Crew Hamill became marvellous musicians this week! We recapped our musical vocabulary by completing a definition hunt around the classroom. Once we were sure we understood the terms such as beat, tempo and rhythm, we created our own rhythms using graphic notations. We used frog, tadpole, caterpillar and butterfly, clapping out the syllables to create a rhythm. We worked in mini crews to clap out a given rhythm and everyone had to guess what graphic notations we had been given. Following this, we matched the graphic notations to standard notation symbols. We found this a little tricky but we got there in the end!
We have now started our music cases study which we’ve all been excited about. We spent our first lesson looking at musical vocabulary such as beat, pitch, volume and melody.
We then had a go at finding the best in a piece of music which took us a bit of practice but we got there eventually.
To finish our current music unit ‘Football’, we identified the notes E, D and C on the glockenspiels. We worked with a partner to play a selection of 4 beat pieces of music. We then added our ‘Football’ chant lyrics and created a backing track using the notes E, D and C.
We continued our music unit ‘The Doot Doot Song’ by warming up doing ‘The stomp canon’. This gave us the chance to warm up our voices and our bodies.
To begin our lesson, we talked about chords and triads. Using glockenspiels, we worked as a group of 3 to play C major, F major and A minor. Once we had practised keeping in time with one another as a group, we then tried playing each chord as a whole class ensemble before moving from chord to chord to create a short 3 bar piece of music.
Finally, we recapped the notes B, A and G on the recorder, and applied this to a short tune where we had to move between the 3 notes seamlessly.
We have been continuing with our music unit ‘Latin Dance’. We warmed up by practising the salsa step we looked at during our last lesson, we then learnt a new step and practised dancing both of them together.
We looked at keeping the beat of our song using untuned percussion instruments. We talked about, and then applied, crotchets and quavers using the instruments. Once we were confident with keeping the beat, we then added vocals and began to sing the song whilst playing.
We were introduced to chords, when you play two or more notes at the same time. Working with a partner, we tried playing the chords for A minor and F major on the glockenspiels. We found it tricky at first to play the correct notes at the same time as our partner, but we showed resilience and continued to practise keeping in time with one another. We then split into two groups, one playing A minor, the other playing F major at the same time. We thought it sounded really good when we all fell into the same time. We finished off this part of the lesson by continuing to learn the song lyrics, thinking about the melody and where we needed to clap.
Finally, we recapped the notes B, A and G on the recorder, and applied this to a short tune where we had to move between the 3 notes seamlessly.
Today we listened to a story called ‘Hippobottymus’ that introduced us to a number of animals who make different noises to create music. We talked about how we could represent some of the animals using the untuned percussion instruments. Working in small groups, we decided who was going to be each animal before carefully choosing an instrument from the box that best represented that animal. We then performed together as each animal before then creating a soundscape that added a new animal each time, building up to a whole class performance, showcasing all the animals from the story!
We began our new music unit ‘The Doot Doot Song’ by joining in with a warm up called a stomp canon. This enabled us to warm up our voices as well as adding actions to warm up physically too.
We then looked at the structure of ‘The Doot Doot Song’, thinking about the fact that songs are built using different sections and structures.
We began to learn the song by focusing on the chorus. Although the lyrics are not tricky, they are syncopated (goes against the rhythm/beat) and some of the words need to be staccato (short and detached). We then discussed what chords and triads are before trying to identify the chords used in the song.
We then continued to learn how to play the recorder, this lesson we were introduced to the note āGā.
We have started a new unit of music called ‘Latin Dance’. We started by learning the basic steps of salsa dancing, making sure that we kept the rhythm so that we all did the correct steps at the same time.
We then discussed that different songs are structured in different ways. We listened to our song ‘Latin Dance’ and identified how the song is structured. Once we had recognised the structure, we began finding the beat of the bar, adding some basic footwork from the basic steps we looked at at the beginning of the lesson. We then added in a further action on beat 1 to represent a two quavers (jogging duration).
We finished off the lesson by beginning to learn the chorus.
We then continued to learn how to play the recorder, this lesson we were introduced to the note ‘G’.
