This Week in Music Class – January 13

January 13, 2014 By

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It’s hard to believe that we are almost finished with semester 1!! Seems like just yesterday we were trading in our shorts and flip-flops for backpacks and packed lunches, but here we are in January with our snow shovels and hats/mittens!! This is our last week in music class for this group of students, so we’re finishing up on the guitars, and tying up loose ends for the end of the semester. I hope everyone has a wonderful end of year, and hope the second semester is as great as the first!!

This week’s Middle School Word of the Week is Hypothesis. HERE is a very brief article titled “An Evolutionary Hypotheses for Why Humans Are Musical”

 

 

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This Week in Music Class – December 16

December 16, 2013 By

This week is a continuation of what we learned in guitar last week. Students are continuing to hone their skills on reading music and reading guitar TAB.  This week students have the choice to work on any of the 7 songs they currently have in their folders.

 

Music reading skills:

  • Skip to my Lou
  • Go Tell Aunt Rhody
  • Paw Paw Patch

Guitar Tab skills (these holiday songs are optional):

  • Let it Snow
  • Here Comes Santa Claus
  • Santa Claus is Coming to Town
  • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

It’s getting to be that time of year where sniffles and sneezes are rampant… We’re starting to run low on the tissues and hand sanitizer that came in at the beginning of the year. I’m happy to give an extra credit grade to anyone who can bring in a box of tissues or bottle of hand sanitizer to share!!

This week’s Middle School Word of the Week is Primary. The main definition is first or highest in rank or importance.  Since we’re playing the guitar, let’s talk about the primary chords. The “Primary” Chords in music are the three most commonly used chords. Those are the I, IV, and V (or V7) chords. Meaning the chords that are built off of the first, fourth, and fifth degree of a scale. Right now in guitar, the students know the I and the V chords in the G scale, namely the G major and D7 Chords.

The G Chord

G-Chord-01

The D7 Chord

D7-Chord-01

Chord images found here: http://blog.learntoplaymusic.com/category/instruments/guitar/

This will be the last “This Week in Music Class” until the new year!! I hope everyone has a wonderful winter vacation!!

Mrs. Kelley

 

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This Week in Music Class – December 9

December 9, 2013 By

This week we’re learning how to read guitar TAB, but don’t worry! We’re not abandoning reading “real” music notes!! Just having fun with some winter songs.  By the end of the week, students will be able to play the guitar by both reading notes and TAB.  They are still working hard on the traditional US folk songs:  Skip to my Lou, Go Tell Aunt Rhody, and Paw Paw Patch!  Do you know what a paw paw is? Check out this link to read about this tasty fruit that is indigenous to the United States!

paw-paw

This week’s Middle School Word of the Week is Parallel.

Take a peek at THIS link to see parallels between Music and the Common Core in Math and the Language Arts!

Mrs. Kelley

Filed Under: Guitar, Music Class, This Week In Music Class