A little break from the norm....

Beatbox - World Music Drumming 101

In our 5th grade classes, we have been studying World Instruments, particularly focusing on instruments of African descent. With February being Black History Month, we took a slight detour from our drum ensembles and worked on an African American spiritual called Long John taken from a marvelous book by Will Schmid (see above). We discussed the "talking drum" concept and how these were taken away from African slaves by the masters for fear of escaped slaves communicating with other slaves. We further discussed the use of imagery and "code language" in these spirituals that aided slaves in escaping via the Underground Railroad. I wish you all could've been a fly on the wall to hear the discussions and conversations that ensued from this topic. These are some thoughtful and intelligent kiddos we have! :)

Just to bring a little sunshine to your day, here's a quick view of our beat work with some kiddos keeping the steady beat and triplet pattern in... ah.... their own special way, shall we say?

I would recommend keeping it at the small video setting rather than full screen for the best viewing. ;o)





How Does Your Woodwind Blow?

Our 3rd graders had a marvelous visit last week from our very own Christ Academy celebrity! Janelle Olson (Dag Marius' sweet momma :) came and gave a delightful presentation on the Woodwind Instrument Family.

 Ms. Olson plays the flute and piccolo for the Plano Symphony Orchestra and she brought both instruments along with a couple of other interesting items to show just how a woodwind instrument brings color and complexity to the orchestra as a whole. Here's a quick clip! You can hear the students' instaneous response! :)

During our unit on Recorders, we've learned a tremendous amount about properly playing the instrument including proper posture, fingering and hold and one important concept - tonguing! Tonguing basically means that the airflow to the instrument is controlled by using the tongue as a "stopper" on the mouthpiece. Ms. Olson showed them a marvelous example of "double tonguing" and you can SEE how transfixed they were!

Ms. Olson shared with us that the first three fingerings we've learned for our Recorders are the exact same for the flute AND the piccolo! She also brought an empty Coke bottle to demonstrate how the pitch differences are created with a woodwind instrument! Check it out!

Ms. Olson was also kind enough to be OUR audience and we performed on our recorders for her! :)

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with our special guest! Thank you Ms. Olson!!!