February in the music room

4th graders are basking in the glow of their recent concert. After a long day rehearsing in the morning and putting on a school assembly I was so very impressed by the energy and enthusiasm they brought to their evening performance! Our next challenge is an opportunity for your student to apply everything they’ve learned to create musical melodies on the recorder! My goal is to give each student the experience of breaking down a complex task into its components parts, (in this case: rhythm/pitch;left/right hands; breath/fingers), then putting the pieces back together to create something meaningful. It’s an exciting process!

2nd graders are putting the finishing touches on their concert program “Oceans of fun!” Following our concert on February 3rd our singing unit continues. We will learn something called a partner song, when we sing two unrelated songs simultaneously, and then attempt a song called “Teemo the singing monkey” that opens with three-part harmony – an even greater challenge! After mid-winter break we look at how melodies are built and examine the similarities between melodies in music and sentences in stories.

Kindergartners have discovered that most music has a steady beat falling into a pattern called a meter. We’ve marched to meters of two, waltzed to meters of three, and have hopped like frogs to meters of 4. Recognizing the underlying beat structure of music gives students a way to organize what they are hearing. When they move to music or play on instruments, this information can guide their decision making – when do I want to do big motions in my dance? When should I hit my rhythm stick and when should I wait? This month we will learn that instruments, like people, cluster in families. Ask your student to tell you one thing that all stringed, woodwind, brass or percussion instruments have in common!