"Squirm!" Parent Notice #2 Sent Home last Friday

Just to keep everyone updated on progress, Parent Notice #2 was sent home last Friday, January 29, 2016.  Students are beginning to get very excited about this performance!

So far, speaking parts have been distributed and those students have now had their first after-school rehearsal last week.  There will be one more rehearsal this week:

Wednesday 2/10/16 Performing Classes:  Weds. Feb. 3, 2016 -- from right after school until 4:00 pm in the PPS Music Room

Thursday 2/11/16 Performing Classes:  Thurs. Feb. 4, 2016 -- from right after school until 4:00 pm in the PPS Music Room

This week, we will add other parts to our performance, including movement and props helpers.  Having other jobs to do during performances helps keep students focused and is another way for students to participate in this whole school experience.  Regardless of whether students do any extra parts, the music is the most important part of a musical, and that is one part ALL students have!

Speaking Parts Have Been Distributed

For our whole-school musical "Squirm" to be performed in February, all the speaking parts were distributed last Friday, January 22, 2016. I am happy to announce that if students expressed an interest in a speaking part, I was able to cast them for a part! However, if students requested a specific part and were not willing to accept a different part, it is possible they did not receive a part. I explain to students that if there is one main part, then only one person will get that part.  So if 8 students requested that part, 7 students would not get that part.  But if they were willing to take another part, then I would try to cast them for an alternate part.  We do not do auditions!!  I firmly believe that anyone who wants to do a part can do it...

So that is how we do speaking parts.  But there are other parts which will be given out in the coming days.  Those parts are for "movement" and also "props helpers".  I like to wait on that a bit and my hope is that many more students will be interested in this, especially if they were not interested in speaking parts.  

Our Whole School Musical is in February

It's that time of year when Porters Point School students prepare for their whole-school musical.  This year we will be doing "Squirm!" by John Jacobson and John Higgins.  These two men really know how to write an age-appropriate (and fun) mini musical!  We have done several musicals written by them, including "How Does Your Garden Grow?", "Three of a Kind", "Hats", and "The Cheese Stands Alone", just to name a few.

During music classes, the story and songs have been introduced to students.  We draw on past experiences of performing in a different space from our own building -- Colchester High School.  We are fortunate to have that space, otherwise our school is just too small to take on a project like this.  Students practice and practice at our home school, then take a bus to the High School for a dress rehearsal.  The same evening as the dress rehearsal is when we perform for parents, friends and the community.  It really is an event not to miss!

Click on this link for Squirm-PPSParent Notice #1.

Please stay tuned for more details and look for notes going home with your children from the "Porters Point Music Department".

CHS Freshman Chorus HERE!!

Today we were graced by a special performance from the Colchester High School Freshman Chorus, under the direction of Mrs. Melissa Towle.  Our students were mesmerized listening to their beautiful harmonies.  It is always fun to have older students visit our K-2 school and when it is for a musical event, all the better!  Thanks so much for coming!!!

CHS Freshman Chorus with Mrs. Towle

Off To A Good Start! And The Beat Goes On...

We have been in school now for four weeks.  I have met all students four times for 40-minutes once a week.  In that time we have really done a lot, musically speaking...

  

Ask any student of mine "What is the purpose of beat?" and they will tell you in a variety of ways that  "It is so important, Ms. Mutz asks us about it in every class!"  We need to be able to walk it, talk it, sing it, dance it, and we can play instruments, too.  The beat helps to hold everything together in music.  The truth is, not every single song will have an identifiable beat, but most of the music we will do in class will have a definite beat.

Summer Time

It's almost mid-summer (I'm being optimistic).  Flowers are blooming and the sun is warm.  I recently went to the University of Hartford -- Hartt School of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut.  Former Porters Point students may remember when we had Peter and Mary Alice Amidon for a week-long residency at our school -- maybe five years ago?? Anyway, I went to a week-long course at Hartt with the Amidon's designed for music educators.  What a GREAT week!  The course was called: "Rich Traditions and New Creations - Dance, Song, Storytelling and Literature in the Music Classroom".  Course requirements were to retell a story (no books allowed!!) and to create a song to sing to the group.  Quite a challenge.  I tell stories to my students all the time.  I love to use books to tell (or sing) a story.  This was different, though.  The "class" was all adults -- all music teachers.  I also had to write a song, and so I chose a personal subject -- my Mother.  It wasn't easy, but once I got started it was hard to stop.  It went very well.

Now the best parts of this class were all my classmates!  There were 30 people in the class and every one of them was excited to be there.  They participated all of the time.  We danced and sang harmony and just had a wonderful time.  Peter and Mary Alice are great teachers and they taught us all how to teach...  I'm so glad I took advantage of this opportunity with two fabulous people:  Peter and Mary Alice Amidon.

New iPad Mini's for PPS Music!!

Thanks to a generous donation from the Friends of Colchester Music, Porters Point School has received two iPad Mini's to be used exclusively in the Music Room at PPS.  This is good news because I will be able to load music apps and have the iPads available for all classes.  Our first project was done with First Graders.

Students launched into a project called "What's In A Name?"  Using the Garage Band app, students used the Sampler to record a sound based on their first name.  Once their name was recorded, they then used the onscreen music keyboard to record an 8-bar (measure) track.  Students were so surprised at how funny their voices sounded when listening to high and low sounds.  They really learned a lot about such musical concepts as high-low, loud-soft, and fast-slow.  

After recording their first track, students selected a bass guitar loop to include with their creation.  They also added a drum track to compliment their recorded track by adding sounds from the available drum kits. They had options to choose from as far as types of percussion instruments and how they wanted the track to sound.  

Students then presented their projects to the class, and the reaction was to get up and dance!  This stuff sounds really fun!!!  So how can we use such a project?  We brainstormed times when students write a story and how music could be added to go along with parts of the story -- or throughout the story. The music could be used to dance to, and a song with words could be added to it.

As a music teacher, I had so much fun seeing students create these projects.  I had a student approach me after this project was all done and she told me she wrote a song.  I said, "OK, so now you can write the music track to go along with it, right?"  She responded with a big smile...