Bucket loads of rhythm

In the first half this term we developed an exciting musical experience using $1.50 buckets from the Warehouse.  Isla Noakes came back from a workshop run by Robyn McQueen, ONZA Vice President.

We've took the idea from tapping out word rhythms on bucktes to improvising tunes using those rhythms.  We started with the names of fruits, vegetables and the children's street names on buckets.  The children leapt from row to row of upturned coloured buckets changing the dynamics to suit the pattern being played.  The row in waiting danced up and down the rows.  It was a hoot.  Delightful.


Next we transferred those rhythms onto tuned instruments.  It was a bit nerve-wracking trusting the children to not harm any instrument in the process.  No damage at all!  The older classes created interesting ostinatos and beautiful, mesmerising sounds.

Migrating from a simple drum to instruments. 

Creative Drama Through Play

Found Sounds from around the school

Playing with the sounds of water, toys, rubbish bins, poles and trees the kids are creating a canvas to record on later. 

Here are photos of the kids out and about the school grounds collecting found sounds to be used later in a composition using classroom instruments. We have been using garage band to layer various sounds discovered in and around the school.

Next steps are to combine the songs recorded with ukelele backgrounds with the found sounds.  What creativity I'm discovering.

Marimba Festival

Our Marimba Band played with other schools last Saturday in the 11th Annual Marimba Festival.

We were pretty proud of being there.  Here's around half of the  group of schools playing under the direction of Jeremy Hantler. (You'll see Mhara Marimba playing below the camera).



Here's some shots of our children playing.

Western Heights Marimba Band

Western Heights Band in full swing.

Playing to the crowd

Marimba Bands 

Creative Play

A group of our year 3 & 4 children  participated in the Creative Play Festival hosted by OrffNZ.  Our theme was what happens when you leave toys lying around home.

Our children were captivated by the performances of the other, older children at the festival.

Nesta's playing of the bass marimba held the whole group together.  The children took the names of their toys, and played with them.

Finding song in our names

I've been exploring the wonderful process that is Orff-Schulwerk.  As I've said before, I'm a beginner in this form of Music Education.  So everything I'm doing this year is something of a first-time experiment.

Room 8 proved to be an exciting discovery field today.   I wrote the names of some of the kids on the board and it was Rhys who noticed a pattern in the colours and positions I was writing them in.


Here's how they looked.

			Riki		Aadil
		Kayla		Aarav
	Saqqara		Maddison
Rhys		Chase

We split the class into boys & girls each side of the room. The boys took the bottom two lines.  On the lowest line the boys stamped their feet.  On the secon line up, they patsched their knees with thier hands.

The girls then worked on the top two lines.  Kayl and Aarav's names were chanted accompanied by clapping, while Riki and Aadil's names were clicked with the fingers above the head.


Next we transferred the rhythms onto the Xylophones and Marimba.  Take a look at the process we have been involved in today. These children were just so engaging to work with.  They were engaged.

Kid Conductors

Our Marimba Band Rehearsals are a regular fixture on Thursday afternoons now.

With around 20 Year 5 & 6 children it's an exciting 90 minutes.  Today I handed the reins over to "kid conductors".  Zara, Haney and Wesly each had their own style.

Wesley was one of the first to put his hand up to lead. Counting us all in is a tricky thing to master.   Zara's leadership was positively artistic. She could have been performing in a ballet.



Haney lead the group with precision.  Both girls were fully in command.

BIG Thank You Ukulele Festival Trust

The Ukulele Festival Trust (supported by Mr & Mrs Smith) have gifted our school 12 ukuleles.  This will really kick our Friday Lunchtime Uke band into action. 

I found a cheap way to keep our Ukuleles accessible, portable, protected and importantly always visible. Also, it reuses the boxes they came in.

I removed the instruments from their shipping boxes, sliced each box apart on a band saw - at about one third of the way up at a 30° angle, glued them all together with ½ a tube of Liquid-Nails ($8), then glued them into a Pack-n-Save shopping bag ($2.50)

Packing box cut at a 30° angle.

 

5 boxes glued into a shopping bag.

Kids carry sets of 5 ukes safely & easily.

Stacked out of the way & always visible.

Things Planned for Term 2

Well, term 2 has well and truly started.

This term we have three weekly practice sessions at full steam.

Marimba Festival - September 5th Concert

Because of intense interest in the Marimba Band, I've decided to split this into Middle School Marimba Band - Practices on Wednesday Lunchtime, and Senior School Marimba Band - Practices on Thursdays, last block (as part of Arts Rotation).

The Senior School Band will prepare for the ONZA Marimba Festival on September 5th, while the Middle School Band will prepare for Whanau (School) Assemblies  and other things (below).

Ukelele Band - November 28th Concert

This band will begin in week 3 and prepare for the Ukelele Festival Concert at Trusts Stadium November 28th. We have so far enlisted the help of parents, grandparents and teachers to help prepare the kids for this fabulous occasion. 

I'll post more details soon. 

 Orff Creative Play Festival - June 14th 

On Sunday June 14th - not far away from today - a number of the Auckland-based teachers of the Orff approach to music and arts education will hold the first festival to celebrate what our children can do when their creativity and imagination join forces. This event is promoted by ONZA.

This will be held at Stonefields School, Mt. Wellington. 

The children will develop an original performance with me, using the Orff approach. This performance will be based on an aspect their life that is meaningful and relevant to them. The inspiration point will be a piece of language based on toys.

This is a non-competitive event, set up to support, feedback and celebrate the creative process of Orff and the combined use of movement, text/drama and music.

Over the next week I will select middle school children who express interest in this activity.  I will then contact their parents about their family's availability to participate.   The Middle school children only will participate in this.  

Other Concerts 

I will soon have details of our kids performing to the retired people in the local retirement villages  also. 

Giant Pipes

The Jandal-aphone

And the foot-ware is off.

The Middle School playground of colour and sound.

All in.

Nakita helps Mr. McLay attach the D-pipe.

Sharing the Love

Here's what fellow teacher Isla Noakes can do in one day with three classes and our
G E O R G O U S  marimba.  A song, rhythm, and the kids' excitement of singing their lungs out to an appreciative audience.


It's wonderful to be teaching alongside another musician who takes things off in unexpected directions. Isla's such a native (natural) musician.

Bamboozle-a-phone | A Musical Installation

As part of the Enviroweek, I teamed up with Mrs. Renner and Room 13 to build some outdoor musical instruments. The first one to be completed has been named the "Bamboozle-a-phone" by Mrs. Hodder's Room 14 kids. I talked to them about our music room instruments - xylophone (wooden instrument), metalaphone (metal instrument), marimba (giant xylophone).  We toyed with several ideas for names that had elements of those instruments.  Bamboozle-a-phone was the most popular.

Our "bamboozle-a-phone" is made of 9 pieces of  bamboo poles (of varying lengths) strung along two high tension wires and horizontal spacers. The sound comes from tapping the poles with another piece of bamboo.

The name definitely fits with our Dr. Seuss theme for the year. I only hope the noise doesn't bamboozle Miss. Eyre - it's right outside her classroom.

Half of the Musical Enviro-garden 

Preparing the bamboo poles for sealing

Bamboo poles laid out on my garage floor before drilling holes

Holes did not quite line up as planned - hence the random look!

Simply Enjoyable

We've been exploring the ukelele. Here is us learning simple chords. This is a Kevin Fogarty song, "Aotearoa Alphabet".

Ukeleles unboxed

The ukeleles now have new homes.  I have unwrapped the instruments and put the cardboard boxes through my band saw.  Cut down and glued to Pak 'n Save carry bags, they are now portable and can be stored safely.

Ukeleles in their new carry cases.

This past week we began learning the basics of ukelele in our music classes.

We covered things like:

• correct posture
• hand positions
• reading chord charts
• C & F chords

 The children are really enthusiastic. And I'm having a ball.

Soundscapes

We are going to introduce a web-based music education app later this term.  The  school-wide licence will enable children to complete projects, collaborate and compose in class, in the library or at home.

Parents will be able to get involved in this online music-making.
More on that later.  Here is sample screenshot of how to create
a soundscape on the Groovy Music App.

In our second lesson we created a soundscape on the Groovy Music app. Then we began exploring the sounds of the Orff instruments (marimba, xylophones, metalophones and recorders, plus a few ukelele).

The class had a taste of creating their own soundscapes. They were encouraged to adapt and work impromptu on 'real' instruments. After some preparation, each group performed to the class.

Room 21 creating a soundscape

Room 21 - Soundscaping 

One group of three girls from Room 24 (Leilani, Kimberly and Javiyah) created a very beautiful piece. The other children asked to join in to add their own sounds to the imaginative soundscape. Take a look!

Marimba Band Auditions

The Marimba Band will be a limited group.  We now have two marimba, two metallaphones , six xylophones. This will mean the band is limited to around 12 players.

With over 200 children registering interest, I am going to be rather severe in my selection. We will hold auditions over Thursday lunchtimes for a group of pupils I have selected from the list.  Those whose attendance is regular (any absences will need to be fully explained) over the last three weeks of this term.

Now that I've got your attention

I have met every child in each of the music classes now. I've introduced them to the growing array of instruments.  If ever I wanted to have a messiah complex, this the best place to have one. I've been encouraging the kids to 'FEEL' music as a whole body experience and not just through their ears. While this may look like they're idolising their teacher, they're not. I promise!

You have to feel this sound rumble through your whole body. 

Yesterday we "un-boxed" our marimba made by Len Buchanan in Dunedin. What excitement that was.  It was so hard to get the kids to go home after school.  Luka even brought his family in to see the enormous instruments.


What attracts me is the every-day-ness of the material that some of the instruments are made of. I've told the kids that they are not to tell Mrs. McLay that I have turned one of her pizza trays into a beautifully resonant gong! (Many thanks to Jeremy Hantler of Edendale Primary School actually!)

First day of music

Today was the first day of my music programme with Rooms 9, 15 and 21.  For two weeks I have been retrieving and repairing instruments kept in storage for 4 - 5 years. Now it's all ready.  Each class stays with me for a full 90 minutes.

I offer a huge thank you to our principal, Ash Maindonald for making it possible to bring my music-making to our school.

I knew I was going to enjoy this new work but I was not prepared for what a rich experience this was going to be with the children.  I told all three classes today that being a music teacher feels like Christmas morning to me. It's exciting and full of surprise.  I hope I'll help children be artists - to savour and expand their musical environments.

Rm 15 explores dance shapes for Les Saluts (a French Canadian folk tune)

The work 

We started with the question: What do we need to respect in a music room? From this we built a dance to match the form and movement of the music. We bowed to the objects in the room, to our classmates (who responded with their own salut) and of course, the children all bowed to the teacher. And the teacher bowed to the wonderful children. 

Matthew (Rm15) & Mr McLay accompany the dancers

Sasha (Rm 21) astounded and delighted me by saying that one thing we need to respect is the music! I observed this talented girl and she really soaked up the various instruments.  What an important idea to offer and she's only 9 years old!

Performing to others is part of music-making. So we also learnt how to be a member of an audience. We learnt that we do the following as an audience:

• Attend - pay full attention and become absorbed in what the performers are presenting 
• Allow - enable the performers to do the best they can without distraction
• Applaud - acknowledge their effort and risk-taking of performing in front of peers
• Appreciate - tell the performers something that was memorable about their performance

Source: James Harding

We also played with the six elements of music (more on that later) while the senior class explored the new instruments - marimba, drums and tuned percussion, and I nearly forgot, we opened a box of ukeleles that we will be able to play after Waitangi Weekend.

Room 21 children play xylophones and metallophones

My special flute

The flute I am playing is a gift from my father's close friend Feri. He too is a musician who has inspired me my whole life. He gave me his flute long after my father died. When I play it, I am honouring Feri's and my father's gift of music to me and, as Sasha said, music itself.