COMPOSER EXCITEMENT!!

Our incentive program for the year has been CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!  You can read about it here.  Besides the mystery aspect of this program, each student chose 1 of 6 characters (aka composers) to be throughout the game and through the year.  In addition to using the character as a game piece, they've been doing a bit of research on them.

Each student was able to chose from the following characters - Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, Claude Debussy, Scott Joplin, Franz Liszt and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  I didn't care which one they chose or how many Beethovens we had versus Debussys.  I just wanted them to chose one they were interested in or one that sparked their excitement.







Then we began the process of learning about each of our characters.  From the beginning, I knew I wanted to use Joy's composer lap books.  These are WONDERFUL and if you haven't checked them out yet, I highly endorse them!  Throughout the year, during a few minutes of lesson time once a month, each of my students have done a bit of a craft project and "cut and pasted" in their lap books.

While they worked on the project, I played several pieces composed by their character, trying to give them a feel for the style and an appreciation for the time period.  In addition, I have used several other sources.  We have done coloring pages, puzzles, mystery sheets, etc.  I used books such as Meet the Great Composers, Accent on Composers, The Beethoven Code, etc.  We have also watched YouTube videos!

What I love the most is that because each of my students were able to choose their composer, they are much more excited to learn about them!  They ask me almost every week if they can do more activities with their composer lap books and listen to more music!

To culminate all of this learning, they will each play a piece from their composer at our spring recital in June.  It's also our award's night so each of the students who made it through the entire incentive program will receive (shh...secret stuff here!) a composer statue of their character!  

If you've been using CATCH ME IF YOU CAN! in your studio this year, I would love for you to share how it's been working for you and your students!

A Composer Challenge

I recently completed a week of group lessons and thought I'd share one of the areas we worked on.  As my students have been working through our incentive program this year, many of them have reached or are close to reaching the Composer challenge.  I thought it would be fun to work on this together so I included it as part of the group lessons.  I chose Antonio Vivaldi as our composer and here's a brief look at what we did....

First of all, I read them a brief biography of Vivaldi and talked a bit about the Baroque period.
I used the book, Lives of the Musicians, by Kathleen Krull as a start-off point.


These biographies are short - about 2 pages each - fun, concise and keep my students attention.  And of course, the pictures are hilarious!













We talked briefly about Vivaldi's Invisible Orchestra and then I read them the delightful book, Vivaldi and the Invisible Orchestra.

The illustrations alone are BEAUTIFUL and the kids LOVED this!  Although it's a fictional twist to a true story, it was a great way to help them understand the times and the composer.  I really love this book.

 

 

At this point, I talked briefly about art and music during the Baroque period and let them know they would be creating their own artwork based on a piece written by Vivaldi.  They loved this!  I read them the poem behind "Spring", handed them cardstock and crayons and popped my ipod into it's dock so they could listen to this wonderful piece.  (Besides, with temperatures hovering around zero degrees here in Connecticut, Spring is definitely on our wishlist!)

 



Here's a look at some of the students in one of my groups proudly displaying their pictures. 

All of this took about 50 minutes of a 90 minute group lesson, leaving about 40 minutes for some rhythm and note ID review (with games, of course!).  We seriously had a fabulous time and really enjoyed learning about this wonderful composer.

LIVE Music Rocks!

Never under estimate the power of LIVE music!  My friend Joy brought her bassoon to my homeschool music class today and I think I could have sat down and watched her conduct the entire thing!  The kids LOVED it!  I almost hated to pull them away so that we could do the rest of the activities for the day!

Joy started out by taking her bassoon out of the bag piece by piece explaining what each piece was called and showing the kids how to put it all together.  She talked about the reed and how it vibrated and after playing silly things on the reed only, she played them the bassoon part from the Sorceror's Apprentice!

The kids loved it so much that I asked her to play it again!  Talk about a way to captivate!

From there, Joy talked about how an orchestra tunes to the oboe.  As a fun way to help the kids visualize this, we had a tuner handy.  We asked one of the kids to hold it facing everyone and as Joy played a note, the kids had to use their arms to point left or right to let her know if she was playing sharp or flat!

They really loved this and watched those red/green lights carefullly!  After that, she played them the part of the grandfather from Peter and the Wolf and then we showed them a portion of the cartoon on YouTube.  They wanted to watch the entire video but due to time constraints that wasn't possible.  I gave the link to their parents at the end of class so they could watch it at home. 

At this point, it was hard to convince them that we had "other" fun things to do!  Joy did a great job and I could tell they were all itching to try a bassoon.

I realize that I'm a piano teacher, but I also strongly believe my role is to foster a love for all types of music - even if it means teaching them to love bassoon!

Pitch As It Relates to String Length

I have a really fun activity I do with kids when I do a group lesson on Instruments of the Orchestra.  I recently did this at a local Christian school I teach at once a week for the 4th and 5th graders and the 6th raders and they LOVED it!  When I focus on the brass instruments, I ask them to tell me the order of each instrument (trumpet, french horn, trombone, tuba) from highest pitch to lowest pitch.  I usually get a variety of responses so I tell them we are going to "figure it out together" with a fun activity.  By using tape (masking or painters tape) or string, we measure out each instrument as if it were uncoiled.  Before we do this, I ask them to look at the instrument and tell me how long they think each one is.  I usually write down their answers, tell them the correct answer and then we measure it out together (also a good math lesson as we use a yard stick and have to figure out how many yards sticks we need to measure based on the number of total feet!).

Once they see the instruments measured out next to each other, we have a great discussion about how the  length helps us determine the high or low of the pitch - which instrument is highest to which one is lowest.  This translates nicely into a discussion of the strings on the piano and their pitch - why some strings are longer and thicker than others.

It really is a fun exercise and the kids stay very engaged as we work on it!  It's also helps them remember it because it touches all the learning styles - audible, visual and kinesthetic.

Marimba Ponies

Maybe many of you have already seen this, but I just came across this YouTube video and loved it!  It reminded me to always keep in mind that kids have more ability then we sometimes give them credit for - we just need to make opportunities available to them and not hold back because we think they're too young or too immature to handle it (Just look at the little guy who can barely see over the top!)!  Amazing!

Records now in MP3 form

Happy Valentine's Day!  I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately - I've been sick the past week so I've only been doing what's absolutely necessary! Hopefully I'll have more energy soon!

I recently found a wonderful resource of old records (anyone remember those?) that date back to the 1950's and 1960's.  The resource is Arts Reformation  and it has a bunch of wonderful records that have been turned into MP3s and ready for your listening!  You can also view the actual original covers of the records such as this one.

This particular record, for example. plays the music of the composer while telling his life story.  They were wonderfully done and I love having the opportunity to use them now in my studio!  This record in particular would work well at a group lesson or a camp dedicated to composers.

There are many more including titles such as, "A Child's Introduction to the Orchestra", "A Child's Instroduction to the Nutcracker Suite", Introductions to Jazz and Folk Songs, as well as many familiar Fairy Tales.  It's a wonderful resource.  I hope you take the time to listen to some of them. 

It will take you back...

Musicality 101

One of my students recently worked on this piece, "Rainbows are Beautiful" by Pat Heldman Johnson.  It was absolutely wonderful and since she was a beginning student, it gave us a great opportunity to work on and discuss "musicality".  We spent a bit longer on this piece so that we could work on the dynamics and expression, but in the end it was well worth it!  She did a wonderful job and she was able to connect the difference between playing a song and "playing" a song even at 7 years of age. 


It has also opened up many opportunities since to discuss "how" we play - that getting the notes and rhythm correct are not all we need to do!  If you are interested, you can purchase this piece here.

Are there other pieces that you would recommend?  Are there other pieces that your kids LOVE to play and that have made an impact on their playing?  I would love to hear your suggestions!

A Composer Challenge

Because I wanted to challenge my older students and offer some more age-appropriate activities for composer packets, I created what I call the, "Composer-Keyboard Challenge".  I made a keyboard and using different fonts, put information about each composer on the white keys of an octave.  I included the composers name, their country of birth, their period of music, 4 of their famous works and a fun fact about them.  By cutting these out and laminating them, it becomes a challenge to see if they can "piece" all of the facts about each composer together correctly!  The more composers you include, the more challenging it becomes!

Here's a look at how I cut them apart.

 

And here's how I'm storing them...snack baggies separating each composer so that I can decide which composers to quiz at a particular time.  

I'm planning to post these on my website shortly, if you are interested.  I put together about 14 composers so far.  If there is an additional composer you would like, please feel free to let me know!

"Taps"

I really love it when one of my students gets excited about music that's not directly part of our lesson.  This week one of my students wanted to show me a book he was reading, specifically he wanted to show me that it had pieces of music scattered throughout the story.  He was thrilled to show me and wanted my help so that he learn to play them.

 Before we could even begin the lesson, he went through the entire book showing me each musical entry.  Specifially, he wanted to play "Taps".  Since "Taps" is only 4 different notes, it was easy for him to remember it and play it by ear, but we went through the written piece and it became an opportunity to review guide notes again.  He loved it and was excited to work on it this week and play it for me at his next lesson. 

What I loved about this (beside his desire to learn the music) was that he was noticing music around him.  He was reading a book he loved and wanted to "relate" more by experiencing the music associated with it. 

It challenged me to continue to inspire my students to notice music all around them and to notice how it relates to our own life experiences. 

Isn't this job the best?!

Composer Projects

As part of my lesson planning this year, I've organized some composer projects that all my students will be required to do this year.  Since I have a variety of ages for students, it required a variety of projects, but I'm happy with what I came up with.

For my younger elementary kids, I pulled out some books with CDs.  Here's a look at some of them:

Along with listening to the CD and following along with the book, they will be given some worksheets, biographies and coloring pages to complete.  For my older elementary kids (4 grade+), I'm going to try using this book:

I have lots of "sleuths" for students and this book is full of fun mysteries and puzzles!  In addition to solving a composer mystery, they will be required to listen to some of the composer's works and complete a worksheet.  In conjuction with this book, I am also using Meet the Great Composers, both volumes and Accent on Composers.

Since some of these books allow you to reproduce pages, it's easy to put the projects together ahead of time.  When my students pick a composer, I simply have to hand them a packet all ready to go!

One other requirement I have this year is that each student learn The Story of Cristofori.  The younger students can read the book and then tell me the story from memory and the older students can research it on-line or at the library.   I really think it's going to be an exciting year!

Using Music Books

Kids love to hear stories and reading them a good book, especially if it excites them about music, is pure magic! Everyday this week, I have incorporated a book into camp time. (It's also a great way to give them a rest from all the activities!)


This is Kate, who helps me with each of the camps and who is invaluable to me. She is a good musician and is fabulous with kids! I will miss her when she goes off to college this fall.

I thought I would share with you the books I've been including in my camp. Please keep in mind that I have had a younger group of kids so books really work. On the day that I focused on woodwind instruments, I read them, The Magic Flute. On the day we focused on the string instruments we read, I Know A Shy Fellow Who Swallowed a Cello. I included Song of Middle C when I introduced the treble clef to them, used Can You Hear It? and Carnival of the Animals for listening fun and then finished off the week with The Remarkable Farkle McBride. The kids loved them. I'm so glad I invested in purchasing them and will be on the look out for more. If you have any books that you would recommend, I would love to have you share them!