Sharing at the Piano

When students tell Ms. Mutz they take piano lessons (or any other, for that matter), she likes to have them come into the Music Room and play for her.  Then she invites the student to play for the class.  This helps students build confidence on new learning, and it also encourages other students to consider playing an instrument if the opportunity comes up.  In this photo, one student played for the class.  Then Ms. Mutz asked if it would be ok if the class came up and gathered around the keyboard to watch him play again.  It is so much fun to see the expressions on the other students as they watch the fingers moving on the keys!  Thanks for sharing!!

Bass Xylophone Used to Accompany a Circle Game

Second Grade students played a circle game called “Charlie Over the Ocean”. The object of this game is to get tagged (vs. trying NOT to get tagged). Then the “out” students go take a turn playing the accompaniment for this song using the bass xylophone. Students played a steady beat pattern using both hands on an open fifth (notes C and G). Another instrument was added: finger cymbals. Students played the bass xylophone for seven beats and then the finger cymbals played on the eighth beat.

Hopes and Dreams for Music

Second Graders were asked what their hopes and dreams are for music.  This is a big question!  Not just what they want to do in music class, but what they might like to do with music in their lifetime.  The answers are very interesting.  Students mainly want to learn how to play an instrument, but there were other responses that may surprise you!  Those hopes and dreams were written on the backs of their stars.  Then students worked on coloring, cutting and pasting their stars onto their music folders.

Second Grade "Sodeo"

Circle games are an important part of music class.  Students learn to listen to each other and work together to build a musical community.  Students also have the opportunity to let their personalities show!

Playing Instruments in First Grade

Ask any student what they love most about music and they will tell you it’s playing musical instruments.  Students first experience the instruments they already have — their voice.  They also have body percussion (clapping, snapping, patting and stamping their feet).  Next comes rhythm percussion instruments.  In the below pictures, students experience four main types of rhythm percussion instruments:  Membrane, Rattle, Metal and Wood.  They played a rotation game so they got to play all four types of instruments.

High and Low with Xylophone

Playing a xylophone is a lot of fun.

Students learn proper mallet technique and where it is best to strike the bars (in the middle) for the best sound.

Students need to experience playing the bars — just how hard or soft to strike the bars. They are encouraged to play all the bars in a random fashion and discover just how much is too much.  If the bars jump up or come out of place, then it was too much. But if they can hardly hear the bars being played, it is too little.

Students discover high and low sounds, too.  On our xylophones each bar is a different size which helps students learn “the bigger the bar, the lower the sound” and “the smaller the bar, the higher the sound”.

Students discover that the bars have alphabet letters marked on them.  But it is only the first seven letters of the alphabet:  A-B-C-D-E-F-G 

All students played the xylophones during music class! 

Kindergarteners Move To Music

Kindergarteners love to move.  In fact, they have a hard time sitting still!  So why not use that energy and express through music?  Students used colorful scarves and moved around while listening to Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nacht Music”.  By using an object while moving, students are less inhibited and can usually find expressive ways to show what they are hearing with the music.  Actually, the music is the motivator and the scarves are just a prop.  It works!

Welcome To Music at Porters Point School!

And so a new school year begins...  Ms. Mutz met all students at Porters Point School last week.  As you may have heard, there are now five classes of Kindergarten students, so that is a lot of new names for Ms. Mutz to learn.  She asks that Kindergarten students come to class with name tags, at least for the first few weeks.  Ms. Mutz already knows all the First and Second Grade students, with the exception of new students to the school.  

Our Music schedule is tight this year with only five minutes in between classes, and Music classes have been reduced from 45 minutes to 40 minutes once a week, so we have no time to waste!  Please visit this Music blog often as Ms. Mutz adds lots of information for you to get an idea of what goes on in Music class.  The chart below sums up what we do in Music:

Student Teacher in Music Class!!

Ms. Mutz is pleased to introduce you to Mr. Will Charron, a University of Vermont music student who will be in the PPS Music Room for the next couple of weeks.  He has not met everyone yet, but he will!  He is very friendly and is happy to learn about music education in a K-2 school.

Lake Monsters "Champ" and Mr. Will Charron

Students from Mrs. Hooper's class interviewed Mr. Charron, and here is a sampling of what they found out:
STUDENTS:  "How old are you?"
MR. CHARRON:  "I'm a senior at UVM, and so I'm 20 years old."
STUDENTS:  "Where are you from?"
MR. CHARRON:  "Connecticut."
STUDENTS:  "Do you have any pets?"
MR. CHARRON:  "Yes. Right now at home there are between 5 and 7 cats, and 3 guinea pigs."
STUDENTS:  "Do you have any siblings?"
MR. CHARRON:  "One older brother who is 28, and a sister who is 30."
STUDENTS:  "What made you start playing music?"
MR. CHARRON:  "I started playing trumpet when I was in 6^th grade. I quit when I was in 8^th grade because I did not like it. But when I was in 9^th grade, I picked up percussion and guitar.  I played music throughout high school, and by graduation, I knew I wanted to continue playing music.

Thanks for being with us, Mr. Charron!!  We look forward to learning some music from you!!!

CHAMP VISITS THE PPS MUSIC ROOM!!!

As you may have heard, today was a busy day here at Porters Point School.  During lunch, CHAMP, paid everyone a visit!!!  

Lake Monsters "Champ"

First, he came into the Music Room and we discovered that he is quite a musician!!  He wanted to play all of Ms. Mutz's instruments.  He played the rainstick, maracas,  tubanos, and even the electric keyboard!  The song he played on the keyboard was called "The Entertainer".  Wow, he's good!!!  We enjoyed meeting CHAMP today!!

Champ and Mr. Will Charron jam on tubanos

Champ plays "The Entertainer" on the keyboard

Champ and Ms. Mutz

We're Famous! Thanks, to The Colchester Sun

Over vacation last week, a photographer from The Colchester Sun contacted Ms. Mutz with pictures he took from the Thursday, Feb. 21st performance of "Go Fish".  He said they would appear in Thursday's edition, and sure enough, the pictures were there!  Front page and back page -- and in full color:

Concert Success!!

All students performed "Go Fish" last week either on Weds., Feb. 20 or Thurs., Feb. 21, 2013.  Both nights were a huge success!   Ms. Mutz will be posting more video clips later to show some of the actual performances.  For now, check out this Animoto video of the face painting that went on before the shows started each night!  Both nights are represented in this video.

Commercial for Go Fish!!!

We are getting closer to our performance dates of February 20 and 21, 2013!!  Below you will see a commercial to advertise our upcoming performances.  All classes have practiced the songs during music class, although we did lose valuable rehearsal time because of the snow day last week.  We'll catch up today.  However, since the speaking parts were practiced after school, students are coming along quite nicely in getting the "big picture".  During those after-school rehearsals, 23 students stayed in the Music Room and we rehearsed when to speak, where to stand, how to speak into a microphone, "can we hear you???" and more.  Oh, and the video you are about to see was actually filmed BY STUDENTS using an iPad!!!!  That gave Ms. Mutz a chance to see what students see, and it gave students a chance to really focus on what was going on with the scenes.  Students are very excited about the performances!  Enjoy this YouTube!

Drummers Warming Up

All students, faculty, and many family members gathered on Friday, December 21, 2012 for our annual whole school Sing-Along. Ms. Mutz prepared a Power Point of all the songs which helps students learn the words. It also helps all the adults in the room who do not typically practice before the sing-along! As you may have seen in the African Noel post, every student in the school had the opportunity to play the tubano drums during music class. Then 12 students were selected to play for the sing-along. There was one student chosen from every class, but everyone knew that anyone could play the part since everyone had the chance to play. This short video clip is of the 12 students warming up and getting ready for all the students and guests to arrive for the sing-along...