This week was a lot of fun, as students explored musical instrument families in more depth! I brought in some of my instruments to show the kids, and even more exciting, some of the students brought in their own instruments to share with the class. I always enjoy learning about how my students are engaging in music outside of school! 5th Grade: String Family (Fretted vs. Fretless Instruments) Fifth graders have been comparing fretted and fretless string instruments. They looked at the similarities and differences between a violin and a mandolin, noticing that both instruments are tuned and fingered the same, but the violin is fretless and bowed while the mandolin has frets, doubled strings, and is plucked. The students also learned about string instrument anatomies and playing techniques. 4th Grade: String Family (Fretted vs. Fretless Instruments) Fourth graders, like fifth graders, have been focusing on the string family while comparing and contrasting fretted and fretless instruments. They have found that most fretted instruments have similar parts through studying the anatomies of acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, ukulele, and mandolin. 3rd Grade: Brass Family Third graders have continued learning about the brass family, while beginning to explore the bowed string instruments. Comparing and contrasting instrument families has shown how the different ways in which instruments produce their sounds is the primary characteristic that determines which family they belong to. 2nd Grade: Brass and String Families Second graders have also been comparing the brass and string families. Students really enjoyed learning about Minnesota violinist Gaelynn Lea this week. They were particularly interested in how Gaelynn overcomes challenges of having brittle bones disease to pursue her musical goals and create her own style of composition. 1st Grade: String Family (Bowed Instruments) First graders have been continuing to learn about the string family by comparing the very similar anatomies of the four bowed members of an orchestra: violin, viola, cello, and bass. Focusing on this group of very similar instruments reinforces the concept that the bigger the instrument, the lower the sound. Like the older grades learning about string instruments, the first graders can't get enough of violinist Gaelynn Lea's videos! Kindergarten: Woodwind and Brass Families Kindergartners have focused on the wind instrument families this week: woodwind and brass. They checked out my flute and trombone to see how sound is produced differently on these two instruments from different families. We ended the week with a fun activity that demonstrated their ability to hear the difference in sound between a flute and trumpet. It involved dancing, streamers, and rhythm stick trumpets!
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