Cup Game Performance

Play time! My Year 5's mastered the cup rhythm so quickly! Time for them to come up with a performance. As an introduction to teachin musical form, I asked them to plan a performance in A-B-A (Ternary) format. They never let me down! ^^

Year 5 music: The cup game

We have discovered that, with our imagination and skills, we can turn anything into a musical instrument. Let's look at how Anna Kendrick uses a cup to accompany her song "You're Gonna Miss Me?"

The percussive rhythm on the cup is adapted from a famous cup game.




This simple rhythm when played by many players can be fun!

Now, let's learn it together!

Year 5 music: Noteflight Exercise 2012

Recently, in my Year 5 music class, my students ahve been exploring this website called NOTEFLIGHT, where they can compose and store music online for free.  We have spent about 3 hours on this online program and we all enjoyed the experience a lot.  This group of children have had regular music lessons with me for 5 years and I would say that most of them have pretty solid music knowledge; therefore, I think it's time to let them apply their skills to digital composition!

The goal of the first noteflight exercise is to have them complete and unfinished melody I have written for them.  (I didn't give them much guidelines - as long as they can copy what I have written and add 8 more bars, they pass the assignment)  I hear a lot of quality conversation and discussions when they were engaged in their composing.  None of them did the assignment just to aim for a pass, everyone was so eager to create!!  I was thrilled to see that our music class has finally evovlved into a class for idea exchange and new knowledge (music) creation!  Some children are still in exploratory stage where they test out the possibilities of all functions available - making "crazy" music!  While others are serious about creating a "good" piece of music.  Some of them have succeeded, and i would like to share some of the wonderful work here!  I have asked their permission to publish and share their music here. 

Score #1 by Bryan and Emily

Score #2 by Anson and Matthew

Score #3 by Sonia and Hugo

Year 5 music: Consonance vs Dissonance

In music, when a combination of notes are played together and produces a nice sound/quality, it is called CONSONANCE. In contrast, when a group of notes are played together and produces a less-agreeing sound, we call it a DISSONANCE. Obviously, throughout music history, most songs are full of consonances as it is more pleasing to audience's ears. However, in the more modern world of composition, composers starts to experiment with dissonance as well. Listen to the following piano piece and see if you like it. How does this listening experience differ from your past experience with listening?

Year 5 Music: Free composing software online



NOTEFLIGHT is a user-friendly online composing software. I find it to be a great tool to let upper primary students entering their composition online. It is also a great tool for teaching as well. The free version, or even the demo version, is sufficient for basic use.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE LINK TO NOTEFLIGHT

Creativity needs TIME

The new academic year is approaching, let's refresh our belief in creativity.  There's no rush at all, our children have a lifetime to grow their creativity.  As teachers, the fruit of creativity may not ripe during the time when we are with the children but we ought to believe that the seed has been planted. Creativity needs time to grow before it blosoms!

Year 3 Music: Song Identity

Listen to the following songs, can you tell which countries are they from?

Song #1

Song #2

Song #3

Whether you are trained or untrained in music, it is not difficult for you to differentiate a piece of Chinese music and a piece of Western music. That comes from past exposure to music (conscious or sub-conscious). A child growing up in Hong Kong can easily pick out the sound of Chinese music because they have heard it on TV during Chinese festivals and have become familiar with the tonality.

This is the first exercise I give to my students before I introduce pentatonic scale to them. I want to get them to ask themselves what is it in the music that distinguishes one piece to another.

Flip Book Art

The above video is the commercial of Google Chrom. It's like a computer version of flipbook art. I liked the idea a lot.

The concept behind flipbook art is easy, but it take a lot of time to complet. I have another video to share. Watch this amazing video called "A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything."

Quite Cool, isn't it? To create a flipbook animation, all you need is a small note book, a pencil and an eraser. Below is a 200 page Flipbook animation. It turns slower than the video above, and I hope you can see how it's done.

STILL NOT CLEAR? You may click to the following links to find out more about how to make your own flipbook art:

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART - Flipbook

WIKIHOW - Flipbook

HAVE FUN!

Before they can write creatively...

When reading a story to toddlers or kindergarten children, we would always go through the whole book, over and over again. They enjoy it because children at this age are always fascinated by how an event happens - how it starts, what happens next and how it ends. They may not have the language skills to tell a complete story, but they are becoming aware of the pace and the progress of a plot.

By the time children enter primary school, they have stored many stories in their head. With the help of their imagination and their eagerness to voice out, they really enjoy participating in the storytelling process. That's why at this age, children are particularly attracted to stories with an open ending. Earlier on, I have introduced the musical story written by the Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev - Peter and the Wolf, in which the brilliant ending naturally triggers imagination and discussion in music class.

You can check out Scholastic's Story Starters which is a cute site for young students to start writing a story.

Here is a a clip with five different traditional "story starters" for lower primary students which facilitate creative writing. Only the first halves of these stories are performed (through different forms of stagecraft, which makes this resource more valuable), children would have to continue the stories with their imagination. I find this an excellent approach to storytelling not only to English teachers, but to parents as well. When we read stories, most of the time, we read the whole thing; perhaps next time, we'd pick a place to take a pause, let the children continue on with the story, be prepared to go an imaginative tour!

(Note: KS 1 = Key Stage One; "Key Stage" is the term used to differentiate different age groups in the UK curriculum; KS 1 refers to Age 5-7, Year 1-2)

Website recommendation:

Click here if you're interested in reading more about the UK's primary curriculum (its music curriculum, namely, is the most comprehensive among all the countries' music curriculum I've come across!!)

All art forms intertwine

Fashion, music, dance, architecture, painting...all different art forms in the world is undergoing a non-stop evolution since they first made their appearance around. Styles and preferences come and go; sometimes they make a return triumphantlyunder the hands of artists and creators.

I like this video a lot, it could've been inspired by the recently hit on youtube "100 years of history in 10 minute". This video is much more concise. The theme lies on how fashion has evolved through time (from 1911 till presence). The music and dance form that comes along with the video also represent different genres. These few different forms are inseparable! Enjoy!

Rhythm in the body - Keith Terry

Recently, I attended an Orff workshop and heard the name Keith Terry.  (Visit his body percussion group CROSSPULSE) I've never heard his name before but was intrigued by his idea RHYTHMIC BLOCK so I spent some time looking it up (and try doing it).  Basically, he systemetically divides body percussion sequence into sets of 3, 5, 7 & 9.  The combination is simple yet it creates amazing effects and provides much room for variation and improvisation.  Here's a video of the very basic of Rhythm Block:

Here's another interesting video of Keith Terry playing along with himeself. You would here one of the part say words like "takita" and "takadimi," these words are actually rhythmic syllables used in Indian music counting.

Although I am quite clumpsy and not very good at body percussion, I do think it is important to incorporating it into music lessons. Music is dead if it is detached from the body. Western musicians aim at mastering reading skills and technical virtuosity. We run into a bottle neck phase when we have a deirable level of technical skills but lacks the ability to connect our mind and body to music. I've seen violinist practicing on a trampoline so that she can feel the weight of music working through the body; music becomes much more fluid and expressive. Therefore, I believe if children are taught to move to rhythm, they will naturally be expressive when they play an instrument because music lives not only on their little fingers but it flows through their body. It is evident in children from Africa and India where music and movement are inseparable.

Finally, I'd like to share a solo performance by Keith Terry.

For teachers, and parents:

Article by Keith Terry - Body Music

Names of Polygon with Rhythmic Blocks

Film Recommendation - Like Stars on Earth (Taare Zameen Par)

Recently, I finally got time to watched the popular bollywood film 3 idiots. I was very attracted by the film and the charm of the characters, especially Aamir Khan. I looked him up and found out that not only is he an excellent actor, he is also a producer and director of Hindi films. I ran into a film that he directed in 2007 called Taare Zameen Par (Every Child is Special); I would like to recommend this film to teachers and parents out there.

It tells the story of a boy who does poorly in school but has outstanding talent in art. All adults around this little boy are so disappointed in him except one - his new art teacher. This art teacher suspect that the boy has dyslexia and together, they overcome the disability and let the special talent shines.

Taare Zameen Par is also the first Indian film purchased by Walt Disney Home Entertainment. It was reproduced into DVD in 2010 under the name Like Stars on Earth.

Official Trailer

孩子哭了

最近在Youtube找到一條片段﹐急不及待跟學生分享。片段來自一個烏克蘭的節目 (Ukraine's Got Talent)﹔一位擅長用沙粒作畫的藝術家在表演。在時而激昂﹑時而幽怨的音樂下﹐一盤平平無奇的沙粒在八分鐘的表演內變成一幅幅會說故事的連環圖。表演的尾聲﹐畫家在沙上寫了一句我不明白的烏克蘭語﹔亦寫了一句令我明白故事背景的四個亞拉伯數字 - 1945 - 她要說的是有關戰爭的故事﹔第二次世界大戰對烏克蘭來說﹐是黑暗的歲月。

這一段歷史﹐別說對我的小一﹑二學生﹐對我來說﹐也完全陌生。雖然我在學生播放前有過一絲猶豫﹐怕話題太深奧﹐小孩子不能明白﹐但是我還是選擇播了- 第一個原因是我想告訴他們知道創意不應受環境限制﹔哪怕一無所有﹖剩下一雙手和一堆沙﹐人們都沒有停止創作。第二﹐背景音樂很出色﹐整個表演觀賞度極高。

影片開始﹐孩子們凝望著熒光屏﹐看著那盤散沙慢慢變成一副漂亮的圖畫。孩子都驚訝得說不出話來 - 有的小口張開了﹑有的皺著眉 - 我最喜歡在這時候看他們。孩子臉上那副認真的表情總會令我鼻子一酸 - 孩子們﹐你知道嗎﹖老師雖然不算博學多才﹐但只要你們肯認真學﹐我們都願意把自己所認識的世界跟你們分享。

表演到了中段﹐課室裡響起一些不尋常的聲音。我回頭一看 - 有孩子哭了。我不作聲﹐決定讓他們繼續看下去。

八分鐘的演出完結後﹐我關掉熒光屏﹑走到課室另一端開燈﹔課室並沒有發出那一貫“散場”的雜聲﹐每個孩子都在沉思中。我走回自己的桌子前﹐看著他們﹐故作輕鬆地問他們﹕“怎樣﹖喜歡嗎﹖”他們靜靜地點頭 - 似乎他們突然意識到﹐這種”喜歡“有點另類。他們一向都喜歡玩耍﹑喜歡買玩具﹑喜歡吃巧克力...能討他們歡喜的﹐從來只有令他們快樂的事情。所以他們有點不明白﹔明明自己剛剛看完一個令人傷感的故事﹐但自己又確實很喜歡剛才那經驗。我告訴他們故事的背景﹐然後開始討論﹐讓他們抒發一下自己的情緒。他們想知道故事裡的主角為什麼哭﹑又想知道小孩子有沒有機會在戰爭結束後見到爸爸﹑亦問主角為什麼變老了。他們的問題令我想起小王子 - 孩子沒有興趣像成年人般去爭辯誰勝誰負或誰對誰錯﹐那堆有關傷亡數字﹑重建費用和有關年份的數字對他們來說全無意思。但細想﹐他們問的不就是最關鍵的問題嗎﹖戰爭的可怕是因為它令小孩子與爸爸永別﹑令人衰老﹑令人哭。

今天﹐老師跟小孩子一樣﹐都上了寶貴的一課。作為一個音樂老師﹐我從不特意催促你們進步﹑我更討厭比較。藝術的修養從不能強迫出來﹐更不能透過機械式的訓練而煉成。你們今天一起被一幅幅圖畫和音樂感動﹐有的更哭了出來﹔那是因為你們擁有一顆赤子之心﹐能赤裸裸地感受別人的感受﹔只要一直好好保存它﹐你們一定能繼續與藝術結緣﹔長大後成為有修養的人。


各位大朋友﹐有興趣的話﹐不妨一看﹕

Year 4 Music: Ledger lines

The highest note in this melody is called a D7

Kids love knowing about extremes - the tallest man, the fastest car, the biggest hamburger. It seems everything that ends with an "-est" catches their attention. Recently, I'm covering the concept of LEDGER LINES in music class. I've planned to show them the extremes in human voices so that they can see use the ledger lines in action. Through the videos in the blogpost below, they hear the highest and lowest notes ever sung by a man as well as the most famous high note in classical music.

If you plan to teach this lesson, do except the children to start testing their voices out after watching the videos because they can't resist. Please bear with some extreme voices in your classroom for a while! Have fun teaching this.

As instrumentalist, my children are also interested in finding out the range of different orchestral instruments they plan. I promised to upload them so they can compare it at home. Click to see the larger image.

Very short note values

Below is an 8th note (a.k.a QUAVER) Below is a 16th note (a.k.a SEMIQUAVER)
Below is a 32nd note (a.k.a DEMISEMIQUAVER)
This is a 64th note (a.k.a HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER)
Below is a 128th note (a.k.a QUASIHEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER)

Now, can you tell what are the names of these rests?

Note duration shorter than 64th note is rare but known. You can find 128th note and even 256the notes in Beethoven's music. Let's look at an extreme case; the following exerpt is from Toccata Grande Cromatica by Anthony Phillip Heinrich (1781-1861):

Print-out art crossover

I'd like to share with you a set of print-out art created by Made by Joel. This site is one of my favorite site for original children art. This collection is from his Paper City Collection. Simply click to enlarge the following images and get your city running!

Another site that I would like to recommend for print-out art is called Cubecraft. Simply download, print, cut and fold - you can add some 3D cube-head people to your paper city! How fun!

Volkswagon's contribution to creativity

I think Volkswagon hires the most talented Marketing team. They always produce creative TV commericals, like this one:



This is not necessarily the best commercial from a marketing point of view, but it's a delight to watch it - cool idea and amazing performance.

Another video is from a site called "The fun theory." It's a site sponsored by Volkswagon.

The site describes itself as "[a site that is] dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better"

They give out award to those who can come up with creative ways to change people's behaviour; hence make the world a better place. Here's one of the award-winner - THE PIANO STAIRS:



My original intention to share this video with my Year 2 was more for fun. But it turned out to be a very good lesson:

I was surprised to find out that my Year 2 students don't really have an idea of what "being musical" is about. Their sense is narrow - only singing or playing an instrument is being musical. (composers, instrument makers don't count to their definition)

So after showing them the video, we had a discussion about the meaning of being musical. After the discussion, I asked them to finish the sentence," I'm most musical when I...." one said, "I'm most musical when I stand in front of an ice-cream van." Another said "I'm most musical when I play musical Wii games." And i'm surprised how many of them write, "I'm most musical when I sing in shower."

TED - David Byrne how architecture helped music evolve

I ran into this TED talk by David Byrne when I was preparing for the Year 4 curriculum on the unit of musical form. Though not the most entertaining TED talk, I find it very intriguing. My kids are too young for this but I'll definitely connect architecture to music in some way!

Bring on the learning revolution - Sir Ken Robinson

"Every day, our children spread their dreams under our feet, and we should tread softly" - what a beautiful ending to another inspiring TED speech.

An Apple a Day - Paul Cézanne

Not only is "apple" the first chapter in a traditional alphabet book, I believe it is possibly the first object of still life drawing to many children. People like drawing apples because they are cheap and handy. (and we can eat it when the drawing is finished. =p) Although I didn't have much talent in painting, I do remember myself drawing fruits as a child. I would always start with drawing an apple because it's easy to draw comparing to a banana or grapes, yet it requires more techniques than drawing an orange.

I found a few artwork on Artsonia, an online gallery where teachers upload their students' artwork. (You may click on the picture and see the same artwork of the whole class!

"Puffy apple"
by Kathryn (Pre-K), USA

The puffy apple was made with shaving cream, glue, and paint mixed together. It is then spread out by the child to the shape of an apple.

"Apple Mosaic"

by Luke (Grade 1), USA

"Woven Apple Baskets"
by Matty (Grade 2), USA

I believe these children must have enjoyed the process of making their apple apples! They all look delicious! Perhaps one day, they would become someone like Paul Cézanne (1839 - 1906), who became an expert in drawing apples.

Please click on the painting below - "Study of An Apple" by Cézanne to see his complete work.

For children, if they want to take a closer look at Cézanne's apples and know more about the painter, they may like the interactive site Cézanne's Astonishing Apple developed by the Metropolitan Museum. For younger children, they may enjoy the Cézanne's Apple Sing-along!

You may visit the MEET THE GREAT ARTISTS page to find out about other artists!