Grade 6 Plays 'Hear the Blackbird'

On the menu today, a (presumed) Hungarian folk-tune I once found in a collection from Zoltan Kodaly.   The book is long lost but the tune is a favorite of ours. The ingredients:
1.Theme is sung with ukulele chords
2.Pianos play ostinato ( 'In the For-est in the Mead-ow') while Ukuleles pick the melody.
3.Ukes pick the ostinato and the pianos play the melody.

Enjoy it HERE

Stay tuned for the grade 5-6 version of the same tune...which one will you like better?

OK, here it is...a different arrangement. Pree...sehnt..iingg...GRADE56:
Hear the blackbird sing

Drum Workshops with Keith Mullins

Renowned percussionist and singer songwriter East coast music nominee Keith Mullins gave drumming workshops to all students in the school over two days February 2nd and 3rd. Engaging, informative, fun and dynamic, Keith had led each class ( one at a time!) in a 30 minute introduction to hand drumming followed by a whole school assembly featuring the the performance of the students themselves.


 Keith has a direct and personable manner with the students and the school was buzzing with high spirits and positive energy following a most productive and musical set of sessions. I highly recommend Keith to any other schools. Thanks Keith!!!!!      
Below are sound excerpts and some images of musical work in progress.




                     LISTEN Keith with grade 4

LISTEN TO Keith with grade 3 

Karate

Congratulations to these fine Grade 3 musicians who passed their yellow belt in recorder proficiency. Students had to sight read the notes G, A, B, C and D in the context of Beethovens 'Ode to Joy' and perform the entire selection without error...wow!

You can listen to the entire class perform the piece HERE

 We recorded Ode To Joy using our brand new Stienberg XLR microphone to USB preamp ( Judging by the speed up at 0:15...still needs some tweaking.  Enjoy!

BONJOUR !!

Here is my French class music video of our song Bonjour. The grade 5-6's did an amazing job multi tracking their voices, one at a time,  onto the sound track and then acting the scenes. The song is an original which only used known vocabulary. Here's the odd-sounding translation:

Hello, here is my little song

Hello, my song is not very long

Hello, listen up my friends

My song is not yet finished

Oh, not yet finished,  Oh not yet finished

Speaking French every day, it goes well, but it's hard

Today, I don't know , how do you say  "oh la la"?

Oh, oh la la.   Oh oh lala

I like candy and I like fries, I like counting up to eight

Today is Friday, tomorrow I stay in my bed

Oh, in my bed. Oh, in my bed.

Oh, now it's finished, Oh now it's finished

Clearly MUCH superior in French!

Grade 3 Melody Writing Contest Winners

Congratulations to the three winners in our grade 3 recorder melody writing contest. Sadie, Matthew and Klane were all voted as Best Melodies by their classmates. Based on sensible melody lines, form and ideas, these three hit all the right notes.
In first place came Sadie's composition which she wrote, performed and recorded. Please listen to it by clicking:
 HERE

No offence taken. Grade 6 Chicken Song.

This week I wrote a little piece for grade six that I thought was entertaining to play but with enough repetition built in that we could successfully nail it in one period.  I happily presented the selection, we worked on it and after the first run-through, one of the students said " Not to be rude or anything, but it sounds like a chicken song". Naturally, I was crushed  ;)    Sensing that I may have been mortally wounded, another said " Yeah, but we should call it the awesome chicken song".

I agree! It's pretty clucky. Click  HERE  to hear the Chicken Song.

Grade 5-6 Class Makes a Video

 

What fun, the combination of music and technology...so many opportunities. Here is the grade 5-6 class recording of the Acadian Lullaby. The Acadians, from France,  were the earliest European settlers in the Canadian maritime provinces. Many were forced to disperse to other parts of  North America, including Louisiana, after the British expulsion of these people in the 1700's. Our home town has many connections to the Acadians.