Harmony and Heritage
Welcome families! Below you will find information about what is happening each week in Harmony and Heritage at Melanin Village. Scroll down or use the links below to jump down to the section relevant to you.
-Ms. Joy
**New parent education videos below.
Pre-K, Kindergarten and First Grade
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In our first week, we primarily focused on independently executing the different routines, transitions and formations that will be necessary to have a smooth music class each week. The group learned how to form a circle independently and found their rug spots in response to musical cues. (See below). We’re laying the foundation for understanding pitch by standing and sitting in response to a slide whistle that plays upward and downward.
We danced to the song Mi Cuerpo for fun but it also lays the foundation for internalizing the steady beat and rhythm, which will be the focus of upcoming lessons. See below.
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In week two, we will focus on distinguishing between the four voices: Speaking, whispering, shouting and singing. As obvious as this may seem, it is an important foundational distinction to make as we work on developing our voices and ability to sing on pitch.
We will identify what a steady beat is. We will learn that the steady beat does not change. We will compare it to the second hand of a clock and windshield wipers. It is the unchanging pulse felt in all music. We can have a fast or slow steady beat. In this or future lessons we will learn that the speed of the beat is called the tempo. We will find and move to the steady beat of a variety of songs. The ability to feel the beat is an important foundational skill prior to moving on to making and reading rhythms.
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We will continue to learn about steady beat this week. Last week we kept a steady beat by moving in place. Patting our laps, marching in place, shaking our hips, clapping etc. This week we will move through the classroom space in a variety of ways. Keeping a steady beat while moving is more challenging skill as it takes more focused body control to. The movements we perform will lay the foundation for rhythm which will be introduced in the coming week.
We will keep the beat while moving to a silly song called Tooty Ta. Find it below.
I will introduce an African American FolkTale called the Gunniwolf. My mother used to read this story to me as a child and I have used it consistently in music classrooms as an adult. This is simply a fun interactive story that I’ve added some simple melodies and body percussion to. It lays foundation and reinforces concepts of pitcha nd rhythm that we’ll explore throughout the year. IT’s mostly about music making in fun and engaging ways.
We will learn the finger play Five Little Muffins . In addition to keeping the steady beat as you perform it, it reinforces simple 1:1 correspondence in math.
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This week we will continue to do activities that allow us to move in place and through space to the beat. This week, we will learn the word “rhythm”. The rhythm of the song makes you want to dance. We will focus on this aspect of the definition this week. We will doa n activity where atudents will march around the room if they hear a steady beat. They will dance in place if they hear a rhythm. We will also listen and clap rhythms to an old Children’s song called the Hand Jive.
We will do a few other fun activities that they enjoyed from previous weeks focusing on moving to the beat in place and through space.
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This week we are exploring tempo. The tempo is the speed of the beat. We will focus on fast and slow. While fast and slow are not terms exclusive to music, our goal will be for children to notice, identify, use appropriate music terminology when describing tempo in a musical context. We also want them to move creatively and appropriately in response to the tempo of music. So if we’re listening to a slow lyrical piece of music, we want their motions to be slow and fluid and vice verda. We will make connections to speed in the outside world, as well. Slow and fast, and Pass the bean bag are two songs that we will build activities around this week.
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This week we will continue to talk about rhythm and tempo. I will introduce the terms Allegro and Adagio. These are Italian terms used in classical music. Adagio means slow Allegro means fast. We will listen to recordings of music and identify them as slow/ adagio or fast/ allegro. Mpst notable we will compare two versions of the song “old MAcDonald. One slow performance by andy Z and a fast performance by Ella Fitzgerald. We will also listen to two pieces from A classical piece called Carnival of the Animals, by Camille Saint Saens. “Wild Donkeys” and “Tortoises”. Performed at fast and slow tempos, respectively.
We will blend the skills we’ve worked on up until this point; Performing steady beats and rhythms at different tempos.
Songs and Recordings
This is the Dog House Activity where we are using iconic notation to learn how to read rhythms as a starting step. It took us a while to focus as a class and read the rhythms and not just bark every time I pointed.
Class Highlights
Dog House Activity
End of Class Review
Second and Third Grade
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In our first week, we focused on:
Distinguishing between the four voices: Speaking, whispering, shouting and singing. As obvious as this may seem, it is an important foundational distinction to make as we work on developing our voices and ability to sing on pitch. We won’t focus on this for long but it was important that we establish this distinction from the very beginning.
Defining steady beat and rhythm. The steady beat does not change. But the rhythm is a combination of long sounds, short sounds and silence. The rhythm makes you want to dance. We played a game where there were to march when they heard a beat and dance in place when I played a rhythm on the drum.
We played a game where students got to show interesting and creative ways to play a steady beat on drum sticks
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During our second week, we will focus more on rhythm. We will play games that help children to internalize, feel, and visualize the rhythmic notation that will be introduced shortly. We will move to combinations of walk (quarter note) and jog-ging (eighth note pairs) patterns. We will play a game that looks like musical chairs but it is rhythm chairs. Each chair represents a beat. Each child or pair of children sitting in a chair represents the standard notation we will learn. An empty chair symbolizes a beat of silence. But we don’t skip the beat. We are just silent during that beat.
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This week we are going to continue to talk about beat and rhythm and how to distinguish between the two. The children have expressed so much interest in playing the percussion instruments. I decided to lean into that interest. We are going to apply our rhythm skills to playing classroom percussion instruments. Percussion instruments are instruments that have to be struck to produce sound. The five categories of percussion instruments are wood, metal, shakers drums and pitched. We will not get to pitched percussion instruments this year. With every percussion instrument we learn about, our goal will be to get it to resonate properly, by holding it or striking it in a way that allows it to vibrate the way it was intended. In addition to speaking and clapping and moving to rhythms we will play what rhythms on percussion instruments this week.
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This week we will continue our percussion discussion. We will review the instruments we learned last week and likely add on castanets and the djembe as one new wood instrument and drum, respectively.
I will introduce them to the half note. A note that gets two beats. We will learn how to read it, clap, and and move to it to help them to internalize it.
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This week, we are shifting into writing rhythms. Instead of writing standard notation, we will focus on writing in stick notation. Stick notation is a short hand way to capture a rhythmic idea in writing. We want to use this short hand because it will allow them to write what they hear almost at the speed of thought. They will being learning the skill of rhythmic dictation. They will be able to write a rhythm that I clap. Being able to audiate (see parent education videos) with the Gordon’s rhythm syllables will make this process seem quite natural to them. We will continue to play these rhythms on percussion instruments
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This week will will just reinforce concepts taught last week. Reading and writing rhythms accurately takes time, so we will not rush through it to the next thing. It will need to be reinforced throughout the year. After the break, we will begin focusing on other elements of music. But reading and writing rhythms will continue to be practiced in nearly every lesson.
Ma’ati doing rhythmic dictation. I clapped a rhythm for her and she wrote it using stick notation.
Class Highlights
Thunder doing rhythmic dictation.
The Class performing rhythms from iconic notation. Each chair represents a beat. With a larger class other children would be sitting in the chairs. We have to make due with stuffed animals with our small class of 6.
4th- 7th Grade
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Week 1
We defined steady beat, rhythm, and tempo. We learned that the steady beat does not change. The rhythm is combination of long sounds, short sounds, and silence. It also makes you want to dance. The tempo is the speed of the beat.
Students were challenged to find the steady beat and move to it in their seats, as I played a variety of music instrumental tracks. We did the same activity with drum sticks. Students found creative ways to play their drumsticks to the steady beat or pulse of the music.
We played a game where they were to march when they heard a beat and dance in place when I played a rhythm on the drum to help them to internalize the difference.
Finally, we played a game called Rhythm Chairs, which is like musical chairs. Each of the four chairs represents a beat. Each child or pair of children sitting in a chair represents the standard notation we will learn for quarter notes and eighth note pairs. An empty chair symbolizes a beat of silence. But we don’t skip the beat. We are just silent during that beat. Students created a variety of rhythms that included one child in a chair, where we say “kid” or tap our sticks one time. Two children in one chair where we say “children” and clap our sticks twice quickly during one beat. Or no children in a chair, where we have a beat of silence and children open their hands as if they don’t know what’s happening. The remainder of the class played the resulting rhythms on their drum sticks while speaking the rhythm pattern,
“Kid Kid Chil-dren kid”
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In week 2, we will play games that help children to internalize, feel, and visualize the rhythmic notation that will be introduced shortly. We will move to combinations of walk (quarter note) and jog-ging (eighth note pairs) patterns.
We will further develop rhythm by learning to read standard notation for quarter notes, eighth note pairs and quarter rests. We will use a system of rhythm syllables developed by music theorist Edward Gordon. Speaking rhythms using syllables helps to internalize them in a way that makes reading them seamless.
Finally, we will learn about the music staff and the letter names assigned to each line when reading music with a. treble clef. Students will create sentences to help them remember the lines of the music staff. This is preparation for reading notation when playing the recorder.
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We did not get to learning the letter names of the lines of the music staff last week so we will begin with that this week. We will add on and learn the letter names of the spaces as well.
We will get to handle our recorders for the first time this week. Students will not receive a recorder to take home until they are able to independently play assignments at home. You will thank me later. If I send it home sooner, students will use it as whistle or toy. In this intro lesson we will learn how to hold the recorder in playing position and rest position. We will also learn how to use a fingering chart. This will connect the music staff to the recorder. The fingering chart shows how to play each letter of the music staff on the recorder. We will be using 3-piece recorders, where the mouthpiece will be taken off in this initial lesson to help them to focus on the skills at hand. Ideally we will learn how to position out mouths on the mouth piece next week.
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After reviewing our rhythms, and playing a few rhythm games to help these concepts become internalized, we will continue learning about the recorder. Last week, we focused on rest and playing position without the mouthpiece. This week we will focus on the mouthpiece. We will learn the position of our mouth to produce an ideal tone on the mouthpiece. That is called the embouchure. It is a french word. I will teach The recorder embouchure as:
1. Bottom lip tight.
2. Teeth on top.
3. Sides of the mouth are firm.
The firm mouth prevents you from puffing your cheeks, which we don’t want.
When we blow into the recorder we will say “Tooh”. This is called tonguing and helps each note sound crisp and clear.
If time allows, we will use our skills of reading rhythm notation and a fingering chart to play some recorder exercises from the book Recorder Express, which will they receive the day they take their recorders home. I’ll provide a digital copy here as well.
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This week we will review our rhythm reading and add whole notes, whole rests and half rests into the mix. Whole notes get 4 beats, whole rests will generally get 4 beats of silence. I’ll explain the exceptions at another time. Half rests gets two beats of silence.
We will learn some of the final skills needed to progress on the recorder independently. If all goes well, your children will come home with a recorder today. This recorder will stay at home. They will use a second recorder in class. We will focus on how to fix squeaks when we hear them. While the recorder does not have an extremely pleasant sound, squeaks can be unbearable. I want students to have the ability to self correct these inevitable squeaks when they occur. Students will squeak if they are blowing too hard into the mouthpiece or if any of their fingers are not completely covering any of the holes required to play the desired note. We will only be using a few fingers initially. so the challenge to cover all the holes will increase incrementally as we learn new notes.
We will begin to play our first exercises and songs reading from standard notation. We will use the Recorder method book “Recorder Express” and short songbook series called “BAGalopolis”. Students will receive a hard copy of Recorder Express to take home. You can find a pdf version of both books here. The word “BAG” is often used playfully with beginner recorder music because the notes B, A and G are the first notes that they learn.
The terms measure, bar line, and time signature will be introduced as they are standard features of full sheet music. This information can be found in the first few pages of Recorder Express, linked below.
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We going full speed ahead with recorder instruction this week. With all of the foundation laid, we will play recorder from sheet music for most of this class. See student homework below. When we return from the break we will combine this instrumental instruction with vocal instruction for more balanced lessons.
Student Practice
After our October 17th session
Review Recorder Express Pg 4, #1-3.
As a challenge try to play numbers 4, 5, and 6. I will ask someone who practiced at home to play it for the class next week.
Practice “All About B” from Bagalopolis. We will likely not have completed this song in class. Try your best. When there is a challenge, go back to saying the rhythm before attempting to play it again. Play it with the accompaniment tracks below. There is a slow and a fast version.
After our October 24th Session
1,. REcorder Express og 4 # 7-8, Pg 5 #1-3
2. Try to play through the remainder of Page 5. You should make sure that
you are saying “tooh” for every single note
You are playing the correct rhythm. Check this by saying hte rhythm first.
You are playing the right pitches without squeaking.
3. Play ABAcus with the slow and fast accompaniment.
This is moments after we learned how to produce sound on our recorders. The progress is going to be quite quick moving forward.
Class Highlights
Playing Page 24, # 2 from Recorder Express
Parent Education
Introduction to Reading Rhythms
Standard Notation