Week 7: Something a little extra
I know….I have posted from this site before…but I heart Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. This “Classics for Kids” podcast tells all about his opera. Quite frankly it is full of information that I didn’t know. This short discussion on obscure operas intrigued me and prompted me to look up more information about an Opera called “For the Love of Three Oranges.”
http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/704/510237/135459750/WVXU_135459750.mp3?_kip_ipx=1175613917-1303039292
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Love_for_Three_Oranges
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Sunday 4/24/2011 PLN:7/2
Week 7: Interesting find #2
So….What’s YOUR point?
Do your students listen to you when you talk? How to tell a story and keep the people engaged in what you are saying. Here is NPS’s Scott Simon sharing, “How to Tell a Story.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiX_WNdJu6w&feature=player_embedded
So….What’s YOUR point?
Do your students listen to you when you talk? How to tell a story and keep the people engaged in what you are saying. Here is NPS’s Scott Simon sharing, “How to Tell a Story.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiX_WNdJu6w&feature=player_embedded
Sunday 4/24/2011 PLN:7/1
Week 7: Interesting find #1
A friend of mine found this and posted it on FB. It has been fun to play with. You can “compose” your own sequence of light up squares.
http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix
A friend of mine found this and posted it on FB. It has been fun to play with. You can “compose” your own sequence of light up squares.
http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Sunday 4/17/2011 EXTRA, EXTRA
Week 6: Something extra
This article is from my favorite magazine. This publication usually has an article about music, arts, or creativity. If you like science or how things work, this is a definite read.
In addition to reading the full article in the magazine, I usually go online to read the comments. They can usually amuse me for a while!
The Unleashed Mind: Why Creative People Are Eccentric
Sunday 4/17/2011 PLN:6/2
Week 6: interesting find #2
WOW, anyone CAN sing! A young lady who was trying to reach her goal of being an opera singer overcame her obstacles. Her Doctor said she’d never sing again, it is literally killing her. After a double lung transplant, she can now sing again. ***For the super emotional.....bring a tissue box with you while you watch!
Charity Tillemann-Dick: After a lung transplant, an aria
Sunday 4/17/2011 PLN:6/1
Leave it to TED to find this amazing story about the loss of one’s voice and how science and technology made communication possible again. This video goes on to discuss the intricacies of voice. Lucky for Roger Ebert there is a ton of recording of his voice and technology came through again with an amazing “Roger” voice. Watch to find out what voice he chooses to communicate with. ***Tissues may be needed, though it is humorous at times, the highly emotional may not make it through without at least one tear.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Sunday 4/10/2011
My google quiz.
This is a quiz for 6th grade students to take on the first day of music. From here, we interview family members to find out what their favorite music is. We go on to create a time-line of music that our class listens to. Each classroom time-line is a little different.
Sunday 4/10/2011
Someone posted this last week, but I too was planning on posting it. I am adding it to my blog so that I can find it again in the future.
Itay Talgam talks about conducting on TED.com
Description from TED:
An orchestra conductor faces the ultimate leadership challenge: creating perfect harmony without saying a word. In this charming talk, Itay Talgam demonstrates the unique styles of six great 20th-century conductors, illustrating crucial lessons for all leaders.
Sunday 4/10/2011 PLN:5/2
Week 5: Interesting find #2
Why receiving an “A” is not enough in music:
A band director explains why getting just an “A” in music is not enough. The band first plays a piece at 100 percent, then at 90 percent, and finally with all the nuances that makes music great!
Explanation from You Tube:
A musical demonstration of what is wrong with education in the United States today. How just an A, is not good enough. How teaching to pass the government's test is dumbing down America.
The Conductor gets it and he has a great way of explaining his point.
Watch, listen and consider his message!
The Conductor gets it and he has a great way of explaining his point.
Watch, listen and consider his message!
Sunday 4/10/2011 PLN:5/1
Week 5: Interesting find #1
I teach grades k-4 general music. Towards the end of the school year I have a hard time keeping the kids focused. This is when I teach them how to make instruments. I make an assortment of things, paper plate cymbals, egg shakers, pop can shakers, water bottle trumpets and my favorite, the rain-stick. Recently I found a very fun video for making a rain-stick.
There are other instrument videos on this website, but the rain-stick is easy to make and easy to play. I go on to decorate them even more than the video does. We get beads, silk flowers, and feathers to add to our rain-sticks to make them more tropical. We then play along with some fun spring/summer songs, such as “Spring, Spring, Spring” (from Music k-8).
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Wednesday 4/6/2011
I thought this was an interesting article about the combination of electronica and classical music. Mason Bates is the composer-in-residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and DJs in exclusive night clubs.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Sunday 4/3/2011 PLN:4/2
Week 4: Interesting find #2
I play games like this all the time. I use cups, rhythm sticks, or even very tall dowel rods. You can change the rhythms or you can even have students tap their “partners” or their “opposite.” The main point is after the sequence is complete, you pass the stick, cup or noise maker. Then start the rhythm sequence again. Students as early as first grade can manage this will simple titi and ta rhythms.
Sunday 4/3/2011 PLN:4/1
Week 4: Interesting find #1
Here is a video that gives some background on how a hurdy-gurdy is put together. There is also some information about where you may hear the instruments being played today.
Synopsis from TED.com:
Caroline Phillips cranks out tunes on a seldom-heard folk instrument: the hurdy-gurdy, a.k.a. the wheel fiddle. A searching, Basque melody follows her fun lesson on its unique anatomy and 1,000-year history.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday 3/28/2011 Bicycle Built for Two
My “Bicycle Built for Two” assignment: Plus some fun computer/music history!
http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/3e8231c80f7676eda5f26a346594695ee7bc5d07
My thoughts on Noteflight:
I found Noteflight simple to use. A few things frustrated me until I found the right way to input them into the score. For personal use I like MuseScore better. For classroom lessons Noteflight has real advantages because students can easily click and drag notes to the pitches they want played. I like that it is a program that does not need to be downloaded onto the computer. I could use this in the classroom or the computer lab with my students. I found the Pieces of Eight part of the assignment to be a useful activity this week since this is a lesson that can be transferred into my classroom. I could have students from one class working on a shared piece of music, or students from other buildings in the district can work together to compose a combined work.
***I am now trying to add my section to our Pieces of Eight composition. I am finding it extremely frustrating. I am constantly, accidentally adding and deleting things from other students. I have resorted to composing my own “new” piece and will transfer it later. I am now not so sure I would use this in my classroom as a combined work. I am just hear the complaints from students now, “he/she deleted my work." I would only use this program for students to create their own personal compositions or in very small groups of students. I also find the scrolling among all the different voices to be problematic for me. This should not be a problem as I have a very large laptop screen. If I were at home this week I would have to resort to composing on my husband’s desktop, as it has two giant monitors hooked up, though I am not sure that would alleviate the problem since the program only seems to allow to view a few voices at a time.
On a slightly different note, I found it amusing that A Bicycle Built for Two was chosen for us to work on since the first computer to synthesize speech and sing with music sang this song.
You can see the original computer in this youtube link. Daisy Bell:A Bicycle Built for Two can be heard in about min. 0.36
Here is a synopsis from the youtube site:
The first computer-based speech synthesis systems were created in the late 1950s, and the first complete text-to-speech system was completed in 1968. In 1961, physicist John Larry Kelly, Jr and colleague Louis Gerstman used an IBM 704 computer to synthesize speech, an event among the most prominent in the history of Bell Labs. Kelly's voice recorder synthesizer (vocoder) recreated the song "Daisy Bell", with musical accompaniment from Max Mathews. Coincidentally, Arthur C. Clarke was visiting his friend and colleague John Pierce at the Bell Labs Murray Hill facility. Clarke was so impressed by the demonstration that he used it in the climactic scene of his screenplay for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, where the HAL 9000 computer sings the same song as it is being put to sleep by astronaut Dave Bowman. Despite the success of purely electronic speech synthesis, research is still being conducted into mechanical speech synthesizers.
Here is HAL singing “Daisy Bell” from 2001: A Space Odyssey in his death scene. Song starts in min: 5.30 of video.
This video puts the two together, the original machine and an image of HAL.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Sunday 3/20/2011
Here is another “Classics for Kids Podcast.” (http://www.classicsforkids.com/) This one talks about pop music back in Mozart’s day, Janissary Music. The bass drums, triangles, and cymbals are discussed in this short clip about Turkish music. This would be nice to share when your kids are leaning about the percussion family. I’ll use it later this year when my kindergarten classes make cymbals (out of paper plates.)
Sunday 3/20/2011 (3/27/2011) PLN:3/2
Week 3: Interesting find(s) #2
While looking through the TED archives I found these two videos.
In this little video Bobby McFerrin has the whole audience singing with very little guidance. This would be a fun lesson to do with the kids. I would imagine the kids would love to be the one who gets to “pretend” to be Bobby and hop around while the classmates follow vocally. This could allow for improv in the room.
The website description:
In this fun, 3-min performance from the World Science Festival, musician Bobby McFerrin uses the pentatonic scale to reveal one surprising result of the way our brains are wired.
This video is more or the technical side of what happens in the brain during music improvisation.
The website description:
Musician and researcher Charles Limb wondered how the brain works during musical improvisation -- so he put jazz musicians and rappers in an fMRI to find out. What he and his team found has deep implications for our understanding of creativity of all kinds.
I have used this video in the past to introduce my young students to improve. Our main stars in this clip are the very lovable Muppets. The Muppets provide much entertainment in my classroom.
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