Blog Archives

Term 4 Week 2 Exploring Music!

4/17/2014

This week in Exploring Music 6, our world percussion unit started off with a bang!

Last Friday we talked about the drums that we would be using during our percussion unit. We learned about the parts of the drums and about different types of drumming such as open tone and closed tone drumming. On Monday, we were able to begin learning our first song called "Ensemble 1". We talked about what the word "ensemble" means. We decided to think of it as a musical team where each musician's part is important (much like a sports team!). We learned about a new instrument called the acousti-block on Monday, too. Ask your student why this instrument is different than a cow bell!

Tuesday we worked with another new instrument called a shekere. (Ask your 6th grade musician how to pounce this tricky instrument!) We learned how these instruments were made (can you guess what vegetable is used to make this instrument?) and then had the opportunity to play the shekere in our "Ensemble 1" song. Check out a picture of a shekere below! We were greeted by a fun video featuring our two new instruments at beginning of class. Click HERE to watch that video

Shekere

Gankogui Bell

The rest of the week flew by as there is no school tomorrow (Friday). We added one final instrument on to our "Ensemble 1" song on Wednesday. This instrument is called a gankogui. This is a special bell that symbolizes a parent and a child. We then broke into small groups where we had one player on a part for our song. We practiced using non-verbal cues while playing to all stay together. This was tricky, but with some practice both Exploring Music 6 classes got it! Check out some pictures of us in action below!

Have a wonderful vacation!
Ms. Barkin

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Welcome To Term 4 Exploring Music!

4/11/2014

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Welcome to the Exploring Music Term 3 Weekly Blog!

My name is Ms. Barkin, and I am very excited to share the musical language with the students of the Term 4 Exploring Music 6 Class! Each Friday I will post to our class blog about what we have been up to in Exploring Music that week! Check our blog often to see lots of pictures of us learning, videos of us performing, and even download activities that we complete in class during the week. We look forward to sharing our journey of Exploring Music with you!

Thursday was our first day together. We chatted about classroom expectations and about what we would be learning about and doing this term. Each student was given a hard copy of classroom expectations and was to have it signed and returned by Tuesday for the first quiz grade of the term! If you did not see or sign a copy of the classroom expectations you can download them HERE and have your student return them to me as soon as possible. We had a great time of getting to know the musicians in our class by completing "Find a Musician Who..." activity which you can download HERE. Ask your student how many boxes they signed and how many they got signed by fellow musicians!

We kicked off our World Percussion unit today (Friday). We learned about the continent Africa, the African culture, and music in that community and how it is used to communicate. We communicated using conga drums using musical question and answer patterns. Next week we will be introduced to new instruments such as the acousti-block, shekere, and gankogui.

As we continue throughout our unit, check back to watch videos with new instruments! We are learning how to work as a team and play as an ensemble; I can't wait to see what musical highs we soar to this quarter!

Until next week,
Ms. Barkin

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Exploring Music Term 3 Week 9

4/9/2014

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I can't believe that our time together as a Term 3 Exploring Music Class is over already! Thank you for sharing your students with me! I have enjoyed watching each and every student grow musically!

Our final few days together were a lot of fun and full of music making! This week we continued working hard on composing our own "Ode to Joy" karaoke tracks! Monday and Tuesday we finished up the recording process of the project by using smart piano and smart bass tracks as well as adding in our own percussion loops. It amazes me that each student is composing the same song, but they all sound so unique! It is always fun seeing each student put their unique twist on the traditional song. Check out some of the pictures of us working on our projects as well as a few videos of examples of excellent projects!

Finally, on Wednesday we had a showcase of our projects. As a class, we played the guitar part along with the karaoke tracks each student had composed! This was a fun way to wrap up our time together. Congratulations to all term 3 students for a job well done! I wish each student continued success as they move on to explore one last language this year!

- Ms. Barkin

Track by Nick
Period 5 Exploring Music

Track by Tori
Period 4 Exploring Music

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Exploring Music Term 3 Week 8

4/4/2014

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Ipads, headphones, and GarageBand oh my! This week our unit on music technology began in full swing! Last Friday we spent a class period getting acquainted with the Garageband App for Ipads. We discovered that there are many different options available to us as composers while using this program! We learned about SmartInstruments (which play chords for us), and loops (which are pre-recorded pieces of music composed by Apple which we can use in our own music)!

On Monday we talked about musical form which is the structure of music. We looked at musical form as a musical road map that gives us directions during our musical journey. We even discussed form as a musical pattern that is represented by letters. We learned about a type of form called ABA. This form has the same material at the beginning of the song and end of the song with some material that is totally different in the middle. We made ABA patterns using the SmartBoard with different shapes and then with the letters that we would find in a musical context.

Students were assigned the first GarageBand project which was to compose their very own song utilizing ABA form with a mix of SmartInstruments and loops. Students worked very hard and composed some awesome ABA songs! Congratulations on a job well done by all students! Be sure to check ParentPortal for your child's results from our first project!

On Wednesday, our final project for Exploring Music 6 was introduced. Students learned that they would be creating a karaoke track on the Ipads for Beethoven's "Ode to Joy". Eventually, students will have the opportunity to play the melody of the song on the guitar while the karaoke track plays!