A Musical Joke

Grade Two and Three students have been working hard on rhythms for the last couple of weeks.  Students have been reading, speaking and clapping notation, including:

Ta                             Ti Ti                                          Rest

Ta - one sound on a beat

Ti Ti - two sounds on a beat

Rest - zero sounds on a beat.




In our Rhythm Erase Game, some notation disappears after every performance until students finally clap the whole piece from memory!  It's nerve-wracking, but so much fun!

The police officer says, "Stop! You're under a rest!"

Speaking of fun . . . 

Today one of our students in Ms. Rutland's Grade Three class brought this musical joke to class.  Warning:  It's only funny if you understand rhythmic notation, so ask your child(ren) for help if you need to!

Our Musical Pumpkin!

As part of the Sobey's Pumpkin Challenge, students in Grades 1 - 3 were challenged by Royal Oak Sobey's to creatively design a pumpkin to display in their store as part of their Halloween Challenge.  Each class took up this collaborative task with their students based on interests, student designs, or things they are learning about in the classroom. 

In the Music Room, our pumpkin was "composed" with the rhythmic and melodic notation that the students have been exploring.  The mouth is a melody that sings "so mi mi so" and the eyes, ears and nose are formed with the rhythm notes ta, ti ti, and rest.

We've spent the week reading and performing our pumpkin's face, and we invite you to visit him at Sobey's.  Although he may be a bit shrivelled by now, we hope you can still see the melody and rhythm in our Musical Pumpkin!

What is a Melody?

All students  in Royal Oak School have been learning about melody, which is a sequence of pitches (or high and low notes).  

Kindergarten students are learning to distinguish between the extremes of high and low pitches by moving their body.  As we swoop up or down with our voices, we move our arms to match the contour of the sound that we make.  As well, students vibrate as tall as they can or shiver down low on the floor in response to very high or low sounds on the piano.  

Students in Grade One began their exploration of melody by distinguishing between four different ways to use our voice:

Singing Voice, Whisper Voice, Shouting Voice and Singing Voice.

We learned that our Singing Voice has high and low sounds, and that we can record those sounds using black dots called "notes" above or below a line.  

Then we used these high and low sounds to manipulate "Teddy Bear", a very special stuffy who loves to do tricks, but unfortunately only understands us when we use a singing voice.  Every student has also had a chance to use the Singing Puppies, puppets who love to sing about what we're wearing or what foods we like to eat.

 


Students in Grades Two and Three have learned that these notes are called So and Mi, and have been using these pitches to identify mystery melodies that they hear.  This week, students also began transcribing those pitches on a one-line staff, and will soon be ready to compose their own melodies and play them on the xylophone.

As we develop our understanding of this new melodic language, students are challenged to master different ways of communicating their understanding:

  Can you hear it?

     Can you write it?

        Can you show it with movement or hand signs?

           Can you sing it?

              Can you play it on an instrument?

As students expand their toolbox to include different ways of representing melody, they develop a deeper and richer understanding of this fundamental element of music, setting them on the path of being an independent and successful musician!

What do you hear? How do you feel?

One of the ways that we learn is by analysing the work of experts, and figuring out how they build that skyscraper or make that light bulb glow.  In music class, we listen to recordings of professional musicians everyday.  We explore ways of moving to the music, noticing how each person can represent the beat in their own unique way.  We also learn the names of instruments that we see, and discuss how each one generates sound.

Then we ask the big questions,

“How does this music make me feel?”  

“What is happening in the music that makes me feel this way?”  

The composer, Joseph Haydn

Students talk about the different emotions that a piece can inspire, and then consider the elements of music that can inspire those feelings.  Is the music fast or slow, loud or quiet, bouncy or smooth?  

These ideas are the basic elements of the musical concepts of tempo (speed), dynamics (volume), and articulation (how the sounds are shaped).  As they grow more confident in using these terms, students will learn the musical vocabulary to describe what they hear, and refine their ability to hear the more subtle distinctions between the extremes of fast/slow and loud/soft.

Our most recent listening sample was the first section of the “Surprise Symphony” by J. Haydn. CLICK HERE  to listen to the music, and discover how this music got this nickname!