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!

The Staff

The staff consists of five lines and four spaces. Each of those lines and each of those spaces represents a different letter, which in turn represents a note. Those lines and spaces represent notes named A-G, and the note sequence moves alphabetically up the staff.

Treble Clef

There are two main clefs with which to familiarize yourself; the first is a treble clef. The treble clef has the ornamental letter G on the far left side. The G’s inner swoop encircles the “G” line on the staff. The treble clef notates the higher registers of music, so if your instrument has a higher pitch, such as a flute, violin or saxophone, your sheet music is written in the treble clef.  Higher notes on a keyboard also are notated on the treble clef.

We use common mnemonics to remember the note names for the lines and spaces of the treble clef. For lines, we remember EGBDF by the word cue “Every Good Boy Does Fine.” Similarly for the spaces, FACE is just like the word “face.”

Bass Clef

The line between the two bass clef dots is the “F” line on the bass clef staff, and it’s also referred to as the F clef. The bass clef notates the lower registers of music, so if your instrument has a lower pitch, such as a bassoon, tuba or cello, your sheet music is written in the bass clef. Lower notes on your keyboard also are notated in the bass clef.

A common mnemonic to remember note names for the lines of the bass clef is: GBDFA “Good Boys Do Fine Always.” And for the spaces: ACEG, “All Cows Eat Grass.”

Note Duration and Reading Rhythms

Welcome Back (2015/2016)

Welcome back, Music Cave students!  I am so excited for a new school year and to be writing in my blog again. 

The new National Core Arts Standards, which were just released in June 2015 focus on creating music, performing music, responding to music, and connecting music to other experiences.  Feel free to read more about the new standards here, or just admire the posters below.

Now that the room is ready, I look forward to seeing all of the Music Cave students in music class and to meeting their families at the RAS Open House on Thursday, August 20, 2015 from 3.30pm to 5.00pm.

Happy Singing!

Grade 1 - Lesson 2c (Q4) (Cleaning The Recorder)

Grade 1 - Lesson 2b (Q4) (Introduction to Recorder & Xylophone)

Part 1

• Echo/sing each measure of Hot Cross Buns using solfege, lyrics, letter names and Curwin hand signs.

• Play Hot Cross Buns using unpitched percussion instruments: .

           B = wood
           A = metal
           G = drum

• Transfer melody to xylophones, using alternating mallets – each measure begins with right hand/mallet. 

Part 2

• Establish routines for playing recorder in class

1. Recorders stay in bags, on the floor, until instructed to get them out
2. We play as a team – be ready to start and stop with the class
3. Softer is better –we don’t play too loud or our neighbors won’t be able to hear themselves
4. If you don’t have your recorder in music class, you will use “half recorder” (body only, fingers but no sound)
5. Recorders stay in bags except when we play them in class or at home 

• Students are taught the correct hand placement: 

         “Left hand goes on top, right hand helps a lot"

• Students are taught the correct air speed

           Warm air (slow), like fogging up a window
           Not cool air (fast), like blowing out birthday candles

•  Student will learn the correct fingerings for B, A and G.

Part 3

• Practice cleaning recorders.
• Practice playing B, A and G with “just right sound.”

• Learn first three notes of Hot Cross Buns on recorder. 

• Create and play/sing an arrangement of Hot Cross Buns that includes voices, recorder and xylophone. 

Grade 1 - Lesson 2a (Q4) (Introduction to Recorder & Xylophone)

In this lesson, the students will be introduced to the recorder. The lesson will be a combination of whole group instruction and guided practice. 

• Provided with aural and visual cues, students will play “B” on recorder with a clear, soft sound in at least one of three attempts. 
• Provided with aural and visual students will play “A” on recorder with a clear, soft sound in at least one of three attempts. 
• Provided with a visual model, students will play the first three notes (BAG) of Hot Cross Buns with a clear, soft sound on at least two of the three pitches. 
• Given needed materials and multiple opportunities for guided practice, students will disassemble, clean, reassemble, and accurately line up the fingering holes with accuracy. 

This is the first formal experience students have had with recorder. Students are not expected to have any prior knowledge or experience with recorder.    

Learning to play the recorder gives students a way to apply music literacy skills in a hands-on manner. Recorder is an instrument students will play in music class through 4th grade and developing good habits now will make it easier to produce a good sound and help avoid problems later on. Learning to play in a large ensemble develops teamwork skills and makes learning other instruments easier when working in a band/orchestra.

Grade 1 - Lesson 1 (Q4) (eLearning Music Composition)

Students will explore all three of these fun musical sites

• Click on the birds to make your own tune

          http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/music/early_bird_singers.swf

• Try your composing skills on the interactive musical staff

          http://www.artsalive.ca/en/mus/activitiesgames/games/compose_music.swf

• Play a virtual keyboard 

          http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/music/piano/index.htm

Create a musical tune with one or more of the sites listed above and use either of these to record your composition

• Vocaroo

          http://vocaroo.com

• GarageBand is an application on your MacBook