Thursday, March 26, 2009

Fifth Grade Week 9 -- Adding voices to our composition


This week in music fifth graders discussed adding additional voices to our compositions in the C pentatonic.  Specifically, we talked about adding a percussion part and a high ostinato.  An ostinato is a repeating pattern that in this case is two measures long.

We will be working on our compositions in class next week (on Thursday not Tuesday), but students should get started transferring over the work they've already done.  A few thingds to remember.

For melody -- should rise and fall and end on C.  Only use notes from the pentatonic (pictured above).

For rhythm -- in the melody use half notes and quarter notes.  No more than 4 beats per measure!

For bourdun -- pick one measure and repeat it eight times.  Should only be C and G.

For percussion part -- decide which beats you want to accent.  Use quarter notes on those beats and rests on the others.

For high ostinati -- use a two measure pattern.  Only notes from the pentatonic.  Try to use some eighth notes and rests

You can leave me questions on this blog if you need more help and I'll post my answers.  See you Thursday!

6 comments:

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

I do not get The High Ostinato.--AG

Richard Lawton said...

Hi AG,

As we discussed in class an ostinato is a two measure pattern which repeats. I had asked you to create a pattern using eighth notes and some rests -- for example you could go two eighth notes quarter rest two eighth notes quarter rest (that's equal to 4 beats or 1 measure). Or you could go 4 eighth notes 2 quarter rests, or eighth note, eighth rest, eighth note, eighth rest, eighth note, eighth rest, eighth note, eighth rest. Remember all of those patterns are equal to one measure and your ostinato should have two measures.

That's the rhythm part. As for what pitches to use they have to come from the C pentatonic.

Do your work in pencil so we can talk about it in class.

Richard Lawton

***** said...
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***** said...

Hi Mr. Lawton. This is ***** again. Sorry I'm commenting again. I really hope you're on the computer because I really need your help on the music homework you gave me. The one with the High Ostinato, Melody, Bourdun, and Percussion. I'd thought that you'd put an example so you can show like how to do it. Well, please comment back on my profile or comment back here by 10:30 PM because I really need your help on this. Okay, then, thanks anyways!

Richard Lawton said...

Hello *******

I'm sorry you're having trouble. It's hard to tell what areas are giving you trouble from your post. The best thing you can do is make the corrections on the composition you have done previously and copy them over to the bourdun and the melody to the sheet I gave you.

We can work on the percussion and ostinato part in class.