What's Up?

The sing-along is over. Kids and adults sat together in the gym and sang mostly patriotic songs, along with a couple about taking care ot the planet, and "Over the River and Through the Wood". The kids were very supportive and appreciative of each other. It was very sweet.

This week, my after-school choirs start up again with a new set of songs. I also have a new recorder class after school for fourth- and fifth-graders. I'm so proud of the third-grade recorder players; not a single one has dropped out! Thanks for putting up with their practicing--THIS year no one has told me that his parents hid his recorder from him . . .

Kindergartners "went to the opera" today with a DVD of "William Tell". They watched Ricardo Muti conduct the overture, and then they saw the apple-shooting scene. You might ask them why Tell's son Jemmy was played by a woman. If that explanation turns out to be hard to follow, you could try asking why opera singers sing so loudly!

First-graders are practicing their eighth notes and quarter notes and rests using many little songs and rhymes. "Teddy Bear" is coming up soon.

Second-graders have been working with ostinatos, which are repeated patterns. Most of ours have been vocal. Often the trickiest part is to stop performing the ostinato at the right time, which is usually when the other group's rhyme or song is ending. Listening to the other performers is very important to making music!

Third-graders are still fitting their music and sound effects with their folk tales.

Fourth-graders have begun squaredancing. It's the Washington State Dance! They are rising to the challenges of learning the terminology and responding instantly to the calls.

Choir Concerts

Kids who are in my after-school choir are giving a concert this week. Wednesday Choir kids will have their concert on Wednesday, November 18th, and Thursdays on Thursday the 19th. Parents will be invited into the music studio at 4:10 p.m. on each day to hear their children's performance. When the concert ends at 4:30, singers may take home their folder of lyrics and an accompaniment cd. And when a new session begins December 2nd and 3rd, we'll start a new set of songs.

Here's What We're Up to in Music Class

Kindergarteners are learning to sing the first verses of "America" and "America, the Beautiful". We're also singing "This Land is Your Land" and learning "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Over the River and Through the Wood". Yesterday we played the steady beat on big conga drums while we sang "The Earth is Our Mother". And this year's kindergartners are standing so still and quiet for our national anthem--I'm very impressed!

First-Graders are learning the difference between steady beat and rhythm. Several times we've used quarter notes to mark the steady beats of a song or rhyme, then re-written beats which have two sounds (using eighth notes) or which are silent (using a rest). They're also reviewing the same patriotic songs I listed above for kindergarteners.

Second-Graders have also been reviewing those songs. We also heard and discussed the circumstances in which our national anthem was written, because in second grade I teach the children to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner". So now they understand what they are singing, and we're working on singing all the melismas correctly.

Third-Graders are beginning to work on the music for their Folk Tales program in December. Each class has a different tale, and therefore different music. I like to teach all the singing and instrumental parts to everyone, because (a) fitting the parts together is good practice to develop music skills, and (b) the more familiar everyone is with what everyone else is doing, the better the show will go.

Fourth-Graders have been introduced to gamelan orchestra music from the island of Bali. I've isolated a section of the music in which the parts are very clear, and we are working to re-create that music with our classroom Orff instruments. They've also been singing "Washington, My Home", "Roll On, Columbia", and "This Pretty Planet".

Bach's "Halloween Music"

So far as I know, it wasn't Bach's idea to use it for Halloween--but this time of year, the opening of his Toccata and Fugue in d minor "creeps" in everywhere. I played it for the first-graders. If yours wants a recording of it, ask at any cd store that sells classical music; they're sure to have numerous recordings to choose from.

a Recorder Concert

Tuesday evening, October 20th, a professional recorder trio will give a concert at the

Nordic Heritage Museum

3014 NW 67th Street

Seattle 98117.

Wood'n'Flutes is a Danish-based trio, one of whose members now lives in Seattle. That's Vicki Boeckman, who teaches recorder as well as playing professionally. The concert should be lots of fun; the trio has great stage presence, and would be happy to see your third-, fourth-, or fifth-grade recorder player in the audience! The concert will begin at 7:00 p.m.

Tickets are $17 for non-members of the Museum or the Northwest Danish Foundation ($15 for members). For reservations, call Sharmon Cooper at (206) 789 - 5707, ext. 10.

Specialists' Night

I'm looking forward to seeing parents Wednesday evening, October 14th. I have 25-minute sessions scheduled for kindergarten, first-, second- and third-grade parents to come to the music studio and and engage in some of the activities I actually do with your kids. (Parents of fourth- and fifth-graders are welcome to contact me individually.) Our Art, PE and Movement, and Spanish specialists have sessions scheduled, too. We'll begin in the gym at 6:15. Come join in a game, or learn to play a part on xylophone or glockenspiel!

What's your child doing in music class?

Well, in addition to fire drills and earthquake drills,

--Kindergartners are exploring vocal production and "singing voices" (head voice) as contrasted with "talking voices" (chest voice). They've been singing the chorus of "This Land is Your Land". They've been patting the steady beat and playing a little changing-partners game called "Jump Jim Joe".

--First-graders have been playing steady beats, in series of 8, on handheld percussion instruments; they've also been drawing the beat. In order to prepare pitch-reading, they've been singing songs using only the pitches G and E. They are learning about "up" and "down" using a glockenspiel. They looked at a time line to see how long ago J. S. Bach lived, and they've begun learning to pronounce his name!

--Second-graders have been reviewing the pitches G and E; reviewing correct mallet technique and playing the tonebar instruments; writing rhythms; and learning to pronounce Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's name properly.

--Third-graders have also been reviewing G and E, plus A. They are using body percussion to echo and create musical phrases. When they play tonebars, what and when they play depends on which instrument they are playing. They're practicing and refining their reading, writing and performance of rhythms; and Beethoven's name has pronunciation issues, too.

--Fourth-graders have been reviewing the names of the treble clef's lines and spaces, improvising using body percussion, distinguishing the timbres of the tonebar instruments, performing in canon, and performing more intricate music on the tonebars.

Steady Beat

Possibly the most compelling aspect of music is the beat. By "beat" I mean the steady pulse of the music-- x x x x x x x x --not the shorts and longs of the way the words go (for which I'll use the term "rhythm" instead). The beat is predictable. We take pleasure in having our predictions fulfilled from moment to moment; we also take pleasure in being surprised by the contrast of rhythms with the beat.

When our bodies respond to the beat, we are coordinating our movement to occur at the precise moment we predict the beat will happen. When we can do this, we know about music in a way that we can't know before doing it. And so in kindergarten and first grade, I spend quite a lot of time leading the children in movement (often patting) to the steady beat of music at various tempos. The goal--possibly the most important one in all of my music classes--is that children can hear the steady beat and respond to it in movement. After patting the beat, I want the students to walk to the beat, which is harder because of the balance issues.

In later grades, we move on to reading and performing rhythms with the steady beat.

Choir

Wednesdays and Thursdays after school I teach choir. It's open to children in K-5, and right now I have kids from K-4. We enjoy singing folk songs and composed songs, including some show tunes, while learning about diction and how to make the most pleasing sounds. Sometimes we sing a round or a partner song, developing our independence as musicians. Not everyone sings in tune all the time, but we're always improving.

September 23rd and 24th I will be taking sick leave, so Mr. Bingaman, who is an instructional assistant in third grade, will teach choir.

On November 18th and 19th, choir will end with concerts. These will be in the music studio from 4:10 to 4:30.

African Marimba

On Saturday YAAMBA, the Zimbabwean-style marimba band I play with, performed at a book-signing party in Kirkland. I saw one Open Window family there, and it was great fun performing for them. One of my students helped us by dancing (that's always an encouragement to the musicians in a setting like that!) Later I realized I could have used this blog to let folks know we'd be performing at the family-friendly event. Next time I will!

Recorders!

I offer an optional recorder program for third, fourth, and fifth-graders. It's possible, though not very satisfying, to participate without purchasing a recorder, because each week I sanitize recorders and keep them in my classroom so that kids who haven't brought their recorders that day will still be able to play. But a soprano recorder (for third-graders) is only $5, and an alto (for fourth) only $15. (Tenors are another story).

I require the kids all to play on the same make of instrument, which helps with one of the biggest issues in recorder: tuning. So I collect money the first two weeks of school, then send it to Peripole in Salem, Oregon, and we begin recorder classes when the recorders arrive in early October.

Classes will be held during the children's lunch recess every Tuesday. Students who faithfully attend recorder classes may play in concerts in the spring, no matter what level of proficiency they have or have not achieved. Students who twice go to recess on Tuesday instead of attending recorder class may not play in concerts, but are still welcome to come to classes and play.

That's really the only rule I have: the second time you skip class, you're not in the concerts.

I hope LOTS of kids will decide to try recorder this year, and I'll try my hardest to make it so much fun that they won't want to go to recess instead. If your child wants to join us, s/he should bring the $5 or $15 in an envelope labeled with his or her name AND, please, the name of the classroom teacher. Envelopes may be given to classroom teachers, from whom I will collect them, or they may be put in my mailbox in the office.

In-Service Week

It's in-service week at Open Window, and I'm getting ready to welcome back, and to meet, close to 300 students! I'm putting up displays, reviewing what to do in an emergency, making lesson plans and choir folders, dusting off the instruments, and wrestling with new hardware and software. (So far, the hardware is winning.)