February Newsletter

Music Notes

5th grade students are currently exploring African American Spirituals. They are beginning to play a three part instrumental accompaniment along with a spiritual and will soon be composing their own instrumental accompaniments on mallet instruments. Students are also playing some American folk singing games at this time.

Sixth grade students are finally picking up guitars this week, weather permitting! We have discussed characteristics of Blues music and played a 12-bar blues accompaniment on boomwhackers. We are now ready to begin learning to play notes and chords on guitars. Please note that the P.T.O. performance will now feature PHIS choirs and a few volunteer sixth grade students sharing their blues songs on guitar instead of the entire sixth grade. The change in plans is due to a lack of time as a result of snow days.

Sixth grade choir students are really digging into their new repertoire. Songs for our March 8th concert (now at 7:00pm) include…

Hitori – Japanese Folk Song

Hotaru Koi (Ho, Firefly) – Japanese Chidren’s Song

Tell Me Ma – Traditional Irish Folk Song

Elijah Rock – Medley of traditional spirituals

When I Close My Eyes – Inspirational song

Honor Choir students will resume meeting this Thursday, February 3rd. Please note that our concert on March 8th concert feature both sixth grade choir, honor choir, and some sixth grade guitar players and will now be held at 7:00pm in the PHIS gymnasium.

Congratulations to these twelve students who made the All-District Honor Choir: Haley Burge, Ricee Cade, Noah Campbell, Katie Jones, Jake King, Aidan Link, Clara Plasse, Jordan Smith, Jessica Turner, Johnna Walls, Brooke Wood, Colleen Wouters. Alternates include: Maleeha Tozier and Courtney Wesemann. These students will be traveling to the University of Central Missouri on Saturday, March 5th to perform with other students from around the West Central District. It is a great honor to be selected to participate in this choir! Our first rehearsal will be this Wednesday, February 2nd at 7:00am.

MUSICAL INFORMATION: Musical auditions for Mulan Jr. will be held in your child’s music class beginning on February 14th. Audition materials will be available on Thursday, February, 3rd on the music blog. Paper copies will be available soon after. Auditions will consist of singing a short song from the musical (we will learn it in class), acting out lines, and turning in an evaluation form that the students’ home team of teachers will fill out. Please check the music blog for more information!