Music+Moments+2013

Some music loving students met with Mrs Walker for a morning of music in a building that is 99 years old! Mrs Walker gets excited when she hears people like us singing in tune and keeping the beat. She said, “Music is a wonderful thing because you can do it together, whether there is one of you or a whole school.” We got to know each other playing a game called “Peanuts.” We had 4 musical notes each. We had to ask each other questions and when we answered we had to talk, no nodding. If we said “Yes” or “No” we had to give away one of our notes. It sure was tricky!

Then we talked about the value of the musical notes we had. **Crochets** have one beat. Crochets are notes that can have their stick going up or down. Notes with sticks going up sound lower and notes with sticks going down sound higher. **Minims** last 2 beats but you only play it once. **Quavers** are fast. They have ½ a beat and the 2 quavers make 1 beat.

media type="file" key="Clapping Rhythms.mov" width="282" height="282" align="right"Mrs Walker made a clapping pattern from notes. Then we made a clapping pattern from the notes we had from playing “Peanuts.” We put them all together and clapped them all! WOW! You can listen to us here by playing the movie clip on the right. We sounded good!

Mrs Walker had a Magic Music Moments booklet for each of us, with the words of songs and some rhythm patterns made up of crochets, minims, quavers and rests.

media type="file" key="My Highland Goat.mov" width="287" height="287" align="right"The first song we sang was called, “My Highland Goat.” Then we sang it in 2 parts with an echo.Then we had some funny parts to sing. It’s a great song to sing in the car.
 * Play this to listen to us. **

On a piano there are 8 notes.The top one and the bottom one are the same. Number 3 and number 5 notes are soh and me. There is doh ray me fah soh lah te. Mrs Walker sang our names using soh and me. We used those 2 notes to sing “Hello everybody.” We sang solo and we used good pitch. Our singing sounds best if we sit up with a straight back so we can breathe.

media type="file" key="My hat it has 3 corners.mov" width="240" height="240" align="right"Next Mrs Walker played the piano and we sang a song called “My hat it has 3 corners.” It’s a song that has actions and rest notes in it. ** Play this to listen to us. ** She told us that rest notes can be a back to front 7 or wriggly 3. A rest is out, hands out of the way.

media type="file" key="Rhythm Test.mov" width="294" height="294" align="right" Next we took a rhythm test. Mrs Walker played a rhythm and we had to pick which one she was playing.
 * Play this to listen to us. **

We watched a video of Stomp Band. You can see it on youtube. [|http://www.youtube.com/watchv=Zu15OujKM0&feature=player_embedded#at=186] The Stomp Band played untuned percussion using rubbish bin lids and other things we have around home. We listened to one musician to hear what pattern they were playing. A pattern that is played over and over is called ostinato. Ostinato sounds like green tomato. We went to find something we could use to play in the Central Stomp Band. We came back with a wooden plank, a chair, cones, pipes and plastic drums. A drum has a soundbox. You don’t want it to make a dead sound. The big deep sounds need a long rhythm. 

media type="file" key="The Central Stomp Band 1.mov" align="right" width="300" height="300"We had an ostinato pattern to play with our instrument. Someone started with the beat and then we added in other rhythms.


 * Play this to listen to us. **

media type="file" key="The Central Stomp Band 2.mov" width="276" height="276" align="left"

Talia conducted us with a baton … down, up, down, up. Next we added in moving while stomping our ostinato.
 * Play this to listen to us. **

media type="file" key="Down the river and Vive L'amour.mov" width="275" height="275" align="right"We sang another song called “Down the river and Vive L’amour.” Mrs Walker told us it was a fugue. A fugue has 2 parts that get sung at the same time. The first part of this song is from the USA about going down the Ohio river. The second part is from France and means “Long live love and having friends.” ** Play this to listen to us. **

On a blank page we wrote our name nice and big. Then we clapped the pattern of our name. Then we said our names and clapped it one after the other so it sounded like a piece of music.

**If you are interested in learning to play an instrument you can go to** • **Saturday Morning Music Classes in Invercargill** [] **• Out of School Music Classes at** Central Southland College on Tuesday afternoons from 4-5pm. You can learn ukelele, violin, clarinet, saxophone, flute, recorder and guitar. For further information please contact Tania 027 2101811. **• Some schools have a music tutor come in after school.** **• You can look online for music tutors in Southland.** [] [] []

**This is what we think about coming to Music Wonders with Mrs Walker.** Joaquin said, “I like singing. I like doing the stomp band.” Grace plays piano and recorder. She said, “It’s quite fun. I’ve learnt the beat of notes. I’m looking forward to playing in the Central Stomp band.” Charlotte plays ukelele and recorder. She said, “I like when you go clap and away for the minim.” Jessica plays recorder and piano. She said, “I really enjoyed it today. It was really fun.” Emilee plays recorder. She said, “I’ve learnt heaps and I love doing music lessons.” Reagan said, “I played pipes in the Central Stomp.” Kate plays ukelele. She said, “I love playing music and I’m really enjoying it today.” Loralye plays ukelele. She said, “I liked using all sorts of different instruments.” Ashlynn plays ukelele. She said, “I think it was really fun singing and learning rhythms.” Lauren said, “It’s been fun. Playing the drums in the Central Stomp Band was the best bit.” Malachi said, “It was fun, it was loud!” Xavier said, “It is good. I’ve learnt strong beat. That’s what I played on the heater in the Central Stomp Band.” Talia plays ukelele. She said, “It’s fun. I’ve learnt how to read notes.” McKinnon plays ukelele. He said, “It’s been fun. I learnt about notes.”