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.)