Grade 6 (Lesson 4b/2015/2016) : A Religious Festival (Kerala, India- All Ears)

Objective

Students learn how ears function in humans as well as other animals.

Procedure

• Review the diagram of the human ear, explaining terms like “frequency”.
• Review hearing chart, pointing out the low frequencies of earthquakes and volcanoes.
• What other sounds might register that low? Thunder or a bass drum, perhaps.
• Answer the questions in the question box. 

Wild Child rides an elephant through Pooram, an annual temple festival in Kerala, India. The celebration includes thirty priests, holy men of the Hindu religion, carrying parasols while riding elephants. Thousands of Hindu followers make pilgrimages to the Krishna Temple every year to receive a blessing and to hope for peace and prosperity.

Amid the procession of drums and horns, we see the elephants flapping their massive ears. In this case their ears act as giant fans, cooling their bodies, a well as devices for receiving sound.

In this section we will explore how our ears work so that we can hear the rhythms and music of our world. 

Grade 7 (Term 1/L3/2015/2016): Working with Arranging (GarageBand)

As developing musicians, it is important to understand the compositional context surrounding the music that you play on your instrument. For this reason, you are asked to prepare a short GarageBand presentation in pairs where you examine the concepts of arranging, and prepare an original composition based on the principles surrounding rhythm and melody.

Using GarageBand, make a loop based composition of 1 minute in length. Your job is to make the composition sound as good as you can, which will force you to make musical decisions along the way. Use both rhythmic and melodic loops and see how they sound together. You may find groups of loops work really well while others sound strange together. Mix and match the loops and eventually decide on the best combination of loops for your composition.

You will have 3 class periods to complete this assignment. It is due the week before your Fall break. Please submit your work by saving the MP3 to your Google Drive folder. The name of your file should be the first and last names of both group members. You are advised to work on the project in the following order:

• Start a new file in GarageBand and begin to preview different sounds you’ll want to use (see handout “Navigating GarageBand” in Google Drive)
• Drag and drop the loops you would like to use to the main window. You will need to use both rhythmic and melodic loops (see handout “Using GarageBand Loops” in Google Drive).
• Adjust volumes, effects, and pans to make the arrangement sound the way you want. Please make the song no longer than one minute
• Select “Share” and “Export Song to Disk” to export the file. Submit the song by saving the MP3 file to Google Drive.
  Please work in pairs for this assignment and be sure that you use rhythmic and melodic loops. 
  
  
  You will be assessed on the following:

• Form and Organization: Logical form, suited to the genre of the loops.
• Genre and Use of Loops: Rhythmic and melodic loops are used. Logical, creative, and
  able to combine loops to develop ideas with sophistication.
• Use of Technology: Editing techniques, mixing techniques.
• Overall Impact: Ability to sustain listener’s interest for the entire piece ... encore! 

Hand Staff

The hand staff or, the Guidonian hand—was first used by Guido D’Arezzo (c. 991-c. 1033). You can use your hand staff to practice saying and remembering the letter names of the lines and spaces of the staffs. If you hold up one hand and turn it sideways, the five fingers on that hand represent the five lines of a staff. And, if you spread those five fingers apart slightly, then the gaps between those fingers represent the four spaces of the staff.

REMEMBER THAT WE ALWAYS COUNT LINES AND SPACES AND SAY THE LETTER NAMES OF THE LINES AND SPACES FROM THE BOTTOM UP, NEVER FROM THE TOP DOWN!!! 

The Grade 3 students had a wonderful time in class designing their own Guidonian Hand. Here are some of their beautiful work!

Grade 6 (Lesson 4/2015/2016) : Introduction to PULSE: a STOMP Odyssey

STOMP challenges us to hear rhythms in the sounds of everyday life. For example, the sound of a passing train has a certain rhythm to it as well as the sound of waves crashing on a beach; the sound of rain falling on a tin roof can sound like a drum roll. Whatever we hear around us, STOMP inspires us to let our imaginations hear the world in new ways.

Rhythm is the music of life. We hear rhythms in everything. “People running up and down steps, people flicking a newspaper when they read it… I think rhythm can be found anywhere and everywhere.” STOMP opens up people’s minds and encourages audiences to recognize the rhythms of their lives.

The Journey

The giant-screen film PULSE: a STOMP Odyssey is a story of how diverse cultures throughout the world communicate through rhythm, dance and song.

The world map below highlights the places we will visit in this guide:

• Flamenco dancer Eva la Yerbabuena in Granada, Spain
• A religious festival in Kerala, India
• Wild Child and STOMP in Los Angeles, California
• Wild Child in New York
• The bellringers of Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, England
• The Kodo drummers on Sado Island, Japan
• The Timbalada band in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil
• The Gumboot dancers in Johannesburg, South Africa
• A tribal gathering of Native Americans from around the U.S.

Grade 6 (Lesson 4a/2015/2016) : The Rhythm of Life (Granada, Spain-EVA LA YERBABUENA)

Objective


Students learn to take their pulse and record the effects of exercise on their heart rate.

Materials

A stopwatch or clock with a second hand

Procedure

• Students learn how to take their pulse (see diagram) with fingers lightly pressed against wrist just under thumb.
• Students time themselves taking their pulse for 15 seconds. Write down your pulse in Chart 1.
• Students will multiply by 4 to calculate their heart rate per minute. Chart 1 is to be completed.
• Students will next run in place for thirty seconds; then repeat the pulse taking procedure outlined above.
• Compare the results. How much faster were the second rates? Older students should be able to calculate the percent increase of heart rate.

Eva La Yerbabuena

Eva was born in 1970. She began to study dance at the age of twelve and in 1998, at the age of 28, she founded her own dance company. She has been a guest artist with the National Ballet of Spain. In 2001 she won Spain’s highest honor in dance, the National Award of Dance.

Eva is considered one of the most important flamenco dancers today. Flamenco dance originated in southern Spain in an area called Andalucia (see map), and has its roots in the music of the Gypsy people who settled in Andalucia in the 15th century. The musical influences include Arab and Jewish music. Although Eva is accompanied by a variety of musicians, early flamenco was either unaccompanied or accompanied with handclapping or the tapping of a stick.

In PULSE: a STOMP Odyssey, Eva was filmed at the Alhambra Fortress in Granada.

Web Links

Related web site with information about Eva la Yerbabuena: www.pulsethemovie.com/spain

Further Study

1. Listen to a recording or video of a heartbeat
2. Students will learn how to listen to their own heartbeats with a stethoscope
3. What musical instruments do you see in this scene? 

Grade 6 (Lesson 3b/2015/2016) : Native American Rhythm & Pitched Instruments

Grade 6 (Lesson 3a/2015/2016) : Native American Music Vocabulary

Traditional Native American Singing

1. Singing
2. Traditions
3. Compose
4. Oral Tradition
5. Sacred Songs
6. Ceremonials
7. Lullaby
8. Rhythm
9. High Pitches
10. Low Pitches
11. Low Pitches
12. Call-and-Response
13. Chorus
14. Lyrics
15. Vocables
16. Chants
17. Throat Singing 

Traditional Native American Instruments: Rhythm/Pitched

• Rhythm Instruments Vocabulary

1. Rhythm
2. Rhythm Instruments
3. Accompaniment
4. Sacred
5. Drums
6. Amplify
7. Resonator
8. Vibration
9. Membranophone
10. Rattles
11. Shaker Rattles
12. Clapper Rattles
13. Rasps
14. Idiophone
15. Pitch

• Pitched instruments Vocabulary

1. Pitched Instruments
2. Flute
3. Melody
4. Whistle
5. Horn
6. Aerophone
7. Vibrating
8. String Bow
9. Fiddle
10. Chordophone

Native American Music Regions

1. Tradition
2. Ceremonial
3. Ethnomusicologist
4. Sacred Songs
5. Social Songs
6. Drum
7. Rattle
8. Rhythm
9. Melody
10. Throat Singing 

Contemporary Native American Music

1. Contemporary Music
2. Hybrid
3. Traditional
4. Powwow
5. Compose
6. Melody
7. Steel Guitar 
8. Slack Key
9. Political Songs
10. Lyrics
11. Accompaniment
12. Genre 

Grade 4 (Lesson 3/2015/2016) : Music tells us about history.

Enduring Understanding

Music literacy skills make it easier to learn music that we can perform alone and with others.

Essential Questions

• How can reading music help me make music with others?
• How do we know how music sounded before audio recordings?
• What do I need to know to create music and share it with my friends?

Performance Task

With a partner, create and notate a short composition in ABA form of at least two measures for each section and play or sing it using solfege for your classmates. Use rhythms and pitches you have studied in class.

Understand and read rhythmic notation

Notes: (symbols for sound) 

• Quarter note (ta)
• Eighth notes (ti-ti) - double and single
• Half note (ta-a or two--)
• Dotted half note (ta-a-a or three--)
• Whole note (ta-a-a-a or four---)
• Sixteenth notes (ti-ki-ti-ki) and combined with eighths (ti-ti-ki or ti-ki-ti)
• Dotted quarter note (tum)
• Dotted quarter/eighth (tum-ti)
• Dotted eighth note (tim)
• Dotted eighth/sixteenth (tim-ki) 

Rests: (symbols for silence)

• Quarter
• Eighth
• Half 
• Whole

Rhythm Syllables 

Tie (contrast with slur)

Understand meter in 2/4, 3/4, 4/4

• Strong and weak beats
• Accent
• Bar Lines
• Measures 
• Time Signature
• Conducting Patterns
• Pick-up notes/incomplete measures

Skills

• Read and decode rhythmic notation and speak or perform it on classroom instruments.
• Write rhythmic notation from dictation.
• Write rhythmic notation in a template of beats.
• Add bar-lines for a rhythm, given the time signature.
• Recognize meters in 2, 3, 4.
• Use conducting patterns in 2, 3, and 4.

Grade 7 (Term 1/L2/2015/2016): Drum Tracks & Quantizing

Rhythmic Dictation

Listen to the file “Rhythm”. You will hear a brief two measure rhythmic pattern. You are to recreate (record) what you hear in Garageband.

New Version GarageBand

• Open a new file in GarageBand and save it to your desktop
• Save file as: GarageBand 1(Your Initials)

E.g ) GarageBand 1 (CGA)

• Add a Software Instrument Track and select drum sound.
• Set the metronome to 85
• Listen to the first example in the Rhythmic Dictation File.
• Record the two-measure pattern on the drum track you created in GarageBand
• Record as close to the metronome as possible.
• Record only the drum sounds, not the click in the background.
• Quantize your recording.

• Repeat for the other two measure examples in the Rhythmic Dictation file.

You should be able to do the following in Garageband:

• Add a Software Instrument Track
• Assign a sound to a Software Instrument Track
• Record using a Software Instrument Track
• Show Volume and Pan Changes
• Edit any track: Split, Join, cut, copy, paste, loop
• Quantize any track in Garageband

Due Date: September 28, 2015 (Monday)

Grade 5 (Q1/L1/2016/2017) : Lip Sync

Objective: 

To work individually to produce a polished performance featuring an approved song & “concept” that students will create and to which they will lip sync. You are going to create a music video. The music must be recorded on the computer and the video and the audio must line up.

Guidelines

1. Select a song/recording no longer than four minutes to be approved by Ms. Carrie A.
2. Please polish your presentation and place your primary emphasis on the act of performance.  Work to fully utilize the staging area and to establish a meaningful connection with your audience.  You should NOT simply stand in one place and slowly move your lips.  A secondary concern should be placed on costuming and the use of props—all at your discretion.
3. Your song “concept” must use your song to tell a story that has a beginning, middle, and end.
   
4. Each video is to be performed by only ONE performer.  No Exceptions!
5. As always, presentations must be in good taste and appropriate for our school community.  If you have any questions about the content of your song choice, please be sure to discuss these concerns with me before choosing your music!
6. You must provide me with a copy of the song lyrics in advance.  The timeline is listed below.

Timeline

1.     All Lip Syncs will be submitted by or before Friday, September 9, 2016.  At the beginning of the first class, each student will draw a number and this will determine the order of the music videos.  A volunteer to go first will be honored.

2.     The song title with a copy of the lyrics (typed) from all students is due to me on Friday, September 9, 2016.

3.     It is imperative that you understand the music videos will only be showcased on the above date(s).

Concept video

The video must portray and tell the story of the song. You will match your characters and theme of the video to the lyrics of the song. Recruit family, friends, classmates, etc. , to act as subject of the video.

Performance Video

First of all, you’ll need to play the song while you are filming so that your singers and performers can be as accurate as possible. (This type of video takes much rehearsal for performance polish.) You will choose costuming and locations which will fit the message you are trying to communicate through your video. It is wise to have your performers lip sync the song several times and film the video from different angles, in different lighting, and then add special effects. This way you will have enough footage to work with in the editing process. 

Example of Videos :

https://youtu.be/KgSvJQc87_A

https://youtu.be/5HADIT_Oktc

https://youtu.be/O7Edz3DhClI

Remember to be Creative and Have Fun!