Friday, December 4, 2015

Peaceful

Another chorus song to practice at home, this piece embodies its name with sweet harmonies and a gentle melody.

Explanation/background information:  Our elementary chorus performs many songs in 2 or more parts.  Since we are a chorus of unchanged voices, voice parts such as soprano, alto, tenor, or bass do not exist yet and songs are merely split into part 1 and part 2, where both parts have the same range.  In this set up part 1 usually sings melody and part 2 usually sings harmony.  So that all students get a chance to sing melody and harmony I split them into 2 groups and they will sing part 1 on some songs, and part 2 on others.  I call these parts apples and bananas.  In the video, the bananas' part is written in blue, while the apples' part is written in red.  Parts written in black are for when the chorus is in unison (in other words, everyone is singing the same thing at the same time).




A Festive Fa La La

Another chorus song to practice at home, this piece can be tricky due to its lack of lyrics.

Explanation/background information:  Our elementary chorus performs many songs in 2 or more parts.  Since we are a chorus of unchanged voices, voice parts such as soprano, alto, tenor, or bass do not exist yet and songs are merely split into part 1 and part 2, where both parts have the same range.  In this set up part 1 usually sings melody and part 2 usually sings harmony.  So that all students get a chance to sing melody and harmony I split them into 2 groups and they will sing part 1 on some songs, and part 2 on others.  I call these parts apples and bananas.  In the video, the bananas' part is written in blue, while the apples' part is written in red.  Parts written in black are for when the chorus is in unison (in other words, everyone is singing the same thing at the same time).
The first video is for apples:

The second is for Bananas:

Friday, November 20, 2015

Here Comes The Snow...

Not really (yet), but it is a fun and active song being performed by the chorus.  Here is a video for chorus members who would like to practice.

Explanation/background information:  Our elementary chorus performs many songs in 2 or more parts.  Since we are a chorus of unchanged voices, voice parts such as soprano, alto, tenor, or bass do not exist yet and songs are merely split into part 1 and part 2, where both parts have the same range.  In this set up part 1 usually sings melody and part 2 usually sings harmony.  So that all students get a chance to sing melody and harmony I split them into 2 groups and they will sing part 1 on some songs, and part 2 on others.  I call these parts apples and bananas.  In the video, the bananas' part is written in blue, while the apples' part is written in red.  Parts written in black are for when the chorus is in unison (in other words, everyone is singing the same thing at the same time).


Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Mwa Ha Ha

This October both 2nd and 3rd graders are singing "Mwa Ha Ha" as our song of the month.  This has quickly become many students' favorite song so far!  Here is a link to the song:

Mwa Ha Ha

Enjoy!

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Want to be in the orchestra?

Here is a link to our school's orchestra page.  On this page you can get the forms to sign up for orchestra and to rent instruments from the school.  Hope to see you there!

Join the orchestra!

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Whacky Do Re Mi - Second Grade

Second grade began "Whacky Do Re Mi" back in January as a song of the month.  It is now their warm up song.  In class we have a student perform the solo, and everyone plays a boomwhacker on one of the solfege notes (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, or ti).  Here is the video that accompanies the song:


Angry Birds - Fourth Grade

By request!

My fourth graders clapped along with this video to practice their sightreading skills.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Rockin' Robin - Third Grade

Our song of the month right now for third grade is "Rockin' Robin."  This famous song was first made famous in 1958.  However, Michael Jackson also made a version of this song.  His version came out in 1972 and made it to #2 on the US charts.

Here is a video of 14 year old Michael Jackson performing "Rockin' Robin" with his brothers in the
band Jackson 5.