April Music Notes Newsletter

5th Grade
Fifth grade students are currently discovering bluegrass music in class! This is one of my favorite genres of music and I hope my excitement will be contagious to students. So far we have seen Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys perform “Uncle Pen,” a song that fifth grade classes are working on singing in two-part harmony. We have also had the opportunity to see, hear, and analyze the tone color of two bluegrass instruments: the guitar and mandolin. Students also experienced the tone color of the viola and discussed similarities and differences between its’ sound and the violin and fiddle. The viola, one of my main instruments, is slightly larger than the violin, has the strings of a cello, and it plays in the alto clef.

6th Grade
Sixth grade students are still in the process of learning the 12-bar blues on the guitar. Students have also spent some time reading and analyzing blues lyrics, and will soon be writing their own lyrics that express something about themselves. Students have received their final assessment, which includes playing 12-bar blues, writing blues verses, and choosing another performance task such as: singing their blues lyrics, writing a paragraph explaining their blues lyrics, or creating a piece of artwork that expresses their blues lyrics. If choosing to do an art project, students should plan on bringing in some supplies beginning on Monday, April 11th. We will be wrapping our blues unit up in April and moving on to a short unit on Chinese music.

6th Grade Choir
Sixth grade students are in the process of working on Mulan, Jr. repertoire. We are also singing a Japanese folk song titled “Hotaru Koi” about fireflies, which we will perform for fifth grade students on May 10th and 11th in a sixth grade Asian Museum presented by the entire sixth grade. We are also working on Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird,” which we will perform for our all-school talent show on the last day of school.

Mulan, Jr. Musical Information
Costume information is now available on the music blog. Orders are due to Mrs. Williams on Friday, April 8th.