who has a voice just like you!”

Then we went on to discuss how our body is an instrument. We tried to see how many sounds we could make (that were appropriate!) with our bodies: singing, clapping, snapping (I admitted I’m a terrible snapper), rubbing our hands together, clucking our tongues, tapping our teeth, whistling, shushing (saying “shhhh”), popping our cheeks (as in the “Lollipop” song), marching/stomping, buzzing our lips. The children were wonderful at helping think of ways we could use our bodies to make sounds.

I told them about Bobby McFerrin, an accomplished musician, who makes music only using the instrument of his body! We “tasted” parts of a couple of his songs: “Blackbird,” “Simple Pleasures,” etc. (I didn’t think of this in the moment, but a Vocal Point video would have been a fun way to show how we can make music only with our body, such as their cover of “Happy.”)

Of course, while tasting these fun, jazzy songs, I invited the children to get up and dance in their spots!

“What other instruments do you know about?” I asked them next. We named off a bunch. I asked them which instrument we practice in class? Resonator bells. “TODAY we get to take home an instrument! It’s some practice bells.” I handed these out to Mrs. Young’s class. We pulled the bell set out of its bag, and I showed them the instructions on the back. Then I told them how to use them: I pulled out a smart phone and talked them through how their parent can type in this website address, touch the little menu in the top right hand corner, and then scroll down the menu until they get to the “Kindergarten Songs” link. I showed them how the first song is “Adios, Amigos.” I showed them how there were lyrics, so they could teach the song to their mom or dad or sister or dog. (I told them the dog couldn’t sing it, but he would be a nice friend!). Then I showed how they could follow the Solfa notation to play the song, or they could click on the PLAY arrow to play along with the song. I also played a little of the other recordings to demonstrate how there are different recordings of the same song. We played the song on our practice bells. (The afternoon class wasn’t given their bells yet because I still need a parent or youth volunteer to help glue the instructions on the back of their bells.)

Then we talked about caring for an instrument: Where do you store an instrument so that the dog or baby won’t chew on it, where it won’t fall into some water, where you can use it often but never sit or stand on it? We always wash our hands before using any instrument, etc. I asked for ideas and they had good ones!

We ended our lesson by singing our goodbye song (Adios, Amigos).

A sample of Bobby McFerrin:

Here’s a great idea for teaching a scale:

Today’s lesson in Mrs. Young’s class (2-27-2015)

Hot Cross Buns image Today I told the children that I had been on an airplane last week flying to California. I asked them how fast an airplane flies. FAST! It has to fly fast, I explained, with all the weight it is carrying. How heavy is an airplane? VERY heavy, I answered (after they did), especially with all of those people on it! The engines have to be going very fast to create enough lift to get the heavy airplane up into the air!

“Today we’re going to learn about speed in music,” I prepared. “But first, let’s review.” We warmed up on a Solfa scale, singing with our voices and hands the solfège signs as we sang an ascending and descending scale. (Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do Do Ti La Sol Fa Mi Re Do). Then I held up Hot Cross Buns (Hot Cross Buns Solfa dots or Hot Cross Buns dots ). We sang the song once using our hands and Solfa signs, and then we sang it again counting each note in song.

Next, we talked about the weather. I asked what kind of weather we had had this winter so far: DRY. What happens when we don’t get enough snow or rain? We can have a DROUGHT. Droughts are no fun, because we need water to live! We need water to grow the fruits and vegetables we eat! We need water to help the grass grow that the cows eat to be able to produce milk so that we can drink milk and eat cheese, butter, yogurt, and ice cream! We need water to help the wheat grow so we can eat bread, crackers, cookies, and cakes!

I put up this Song Garden version of “Rain, Rain Go Away.” I asked them to sing it with me. We sang it in Solfa first. I asked if anyone recognized this melody? Someone did! We sang the folk song with the usual lyrics. (Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day. etc.)

Then I put up these lyrics.

We sang through this song a couple of times. Then I clapped the tempo for how fast we were singing it. Our teacher became a metronome, and I pulled up my metronome app on my phone. I showed the children what a metronome looks like (at least on an app!), and ironically, we were singing at 112 bpm, which was where the metronome had been set the last time I used it! I explained that beats per minute means how many 1-beat notes are in a minut

Speed limit tempo e.

Next I held this page up and asked what it was. The children recognized it as a speed limit sign. I asked them what it meant. Some of them knew that it tells us how fast a car is allowed to go on a street.

I explained that in music, there is something called tempo, which tells us how fast to play a song. Tempo markings, I explained, are words often written at the beginning of a piece of music that tell you how fast (or slowly) to play a piece. These words are often in Italian. Italian, I asked, is spoken where? In Italy. “Yes! Where do we live? Which language do we speak? Does anyone speak any other languages? Tell us a word in Spanish (etc.).”

I held up an example of some sheet music with a tempo marking and pointed it out for all to see. I told them I was going to teach them 3 Italian words that are tempo markings. I put these signs up one at a time and explained them to the children.

“Adagio is slow. Say, “Adagio.” We repeated it three times. “Look up at the clock,” I motioned. “See the red second hand moving around. Tick, tock, goes the clock. Tick, tock, goes the clock,” I said, to the beat of the second hand. tempo markings lesson adagio moderato prestissimo

“Adagio is like walking. Walk in your spot with me. Tick, tock, goes the clock.” We walked in place for a few moments. Then we sang “Rain, Rain” at that tempo.

“Moderato is TWICE as fast as adagio, which means that there are TWO beats for every time the second hand goes ‘Tick, Tock.’ Let’s move the metronome up to 120 bpm and see how fast that would be.” I changed the setting and played it for them. It’s like the speed of marching in a parade,” I told them. “March, march, march, march. March in place like you are marching in a parade.” “I can march on my feet, I can march down the street, I can march in the big parade,” I sang, an excerpt from a song from my childhood. We sang “Rain, Rain” at the new tempo.

“Prestissimo is THREE TIMES as fast as adagio! That means there are THREE beats for every time the second hand goes ‘Tick, Tock.'” I repeated the metronome change to 180 bpm, and we ran in place at that speed. Then we sang “Rain, Rain” at the new tempo.

We all sat down again. I pulled out these mini signs and said we were going to play a little game to test them on their tempo markings. While shuffling the cards, I told them I would hold up a word, and they needed to say if it was “slow, medium or fast” and then say the word. I held one up in the air quickly. “Slow! Adagio!” they cheered. We continued until we had reviewed each new word a few times.

We had 10 minutes left. I sent the children to get their bells and head to their tables. I handed out a piece of paper to each child and told them that they had 3 minutes to write a song. Any notes! Any words if they wanted words! They started. I told them when they had 1 minute left. Before we starting our performances, I told them we needed to be sure to practice good audience manners! That means they need to be quiet as mice while the person is performing. “That means you can’t lean over to your neighbor and talk or whisper loudly. You give your whole attention to the performer.” When the person is done, they clap until the performer has bowed. I modeled a bow. I also mentioned that if you are in a wheelchair, you can do a seated bow and explained that performers who sometimes give a seated bow include cellists and harpists.

Then I went around the room and let one child at a time share. One child from each table shared, and then I went back around. Not everyone got to share, so I collected the papers to pull out next week.

Here are some of the children’s compositions:

The children LOVED performing! I had more volunteers than time to let them share, but we had SUCH a great time. Like one boy said after, when I told him how proud I was of him, he said, “It was awesome!”

We sang our goodbye song, collected the songs, and put our bells away.

Today’s lesson in Mrs. Graham’s AM class (DMK 2-13-15)

WHAT IS SOUND?

I started off by asking the kids if they new how sound was created.

HOW IS SOUND MADE?
VIBRATION– I introduced them to vibration and showed this video clip I downloaded from online:

After the video I showed them a simple example of the things they sang about in the video. First, I had a mini bread pan wrapped with several different sizes of rubber bands. We talked about how the different sizes of rubber bands caused them to vibrate at different rates and therefore at different pitches.
Tighter=faster vibration= higher pitch/ More Loose=slower vibration=lower pitch

I then showed them the same effect on my ukulele.

CAN VIBRATION/SOUND WAVES BE SEEN AND FELT?

FEELING:
I had the kids hum and feel the vibration occurring in their necks, then in their faces on and around their nose.

I taught them about their vocal chords and how they are like a set of rubber bands that vibrate, then how the air resonates in the throat, mouth, and facial cavities.

SEEING:
I brought a clear cup of water and a small tuning fork. First, I explained how the tuning fork worked and how the invisible sound waves hitting each other in between the tongs would create a tone. I hit it and let each child individually hear the tone. Then I explained that when I hit the tuning fork and put it in the water, those same invisible waves would disrupt the surface of the water and they could essentially “see” the vibrations working. I hit the tuning fork and put in the water for small groups at a time. They were so excited by the whole tuning fork thing.

Then I played this video clip from The Magic School Bus to reinforce what we had just learned. They loved it:

Finally, I showed them how to make a straw kazoo and how when you change the length of the straw by cutting it smaller, the pitch gets higher and higher. As my “valentine”, I gave each of them a straw with a little slip of paper that had the website address to watch a video that shows how to make it and how it works. That clip is here: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.howmove.zkazoo/pitch-straw-kazoo/

(This lesson was taught by Mrs. Barkdull.)

Today’s lesson in Mrs. Young’s class (DMK 2/13/15): Valentine’s Song

Since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, I had told the children last week that we would write a Valentine’s song. “Can we give it to our mom and dad?” one student questioned eagerly. “Yes!” I confirmed. “You can write it for anyone you want!”

We sang our welcome (theme) song, and then I reviewed what we’d learned in the last two weeks for about 4 minutes. First, I went over beat. “Beat is a steady beat that stays the same and keeps going,” I clapped over my heart. “1-2-3-4. 1-2-3-4. 1-2-3-4.” I said aloud. The children joined it. “You can cover your ear to hear the beat!” one student remembered aloud. “You can also feel it on your heart!” another girl chimed in. “Yes!” I encouraged.

“Then we have rhythm. What is different about rhythm?” I asked. One student responded, “It’s like this!” and tapped out a rhythm on her legs with varying note values. “Yes!” I agreed. “Some notes are short,” I gestured with my hands showing a short horizontal length, “while other notes are longer,” showing a wider space between my hands, “and some notes are longest!” I showed them with my hands about a yard wide apart. “Do you remember our song?” I pulled out “Hot Cross Buns” again, asking the teacher to be our metronome. She clapped our steady beat while we sang. I reminded the students, by pointing to the notes, which notes were 1 beat, which were 2 beats, and which were 4 beats long. We sang it together while I showed the number of each beat in each note.

Then I asked them about melody. “Which one is the melody?” The notes we sang just now, or the other notes we played last week that sounded good? “The notes we sang!” answered one boy. “That’s right!” I told them. And who remembers what the harmony is? “The other notes we played called ‘accompaniment.’ ” “Yes! Wow! Another name for harmony is accompaniment, and it is the notes that sound good with the melody! Does anyone remember which note we played that sounded good with Hot Cross Buns?” “Sol!” a child responded. They remember so well! It is just amazing. I love it!

Then I modeled how to write a song. “We’re going to write our song today. You will have a paper on your desk, and you can write ‘To:’ at the top and put whoever’s name you want to give it to there. Then you can write ‘From:’ and put your name there. Then you need to pick some notes. Hmm. I think I like the notes sol, mi, do.” I played smd. “I could either write s m d on my page, or I could color the notes. Which colors do I use?” I colored a blue dot, a yellow dot, and a red dot. “Then I think I’ll play it again, so I need to write it again.” I colored the dots on my “page” on the white board.

“Now I want to put some words with my notes. I think I like the words, ‘I love you.’ Then I could say, ‘Yes, I do!’ and it would rhyme. That would work!” I wrote the words under the notes. Then I decided which notes to use for my second line and wrote them up under the board, followed by the lyrics below, “I love you. You love me, too!”

I played my song one more time on my bells and sang the words, too. Then I sent the children back to their desks to compose their songs. The teacher and TA helped the children with their songs. We sang our goodbye song before they were done because I had to leave. (I could only teach 20 minutes today. They finished the song after I left.)

DMK lesson 2-6-15 Melody and Harmony

melody and harmony

Today we started music time singing “‘A’ You’re Adorable” to a recording by Maria Muldaur (Swingin’ in the Rain, 1998). The children had already been taught this song, and I told them it’s a song I love to sing around Valentine’s Day. During the instrumental interlude, we danced in our places. (We have adapted our dancing moves to accommodate a child with a physical disability, which works out well for everyone!) Once we sang it, I played the beginning of the song again and had them listen to the different parts of the song. Before the singing ever begins, what did they hear? Which instruments besides the voice could they hear? (clarinet? oboe? piano? guitar? drums?)

I wrote the words “melody” and “harmony” on the board. (Can you believe there are actually two girls in my class this year, each with one of the names, respectively?! How serendipitous!)

I explained that the notes we sang in the song is the melody and the other music that the instruments were playing was the harmony. I had them echo me after I explained the definitions again: “Melody is the notes we sing” (repeated). “Harmony is the other notes we hear that sound good with the melody” (repeated).

I also wrote the word “accompaniment” on the board under “harmony” and said that we sometimes call the harmony that other instruments play “accompaniment.”

I pulled out a piece of sheet music (Song Garden©-style) for “Hot Cross Buns” and showed it to the students. I told the children that a “bun” is another name for a roll, and the cross means the mark on the top of the roll (I drew a little circle with a cross on the top, like a roll.) (See recipe and photo here.) I said that a long time ago, in England, for example, there were street sellers trying to sell what the had on their cart (or in a basket). I said that they might be calling out, “Hot Cross Buns” to people who were on the street on a cold day. “Can you imagine eating a delicious, hot, fresh roll with melting butter on it? Let’s pretend!” (And we pretended to take a bite and savor it for a second.)

I then played for them the beginning part of “Who will buy?” from Oliver!, stopping after each singer sang out what they were selling (“Who will buy my sweet, red roses, two blooms for a penny?”) (lyrics here) and asked what the person was selling (roses, milk, strawberries, etc.), I asked them which one did they think was the melody and which voices were the harmony. They decided the roses were melody, so I drew a rose next to the word, and that strawberries was harmony, so I drew a rose next to that. (I didn’t play the whole song for them because of time. I wish I had shown a video clip instead of using an audio clip, though. I would see if I could find one without dubbing, as this one has. This just shows which one. It’s also too long to show the whole beginning.)

After explaining about street sellers, I asked the classroom teacher “to be our metronome,” and I sang “Hot Cross Buns” for them once. I held up my right hand (left hand was holding the song) and held up a finger for each count. If a song was 2 counts, I held up my pointer finger and did a quick review of note values/rhythm. I pointed to the smallest notes and said, “Remember how the smaller notes are the shortest ones? They only get 1 beat.” Then I pointed to the medium-sized dots. “Are these longer or shorter?” (Longer). “That’s right!” I said. “How many beats do these notes get?” (Two!) Then pointed to the largest dots. How many beats do these notes get?” (Four!).

Then I played it once for them on the bells. “That was the melody.” I told them, and then asked, “Which note do you think might sound good as harmony to go with this melody?” A child who raised his hand suggested “La.” So I asked the classroom teacher to play the melody on her set of bells, and I played “la” along with her, on each note. Then I asked for the teacher to suggest a note. She chose “sol.” So we played it again.

Then I sent the children to get their bells (the “Queen of the Jungle” for the day dismissed the children row by row), and after they got back, I played my “Put your mallet on your ear” game until nearly everyone was ready to play.

When we were ready, we played “Hot Cross Buns” several times at a very slow tempo. “Hover above mi,” I told them each time before we began.

Then I divided the class in half (pointed out which half would play with their teacher) and told the other half of the class they would play sol as melody with me. After one time through, we swapped, and my group played melody.

Then it was time to our sing good-bye song! I told the children after the song to think of words and notes that they would like to use in a Valentine song that we will write for their parents next week. The Queen of the Jungle invited rows to go put their bells away.

What We Teach

These are the questions we try to answer when teaching music principles in Delicious Music®:

What is music?
- The story of music
- Vibrations and waves
- Instruments
What makes music good for you?
- Physical, mental, emotional affects of music
How can I make music?
- Notes and pitch
- Scales
- Intervals
- Composition and composers
- Solo and ensemble
How can I make music beautiful?
- Variety, opposition, technique
  - Dynamics
  - Tempo
  - Beat and rhythm
  - Melody and harmony
How can I learn an instrument?
- Practicing habits
- Music lessons
How can I share my music?
- Performance preparation
- Audience manners

Free sheet music

I was looking online today for some flute-violin duets. I just LOVE the internet for all the good that is available. There if FREE sheet music available for music that is in the public domain. For example, www.8notes.com is a wonderful resource! I went printed out sheet music for several lovely flute-violin duets from that website.

Just in case you aren’t familiar with the term “public domain,” music (and art and literature) that is in the public domain essentially means that the copyright has expired or it is available for use without payment or permission.

There is a lot of music available on the internet that is being shared illegally. Beware! You shouldn’t print out music that has a copyright symbol on it without express written permission from the publisher. Here’s my rule of thumb: if you didn’t buy it or own it, you shouldn’t have it. Whenever my children have printed out a pop song that someone scanned and posted on the internet, I have them go shred it. Musicians don’t need to be starving on account of us! 🙂

There is a lot of great music that is free legally, and if you can’t find a song you want, well, write one! And then share it free on the internet for others to enjoy! 🙂

Music great immune booster

While looking for a song tonight for my son, I found this tidbit from recent medicine and music-related research.

It’s no surprise to me! When I suffered from debilitating anxiety a number of years ago, it was music that helped me heal more than anything else.

So keep on listening to beautiful, uplifting music! It’s doing you good through and through! 🙂

Noteflight.com

I just have to share how cool this is! As you may know, I didn’t graduate in music, so I’m learning so many things as I try to teach music, including how to notate music online. I did it for the first time today for our last little song. You can go to noteflight.com and write your own songs! There are video tutorials to show you how. It is so easy! And fun! I hope each of my students will give it a try this summer!

Harvest’s Here

We had a great rehearsal today! The children are doing so well with their new song, Brother John. I’m excited that they are learning it so well. They played it in a round, and it sounded great.

Here is the new song we started learning in class: Harvest’s Here. (Click on the link to print out the sheet music for it or play along with the recording or learn the lyrics. This song is the duet part to Apple Seed. It sounds a lot better than when you play Recipe with Apple Seed!) 🙂

We will play the two songs together in our concert (May 8, 7 pm; call time 6:15 pm), and then Brother John in a round.

Next week is our LAST after school class for the year!

I need to know by next week who is committed to taking Intermediate Orchestra next year. We will meet Wednesday mornings at 8 am. For the summer/fall, you will need to purchase two music books (Essential Elements for Strings, Book One with CD and Basic Fiddlers Philharmonic: Celtic Fiddle Tunes. See the links that follow). Be sure you get the one for your child’s specific instrument (Essential Elements: violin, viola, cello; Fiddlers-Celtic: violin, viola, or cello)! You’ll need it right away so they can begin working on it as soon as orchestra class finishes. I will also give you a little summer assignments packet to help your child be ready for the fall. It is all very do-able stuff, and your private teacher should be able to integrate it into her lessons easily. (Remember, if you don’t have a private teacher already, you need to get one. If you’d like any recommendations, just ask!)

So please let me know if you are planning on continuing next fall by next week. (You can text or email me today if you want.) 🙂

Our FINAL rehearsal will be at 8 AM on Thursday, May 8. Remember to wear your orchestra shirt that day! Our performance will be that night.

Thanks so much! I’m getting excited for our performance!!