Music Together

I haven't found the time to post anything since the baby was born.  Charles "Hudson" Hubert Thomas IV was born on his due date, October 21.  He's 3 months old now so time to get back to a normal routine!

I am loving the Bells collection this Winter and hope you all are too!  We've already done a lot of the songs in the collection in class and you are all doing a fantastic job with them.

At the first class I asked all of the parents to make sure you sing with you child when putting the instruments away this session.  A lot of you have been doing that and your children are already singing more in class!  I can't wait to see what a wonderful impact that will have by the end of the session.  Keep it up!

This week we talked about, and created our own, rhythm patterns.  Try this activity at home with you child (even if they are tiny).  Animal sounds are great to create rhythm patterns with.  You will soon notice your child creating their own vocal rhythm patterns.

We played drums along with the song Hopping and Sliding and worked on feeling contrasting duple and triple meter in our bodies.
"Children learn by noticing differences - they are especially alert to contrast.  By juxtaposing duple and triple meter as well as staccato and legato within one activity, we're giving children the opportunity to hear and experience these qualities.  For children, putting these meters and articulations into their bodies is a powerful and direct way to learn about them."

Play around with musical contrasts this week.  

Fast/Slow

High voice/Low voice

Staccato (bouncy, detached, separated)/Legato (smooth, connected)

Our dance was the Waltz from Coppelia.  Click on the YouTube link below to enjoy it at home.  I LOVE holing my little ones and waltzing around the house with them!

Our play along was Buffalo Gals by Pete Seeger.  Enjoy!

"Peter "Pete" Seeger (born May 3, 1919) is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival.  Pete Seeger's life, music, and legacy encapsulate nearly a century of American history and culture. He has immersed himself in folk music and used it, like Johnny Appleseed, to "plant the seeds of a better tomorrow in the homes across our land." The songs in this collection of 139 American Favorite Ballads narrate tales of ordinary people and their extraordinary deeds, and show Pete at the crossroads of the past and the future putting his own stamp on America's folk song heritage while bequeathing it to generations to come."

Montessori Music Class

I've been very impressed over the last few weeks with how the students are growing musically!  They are all getting better each class at finding the beat, whether I change it fast or slow!

After we sing Hello we have had fun making shapes with our voices.  See your child can teach you how to do this at home.  Follow the shape up high, down low, or straight across (on the same pitch) with your voice.  I had many volunteers do this in class today and they did a fantastic job!

We have been working on listening and watching for musical cues (when to start and stop).  We have played sticks along with the song Kookaburra and jumped like frogs with the song Gallump Went the Little Green Frog.  Ask your child what word they are suppose to jump on with the frog song and enjoy jumping like frogs together at home!

We are also learning about simple musical form with the song William Tells Ride.  We leaned that there are three different parts and they get the letters A, B, and C.  The form is A, B, C, A.  The class split up into three groups and each group had to listen and watch for their part of the song so they played instruments at the correct time.
We enjoyed the Finale from William Tell by Gioachino Rossini as a play along song.  Click the link below to listen and play along at home!



Today in class we sang songs about Fall leaves and ended with the book "The Leaves on the Trees" by: Thom Wiley.  This book is to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus, but tells you about what color and shape Fall leaves you will see from different types of trees.  A great book to check out.  If you sing it at home you could hunt for those types of leaves outside, put them under a plain piece of paper at home and color over it so the leaf shape will show up.  Create your own Fall trees and sing while you work on it!

http://www.amazon.com/Leaves-Trees-Thom-Wiley/dp/0545312906/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318272394&sr=8-1

Music Together

Time to catch up with the blog!  This week in Music Together classes we did several different songs that change between duple and triple meter.  From the Music Together Collection we did the chant Every Day and we played finger cymbals with Walking Through The Woods.  I encourage you to try these activities at home!  See if you can come up with alternate verses for Every Day.  The first part of the chant is in a duple meter, "Mommies go shopping."  The repetitive part is in a triple meter, "Shopping and shopping and ............"

Our play along song also changed from triple to duple meter.  Kingdom Dance from the movie Tangled starts in a triple meter and changes to duple feel.  Click the link below to listen at home, play along, and dance.  Listen for the change in meter around 1:12.



Both this week and last week we added an ostinato to the Canoe Song.  An ostinato is a repeated part that goes along with a song.  For this song the ostinato was "Dip dip and swing."  Adding an ostinato to a song is a simple way to add parts and is a fantastic way to help develop your child's ear for music.  I encourage you and another adult or older child at home to try an ostinato that we have done in class or come up with your own!  Ostinatos can be tonal or rhythmic.

For a couple of weeks we also worked on the chant Down Under.  This chant exposes your child to mixed meters.  Mixed or unusual meters may seem hard to figure out.  However, by exposing your child to them from an early age these meters will seem to be a normal part of music instead of odd or difficult.  Click the link below to access the coloring pages we looked at in class.  You should be able to print them at home so your child can color them and use them along with the chant! (For me to print them from the blog I had to click the little square on the bar at the bottom.  It should say, "Open in a new window."  Once it is open in a new window click the actions button at the bottom of the screen.  Then click on print slides.  If you can't print them at home let me know and I'll print them for you!)



Some of the other play along songs and dances we have used in class are:

Following The Leader from Peter Pan
We worked on large motor skills by marching and doing a silly hop from one foot to the other on the macrobeat and steady beat.




We used the song Sabre Dance by Aram Khachaturian as a play along song.
Listen for the soft part of the song.  Play along loud, soft, and then loud again!

Music Together, September 19 and 20

Everyone did a fantastic job singing, dancing, and playing instruments this week!  Thank you parents for continuing to do all these things with your children in class.  It is apparent that you have been listening to the CD at home and are getting to know some of the songs.

Below is a copy of the coloring page I handed out in class.  When we played sticks along with the song "Palo, Palo" this week I just dumped them all out on the floor!  I find this to be a fun way to let the children explore all the different ways they can be played.  Some children will play just like you or I do, many will come up with their own ways, some will build with them, and some will just choose to observe.  Most of the parents choose to play the stick the way I was playing them.  If you did that then you were changing the size of the beat you played with each verse.  We played the steady beat, the microbeat (smaller/faster), and the macrobeat (larger/slower).  We will work on finding all of these beats in many of the songs we play along with.  The quote at the top of your coloring page was about finding and playing these different beats.  Most children find the faster microbeat easiest.


We also did some simple improvising with the songs "See How I'm Jumping," and "Hey Diddle Diddle."  When you or your child comes up with a new way of moving on the spot to the song "See How I'm Jumping," that is simple improvisation.  In the middle of the song "Hey Diddle Diddle" we did some jazzy tonal patterns.  Did you recognize any of the tonal patterns recognizable as other songs?  See if you can add your own jazzy scat singing or tonal patterns to this song at home.
I also encourage you to adapt songs to use in other ways at home.  I changed Little Johnny Brown to "Little Johnny Brown, are there any scarves layin' around?  Put them in the bag, Johnny Brown." to use it as a clean up song.  Change Johnny Brown to your own child's name and adapt the verse to something you would like them to get done.  Singing about it may make the task easier for you and for them!

The book we read along with "Hey Diddle Diddle" was
"Hey Diddle Diddle" By: Eve Bunting

The book keeps the same rhythm as the poem/chant, but adds other animals and instruments.  I checked it out at the Lake Wylie Library and it will be back there in a few days for you to get it next!

http://www.amazon.com/Hey-Diddle-Eve-Bunting/dp/1590787684









Our dance this week was the "Can-Can," and our play along was "Rocky Top." Click below to enjoy them at home!

Journey Montessori September 19

We continued working on some basic musical concepts this week with the songs we sang, danced to, and played instruments with in class.
The students are continuing to work on finding the steady beat for the Hello and Goodbye songs.  I change the steady beat to make it faster or slower, so they have to listen closely to the guitar to know how fast to pat the beat.
We did two familiar, and fun, rhythmic chants this week in music class.

I Have a Little Frog

I have a little frog
His name is Tiny Tim,
I put him in the bathtub,
To see if he could swim,
He drank up all the water,
And gobbled up the soap!
And when he tried to talk
He had a BUBBLE in his throat!

Hey Diddle Diddle

Hey! diddle, diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.


I read a great book to go along with the poem "Hey Diddle Diddle."
"Hey Diddle Diddle" by: Eve Bunting

The rhythm from the original poem is continued in the text in the book.  Each animal in the book plays a different instrument.  Students who I had last year that remembered what family different instruments belonged in could also identify those instrument families while we read the book!


http://www.amazon.com/Hey-Diddle-Eve-Bunting/dp/1590787684



We danced with scarves this week to the song "Pop Goes the Weasel."  Again the students had to work on listening closely to the music to know when to dance and when to freeze and throw their scarves up (they threw the scarves any time they heard the music or words for pop goes the weasel.)

We played sticks this week and worked on when to play and when not to play.  The students found very creative ways to keep their sticks quiet!  They were all very good listening for when to play and when to stop.
Our instrument play along song was "Rocky Top."  All of the students are doing a fantastic job waiting until they hear the music begin to get the instruments, keeping all of the instruments with their "family" in the correct box, and putting them all back as soon as the music ends.  The play along time also gives me a good opportunity to see who can play along to the beat of the song, and who can change the way they are playing to match the music (loud, soft, fast, slow, etc.)
Click the link below to listen to Rocky Top at home.  Help your children identify the instruments they see playing, and see if you can figure out what family of instruments they belong to.

Montessori Music Class

I can hardly believe we have already had three wonderful music classes at Journey Montessori this year!  The students are doing great in music class and we are having lots of fun.  We have several songs that we have been singing for the last three weeks.  Some of the songs will change soon and some of them will stay as part of our routine in music class.  We will always start class with our Hello song and end with a Goodbye song.  Right now I am just looking to see that the students can help me find the steady beat with both of those songs.  As the year goes on we will add some more difficult rhythms with the Hello and Goodbye songs.  We are also working on using our singing voices and finding the tonic (first note of the scale/key we are singing in) the dominant (fifth note of the scale/key we are singing in).  These are the easiest notes for our ears to hear and voices to sing.  The kids don't know they are working on all of this though, they just think they are having fun singing in silly voices up high and down low!

Some of the songs we have been singing that will change soon are, Open and Shut Them, Marry Wore Her Red Dress, and Yankee Doodle.  Below is a list of what musical concepts we are working on while singing those songs.

Open and Shut Them - This is a familiar song for many children.  We are using this song to calm down and prepare for music class.  We are also using this song to work on audiation.  (The definition of audiation is in the Music Together post below.)  Because it is a familiar song I am listening/watching to see if the children can sing part of the song, then hear the next part in their heads while we continue with the hand movements silently, then sing the following phrase, and so on.

Mary Wore Her Red Dress - This has been a fun way to get to know each of the students.  Each student gets a turn in this song to tell me something they are wearing and the class sings about it.
Check out the book Mary Wore Her Red Dress at your library or Amazon.  You can look inside the book on Amazon and see the song notated.
http://www.amazon.com/Dress-Henry-Green-Sneakers-Along/dp/0618752498

Yankee Doodle - We have used this song to work on marching (large motor skills) and group work.  The students are separated into two groups in class, the green group and the yellow group.  Each group had two phrases of the song to march across the room and back to their line.  They had to work as a group and listen closely to the music to all make it back to their line in two phrases!
We also used this song as a play along.  They learned about all the different non-pitched percussion instruments we have in the room and what family (box) they belong in.  Click the link below to play along with the song at home!

Music Together September 12, 13

Fall Music Together classes are off to a great start!  I'm so excited that we have three fantastic classes in Lake Wylie this session!  It's wonderful to have some local make-up options.  There are classes at 9:30 on Mondays and 9:30 and 10:30 on Tuesdays in Lake Wylie.  Each class has only a few spots open.  If you want to invite a friend to try a class with you I would love for you to bring them along.

Thank you to all the mommies, daddies, grandparents, aunts!  You were amazing singers and dancers in class.  Your children will learn best by hearing you sing and seeing you dance and play instruments.

This week we danced to Jump In The Line by Harry Belafonte.  This is a fantastic song to dance to or play instruments with at home.  Click the link below to enjoy it at home.

If anyone missed out on the information from the coloring page handed out in class here it is!

"Audiation is defined as the ability to hear and understand music in the mind, when the physical sound of that music is not present.  Aduiation is not a skill that is immediately or quickly learned.  It is a skill that children develop slowly, through an ordered process over a period of time.  And it is best for children to develop this skill as soon as possible.  They can learn to audiate shortly after birth."  

Guiding Your Child's Musical Development 

by Edwin Gordon

You Audiate when singing a song like "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes and leave out (don't verbalize/sing) one part each time you repeat the verse.  We worked on audiation today when we did a drum break and continued playing to the beat of the song with no music (singing) present.  The songs we added the drum break to were Little Liza Jane and Funga Alafia.  They are paired together on your CD, but on separate pages in your song book.  I encourage you to get out drums or pots and pans at home and play along with this song this week.  It is a great recording to play along with!