Music

This class is called “The Narwhals!”    We have an extensive list of pop songs we brainstormed and that we choose from.  We made a mash up from Rachel Patten’s Stand By You with Stand By Me written by Ben. E. King, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

We are learning folk songs and dances from different countries.  And we have been discussing pentatonic (do re mi sol la) and diatonic (do re mi fa sol la ti) scales in some of the songs.  For example, after singing and dancing the folk song from England, Tideo, we discovered the melody is in a pentatonic scale (do, re, mi, sol, la) and uses ‘high do’ in its melody.  We practice singing the melody (and other melodies) in solfege using Curwen hand signs. (See below)

 We explore rhythms using rhythm stick notation (ta, ti ti, tiri tiri, rest) in our songs like Dry Bones Come Skipping Down the Valley which has a syncopated rhythm in it that we call syn co pa.

 The Narwhals have also practiced rhythm identification with instruments, and are exploring composition; notating & performing their own rhythmic compositions in small groups.

We are excited that we have started thinking about our songs and dances for our concert in June!