Elementary Music/Music Technology Blog

This summer, MENC will be holding a variety of Music Education Academies, in replacement of their National Conference. There are numerous academies being held such as general music, jazz education, performance, and music technology. As MENC states on their website:

“The Music Education Week Academies are unique and in-depth two-day professional development conference tracks designed to expand teachers’ horizons and supply attendees with new tools and techniques to take back to the classroom.”

As I look through their website, I am excited to see so many music technology gurus planning on participating, such as Dr. James Frankel (marketing director of SoundTree); Stefani Langol, (assistant professor of music education, Berklee College of Music); Brian Moore, associate professor of music education, University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music; Joseph Pisano, director of music and fine arts technology, Grove City College, Grove City, PA, and founder of the MusTech.net Web site; and many more.

I will be one of the panelists for “Software for Music Creation”
“From Sibelius to GarageBand, today’s leading music creation programs blur the line between performance, composition, recording, and notation. This panel discusses how these programs work and suggests ways to employ them in the music classroom.”

I am excited and intrigued to see how this new format works out. I am honored to be asked by MENC to participate. If you are planning on attending, I am hoping that you will attend the panel discussion on software for music creation.

To find out about these academies, please click here.

Last December, I posted the music that my K-3 would be performing at their Holiday Concert. As I just left on maternity leave, I had to make sure that the students were ready for their spring concert. That made me think of this post and sharing the concert music.

Our Spring Concert is technically our Grandparents’ Day Concert (even though Grandparents’ Day is technically in September). I have to prepare two separate concerts. The first concert occurs earlier in the day and just involves PreK Olders (4 year-olds). They will be singing for their grandparents in their classroom and not on stage. This way, we provide a more comfortable performing atmosphere. They will be singing the following:

• Grandparents You’re the Best! from Denise Gagne’s Sing and Play on Special Days. This is actually titled Mom You’re the Best and it is for Mother’s day. We just changed Mother to Grandparents and it works very well. The PreK Olders love this song!
• Wake Me Shake Me – This is from the series Music and You Grade 1. It is a fun singing and moving song.
• America the Beautiful - We sing this song and ask the grandparents to sing along with us.
• Body Boogie – This is from Music K8 Volume 15 Issue 1. The students love moving to this song!
• BINGO – We sing and utilize pictures of the letters B I N G and O. When the students turn the letters over to clap, they find a quarter note  or an eighth note.
• Kye Kye Kule – We use the Share The Music Grade 2 accompaniment for this. However, it can also be done acapella. It is a wonderful call and response song.
• Grand Old Flag –We ask the grandparents to sing along with us.

Later in the day, grades 2, 4, and 7 perform a Grandparents’ Day Concert on the stage. This year’s concert theme is “Colors”. For this concert, I just have to prepare the 2nd grade and my colleague prepares the 4th and 7th grades. The following songs will be performed:

• Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas arranged by Mac Huff – Grades 4 and 7 will open the concert with this song.
• Los Colores De La Primavera by Ken Johnson from Music K8, Volume 6 Issue 5 - Grade 2. The 2nd graders adore this song! They love singing in Spanish and they also love that they know all of their colors in Spanish. It is also a wonderful way to involve the Spanish teacher. She was thrilled to have them sing the song in her classroom and she also found two grammatical errors in the song and was able to fix them.
• Rainbow Connection arranged by Audrey Snyder - Grades 2 and 4. My 2nd graders love this song and when you combine the 2-3 part harmony/descant with the 2nd graders singing the melody, it brings a tear to your eye.
• Blue Skies – Grades 4&7 will sing this fun arrangement by Roger Emerson.
• Sing-Along (Patriotic Sing-Along with the colors of red, white, and blue). Every year we perform a sing-along for the grandparents to join us on. This year, I used exerpts from accompaniment tracks to make one long accompaniment track for our sing-along (I used the freeware Audacity to do this). I found most of the accompaniment tracks on Music K8, the music series of Music and You or Share the Music, or karaoke tracks found on iTunes. The words will appear on a powerpoint for the grandparents to sing along. Our sing-along contains the following:
  • Blue and Red and White – Theresa Jennings from Volume 8 Issue 5.
  • Stars and Stripes - We are using the lyrics that begin with “Three cheers for the red, white, and blue…”
  • I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy
  • America the Beautiful
  • Grand Old Flag
• What is Pink? by Janet Gardner/Christina Rossetti. This is a fun song for grade 4.
• True Colors – Grades 2, 4, and 7 will sing this together as the finale.

These are the songs that my students will be performing on their spring concert. Since I just left on maternity leave, I will not be able to hear the final product, but I know that they will be wonderful!

What songs will your students be performing on their spring concerts?

This summer, I have the privilege of teaching “Integrating Technology into the Elementary Music Classroom: A Course For Elementary Teachers Taught By An Elementary Teacher” at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). I have fond memories of of CCSU as I spent 6 summers there earning my Masters of Science in Music Education. The course will be offered from July 6-July 10. The course description is as follows:This hands-on course is aimed at elementary music teachers who are interested in integrating technology into the elementary general music curriculum. The course will include a survey of successful teaching strategies and lesson plans as well as an overview of hardware and software appropriate for the elementary level. The material covered in this course will be applicable to every teaching scenario from the teacher who teaches on a cart, the teacher with one computer in a classroom, and the teacher who either already has a classroom lab or who is interested in setting up a lab. Classroom-ready lesson plans, handouts, and software will be included.

If you are interested in taking the course, please click here for more information about registration.

Last week, our school held our annual talent assembly. It was so well-received, that the 26 students who participated received a standing ovation from their fellow students, teachers, administrators, and parents.

The subject of school talent assemblies appears on the MENC General Music Boards from time to time. I often read about teachers who are questioning how they should proceed with talent assemblies, who should perform, who should judge, what classifies as talent, and if parents should be involved. These are interesting topics and ultimately, we approach our talent assembly in a way that would promote our music program. Therefore, we do assemble guidelines for the participants. They are as follows:

• Who is eligible to audition? Students in grades 1-8 who have studied privately on their talents.
• Is there a sign up form? Yes. The form includes the requirements to participate, the form’s due date, the audition dates, the performance date, and the signatures of the student, parent, and private teacher stating that they have read and agreed to the requirements.
• Does everyone who auditions get to perform? Usually, yes. We have a time limit to the assembly because our assemblies are 1 hour long. However, by the time the forms are due, we have around 26 performers, and that will usually take an hour to an hour and ten minutes, which is our alotted time.
• What happens if the form comes in late? We put the students on a waiting list. Often, one to three students will drop before the talent assembly due to illness or the students were not ready to perform in front of the school. Then, we can move the waiting list students to the performance list.
• Do you allow lip syncing or playing “Heart and Soul” in your talent assembly? No. By having the guideline that the student must be studying the talent privately for at least a year, this rules out those types of questionable talents. When asked for our rationale, we state that in our school every student in grade 6 and above must participate on a sports team. These teams are honored three times a year in a school awards assembly. We (the music department) would like to honor those students who take time out the of their day to study privately and the talent assembly accomplishes that.
• Who judges the auditions? The music teachers.
• What type of talent has performed? Singing, performing on various instruments, and dance.

This process works very well for us, however, it does not work for all schools. For example, I have heard of schools whose parents committee runs the “talent show.” The parents are the judges and run it like an “American Idol” type of show. I have heard other music teachers tell me that by only having private students perform, then we are missing out on “hidden talents” from students who can perform beautifully but have never taken a lesson. My response to the latter is that there is some truth to that, however, we have had so many experiences where students are not ready to perform in front of the entire school because they have not had the training from a teacher on how to perform in front of a big audience. In addition, we have had parents ask us to tell their children to not perform because they were to afraid to say that to them. Therefore, we like the guideline of private lessons, because we can directly contact the private teacher to assist us with the student’s preparation and we feel that the student will have a successful performing experience. For us, our goals are to honor these students with very successful performing experiences.

Does your school have a talent assembly? If so, what are the guidelines for the performers?

Last night at Carnegie Hall, the first-ever YouTube Symphony Orchestra performed. If you have not heard about it, it was an “American Idol” for the orchestra. People auditioned for this orchestra by uploading their audition videos to YouTube. A panel of professional musicians reduced the videos down to a certain number and viewers of youtube voted for their favorites. Once the winners were announced, they met over the past two days (all day because the musicians were not unioned) to rehearse a variety of excerpts and selections that were played at Carnegie Hall yesterday evening. The concert was sold out and there were many waiting outside in hopes to get in.

The musicians ranged from amateur to professional. One of the cellists was a professional poker player by day; one violinist was a surgeon by day; there was a physicist who played in the orchestra; and there was a Japanese marimba player who was thrilled to follow in her mom’s footsteps, who played marimba in a Tokyo symphony years ago.

Whether you feel that this was a creative event, or an event that sparked more interest in music, or a big commercial for Youtube, I feel that it did give a wonderful musical experience to those who auditioned, who performed, and those who attended the concert. Think about this: in this economy, here was a  “classical and contemporary” musical event that was sold out and had people waiting in hopes to get tickets at the door. With so many classical orchestras losing funding and going under, it was refreshing to see a musical event so well received.

Here are some links from reviews of this event:

http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/2009/04/16/youtube-symphony-concert-review/#comments - Good friend Dr Jim Frankel blogged about this as he attended the event.
http://www.youtube.com/symphony - Explanation of the concept and event.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/arts/music/17tube.html?hpw - New York Times review.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04162009/entertainment/music/youtube_symphony_164617.htm - New York Post review.

During the winter trimester, the first graders at FHCDS studied Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. They learned about the characters of the story and how the instruments of the orchestra represented each character.

At the end of the trimester, they (with my assistance) created these podcasts. For this project, they composed new rhythms for each character, performed the rhythms (as well as they could) using classroom instruments, told me the story so that I could narrate it, and they drew all of the pictures.

I hope that you enjoy their renditions of Peter and the Wolf.

Click here to listen to three different versions from the first grade classes.

I have just two weeks left before I leave on my maternity leave for the remainder of the school year. It is an exciting time for me as this is our first child and also the first time that I will not finish out the school year after working in this same school for 12 years. Currently, I am lucky that the music teacher that will teach for the remainder of the year gets to have some time with me before I leave. However, I am concerned because I leave right before 5 performances:

1. 1st Grade Play - includes 7 songs about Australia
2. Grandparents’ Day - includes 4 songs about our theme of colors
3. Performing Arts Showcase - I direct the elementary band who will perform two selections
4. Kindergarten Diploma Day - includes two songs
5. Closing Ceremonies - includes 5-6 songs and that are performed in a special ceremony that occurs on the last day of school

As I am preparing the music teacher who will replace me for the final 5 weeks of school, I thought to myself about what I could do to make sure that she has everything she needs to successfully direct these final performances. I do not worry because she has subbed for me before and has wonderful experience. However, I also want to make sure that she has everything she needs, especially if the baby decides to arrive early. Therefore, I made her a document (which quickly turned into a book…) titled “Everything You Need to Know…” with the subtitle of “Use this as a resource for when you have a question.” I have divided it into the following sections:

1. Schedule - Shows all of my classes that she will teach in a 7-day cycle.
2. Duties - If you teach in an elementary school, then you know that this means recess, dismissal, lunch, bus, arrival duties, etc.
3. Lessons/Curriculum - I have outlines all of my lessons for grades PreK-3 and grade 5 from March to June so she understands the process of the current curriculum.
4. Concerts/Plays/Performances - This includes all titles and rehearsals dates and times of the 5 upcoming performances.
5. Calendar - This includes the school calendar from April - June and what she will need to attend.
6. Class Lists/Seating Charts/Allergies - This includes the seating charts so she can learn the names quickly. The allergy list is important because you never know what will happen.
7. Discipline (behavior, social problem-solving, and nurse) - This will assist her when she needs to discipline the students so that she can be consistent with the school discipline policy.
8. If you need to call a parent - This will assist her in the protocol to calling a parent if she feels it to be necessary.
9. Who’s Who - This will assist her in knowing who on the staff and faculty that she will come into contact daily.
10. Report Cards - This includes a rubric to grade each student in grades K-3 general music and grade 5 instrumental music.
11. Report Card Samples - This includes sample report cards (comments and grades) for grades K-3 and 5.
12. Music for plays/concerts/ceremonies - This includes all of the music she will need for the 5 remaining performances.
13. Resources - This includes songs that I have made up and wrote out for her. In addition, it includes resources that I am currently using in each class such as John Feierabend’s Music for Little People for my 3-year-old music class.
14. If you need to get a hold of me - This includes my contact information.

I am hoping that this guide is more helpful than overwhelming. If you have ever gone on maternity leave or have been a music teacher for a maternity leave, what was the best item you could give your maternity leave, or received from the current music teacher?

My students in second grade learned about the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). We read a book titled Ludwig van Beethoven by Louis Sabin. We then listened and moved to his music. Finally, we watched Beethoven Lives Upstairs, a movie about a nine-year old who comes to adore Beethoven and realizes that Beethoven is a musical genius. We then wrote facts about Beethoven’s life and music, recorded ourselves speaking about Beethoven’s life, and picked the music to accompany our podcast. My students hope that you will enjoy their podcasts!

Dr. Marc Jacoby, fellow TI:ME officer, and Craig Gonci, just launched a wonderful website titled “The Music Interactive.” As they wrote on the website, it is “a place for music games, activities, and Computer Aided Instruction software for your students. Many of our downloads are designed to be used with an interactive whiteboard allowing teacher and student to experience music and learning in an interactive and creative way.”

I have downloaded some of the free Classroom Applications, and I could definitely see how many of these applications could enhance an elementary music classroom.

• Staff Wars v1 would be a wonderful assessment tool for older elementary students. It is set in a “Star Wars” theme and acts as a video game that tests the students’ knowledge of reading note names on the treble or bass clef staff.
• Boom is a great application to compose a chordal composition with boomwhackers. This would work very well on one computer connected to a TV or LCD projector, or to an Interactive Whiteboard. The students could choose the boomwhackers to place on the squares in the program. They then could write the rhythms on the program. The teacher could have the students play the boomwhackers to the rhyhthms and notes that they just wrote on the screen. Afterwards, the teacher could play the music on screen by pressing the play button to see if it matched what they just performed.
• Rhythm Blocks is a rhythmic dictation program for a variety of levels for older elementary students.
• I also wanted to try MyJamz, which allows the students to compose and record, but I could not get the link to download. I am hoping that I can try it soon.

There are also some programs that cost $5, such as a progressive, recorder program

In the Performance Applications, there are programs that focus on performing on instruments or performing in styles of music.Some that I tried were:

• Speed Note, which is a free program that tests the students’ knowledge of reading and naming notes in a timed atmosphere. Think that it is a bit like “Math Minutes” but with music notes.
• Strings is a free program that allows you to pluck the note on a string instrument and tells you how to play the notes.

There are also programs that cost $5 to $10 each.

As I evaluate and explore these programs, I am not sure that ones I tried would work in my classroom of PreK-grade 3, however, I can see how they would enhance an older elementary music classroom, such as grades 4-6. The website is laid out nicely and the programs are easy to download and use.

I encourage you to try out this website today. I am sure that you could use many of these interactive programs to enhance your classroom, or to use as assessments, or to use as interactive tools to motivate students to learn musical skills. I thank Marc and Craig for creating an excellent and educational website that can be utilized easily and quickly.

To read another review of the website, check out Dr. Joe Pisano’s blog.

This month, Dr. Joe Pisano of MusTech.Net! is hosting the April Edition of Music Education Blog Carnival! Check out some excellent articles about music education and music technology!