Art in the Park - Shepherd's Hey

The ensembles very successful evening concert on Friday night, but we also had a lot of help. Art in the Park is something we started to do in conjunction with the PTA Reflection's art show and it has become a really nice community collaboration -- this year we had short films, a traditional Korean dance, musical theater presentations from the after school group Art of Third and from Mr. Pratt and and Mr. Bassett and, of course, a showing of the reflections art. It was a wonderful program.

In this video the Recorder Ensembles plays a traditional English tune "Shepherd's Hey" using Alto and Soprano recorders for the first time.

4th Grade Week 9 -- Adding Melody to our Songs

This week in a somewhat shortened class we began to construct melodies to fit our our existing lyrics and rhythm patterns. To do this we are revisiting the idea of melodic contour -- this idea that melody is like a line that rises and falls. As we saw in class, successful melodies tend to have subtle contour without large jumps and repetition is a good thing.

I can not, unfortunately, allow students to take home a xylophone to work on the melody but here's link to an online xylophone.

You can also use a piano at home, if you have one, or the online piano on the left under links, if you don't. White keys only and don't go any higher that an E.

Blog Back Online!

I am pleased to announce after a nine week absence that Third Street Music is back. A combination of technical difficulties and time constraints have been settled, so I hope to get back to regular posting for the rest of the year.

Here's a couple of pictures of what we've been working on lately:

Concert in the Park - Bartok Finale

Our last song of the evening was this challenge piece by Bela Bartok with the equally challenging name "Wo Die Sind Ganshehen." The kids did a outstanding job with this and all the material. Incidentally, I know that some people didn't manage to get in the videos this time around. We have so many players this year, it's hard to get them all in one frame. We'll plan that a little better for our Spring show.

No rehearsal this week. We'll resume in January after the break. Happy Holidays everybody!

Concert in the Park - "Two Three"

This Walt Hampton piece is an excellent example of the ensemble working in sections. It's a huge challenge with so many players this year, but these kids are up to it.

Concert in the Park - "Andean Tune"

Here's one of the recorder pieces. They really got a nice groove going!

First Concert in the Park of the year filled with good cheer!

Last night the Orff and Recorder ensembles were joined by Kids KOR Hip Hop and Tap & Movement classes, Music Mania and Saran Richard and the Tech TAs for full concert of the year. The mixing of new and old friends is something we try to do and it always makes for a very interesting evening. The ensembles, of course, were awesome! Here's a sample.