Things to do

I know you're going to miss me over winter break. If you want some fun music activities to explore, here are my suggestions:

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

Listening Adventures

New York Philharmonic Kids

And don't forget that there is a bunch of free stuff on the Quaver website.

If you do one or more of these activities, let me know and I will give you house points.

Have a fabulous winter break! I will see you all in January.

Performer of the Month: Hilary Hahn

If you remember my post from the summer, I said that I had a few surprises up my sleeve. Well, here's one of them- fifth grade gets to tag along with the Elkins Pointe Middle School Orchestra group for the opportunity to go to the symphony at a really reduced ticket price. I've done this before when I taught orchestra, but I wanted to give all the fifth grade students the chance to go if you want to go.

I'll give you more information about it in class, but the major details are that this is not a field trip (you need to bring your own adult and pay for the tickets), and if you do go, you will get to see the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with violin soloist Hilary Hahn performing that night.

Hilary was three when she started playing the violin, and went to the Curtis Institute at age 10. The Curtis Institute is a school for very talented musicians. She was eligible to graduate at 16, but she wanted to learn more things, so she did not graduate until she was 19.

By the time Hilary graduated from the Curtis Institute, she was already traveling and performing the violin around the world.

She is known for trying new works and introducing people to the music of new composers.

She plays in two alternative rock bands.

You really can find everything on the internet

Well, not really. But I did manage to find a copy of "What Does the Fox Say" arranged for recorder. It was a good thing, too, since I needed something fun for fifth grade to do the week before winter break!

So, good behavior the next two weeks in fifth grade will get you the opportunity to learn it on the recorder.

Now I need to look and see what other fun songs I can find!

Swahili

Fifth graders are working hard learning our songs for the Breakfast with Santa in a few weeks. One of the songs is "Heri Za Kwanzaa." It contains a lot of Swahili words. Since international night is coming up, this is the perfect time to talk a little about this language from Africa.

Swahili is the primary language in the countries of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It can be written with Arabic or Roman (English) letters.

In our song, we sing about character traits:
Umoja- unity
Kujichagulia- self-determination
Ujima- work responsibility
Ujama- cooperative economics
Nia- purpose
Kuumba- creativy
Imani- faith

Other words in Swahili:
Jambo- hello
Asante- thank you
Hakuna Matata- no worries
Kwaheri- goodbye
Simba- lion

If you've ever watched "The Lion King," you probably already knew simba and hakuna matata. Now you can impress people by telling them what language those words are spoken in. 

Performer of the Month- Bobby McFerrin

I know we always talk about our composer of the month, but I've really wanted to also teach you about some performers as well. I just have not figured out a good way to do it without confusing some of the younger students.

I think this will work out. So, I'll tell you about a new performer each month. We'll call it the Performer of the Month. I'll try to find some unusual information for you.

This month, let's start out with one of my absolute favorite performers- Bobby McFerrin.

Bobby McFerrin

Bobby McFerrin is probably best known for a song he wrote and performed called "Don't Worry, Be Happy." If you listen to the song, it sounds like there are percussion instruments in the background, but there are no instrments. He is actually using his voice in different ways. That's called beat-boxing.

 Bobby came from a very musical family. Both of his parents were trained singers, and his dad sang opera. Bobby plays the piano, bass guitar, and clarinet in addition to singing.

His main genres of music are jazz and reggae.

One of the things I love about Bobby McFerrin is that he plays all different styles of music. He sings Bach, collaborates with cellist Yo-yo Ma in folk music performances, sings reggae, and he's not afraid to try new styles of music.

Another really cool thing he does is he gives lectures about how music is good for the brain. He has worked with neuroscientists (people who study how your brain works) and shows people how science is showing the good effects music has on your brain and how people are naturally musical.

As you can see, he's a pretty neat musician who is also very smart.


Who else are you interested in learning about this year?

More about Jazz

On our Nearpod presentation last week, the fifth graders had the opportunity to ask more questions about Jazz. I promised that I would answer them here, so here you go!

1. I want to know more about the Jazz method/How do you play Jazz?
Jazz is based on improvisation, or taking a melody you know and mixing it up a bit. You can change the rhythm, add or take away notes, change the key, or anything else to mix up the melody.

2. How big was Jazz?
Jazz popular all over the world. It is notably popular in Australia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Cuba, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malawi, Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

3. Who were some of the great performers?
This is an awesome question. There are so many amazing Jazz performers. The Smithsonian Institution has put together a great website with biographies and audio clips.
Jazz Performers

4. Who was the first Jazz group?
The Original Dixieland Jazz Band

My Favorite Composer

We started Composer of the Month this week, and after all this time, someone asked who my favorite composer is.

My favorite composer is Bach. JS, to be more specific. Lots of his sons were composers as well. I don't know how I came to love his music, but my first instrument was the violin. Bach wrote a lot of neat stuff for violin. He also had a really cool way of intertwining melodies and making a simple pattern sound really complex.

Johann Sebastian Bach

A close second favorite composer is Tchaikovsky. I love his violin concerto and Serenade for Strings. He was inspired by folk music in writing his compositions, so if you listen closely and know some Russian folk songs, you can hear them. 

Peter Ilyitch Tchiakovsky

Who is your favorite composer so far? 

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

Over the past few weeks, most grade levels have had a chance to use the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Here are some other facts:

-This piece was written in 1946. It was for a documentary about the orchestra for children.

-There is an introduction which features each family of instruments by themselves.

-There are 13 variations. Each variation features a instrument by itself.

-The composer, Benjamin Britten, was from England. He enjoyed playing Ragtime music. He wanted to be a farmer, but did not have enough money to start farming, so he became a dentist.

-Britten wrote music for movies, Operas, and for the radio. Remember, there was no television for most of his lifetime.  

You can listen to the piece by section here:
Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

Question: How would Britten have known about Ragtime music if he was living in England?

Benjamin Britten

All that Jazz!

Fifth graders have been learning about Jazz.

Here are some bonus facts about Jazz:

1. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band is the first Jazz group to record themselves. They started recording in 1917.

2. Jazz was also called Jas or Jass.

3. Jazz originated in New Orleans, but was also very popular in Chicago, California, and New York, Kansas City, Brazil, and Cuba.



Bonus question: I talked about a jazz performer who's music is featured in the movie WALL-E. Do you remember the name of the performer or the name of the composition?

Guess what?

Do you know what that is? 

It's a box of recorders! Bring your recorder next week. 

How many of you are going to try to get your black belts this year? 

Recorders!

Recorders should be in this week! I know that you like to play them, but do you know their history?

Recorders were one of the first woodwind instruments. They were used in a lot of the music composed from 1300-1700. They come in a lot of different sizes and tunings. We play a soprano recorder that is tuned to the key of C. Some of you are about to learn the Alto recorder, which is a larger recorder and it is tuned in the key of F. That means that the pitch do is F (re is G, mi is A, and so on.)

As the transverse flute (the flute that we hear in orchestras today) became better-designed, composers started using it instead of the recorder. Unlike a lot of instruments that were popular a long time ago, people still play the recorder professionally.

If you really like playing the recorder, the flute or the clarinet might be a good choice of instrument to play in middle school.

Bonus question: What are the pitches in the F pentatonic scale?

Gullah

This week, fourth graders learned a song sung by the Gullah-Gitchee people of the Georgia Sea Islands.


I found some art as well. What do you think they are doing? Do you recognize the instruments in the background?

Gullah people are also known for their sweetgrass baskets.

The Gullah were originally from the Sierra Leone and Angola regions in Africa. These places were known for growing rice. How would this basket be used?

A new note

First and second grade learned a new note last week. Can you tell what it is? 

If you can tell me the letter pitches in addition the to solfege, I'll give you a house point. 

Art!

Have you ever noticed this painting in my room? 

I got it about ten years ago in Haiti. 

I love folk art, especially from the Caribbean and South America. I can't really explain why I like it. Maybe it's the bright colors or the scenes of everyday life. Maybe it's because folk artists seem to boldly use the color orange, which is my favorite color. Maybe you can help me figure it out. What do you like about this painting?

So, mi

First graders are learning about the pitches we use in music. It's week, we started with so and mi. We sang songs that use this pitches and learned about our hand signs. 

They even composed some melodies using our solfege cards. Do you know which sounds are so and which ones are mi?

Quaver's Marvelous World!

My Quaver code came through Tuesday night! You should have seen how excited the other music teachers from all over the county were when those codes came in. We all agree that Quaver helps you learn more about music, and it's so much fun. 

I met Quaver last summer. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, but he's originally from England. 

I even have my own Quaver shirt. 

What are some of your favorite Quaver activities? 

I'm Impressed!

So, I finally got to see everyone in class, and I have to say, you guys impressed me. See, a few years ago, my older students were afraid to sing. You guys sing beautifully and without fear!

Now that I have taught the rules 30 times, we start getting into the good stuff this week. You guys know that once you get into third grade, we leave all that ta and shh stuff behind us. We're going to take this week to review practicing the professional way.

Fourth grade, you get to sing that song about the soldier that I played for you at the end of class last week. There are lots of great rhythms to count in that song.

Fifth grade, we're going to start learning some songs from the time of the Civil War. Those songs have some tricky rhythms for us to decode.

I'm still waiting on my Quaver access, so we may have to work on rhythms the old-fashioned way.

House point bonus this week- what is the magic number in music? You have to know it, not guess.

Funga Alafia!

Funga Alafia is a wonderful song to start the year. It means "Welcome, my Friends."

I am so glad to see so many familiar faces, and some new friends as well! I hope that everyone had a great summer. I am busy getting the classroom ready. It starts out looking like this:

And by the time you see it on Monday, it looks more like this:

Some things come out gradually over the first few weeks.

I also changed a few things around. I don't like doing things exactly the same from year to year, so some things need to move.

I got some new things too! See if you can spot them. I'll give you a house point if you mention that you saw them on my blog. 

Just a couple more days and I'll see you guys in class! I'm so excited to start the year. Funga Alafia! 

I had a visitor

I came to school and was very surprised to see a turtle in my room! If you remember what you learned about habitats and ecosystems, you probably realize that the music room is not a good habitat for a turtle, so I took it back to the courtyard. Maybe you'll see my little friend out there. 

Of course, I had to take a picture, because who would believe that a turtle was living in my classroom?

What Mrs. Liu did over summer vacation

I miss you guys, but I have been having fun with my children at home. We've had a pretty busy summer, even though we didn't go on vacation.

We went to the museum with family. 

We went to the Tennessee Aquarium. Yes, my little son wears hats all the time. 

We went to the zoo.

I knit a few things. 

I also have a new niece named Samantha. She's adorable, but you're going to have to take my word for it right now. I'll put a picture in my classroom soon.

I also got some new things for the classroom! I'll show you those in a new post. I'm very excited about some of the fun things I was able to get for you guys to use. I still have a couple more things to pick up, so if you see me at Wal*Mart tomorrow, it's okay to say hello.

Well, hello!

You caught me! I am starting a blog for the 2013-2014 school year. This will be a way to keep everyone updated on things that are going on, upcoming, and maybe even some behind-the-scenes happenings.

Most of what you see now is just a work in progress. Don't be shocked if you come back in a few weeks and notice that I've redecorated. Most of this blog is unpublished, but pages will start going live over the summer, and the blog itself will go live sometime during preplanning.

I can already tell you that I am planning a fun year next year. Some of you are rocking the soprano recorder and will move on to duets and even some other types of recorder. Some of you will have some super secret performance opportunities as well. I can't give too much detail now because I'm still working out some details myself! I promise, I will tell you when the time is right!

If you have ideas or want to remind me of an activity you love, let me know!

I look forward to seeing you again in a couple of months. Be safe and have an awesome end of school and summer break!