Music Notes Newsletter
Happy September to all! I’d like to share with you a bit of what is happening in the music classrooms…
Fifth grade students began the year talking about proper singing posture and singing the patriotic song “America.” We are now working on creating a piece of music in ABA form. The “A” section is the students’ names played in rhythm. The B section is each student’s own ostinato (repeating rhythm) composition. When we put the two sections together, it becomes a really fun piece of music! Students are playing their rhythms on various types of instruments such as the talking drum, conga, hand drums, buffalo drums, taos drums, shekere, cabasa, and gangokui. See if your child can describe some of these cool instruments to you!
Sixth grade classes are currently experiencing a vocal music unit! So far, we have discovered our individual vocal ranges and discussed and categorized different voice types through listening. We are just starting to delve into a piece of music titled “Flight of the Grackles” by Janet Gardner. We will discuss different elements of the music and then begin to sing the piece. All sixth grade students are invited to sing this song at our sixth grade choir concert on October 7th at 7:00pm in the HS auditorium! Other topics in our vocal unit will include the anatomy of the voice, the changing voice, and taking care of the voice.
Sixth grade choir students are really getting into their October 7th concert repertoire. We will be singing a variety of music include a piece in German, a piece in Latin, a Broadway show tune, and an African American Spiritual. In class, we have also been working on our sight reading skills, as well as proper posture, breath support, and vowel shapes.
Congratulations to students who auditioned for the Honor Choir! There were 85 students who auditioned this year, so I had a very difficult time choosing students. I would like to encourage any students who did not make the choir to keep working at singing. Try to increase your vocal range by doing roller coasters with your voice throughout the day. Challenge yourself in your music class to sing correctly and don’t be afraid to ask if you have any questions. To those of you who did make the choir, congratulations and I’ll see you at rehearsal on Tuesday!
I’d like to leave you with a quote that a colleague shared with me…
“There is a spirit in all music, the spirit has the ability to conjure up thoughts even pictures of something that happened or you wished would happen or you anticipate happening. Music has the ability to create ideas in you and me. It has the ability to encourage us to be creative.” Maya Angelou
Sing-cer-ely,
Mrs. Williams
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