Marimba Buddies

It was lots of fun today with a big group of keen marimba players as Room 1 shared their Music time with some buddies from Room 2. Room 2 started by teaching Room 1 the greeting they sing each time they come to Music with their Curwen/Kodaly hand signs to match the descending so, mi, re, do pitches they use. It was great to see our youngest musicians confidently sharing their learning with the Year 2's, some even sang beautifully by themselves in front of the big group! Then we played Ka Tangi te Kurī e together; Room 1 exemplified our nurture value by making sure their younger buddies got to play before themselves and helped them.

Room 11's Hot Cross Buns Marimba Arrangement

Always ready to work hard in Music, Room 11 quickly learnt an arrangement of Hot Cross Buns to play together. They combined a melody, harmony, and bass lines and faded instruments in and out. Below is a quick clip of them playing (some taking a rest/conducting between their turns playing)....

Ka Tangi te Kurī e

Room 3 have been learning a song about a dog (te kurī), a cat (te poti), a bird (te manu), and a cow (te kau). They are playing the notes C and D to go with the part of the song when we sing about the sound each animal makes. At first they played together on the resonator bells and took turns acting out the animals with masks. This week we split into groups of animals and played in parts. Nga manu were on the metallophones, nga poti were on the soprano xylophones, nga kurī were on the alto xylophones, and nga kau were on the bass marimba. We swapped around so everyone played each part. They were fantastic at playing the rhythm on the correct pitches and remembering when to come in for all of the different parts.