2015 Term 2, Week 6: The End of NZ Music Month

Here's the last of the New Zealand Music Song-a-Day for NZ Music Month

Monday 25 May: Always on My Mind by Tiki Taane 

 Tuesday 26 May: Nature by the Fourmyula

Wednesday 27 May: Six Months in  a Leaky Boat by Split Enz 

Thursday 28 May: Wandering Eye by Fat Freddy's Drop

Friday 29 May:  Aotearoa by Stan Walker, featuring Maisie Rika, Ria Hall and Troy Kingi 

Here's the song Islands with lyrics and sign language.  Follow this link for ukulele chords and lyrics.

Here's some further information about the Hook Line and Singalong  songwriting competition from 2014. 



Watch what happens when 2 elephants hear a violinist play music (Bach Concerto for Two Violins).

 

Here's a link to the metronome we have been using to keep in time for our rhythm games and activities. You can change the speed to make it go faster or slower. The number stands for the number of beats per minute. 

2015 Term 2, Week 5: NZ Music Month - NZ Music from Last Century

NZ Music Month - song a day calendar continued
Monday May 18: Blue Smoke by Pixie Williams 

 Blue Smoke was the first NZ record composed, recorded and pressed in the country. It was recorded in 1948 and issued in June 1949 by the new TANZA ("To Assist NZ Artists') label. It was a hit and sold over 50,000 copies.  It was sung by Pixie Williams and written by Ruru Karaitiana in May 1940, while he was on the troopship Aquitania taking the Maori Battalion  to the Second World War. Private Ruru Karaitiana was a dance band leader and he played many instruments. He recalled that one day on the troopship they were off the coast of Africa, "halfway across the Indian Ocean", he was sunbathing on the deck when a sergeant came along, stopped beside him and looked up: "Look at that blue smoke," he said, pointing up to the smoke drifting from the funnels. "It's going  the right way - back to New Zealand- and we're steaming father from home." 

Tuesday May 19: Life in Sunshine by Jamie McDell

 Jamie McDell was born 3 November 1992 and is a singer songwriter from Auckland. She used a variety of social media to gain exposure, posting YouTube videos, and using Twitter and Facebook to get her music to people.

"I write songs about a lot of different things depending on what's happening in my life. Lately my songs have been about relationships, dealing with loss, and wanting to go back to the beach!  I can really get inspired by anything. 


Wednesday May 20: Special by Six60

Thursday May 21: Burning Bridges by Broods   

Friday May 22: Sun Goes Down by Nesian Mystik
 Nesian Mystik is  Polynesian culture merged with RnB, Hip Hop and Reggae. The boys met while studying music at Western Springs College and found success after winning the Smokefree Pacific Beats competition. They wrote and produced all their own material highlighting the group's ability in songwriting, musicianship and production. They had tten top ten hit singles, and the bad also composed the score for NZ's first Pacific Cartoon Bro Town. 

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New Zealand Music From the 1960s. 

C'mon  was the most popular NZ music show of the mid 1960s. (It was the only NZ pop music show on tv at that time.  There was only one channel, and it was in black and white.)   There are very few programmes from early NZ tv that were saved so these are very precious memories - and history - of NZ music of the past.

This is the last C'mon show recorded (Part 1).      And Part 2 of the same programme.

All the performers were very well  known and the celebrities of the day. 

2015 Term 2, Week 4: NZ Sign Language Week

 Last week was New Zealand Sign Language Week.  

Click on the link above to learn some new words in NZSL. 


Let's combine that with NZ Music Month and learn some New Zealand songs in NZ Sign Language (NZSL). Click on the link below for the winner of last year's "Hook Line and Singalong" songwriting competition for primary schools. Islands - NZSL version with lyrics  

Memories of NZ music and musicians

Here's this week's "Song a Day" 
for New Zealand Music Month. 

Check out the blog each day for a new song. 

Monday 11th May:Walking on Water by Benny Tipene
 Benny Tipene is a 24-year-old singer /songwriter from Palmerston North. He is known for his appearance on the first NZ series of The X Factor where he was placed third. His X Factor song, Walking on Water, was a #1 NZ  radio song and was certified platinum. He recently released a full-length album Toulouse that was awarded Best Pop Album  at the 2014 Music Awards.

Walking on Water lyrics
Like a shotgun to the heart
Blown away right from the start
Fallen angel on the sand
Don't need to understand
That I'm in love

[Chorus]
Oh, oh, oh, I’ll dancing through the fire
Turn electric blue
Oh, oh, oh, I'll go walking on water
Just to be with you
Oh, oh, oh, I'll go  dancing through the fire
Turn electric blue
Oh, oh, oh, I'll go  walking on water
Just to be with you

I can see the city lights
Reflecting your eyes
Feel my world light up in flames
With every breath you take
Wanna hear you say my name

[Chorus]

Come on, use your imagination
Now we've landed here
Cut off all communication
Light will find you here

[Chorus]

Tuesday 12th May: Yellow Flicker Beat by Lorde (Hunger Games) 
Lorde wrote this with Joel Little. She released the lead single in September 2014.  It has been described as electropop-style music. The song has been nominated for the Best Original Song at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards.

Yellow Flicker Beat

I’m a princess cut from marble, smoother than a storm
And the scars that mark my body, they’re silver and gold
My blood is a flood of rubies, precious stones,
It keeps my veins hot, the fire's found a home in me
I move through town, I’m quiet like a fire
And my necklace is of rope, I tie it and untie it
And now people talk to me, but nothing ever hits home
People talk to me, and all the voices just burn holes
I’m done with it (ooh)

[Chorus:]

This is the start of how it all ends
They used to shout my name, now they whisper it
I’m speeding up and this is the red, orange, yellow flicker beat 
sparking up my heart
We're at the start, the colours disappear
I never watch the stars, there’s so much down here
So I just try to keep up with the red, orange, yellow flicker beat 
sparking up my heart
I dream all year, but they’re not the sweet kinds
And the shivers move down my shoulder blades in double time
And now people talk to me, I’m slipping out of reach now
People talk to me, and all their faces blur
But I got my fingers laced together and I made a little prison
And I’m locking up everyone who ever laid a finger on me
I’m done with it (ooh)

[Chorus]

And this is the red, orange, yellow flicker beat 
sparking up my heart
And this is the red, orange, yellow flicker beat-beat-beat-beat

Wednesday 13th May: Home Again by Shihad (1988)

Thursday 14th May: Getting Stronger by Adeaze featuring Aaradhna

Friday 15th May: Sway by Bic Runga

2015 Term 2, Week 3: May - New Zealand Music Month

 

Here is the official NZ Music Month 2015 Website 

NZ Music Month on Facebook 

NZ Music Month quiz for Primary Schools  
  
Homework activity: If your parents or grandparents grew up in New Zealand,  ask them about their favourite New Zealand bands and music when they were growing up. Are those bands / performers / musicians still around today?

NZ Music Month for Schools - A Song a Day 
See if you can keep up with viewing and listening to one NZ song each day for the entire month of May.  Here they are starting from May1. 

Friday May 1: April Sun in Cuba  by Dragon 
Dragon was a rock band in the 1970s and were inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in 2011. "April Sun in Cuba" was a hit in both New Zealand (reaching #9 in the charts) and Australia (reaching number #2 ).  It's a popular song for covers bands to play and is in this year's World Vision Kids for Kids "Slice of Heaven" programme as well, so our choirs are already learning this.  Here's a 2010 TV3 News interview with the new line up of Dragon. 

Can you find Cuba?

Monday May 4: E Ipo by Prince Tui Teka 

Prince Tui Teka was born in the heart of Te Uruwera. He wrote this song with the help of Ngoi Pewhairangi, a MAori educator, teacher and translator who also wrote  the lyrics to "Poi E" for the Patea Maori Club. This was the first song in Te Reo to reach #1 on the charts.  The song was based on a popular Indonesian Melody that Teka had listened to while performing overseas.

Tuesday May 5: Slice of Heaven by Dave Dobbyn 

 "Slice of Heaven" was written for the movie Footrot Flats: A Dog's Tale, based on the NZ cartoon series by Murray Ball. The single featured reggae band Herbs, and the song was named 1986 Song of the Year. This song also features in this year's World Vision Kids for Kids Concert which will involve our choirs in November.

Wednesday May 6 In the Neighbourhood by Sisters Underground 

 This song was one of the first hip-hop hits by a NZ group.  Sisters Underground, a hip hop and R&B duo, won Most Promising Group at the 1995 New Zealand Music Awards. 

 Thursday May 7: Sweet Inspiration by the Yandall Sisters 

 Caroline, Mary, Adele and later their younger sister Pauline were the Yandall sisters  and were a popular New Zealand/Samoan all-female singing group of the 1970s. In 1974 their hit song Sweet Inspiration stayed on the NZ Top 20 singles charts for 8 weeks. This is a short Tagata Pasifika  tv item about the Yandall Sisters from 2012.

Friday May 8: I Love the Islands by Savage 
Demetrius Savelio, also known as rap artist Savage, performed the Savage Island album track "I love the Islands" to raise funds for those affected by the Samoan tsunami 2009, in which fourteen of his grandmother's family members lost their lives.