This week, our student teacher Mr. Lamb returned! He brought his brother Kevin along to teach a lesson on improvisation (making music up on the spot) and the blues. Kevin Lamb recently graduated from the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University with a double major in music and math. He has played both trombone and piano in several classical and jazz ensembles. The brothers began by teaching the students an easy improvisation game that they played as a family when they were kids. One person starts singing or humming a simple melody and the other players come in one by one, adding their own music, but following the tempo (speed) and mood of the leader's music. They taught the game by sending either Mr. Lamb into the hallway while the class determined the mood and tempo. Then that Mr. Lamb came back into the classroom and tried to sing something that went with the leader's music. In each class, students participated by singing as assistant leaders and followers or by using body percussion. Next, the Lambs introduced students to improvisation in the blues. The blues is an American genre of music that began in the deep South in the 1870s. It is influenced by African-American musical traditions, including work songs and spirituals. One of the most well-known forms of the blues is the 12-bar blues. This form uses a consistent pattern of chords and lyrics, making it an easy genre for beginner songwriters. To introduce this genre, the Lambs either performed their own composition, "The Lamb Brothers Blues" or showed a video of "One Shoe Blues" written by Sandra Boynton and Michael Ford and performed by famous blues musician B.B. King. The classes learned that blues songs are usually written about a problem. Each verse uses an AAB form, meaning that the first line is repeated, then there's a third line that rhymes with the first and second. The Lambs guided the students in coming up with a problem that they wanted to sing about. Then the students worked together to come up with lyrics ideas that stated the problem and how it made them feel. They wrote songs about a wide variety of problems including burning a cake, being chased by a giant chicken, the embarrassment of falling in a lake while fishing, being punished for the bad behavior of other kids in the class, and struggling to find friends. After writing the lyrics, Mr. Lamb (student teacher) led the students in singing their composition, accompanied by Kevin Lamb on piano. Students had a lot of fun learning a new game and writing new songs!
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On Friday, house leader Mandy Fassett visited our music classes. The students enjoyed learning about string instruments, improvisation, and how music can communicate emotions and tell stories.
Mandy is a professional multi-instrumental string musician from Minneapolis. She enjoys playing bluegrass, jazz, and other genres of music that are focused on improvisation. She currently performs with several groups in the Twin Cities and around the state. Mandy began each class by showing three instruments that she brought with her–fiddle, mandolin, and cello. She demonstrated on each instrument by performing bluegrass, traditional, Irish, and classical tunes for the students. With each class, she led a collaborative improvisation activity that began with students naming emotions or writing short stories. Students then determined what musical techniques could be used to express those emotions or stories, such as changes in volume, speed, instrument, playing technique, and more. Mandy led the students in improvising with her to create music that expressed their emotions or stories. One of our favorite stories was about a haunted house and a robot hamster. It used scary and scratchy sounds to set the mood of the haunted house, short and robotic sounds to represent the robot hamster, and students making body percussion sounds to help create the action in the story. The students enjoyed this opportunity to make music with Mandy, hear their own creative ideas expressed in music, and learn more about the career of a performing musician. Professional opera singer and performer house leader Eryn Tvete visited music classes on Monday. The students were very excited to meet her, having learned about her and her music making throughout this school year. Eryn became interested in music at a young age and fell in love with opera in college. Since then she's sung in over 30 opera productions, including 21 as a member of the Minnesota Opera chorus!
Eryn told students about her background in music, taught about the fun of exploring different languages and stories through songs, and answered many thoughtful questions. She amazed students with her powerful and expressive voice as she sang a variety of songs of different styles, time periods, and parts of the world. She performed an impressive Italian opera aria, a fun German folk song (which she taught the students to sing along with!), a beautiful French art song, a classic Disney song of each class's choosing, and more. Each class ended with a performance of the song "No One Like You" from The Muppets, a song about appreciating the uniqueness of every person. It was so much fun to have Eryn in our classroom and to see how interested and inspired the students were by her music!
Last week we celebrated the birthdays of two singing and guitar playing musicians, Elvis Presley and Kyle Gray Young. We learned about their lives and their music and enjoyed watching videos of both of them performing. Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi. Although his family had very little and struggled through the Great Depression, Elvis found ways to explore his interest in music during his childhood in Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee. When he was 10, he performed in a talent show and won fifth place. Shortly after that, his parents gave him a guitar and music became a serious interest for him. His family listened to country music on the radio, he joined the gospel choir at his church, and listened to and learned from musicians in his community. With this variety of musical influences, Elvis created his own unique style. Although some other musicians of that time were also starting to perform in the new rock-and-roll style, Elvis's charisma and showmanship led to him become known as "The King of Rock-and-Roll." Audiences loved his music, but he was also known for his sometimes controversial dance moves and for acting in 27 movies. When he became a star, he used his money to create a lifestyle of luxury for both him and his parents that was very different from how they had lived when he was a child. He continued to perform and tour until his death when he was only 42 years old. His music continues to entertain audiences and inspire musicians today. Kyle Gray Young is one of our Composer House composers this year. Students loved meeting and learning about songwriting from him earlier this school year. We celebrated his birthday by watching some videos of his performances of both original songs that he has written himself and cover songs that other people have written. We also watched the trailer for the album of new music that he's currently working on, "Time Enough." He already has a lot of young fans looking forward to its release!
Our recent visits from composers Kyle Gray Young, Mikey Maiorana, and Mandy Fassett were featured in the December 6th issue of the Albany Enterprise!
The students and I enjoyed another visit from one of our Composer House composers last week. Mikey Maiorana and Mandy Fassett, both musicians and composers in Minneapolis, taught students how improvisation can be used in writing music. The duo first performed a piece that Mikey had composed, reading the notated music while they played. Then, they demonstrated an improvisation, making up music on the spot without any written notation, based on ideas suggested by the students. It was fun to see how the students' ideas could be instantly expressed in music.
Next, the students had their turn at collaboratively creating a new piece of music through improvisation. Each student improvised a four beat pattern using only two different pitches. Mikey notated some of the patterns so the students could see and repeat them to help them choose their favorites. As a group, they chose an order for their favorite improvised patterns to create a new piece of music. In only 25 minutes, each first through fifth grade class was able to improvise, compose, and perform their own brand new piece of music! The students were impressed by how easy, fast, and fun writing music can be. Kindergartners have been learning about instruments and how they make sounds, so they enjoyed learning about Mikey's melodica and Mandy's violin. For many students, it was their first time seeing either instrument in person. The melodica is a wind instrument in which vibrating reeds produce sound, but it looks like a tiny piano. Mandy demonstrated different ways that the strings on her violin can make sound and how she can change the pitch of the strings. You can learn more about Mikey's work as a composer at his website: https://www.maioranamusic.com/ We were lucky to have Michael Peterson, a local Native American flute player, visit fifth and fourth grade classes to show his instruments, perform, and teach us about Native American musical tradition. Some highlights of the presentation included:
This week, students in some grades were introduced to the acoustic band Punch Brothers. This quintet plays a unique fusion of musical styles that has been described as "American country-classical chamber music." The members play traditional bluegrass string instruments, but most of them have formal classical training and experience in a variety of genres. The band leader, mandolinist Chris Thile, may be familiar as he recently took over for Garrison Keillor as host of A Prairie Home Companion.
Students really enjoyed the engaging and expressive music of the Punch Brothers, and they were able to hone their instrument and musical genre identification skills through listening to and watching them perform. |
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