OWS's Recorder Program

OWS students have the opportunity to play recorders beginning in third grade.  At the beginning of the year, we take orders to buy soprano recorders for third-graders and altos for fourth-graders (and sometimes tenors, for older kids with big enough hands.)  When the recorders arrive, I begin having classes once a week for each grade.  Kids have to skip one half-hour lunchtime recess in order to attend class each week.  Students who attend these classes faithfully get to play in the spring concerts.

Students who especially enjoy recorder may also sign up for "Extreme Recorders" after school (on Thursdays, at least for this first trimester).  At the beginning of the year, it's open only to fourth-graders and up; third-graders may join us in the second trimester, after they have a good idea of what it's all about.

I love playing recorder (I even do it for fun with friends) and love to share the joy of ensemble playing with my students.  I collect and create arrangements of interesting music at varying levels of difficulty, so as to serve as many kids as I possibly can.  If your child is among our recorder players--or is interested in joining us--I am thrilled!  Thank you!

Concerts & Audience Days

The first week of June will see lots of performances in the music studio!
Monday, June 3rd, 4:00: the GLEE club will perform the songs they've been preparing.  The venue is still being negotiated.
Tuesday, June 4th, at 4:10: Extreme Recorders will give a concert in the music studio.
Wednesday, June 5th, at 4:10: the Choir will sing their concert.

Also, Audience Day for Kindergarten and Second Grade will be Wednesday, the 5th.  Children who take lessons on piano or strings are invited to bring their instrument and music to school and perform for their classmates.  Audience Day for First, Third, and Fourth Grades will be Thursday, the 6th.  One classroom will win the Best Audience trophy!

Shows and Concerts!

It's high "Performance Season" here at OWS!  Coming up:
March 15--Fifth Grade "American Revolution"
April 3--Vista "Guys and Dolls"
April 19--Second Grade "Earth Day" show
April 19--Recorder Concert at OWS
April 26--Kindergarten Parade and Performances
May 11--Recorders play at University Bookstore, Bellevue
June 3--Glee Club concert
June 5--Choir concert

Audience Days

Kindergarten and Second Grade will have their Audience Day on Wednesday, January 30th.

First and Fourth Grades will have theirs on Thursday, January 31st.

Third Grade's will be Thursday, February 7th.

On their day, each class will compete for the Best Audience trophy!  They will be an audience for their classmates' performances.

Children who take any kind of music lessons outside of my general music classes will be the performers; if they wish, they will have the opportunity to demonstrate, for their classmates, what their study and practice have so far enabled them to do. They should bring their instrument to school--unless it's piano. (Turns out I have one they can use.) They should also bring a copy of the music they plan to play.

To help kids remember to bring what they need, I have sent home green "reminder" slips about Audience Day (Third Grade will get their reminders on Tuesday, Feb. 5th.)

Hope to See You

January brings my favorite OWS tradition: the PA's Multicultural Event.  Every year the committee outdo themselves providing fun and exciting opportunities to try out activities from specific areas of the world.  This year's extravaganza, on Saturday, January 26th, will feature the cultures of Polynesia.

Students in Kindergarten through Fourth Grade have been practicing a canoeing song, "Tongo", to perform at the Event.  Any student who's present at performance time--currently I believe that to be sometime between 6:00 and 6:45 p.m.--will be welcome to come forward and take part in the performance.  I've posted the words just to the right of this post.

And fourth- through seventh-graders who are currently participating in the "Glee" after-school activity on Mondays have been preparing a Maori song, "Pokarekare Ana".  It's a love song communally created by soldiers missing their wives and girlfriends in 1914 New Zealand.  Only the students in "Glee" will be onstage for this one.  Again, I believe it will be between 6 and 6:45.

Watch your "Quick Take"s for your opportunity to sign your family up for this splendid event.  It's moved to a larger venue this year, so I hope they won't run out of space; but I intend to sign up the first moment I'm given a chance!

Nifty Concert for Kids on Saturday

A well-known Renaissance ensemble, The Baltimore Consort, is giving a Discovery Concert on Saturday, December 15th, called "Jump at My Cousin: Early Ballads and Dance Tunes".  These were the top pop tunes of their day, and will be performed on voices, viols, flutes, recorder, krumhorn, lute, cittern, and pipes . . .plus local kid performers on harp, fiddles, and more!  Here are details and a link:

Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, 1:00 p.m.
Sand Point Community United Methodist Church
4710 NE 70th St, Seattle  98115
--free parking--
Tickets: $10, $5 Student/Child, $5 Seniors.

Link to Early Music Guild site

Sleigh Rides

December is "Sleigh Ride" month in the music room!

Kindergartners listen to Leroy Anderson's beloved piece, finding the sounds of the sleigh bells, horses' hooves, whip, and whinny.  Then they create and perform a score using the song "Jingle, Bells!" and some sleigh bells: some children perform the singers' line in the score, while others are following the line for the sleigh bells.

Fourth-graders also hear Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" numerous times, as they learn a challenging body-percussion piece to be performed along with it.  This activity is a favorite of mine and of many of the kids as well.

And third- and fourth-grade recorder players have been learning an arrangement of "Jingle, Bells!" which we will perform several times on Wednesday the 12th.  Starting at 12:30, we'll be touring the school and playing in the hallways and common areas. 

After-School Music

I offer several music opportunities in the after-school activities program.  Students may be registered for these classes through the "Current Families" section of the OWS web site.  A second trimester is beginning the week after Thanksgiving, and for it I am offering three classes:

CHOIR meets Wednesdays 3:30 to 4:30 in the music room.  We learn mostly folk songs and sing them with recorded accompaniment, with attention to breathing, vocal production, and enunciation.  The last class each trimester ends with a concert for parents, after which choristers take home their folders of lyrics and a cd of the recorded accompaniments.  Lately most of the participants have tended to be in third grade or younger, but I choose songs which are good for singing at any age, and I welcome older singers.

EXTREME RECORDERS meets Tuesdays 3:30 to 4:40.  It's for kids who want to play harder music than we do in our noontime recorder classes.  Some participants play at a very high level, and others are less advanced; I provide parts of varying difficulty so that all can be challenged and have fun playing all kinds of music.

For the very first time, this second trimester I am offering a singing group only for older students (4th - 8th grades).  This class has already filled.  If I like the way it goes, I'll offer it again in the third trimester (after February break).

What's Up in Music Class?

Kindergartners have been doing the Chicken Dance and playing the singing game "Jump, Josie".  They're singing "You're a Grand Old Flag", and also singing "Pudding on the Hill" and getting ready to play its scalewise passages on tonebar instruments.  Yesterday they began listening to "The Hut of Baba Yaga" from Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and showing its ABA form by turning around and around like the house, then sitting down to pantomime stirring a cauldron, and then turning around again.

First-graders are adding eighth notes ("ti-ti") to their rhythmic repertoire of quarter notes and rests.  Next week we'll begin our study of Johann Sebastian Bach in earnest, with his Toccata in D Minor (often heard around Hallowe'en time!) for organ.

Second-graders have been doing a lot of singing!  After hearing the story of how Francis Scott Key came to write the words, the children have learned where the melismae are (and are not!), so that they can sing our national anthem correctly.  They've been working to detect the sensations in their throats from their vocal cords, and how the feeling of going up in pitch differs from the sensation of going down.  And we've been applying those findings to help us sight-sing melodic fragments composed of G, E, and A.

Third-graders began their study of Beethoven by talking about the Age of Enlightenment.  It was strange to think that the new respect for education which began at that time meant that education was not particularly highly valued in the previous age!  They learned that the sound of mi-re-do is one that ends many songs, and they have been trying to find songs which end that way.  Next week they will begin learning "This Pretty Planet", a song which Third Grade traditionally performs in a round with Fourth Grade a day or two before Thanksgiving.

Fourth-graders read rhythms which included syncopations and sixteenth notes this week in music class.  Next week they will have an opportunity to use some of those rhythms as they improvise four-beat phrases on percussion instruments.  Then they'll learn an old English song called "The Keeper", which the kids always enjoy for its call-and-response phrases while they are practicing reading two-part music and multiple verses.

Marimba at Farmers' Market September 9th, 2012

Last night I rehearsed with my African-style marimba band, YAAMBA. We will be playing at Mercer Island Farmers' Market on Sunday, September 9th, from noon until I think about four o'clock. The music is energetic, and it's fun to watch us play, and we play even better when people DANCE. So I'd be thrilled if you'd bring your little dancers by for a spell!

A Wonderful New Year! with Recorders!

I'm so happy to see everyone again, and to meet new students! I spent most of the summer planning a wonderful new year for my kindergarten through fourth grade music classes and for all my recorder players!

If your child is in third grade or older, s/he will have a chance to order a recorder very soon. It's possible to participate in the recorder program (which happens during the school day) and play in the spring concert without buying a recorder; but I have never seen it happen. The students really need a Baroque-fingered soprano in order to practice at home, so they can hear themselves play. It's not a big commitment of practice time; once they learn the basics, practicing fifteen minutes a week will probably put them among the best players.

For more information, look to the right, below the "Blog Archive" box, and choose the "Recorder Program" page.

Lessons Days coming up!

The days seem to speed by more and more quickly at this time of year.   Maybe it's my age . . .

Kindergarten, Second and Third Grades will have their Lessons Day on Wednesday, June 6th.
First and Fourth Grades will have theirs on Thursday, June 7th.

On that day, children who take any kind of music lessons outside of my general music classes will have the opportunity to demonstrate, for their classmates, what their study and practice have so far enabled them to do.   They should bring their instrument to school--unless it's piano.   (Turns out I have one they can use.)   They should also bring a copy of the music they plan to play.

To help kids remember to bring what they need, I will be sending home green "reminder" slips about Lessons Day.

What's Up in Music Class?

Kindergartners are enjoying a reel from Appalachia and a Telugu song about the moon, which they'll perform after their Parade of Cultures the morning of April 27th.

First-graders continue to develop their skills reading and writing quarter notes and rests, paired eighth notes, and pitches G and E.

Second-graders are singing their hearts out preparing for their Earth Day show!

Third-graders have been working with rhythms. They recently have added syncopation (eighth-quarter-eighth) and beamed sixteenth notes to their repertoire. They also are beginning to study the canon, the definition of which is:
Two or more groups
Do the same thing, but
Start
At different times.

Fourth-graders have been relating elements in visual art to elements in aural art (music). Soon they will create their own music depicting a painting they have chosen.

Opera Especially for Kids

Well, yesterday Open Window kindergartners through fourth-graders saw an abridged version of the opera Hansel and Gretel. From the overture to the curtain call, and through the question-and-answer session afterwards, they were a well-mannered and attentive audience. I was very proud of them! And they really enjoyed the show. They knew most of the arias and duets, they knew why opera is sung so loudly, and they knew what was going to happen--although we were a little disappointed that NOISE, who have to carry their sets from one school to another, didn't have an exploding oven. If ever you and your OWS student are in New York City in December, you can go to the production that The Metropolitan Opera puts on every year, complete with angels, sandman, dew fairy, gingerbread children, and exploding oven!

Lessons Days Rescheduled

For kindergarten and third grades, Lessons Day--see the January 6th post--will be during the regular music period on Wednesday, February 15th.
For fourth grade, Lessons Day will be Thursday, the 16th.
For first grade, it will be after their Penguins show and after Midwinter Break, on Thursday, March 1st.
Second grade will also have it after Midwinter Break, on Wednesday, February 29th.

Multi-Cultural Event, and Lessons Day

Okay, when I said "no make-up date" for Lessons Day I meant in case of a student's forgetting to bring materials s/he needed for performing.  As we were snowed out instead, I hope to reschedule Lessons Day.

Meanwhile, the Multi-Cultural Event celebrating South American cultures is coming right up, this Saturday!  Entertainment is to begin at about 6 p.m. in the main (largest) room.  Around 7 p.m., I will take the stage and ask for any students who want to perform "Flor de Cactus"--the song from Peru I've been teaching in regular music classes--to come forward, and they'll sing it with a recorded accompaniment.

Lessons Day

On Lessons Day, students who take music lessons are invited to perform a piece for their classmates during their regular music class. This is an opportunity for some students to show skills they have gained by practicing regularly, and for all students to practice good audience skills. In fact, the class demonstrating the best audience skills will have their name put on a trophy, which will be displayed in the music studio!

Kindergarten, Second Grade and Third Grade will have their Lessons Day during regular music class on Wednesday, January 18th. First Grade and Fourth Grade will have it on Thursday, January 19th.

Saturday, January 7th

A live performance from the Metropolitan Opera of Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel will air this Saturday morning at 10 a.m. on KING-FM, 98.1.

Currently the opera is also playing on KING's "Opera Channel", available for listening online at http://www.king.org/

Multi-Cultural Event

The Multi-Cultural Event is one of my very favorite things each year. This year the committee has chosen to celebrate cultures of South America. So I've chosen a song from Peru, "Flor de Cactus", for kids to participate with at the event (on January 28th).

I'm teaching the song to children in kindergarten through fourth grades. It's in Spanish and has three parts, so I've replaced parts of the lyrics with "la la la"s to make it a little easier. I plan to teach it to recorder players as well, so that kids can choose to sing and/or play along at the event. Participation will be completely optional; no one is required to attend the event, nor to sing or play if they do attend. But I highly recommend attending; it's educational and great fun, and it's so nice to be together with so many OWS families!

The Music Teacher's Music Teacher

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I enjoyed a visit from Drake Mabry, who is a composer and a lifelong music performer and educator, and years ago was my oboe teacher. On Tuesday he was so kind as to visit my classes as well.

For the kindergarten and second grade classes, he played a couple of the "bamboo clarinets" which he makes himself, and talked about how they were made. For third graders, he played a condensed version of an alto recorder solo, which he had composed using avant-garde techniques. He demonstrated these techniques and talked about them a little before playing the piece. Third-graders were very good audience members, even remembering to wait until the end of the third movement before applauding.

I promised the third-graders that I'd put a pointer here to Drake's MySpace page so that they could see some of his other work (which includes visual art as well.) Here it is:

www.myspace.com/drakemabry

Drake also coached the fifth-grade recorder ensemble who come to me on Tuesdays, as well as my after-school "EXTREME Recorders!" group. For most of the kids, I'm the only recorder teacher they've ever had; so it was a wonderful opportunity for them to work with someone else's musical ideas.