Showing posts with label Year 5 music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Year 5 music. Show all posts
Song from nature
A composer decided to write a song based on a photo he sees. In the photo, there are birds sitting on a staff-line-like wire - and here is how the song sounds like.
Year 5 music: Noteflight composition 2013
Noteflight composition done by students in Year 5 (10-11yo). Parametres: 1) 6/8 Time (Rhythm grouping must be correct) 2) The song must start and end on its TONIC note 3) The song is in Ternary (ABA) form 4) Work in pairs These are examples graded "excellent" by me and their fellow classmates.
Ian & Gordon
Noelle & Maria
Victor and Wesley
Marcus & Cyrus
Anna & Mia
Desmond & Vicky
Dorothy & Jenna
Brian & Max
Ian & Matthew
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!
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 - Minuet in G by...
Now listen to two versions of this pop song called "A Lover's Concerto" written and recorded in 1965. How does this song relate to the original Minuet in G?
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: Music experiments
Children like breaking rules and challenging norms. When I ask my children to compose, I give them certain parametres. In return, they will ask me all kinds of questions on whether they can do something beyond the parameters given. In primary years, I usually tell them all kinds of ideas are acceptable as long as the technical bits are correct, e.g. number of beats, direction of stems, etc. I deliberately avoid teaching them musical elements such as forms phrasing because I don't want them to feel confined when they create. They are happy with this deal and would create pieces that are technically correct but probably un-playable on a real instrument. I was very excited when I ran into this series of experimental music. It seems like an extension to my children's imagination. Children are just as excited when they see these "crazy" composition coming true!
What the composer of this series did was to stretch small musical ideas, such as scales, octave, glissando, dissonance, etc into a motif; hence, into a song. Here are a few examples (you may see all the "experiments" by clicking the linking videos at the end of each clip)
Experiment #1 - Glissando
Experiment #3 - A lot of Notes
Experiment #4 - Scales and Octaves
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?
C Major Song: Wedding March
The WEDDING MARCH is written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1842. It is one of the exerpts from the play A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Shakespeare). It became one of the most popular wedding music since Queen Victoria used it in her daughter's wedding in 1858. It was originally played on the pipe organ:
Later, virtuoso pianists Franz Liszt and Vladimir Horowitz transcribed the piece into a showpiece for the piano. You can still find traces of the orginal Wedding March in their piece but many ornaments and elements are added to the piece:
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.
Year 5 music: Intervals
Major & Perfect Intervals
SO...WHAT'S SO PERFECT ABOUT PERFECT INTERVALS?
Click on THIS LINK to read an article that may give you the answer.
Example of a Chant
Example of an Organum
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