This Week in Music Class – November 18

November 18, 2013 By

What a fun week we had getting to know the guitars!!  We can now play any of the “BAG” songs… Like Mary Had a Little Lamb, Hot Cross Buns, etc… AND we can play the traditional American folk song “Skip to my Lou.” We even started learning the G and D7 chords! Whew!! We’re moving right along!! Here’s answers to a few Frequently Asked Questions I got this week…

  • If students have an acoustic guitar at home, they certainly can bring them in to play for class, but they would be responsible for them. They can leave them in the class through the day, but I can’t guarantee that they will be safe getting on and off the bus with them.
  • If you have an acoustic guitar at home that needs to be tuned or re-strung, I’m happy to do that. Just send in the guitar with a new set of strings and I’ll have it done the next day.
  • Electric guitars are not allowed in class (for obvious sanity and hearing-health reasons!!).
  • If a student is left handed, we will still be playing right handed. We do not currently own (as a school) any left handed guitars, and they are not the same.  The good news is that most of the really dextrous work on the guitar happens in the left hand, so it will actually be a little bit easier for you!! Mark Knopfler, BB King, and Joan Jett are just a few examples of well known lefties that play normal right handed guitars.

 

This week’s Word of the Week is Artifact…

Take a peek HERE at photos and an article about what is considered the oldest example of a full sized guitar. Attributed to Belchior Diaz, a Portugese builder who probably made the instrument around 1590. This is a cool, 10 string ornate guitar which has had some repair, but is in fabulous condition, especially when you consider its age!! Here’s a picture of the guitar’s owner playing the guitar!! The guitar has made the rounds touring to various museums, but it’s nice that it gets played occasionally as well!

oldestguitar

Mrs. Kelley

Filed Under: Music Class, Music History, This Week In Music Class Tagged With: , , , ,

This Week in Music Class – November 11

November 11, 2013 By

First and foremost… This week, with it’s start on Veteran’s Day,  is a time to reflect and thank everyone who does their very best to help protect and keep our country safe. A wholehearted THANK YOU to all veterans for giving your time, energy and lives for our safety and freedoms. Don’t forget the wonderful Veteran’s Day ceremony on our town common on Monday. The High School Band and Color Guard will be there to support our local veterans.

Veterans-Day-image

Next… OMGosh!!!! It’s time for guitars!!! Yeah!!!! Students this week are starting guitar in class (as long as they have passed off on the last piano song) and are very excited to be starting.

guitar2

We use  Fender Squire 3/4 size acoustic guitars with nylon strings in class. We have a  classroom set of guitars (that I just restrung) that we use, students will use the same guitar every class, and each student has a guitar in hand to use.

There are a very few students who have not yet played their piano song. They must finish the piano unit before moving on to guitar. I am available before school most days starting at 7am if they want to come and play their song for me.

One more thing… This week’s word of the week at the Middle School is hierarchy.  HERE’s an interesting article about the hierarchy of the music industry!

Mrs. Kelley

 

Filed Under: Music Class, This Week In Music Class

This Week in Music Class – November 4

November 4, 2013 By

This week we’re wrapping up our piano skills, and getting ready to start the guitars!! Students will be playing the song “Skip to my Lou” with the melody in the right hand and the chords in the left hand… both together at the same time!! Exciting!!

We’re listening this week to Peter Maxwell Davies Symphony #1. Peter Maxwell Davies is a composer from the UK who was born in 1934.

CLICK HERE for more information about the Symphony that we’re listening to this week.

This week’s Middle School Word of the Week is “Perspective.”

per·spec·tive
pərˈspektiv/
noun
noun: perspective
  1. 1.
    the art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point.
  2. 2.
    a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.

A great example of perspective would be the first performance of Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.”

See the full article here…. In May 1913, Igor Stravinsky debuted his ballet The Rite of Spring. Though it is one of Stravinsky’s most famous works, his creation was first met with harsh criticism, negative reviews, and yes – a riot.

So, from the composer’s perspective, he thought he was writing a ballet that was ground breaking, original and wonderful… While the audience was so horrified and insulted by what they saw that they quite literally started a riot in the opera house!!

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

This Week in Music Class – October 28

October 29, 2013 By

Well, the time is finally here!!! This week we’re putting the melody and the chords together!! We’re playing the traditional folk song “Skip to my Lou” with the melody in the right hand, and the chords in the left hand!! We’re also still working on note and rhythm reading to help us when we start our own songwriting very soon.

I hope you’ve noticed the new feature over on the right hand side-bar… When students enter and leave music class, there will be music playing. Last week, in honor of the start of the World Series we were listening to “The Red Sox Album” performed by the Boston Pops, and conducted by Keith Lockhart.  Over on the sidebar will be an image from the album and a little information about the composer.  Check it out every week!! There’s also a new page called “Listen to This!” (you can find it on the top menu bar) where I’ll list what we’ve listened to so far this year. This is in addition to the “normal” composers that we learn about through the year.

The Middle School “Word of the Week” this week is Irony. And, as the music teacher, you probably would expect me to link to the song “Ironic” by Alanis Morrisette. Although the song contains more “not-irony” than irony (best count I’ve seen is that she included 11 claims of ironic situations, and 2 are actually ironic)… Maybe that’s the irony… The song called “Ironic” that doesn’t actually contain irony 🙂

Mrs. Kelley

Filed Under: Composers, Music Class, Music History, This Week In Music Class

This Week in Music Class – October 15

October 15, 2013 By

I hope everyone enjoyed their long Columbus Day weekend!!! This is my favorite time of year, starting to get cool out, AND you get foliage!!! We’re so lucky to be in New England!!  This week in Music Class, we’ll be learning more about rhythm and how it works, fitting lyrics to various rhythms and also learning about our next composers!!

This week, our “Word of the Week” at the Middle School is THEME. Theme and Variations is a popular form of music, where a composer takes a “song” or a piece of music, and then changes that song, or music to create a related variation on the theme.  Listen to this recording of American Composer Charles Ives’ “Variations on America” where he took the folk song “America” as his Theme, and created variations based on the tune… How many different versions do you hear?

Mrs. Kelley

Filed Under: Composers, Music Class, Music History

This Week in Music Class September 30

September 30, 2013 By

Happy Monday!! How is it possible that today is the last day of September already? The beginning of the school year always flies by so fast!

treblebass

What will be working on during this short week? Whoo hooo!!! It’s time for Bass Clef!! Students are doing great reading notes on the Treble Clef, so now it’s time to add Bass Clef to their knowledge bass 🙂

bassclefMrs. Kelley

Filed Under: Music Class, This Week In Music Class

This Week in Music Class September 23

September 23, 2013 By

Welcome to a new week of music!! We’re always learning something new in class… Here’s what we’ll be working on this week…

  • Review of note names on the treble clef
  • Our first Composer of the term
    • Grade 6- G.F.  Handel (1685-1759)
    • Grade 7- Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
    • Grade 8- Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
  • Finding treble clef notes on the piano (through our epiano program)
  • Playing the C major scale on the piano with 2 hands together
  • Learning the G major scale on the piano with hands separate-Remember F# is F-Sharp… It’s not a hashtag 🙂

Mrs. Kelley

Filed Under: Music Class, This Week In Music Class

So Nice to Meet You!

September 20, 2013 By

Thank you to all the parents who were able to come to our Open House last night! It was so nice to meet all of you, and see some old friends too! If you were unable to join us (or didn’t make it all the way up to the 3rd floor :). Please CLICK HERE to see the PowerPoint presentation with the basic class overview information that I presented last evening, and as always, please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions you have.

Extra Credit: This month’s extra credit is to bring in a box of tissues or bottle of hand sanitizer 🙂 With nearly 250 students this semester, we go through a lot of tissues 🙂

Mrs. Kelley

Filed Under: Announcements, Music Class

Welcome to Middle School Music!

September 16, 2013 By

It’s so exciting to be starting a new school year!! I hope you all had a wonderful summer and are looking forward to getting back to music.

piano

Reminder: by now, all students should have brought in 3 things for class.

  • A folder that can stay in class to keep all worksheets and other work together in class.
  • Headphones (don’t have to be anything fancy, dollar store are fine).
  • A pencil, this can also live in your folder if you have trouble remembering to bring one.

We are busy getting ready to play piano, learn to read and write music, and, term 2, play the guitar!! We have an exciting year ahead!!

Extra Credit: If you have an extra box of tissues or bottle of hand sanitizer at home, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d bring one to school for class. I am happy to give extra credit to any student who helps out this way! We have 250 students coming though class, and the tissues and hand sanitizer would go to very good use!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Filed Under: Announcements, Music Class
« Previous Page