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.

Term 2 2016

For Term Two our focus in Music is pitch and tone colour. We will use tuned percussion instruments (glockenspiels, resonator bells, chime bars, metallophones, xylophones, and marimbas) to start recognising pitch changes following on from using the Boomwhackers last term.

We will be turning all our beat and rhythm learning into simple melodies as well as creating soundtracks to well known or made up stories and short compositions. We are so lucky to have our awesome marimbas, including the bass and two sub contra bass chime bars, and a number of alto and soprano xylophones so there is plenty for everyone to play.

We will also look at Solfege (Do, Re, Mi) singing with Curwen/Kodaly hand signs. Some classes have already started this and it will help us so much with our pitch work that it will be something for us to concentrate on.

Our aim is always to make a beautiful sound whether singing or playing. We will maintain our expression through movement, dance, speech, and drama, continue our music appreciation, and expand our repertoire of shared songs.

Singing with Hand Signs

Room 3 sing a greeting each time we have Music together. We use Curwen/Kodaly hand signals to match the sol, mi, re, do descending pitches we sing. They are excellent at singing the correct pitches and are always telling me that they don't need me to do the hand signs with them anymore...they know them and have been practising!

Room 4

Room 4 have been practising ta, ti, and za rhythms on the Boomwhackers. Some people felt confident to tap a four beat rhythm on the board for a colour group of Boomwhackers to echo.

Boomwhacker Improvisations

Room 12 have been playing four beat rhythms on the Boomwhackers. They can record the rhythms and use the correct rhythm names. We had different conductors come up to improvise a piece by pointing to the different coloured circles in order to get the corresponding groups of Boomwhackers to play.

Room 11

Room 11 have been working very hard in Music and are always keen to create their own music. Before I had even sat down to do their afternoon roll this week they were all humming, beating, and bopping to an improvised ostinato someone had started. Recently they have chosen to prepare, practise, and perform either a soundscape or a series of four beat rhythms.

They also participated creatively in a "Boomwhackers Challenge". They had five minutes to prepare and practise a rhythm ostinato to play on the Boomwhackers that made up a C Major pentatonic scale. They included the bass sound tubes and performed for each other.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4