We worked hard this week on really learning to play as a musical team or ensemble. We talked about balance and blend and why that is so vital to a successful performance. So far we have mastered playing in a 4 part percussion ensemble. The students learned that this takes extra focus as they need to hear not only the part they are responcible to play, but the other parts as well! Today (Friday) we will be rehearsing "Ensemble 1" in small groups. Check back next week for a video of the small ensembles performing!
Happy Friday! Congratulations on a great first full week of Exploring Music! This week in Exploring Music 6, we continued to focus on our unit on World Percussion. We started to learn our first song titled "Ensemble 1" which featured quite a few new instruments! We learned about the acousti-block, conga drums, shekere, and gankogui. Ask your musician how to pronounce some of those tricky instrument names! We worked hard this week on really learning to play as a musical team or ensemble. We talked about balance and blend and why that is so vital to a successful performance. So far we have mastered playing in a 4 part percussion ensemble. The students learned that this takes extra focus as they need to hear not only the part they are responcible to play, but the other parts as well! Today (Friday) we will be rehearsing "Ensemble 1" in small groups. Check back next week for a video of the small ensembles performing!
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Welcome Back!
My name is Ms. Barkin and I teach the Exploring Music As A Language 6 class! I am excited to have the privilege of working with each student this term! I am excited to watch them grow as musicians! Each week I will post to our class blog about what we have been up to in Room100! Each blog entry will be posted on Fridays. Each post will include a blurb about what we have been learning along with some pictures and videos so you can see us in action! The first week of class was a whirl wind! We spent a bit of time getting to know our classmates' musical backgrounds as well as talking about some classroom expectations. You should have signed a hard copy and your child should have returned it to me, but if you missed it click HERE for another copy! Please check that your child passed in a signed copy of the course expectations as it is the first quiz grade of the term! If not, please download a new one and send it in with your musician! We began our first unit on World Percussion later in the week and focused on a few new instruments. We talked about conga drums and something called an acousti-block. Ask your child to tell you what kind of instrument that is! We worked with question and answer drumming and worked on having musical conversations, too! Check back next week for some more updates on what we are learning! Happy Summer Vacation!!!
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Happy Friday! This week in Exploring Music 6 we were hard at work composing jingles for products that we created in class last week. Students worked in pairs for this project to create a product, compose lyrics to advertise this product, and then compose a catchy song using the Garageband application on the Ipads. I'm so excited about some of the products that studnets have created. For example we have products such as "ShoeCake", "ChewySoda", "The E Pencil" (which never has to be sharpened!), and the "CoolAir Fan" which is guaranteed to keep you cool during a hot summer! Monday we learned how to compose catchy lyrics that students will record into their product. Students had fun working with RhymeZone.com which is a website that allowed students to find rhyming words to use in their lyrics! Some of the lyrics that students came up with were fabulous! On Friday, we had a listening performance to show the rest of the class our handwork! Check out some pictures of us in action :) |
I can't believe that the end of the year is fast approaching! We have been learning a lot about music technology this week!
Monday was the first day that students really got to dive into the technology! We kicked off the week by talking about patterns. We created different patterns using shapes, sizes, and colors on the SmartBoard. Students learned that we have musical patterns, too! We call these musical patterns "form" which acts like a road map to tell us where our song is going to go. We worked specifically with something called ABA form. This means that our song starts with an "A" section which is the beginning of our song. In the middle of our song (the "B" section) we have music that sounds totally different than the "A" section we had at the beginning of our composition. Finally, we wrap up our song by repeating the "A" section which is familiar music. Students were given the rest of class to work on the first Ipad project - composing a ABA song!
Monday was the first day that students really got to dive into the technology! We kicked off the week by talking about patterns. We created different patterns using shapes, sizes, and colors on the SmartBoard. Students learned that we have musical patterns, too! We call these musical patterns "form" which acts like a road map to tell us where our song is going to go. We worked specifically with something called ABA form. This means that our song starts with an "A" section which is the beginning of our song. In the middle of our song (the "B" section) we have music that sounds totally different than the "A" section we had at the beginning of our composition. Finally, we wrap up our song by repeating the "A" section which is familiar music. Students were given the rest of class to work on the first Ipad project - composing a ABA song!
On Tuesday, students got to compose a soundtrack to their life. After a brief discussion about what a soundtrack was, students picked three life events and songs that corresponded with these events. I gave the example of getting my first car. I chose "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts. Students then wrote about how the song they selected represents the life event they chose. Students even got to color and design a CD cover for the sound track to their lives! We have some great artists in Exploring Music 6!
The rest of the week allowed us to finish up and present our ABA form projects that we started on the Ipads on Monday. Instead of having performances quizzes during our music technology unit, we present our finished project to the class! The class gives feed back using "I like... I see... and I wonder...". Project Performance days are always a lot of fun as students get to show off their work as well as provide feedback for others, too!
On Friday we began our second project! Students will be paired up for the second project which is about writing a jingle. Students came up with a product on Friday in class and filled out a product brainstorm worksheet. As we continue this project, students will write lyrics to advertise their product as well as a musical jingle utilizing Garageband on the Ipad to create the music for their jingle, too! Check back next week to see a few finished projects!
The rest of the week allowed us to finish up and present our ABA form projects that we started on the Ipads on Monday. Instead of having performances quizzes during our music technology unit, we present our finished project to the class! The class gives feed back using "I like... I see... and I wonder...". Project Performance days are always a lot of fun as students get to show off their work as well as provide feedback for others, too!
On Friday we began our second project! Students will be paired up for the second project which is about writing a jingle. Students came up with a product on Friday in class and filled out a product brainstorm worksheet. As we continue this project, students will write lyrics to advertise their product as well as a musical jingle utilizing Garageband on the Ipad to create the music for their jingle, too! Check back next week to see a few finished projects!
This week in Exploring Music 6 we finished up our unit on the guitar! Students were challenged to study the song "Ode to Joy" be Beethoven. This was a tricky piece for us because it contained lots of string crossing. String crossing is when we have different notes on both strings! There were also lots of skips in "Ode to Joy" which means the notes aren't right next to each other on the guitar or the musical staff!
This week was a unique week because students had a lot of practice time with another person! The students found that this was a good way to practice because it let them give and receive feedback on their guitar playing, too! On Thursday, students had their final test on the guitar and Ode to Joy. The first portion of the test was a written test. The students scored especially high on this as a whole! Please be sure to check your ParentPortal for your child's results. The second half of the test was for the students to play Ode to Joy individually. The students never cease to amaze me! They did a great job with this! Check out the video of the 5th period Exploring Music Class below to see our final class performance.
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Today we started our final unit on music technology utilizing Ipads! Don't miss next week's blog post which is sure to have pictures and examples of student projects :)
Happy Weekend!
-Ms. Barkin
Happy Weekend!
-Ms. Barkin
We had such an awesome week in Exploring Music and are excited to share everything that we have learned with you!
We kicked off the week by having our very first performance quiz! Our performance quiz was on a piece called "Spanish Theme Song". This short melody contained all of the notes that we have been working so hard on. After some rehearsal time in pairs, students performed "Spanish Theme Song" in front of their classmates! Congratulations to each and every Exploring Music 6 student on a job well done on the first performance quiz of the unit!
On Wednesday, we used Ipads to help us learn three new notes: B, C, and D. We played a game called NoteDerby. Students were transformed into an equestrian character racing in a horse derby!Students were shown a note and in order to advance in the race they had to select the correct name of the note being shown. We had a lot of fun using the Ipads to help us read musical notation!
We kicked off the week by having our very first performance quiz! Our performance quiz was on a piece called "Spanish Theme Song". This short melody contained all of the notes that we have been working so hard on. After some rehearsal time in pairs, students performed "Spanish Theme Song" in front of their classmates! Congratulations to each and every Exploring Music 6 student on a job well done on the first performance quiz of the unit!
On Wednesday, we used Ipads to help us learn three new notes: B, C, and D. We played a game called NoteDerby. Students were transformed into an equestrian character racing in a horse derby!Students were shown a note and in order to advance in the race they had to select the correct name of the note being shown. We had a lot of fun using the Ipads to help us read musical notation!
The remainder of our guitar unit will be spent focused on "Ode to Joy", a famous piece by the composer Beethoven. Students spent Thursday learning a little bit about the history of "Ode to Joy" and the composer Beethoven by watching a Brainpop video! We also took part in a sight reading challenge! Students were challenged to see how much of "Ode to Joy" they could play without practicing it at all just by looking at the notes! They did a good job with this sight reading challenge! Today (Friday) we took some time to learn the melody for "Ode to Joy". This is a challenge for students because it uses all six notes that we know how to play and it has notes on two different strings of the guitar! I am so excited and proud of the progress that the students of Exploring Music 6 have made!
Check back next week so see (and maybe hear) our progress with "Ode to Joy"!
Check back next week so see (and maybe hear) our progress with "Ode to Joy"!
Monday we started our unit on beginning guitar! During this unit, we will be learning how to play several different notes, three different chords, and how to play some well known songs on the guitar! We will get a change to compose our own guitar song using the notes and rhythms we have learned about so far in Exploring Music and we will even use Ipads to help us learn along the way!
We started off the week by taking a look at the different types and sounds of acoustic and electric guitars. To view the slide show that we worked with in class click HERE.
Later on in the week, we learned three new notes: E, F, and G. We learned not only how to play these three new note on our guitars, but we also learned where they are found on the staff. We thought of the musical staff as a neighborhood with line street and space street. We learned that each note has it's own unique address!
We started to learn some short melodies utilizing the new notes that we had learned! These short melodies were displayed up on the SmartBoard. Students had the chance to write out the note names and then play the examples as a class. We will continue to work on these short melodies and will be having our first quiz incorporating E, F, and G in a song titled "Spanish Theme Song" next week.
Unfortuatnly, our time together was cut short this week because of MCAS testing. Be sure to check back next week where we wil update you on what we have been learning!
We started off the week by taking a look at the different types and sounds of acoustic and electric guitars. To view the slide show that we worked with in class click HERE.
Later on in the week, we learned three new notes: E, F, and G. We learned not only how to play these three new note on our guitars, but we also learned where they are found on the staff. We thought of the musical staff as a neighborhood with line street and space street. We learned that each note has it's own unique address!
We started to learn some short melodies utilizing the new notes that we had learned! These short melodies were displayed up on the SmartBoard. Students had the chance to write out the note names and then play the examples as a class. We will continue to work on these short melodies and will be having our first quiz incorporating E, F, and G in a song titled "Spanish Theme Song" next week.
Unfortuatnly, our time together was cut short this week because of MCAS testing. Be sure to check back next week where we wil update you on what we have been learning!
I can't believe that are 1/3 the way through Term 4 already! The students of Exploring Music sure have been busy! This week we wrapped up our unit on World Percussion.
We started off the week by reviewing our second ensemble we began last week called "Take Time in Life". Students were able to incorporate singing, movement, and a percussion ensemble for this final performance! Students had the chance to reflect on what went well during their performance and things that they would have changed about their performance if they got the chance to do it again.
The rest of the week we focused on the most challenging ensemble yet. This ensemble was called "High Life Ensemble". Students learned that "high life" is a type of music that combines traditional African instruments with modern day instruments. Our final ensemble was very tricky because of the syncopation! (If you aren't sure what syncopation means, ask your student! It was a word of the day)! On Thursday we spent some time reviewing for the percussion test which will take place today (Friday 5/9). Be sure to check our ParentPortal for your musician's results!
Next week will be a little bit crazy for us because of MCAS testing, but we are planning to continue on in Exploring Music! We will be starting our guitar unit! Check back next week to see what we have learned!
We started off the week by reviewing our second ensemble we began last week called "Take Time in Life". Students were able to incorporate singing, movement, and a percussion ensemble for this final performance! Students had the chance to reflect on what went well during their performance and things that they would have changed about their performance if they got the chance to do it again.
The rest of the week we focused on the most challenging ensemble yet. This ensemble was called "High Life Ensemble". Students learned that "high life" is a type of music that combines traditional African instruments with modern day instruments. Our final ensemble was very tricky because of the syncopation! (If you aren't sure what syncopation means, ask your student! It was a word of the day)! On Thursday we spent some time reviewing for the percussion test which will take place today (Friday 5/9). Be sure to check our ParentPortal for your musician's results!
Next week will be a little bit crazy for us because of MCAS testing, but we are planning to continue on in Exploring Music! We will be starting our guitar unit! Check back next week to see what we have learned!
"High Life Ensemble" Performance Exploring Music 6 Period 5 Class |
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6th Grade Exploring Music Class of OMS!
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