Practise Makes Perfect for Kereru

Rooms 7, 8, and 9 have been making the most of their Music sessions to practise their Arts Festival items.

Room 8 taking us to the opera

Room 9 in the Musée Rodin

A trip to Asia with Room 7

Room 5 on Marimbas

Sally Goes Round the Sun - learn your part then teach a buddy...awesome team-work all round!

No One in the House but Room 4

Towards the end of their Music time this week Room 4 had some fun learning the American folk song No One in the House but Dinah. We started putting Room 4 names in place of Dinah depending on who had the ball. We added the challenge of keeping the beat with a series of actions while singing.

Room 10 Take On the Hot Cross Buns Marimba Arrangement

I am noticing a bit of competition between Room 10 and 11 during Music time. This week Room 10 were determined to practise their Hot Cross Buns marimba arrangement until they got the sound they were after. They wanted all three of the their videos uploaded as they swapped over playing some of the parts.

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.