Happy New Year!!!!
As you can see by the lack of postings, December is a very busy month for musicians!! It is great to be “back in the swing” with my students at Quest!!
Eighth grade instrumental music classes are having great fun with Boomwhackers – the long plastic tubes that make different pitches. The objective is to read the music I have written from the Smart Board. The theme from “The Muppet Movie” is actually recognizable!! The students have each notated the group Boomwhacker composition by hand. The full music class (all eighth graders) is finding information about the opera houses around the world in terms of date built, style of architecture, first performance, seating capacity as well as three interesting facts. Do you know which opera house was the basis for the story behind “Phantom of the Opera?” We will compare our opera house findings with our own Lyric Opera House here in Chicago in preparation for our trip downtown on March 10. The class has also received the music for musical auditions. Auditions will be held on January 26 during classtime and flex.
Seventh grade instrumental music is making some beautiful sounds with our tone chimes. Again, the point is reading the music. Each student has a chime and has to follow their part in order to play at the correct time. The chimes are fun to play and the kids are diligent about counting and getting their notes in the correct place. The general music class is exploring music in the Elizabethan Era. In conjunction with their Shakespeare studies in LASS, the students are finding that music was very important in this period of time due to Queen Elizabeth I and her love of the arts. Seventh graders are creating their own assessment sheets entitled “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about the Elizabethan Era and Music.” They will be completing these assessments next week.
Sixth grade guitar students will be testing on one exercise per week so you should be hearing new material. As with the upper two grades, note reading is the objective. The students are also choosing a piece that they would like to play and practicing. Playing tests for those pieces are held when the student is ready to play it. The general music class has embarked on a project involving the Grammys. Students were asked to discover the reason for Grammys and then write a formal letter to nominate an artist or group as if they are a part of the Foundation. In addition to researching information about the Grammys and their particular choice for a nominee, the students are working on the mechanics of writing a formal letter. This is a joint lesson with LASS. The students are reading their letters in class and we are discovering together some very interesting viewpoints!
Fifth grade students are working diligently to prepare the “Lewis and Clark” musical. Although this presentation is an INFORMANCE, it will still have many elements of a completely prepared performance. Please be sure that you have signed up to attend this program!!! Both choir class and general music class times are taken up with this activity until the Informance is over. The instrumental class is writing music for their ocarinas. We are reviewing the mechanics of music – note names, note values, rhythmic structure, etc. They will soon be playing two part music.
MS Choir
It is important that the kids are coming to rehearsals!! We are preparing for contest on March 12 at 8:00AM in Niles. Also, we have begun work on the spring concert, “Traveling Along With a Song.” Plans are being made for Choir Tour 2017! Look for announcements in the next 6 weeks!!
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