Ms. Lamoureaux's Class -- "Snowflake Song"

Over the Thanksgiving break I drove through the desert where there was a light dusting of snow on the mountains. It reminded me of this song, which was sung by the Mono Piaute Indians to honor the first snowfall on the season.

Ms. Lamoureaux and Ms. Hoffman's classes will be performing it at the Holiday show in three weeks. Here is a recording from today's rehearsal.

"Ahri-rang" -- 2 part Canon

..and here it is again as a two part "Canon." That's where the melody is played (or sung) in two parts with one of the parts entering later. Try playing along!

"Ahri-Rang" -- Complete

Here is a recording of the entire melody...

"Ahri-rang" Measure 4

Here's measure four -- note that it is very similar, but not exactly the same as measure one. Can you say how?

"Ahri-rang" Measure 3

Here's the third measure -- a different rhythm pattern this time.

"Ahri-rang" Measure 2

Now try measure two -- same rhythm pattern on G and A instead of D and E.

"Ahri-rang" Measure 1

Third Grade Magnet -- Listen to the audio clip and try playing along.

Mr. Earl & Mr. Hall's classes -- Deconstructing "Ahri-rang"

Hi Third Grade Magnet -- Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving and found time to practice "Ode to Joy"

The other piece we will be performing is "Ahri-rang," a very beautiful Korean melody with words in English and Korean. The music is posted above.

Part of what's great about "Ahri-rang" is that it is a "pentatonic" song, meaning, among other things, that any part of the melody sounds great with any other part. You can hear this in the two part Canon version I have posted here.

The part we're going to focus on this week is the first line, also posted above with note names. Listen to the audio clips above and try to master the fingerings and rhythm (in 3/4). How far we take it after that depends on you.

Ms. Oasay's Class -- "O Come O Come Immanuel"

Here's your other song, 4th graders. We will sing all three verses.

Ms. Oasay's Class -- "Pat-a-pan"

Here is the first of two audio clips for you to practice with. Try singing the words in French and English and also tapping out the pattern of the drum.

Mr. Albert's Class -- "Peace Round"

Here is a recording of "Peace Round" from the Making Music Series. I am posting it here for listening purposes only.

5th graders -- think about some simple movements we can canonize to go along with this song.

Mr. Albert's Class -- "Le Carillon"

Mr. Albert asked me to repost this as well as "Peace Round" so his fifth graders can practice in class and over the holiday -- so here it is.

This is actually a fun canon that anyone can try. The words are:

Entendez vous Le Carillon dari don don don don don don don don don!

"Good King Wenceslas" - complete

Here is a recording of the piece in its entirety. Now that you've worked on the piece in shorter sections, try playing along!

"Good King Wenceslas" - Measure 9 & 10

The next completely new musical idea doesn't occur until measure nine. Listen to it here. The pattern is D-C-B-A-B-A-G.

"Good King Wenceslas" - Measure 3 & 4

The next two measures contain the first F# so take some time with this clip. The pitch pattern is E-D-E-F#-G-G

"Good King Wenceslas" - Measure 1 & 2

Here are the opening two measures of "Good King Wenceslas." The pitch pattern. as you can see in the sheet music below, is G-G-G-A-G-G-D.

"Good King Wenceslas" - making F#

In order to play "Good King Wenceslas" you will need to be able to play F#. This audio clip will help you (checking the fingering picture below as well.)

Deconstructing "Good King Wenceslas" -- Mr. Rosner & Ms. Mason's classes

Third Grade Home School will be performing "Bransle" as an instrumental piece and "Good King Wenceslas" as an accompanied vocal. How much accompaniment will depend on how much of the song you can learn to play on recorder by December 17.

I have posted the sheet music here with some of the note names filled in. One useful exercise would be to figure out the names of the remaining notes on your own. I am also providing the fingering for F#, which you will need to know to play this piece. If you notice the key signature, it indicates one sharp meaning that we are in the key of G. Get comfortable with this, as "Bransle" is in the key of G as well.

Above I have posted audio clips which should help you learn the song piece by piece.

"Ode to Joy" Line 3/ExtraPractice

One more recording, Third Grade Magnet -- this audio will help you really focus on the tricky fingering you'll need in measures two and three. Remember -- when you practice you should always work a bit more on those sections that give you the most trouble.

"Ode to Joy" Line 3/measure 4

...and measure four may be the easiest of all.

"Ode to Joy" Line 3/measure 3

Measure three is almost identical to measure two...

"Ode to Joy" Line 3/measure 2

Now try measure number two...

"Ode to Joy" Line 3/measure 1

Here's the first measure...

"Ode to Joy" - A closer look at line three

The third line of "Ode to Joy" is the one that gives everyone a little trouble, so let's take a closer look. I've taken the liberty of indicating the note names. The challenge here, however, is not the individual notes but coordinating our fingers and tongues on the eighth note sequences.

One way to take this problem is to work on one measure at time. Above I'm posting some instructional audio that focuses on each individual 4 beat measure. Take some time to work on these small sections and then we can put it together or "reconstruct" it in music class.

"Ode to Joy" - Complete

Here's the complete version of "Ode to Joy." Notice that lines 1 and 2 are almost exactly the same and lines 2 and 4 are identical. That means if you can play the first line you are 75% of the way there!

Decontructing "Ode to Joy" -- Mr. Hall & Mr. Earl's classes

One of the two songs Third Grade Magnet will be performing for the holiday show is "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. I've posted an arrangement for recorder here as well as a recording. Give it a listen and see if you can following along .

Back on the blog

Some may have wondered where I've been for the last week and a half. I've had my technological hands full putting together listening CD's for the the various classes to practice for the holiday show -- exactly one month from tomorrow.

I hope to more than make up for my absence in the next few weeks using the blog as a classroom extention. For example the audio clip posted here is for Mr. Albert's class. They can access it for practice purposes on their Smart Board or individually on their home computers.

Give this round a try yourself. The words are:

Entendez vous Le Carillon dari don don don don don don don don don!

"Bransle" - Performance Speed

As you get more confident with the fingerings you can try playing both lines of the melody with this recording. As you can here (and see in the score) both lines are nearly identical.

"Bransle" (First Line) Practice Speed

Third Graders -- here is the first line of "Bransle" seriously slowed down so you can play along.

"Bransle" by Claude Gervais (16th Century)

Preparing for the holiday show

I was out sick on Monday, so today was the day we began putting together our holiday show. I worked with 3 of the 4 second grade classes learning the back beat pattern that is essential to gospel music and with in 3rd grade we focused on learning "C" on our recorders. "Good King Wenceslas" is a good song to use for this as it features the distinctive G-C-G pattern at the end of each verse (as in fu-UU-el).

I also distributed a french dance for recorder by Claude Gervais called "Bransle" (sometimes called "Champagne Bransle.") The music is posted above as are a couple of practice track recordings. This something new we're trying. Since so many Wonderland teachers have smart boards, I am asking them to use the blog in their classroom to help the kids practice. If it works we can post practice tracks for vocal music as well.