2016 Term 2 Weeks 5 and 6: Fat Cats and Fishy Themes

Flying cat gif is from Mrs Lee. We are still laughing out loud.

New Zealand Music Month finished this week, but we still like to learn more about New Zealand music, and this new song from Fatcat and Fishface is definitely a fun song to sing.  It will take a bit of time and practice to get up to speed, but will be a great feeling when we can sing it through. 

 Tip of my Tongue  (Look for the sound track at the top of the page. It's free for the first few times - then you can buy the song on iTunes or the CD. It's well worth it.)

Some vocabulary from the song:
mollycoddle - to fuss over someone and be over-protective
cranny and nook - small places or corners 
buttie - a sandwich 
hoodlum - a person who is out of control or very naughty 
hurtling - travelling at great speed
weasel - an animal, a pest in New Zealand 
Morris Minor - a type of car 

A weasel 

Morris Minor 

A bacon buttie 

More Fatcat and Fishface:

Selfish Shellfish  Lyrics and sound track. (Look for sound track at the top of the page.)

Some vocabulary from these songs: 
typhoon - a very big storm 
port - the lefthand side (or direction) from a vessel when facing the front. 
starboard - the righthand side (or direction) from a vessel facing forward. 

anachronism - something which is historically incorrect because it wasn't invented  or known about at the time. For example, the flush toilet in the Wreck of the Diddley video is an anachronism because those kind of toilets did not exist on ships at the time the song is written about. 
dozen - twelve 
abandon - leave 
core - centre
pipi -  a type of shellfish found on many New Zealand beaches - especially harbours and estuaries 
tua tua - a type of shellfish found on ocean beaches, bigger than a pipi 
kina - a type of sea urchin found on New Zealand beaches. 

tua tua 

pipi 

kina 

Wreck of the Diddley    Lyrics and sound track 

Best Day of My Life - with lyrics 

Best Day of My Life -  with dance moves 

Sh-Boom Sh-Boom Life Could be a Dream (The Koi Boys version)  

Sh-Boom Sh-Boom  lyrics - look on the "Songs we sing" tab above.

Juniors: 
Looby Loo 

And if we have time - A cat concerto by Tom and Jerry from 1947. The music in Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2 by Franz Liszt.  Here's some interesting information about the cartoon.

2016, Term 2, Weeks 3 &4: NZ Music Month Part 2 - More Kiwi Classics

 


This is the original soundtrack of Love in a Fowl House by Garner Wayne. Someone else has done a mash-up of images to accompany it.

This is Crowded House having a bit of fun doing a short version of Love in a Fowl House

Life in Sunshine by Jamie McDell  - with lyrics

Walking on Water by Benny Tipene - with lyrics

Take it Easy by Stan Walker - with lyrics  

Paradise (with New Zealand Sign Language) by Waimarie Smith 



Juniors: 

Here's the Wonky Donkey Dance performance from last week. 

Wreck of the Diddley by Fatcat and Fish Face  
Here's the lyrics 

Selfish Shellfish lyrics   

Another New Classic for New Zealand Music Month: Dave Dobbyn and Herbs  - Slice of Heaven from Footrot Flats

Six Months in a Leaky Boat  by Split Enz is one of New Zealand's most popular songs of all time. Below is a live version of the song.  Live versions are often extended and can sometimes have variations on the original version. 

Listen carefully and see if you can work out the pattern of introduction (intro) verse, chorus, instrumental, and "outro" (coda)




This is what Six Months in a Leaky Boat looks like written in note form.  What notes can you recognise? Can you follow the rhythm?

 

 

Check this link for the zebra version of the running man challenge.

This week's  bonus funny music video

2016 Term 2, Weeks 1 and 2: New Zealand Music Month

Welcome back to Term 2. 

May is NZ Music Month - celebrating and promoting New Zealand homegrown music and the people who make it. 

Juniors: 
Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith

This song won APRA Silver Scroll Award in 2008 for Best Children's Song .

Wonky Donkey composer, singer and author, Craig Smith 

There are lots of videos of this. Here are some: 
Song writer and singer Craig Smith sings Wonky Donkey and plays guitar. 

A cartoon animated version of Wonky Donkey.

Another  animated puppet version 

A dance group's version of the song,  performing to a live audience (of children). 

Love in a Fowl House by  Garner Wayne

(see lyrics on our Songs We Sing tab) 


Here's Crowded House doing a short version of Love in a Fowl House 
Seniors
Paradise   (with NZ sign language)  by Waimarie Smith, a 15-year-old girl from KeriKeri (and Saint Peters School, Cambridge).  This was the winning song in the 1913 Hook, Line and Sing-a-long song writing competition for NZ schools. (Click on the 'Show More' bar under the video to find the lyrics.)  This is another  You Tube of  video with subtitles, but they are not very well synchronised.

Waimarie Smith (2013) 

Here's a news item about Waimarie and her song (2013) 

Paradise - lyrics and chords  Play along with the music, or accompany yourself. 

Paradise - backing track for your own singing 

Sheet music - if you would like to play it yourself 

Paradise  arrangement -  the complete musical arrangement 

Music has been composed by New Zealanders  since the first inhabitants arrived. Here's a video showing the koauau (flute) being played. 

This is the roria - another traditional Maori instrument.  

Listen for the koauau and the roria in  Maria Smith's Paradise recording.  

This is a combination of traditional Maori music and instruments with modern instruments. 

A very short piece by composer Douglas Lilburn called Poco Lento   which means "a little slower" in Italian - and music vocabulary. 


And this is what music we watched on television in 1967 - there was half an hour of  pop music on tv once a week on a Saturday night - one black and white tv channel - that was all!

NZ Songs to Sing:
Life in Sunshine  with subtitles - Jamie McDell
Life in Sunshine   [Official]

Walking on Water with subtitles  - Benny Tipene

Here's the NZ Music Commission's 2016 calendar of a NZ song a day to check out, and a fact sheet about all the songs, composers and performers included. 

Some NZ Music Month picks for you to watch for homework (Mostly from NZ Herald fetaure): 
May 2: Dominion Road by the Mutton Birds (1992) 
May 3: I see Red by Split Enz       (2006 Live version - spot the differences.) 

An article in the NZ Herald, Sunday May 1, about the history of NZ Music Week. 

 And - because it's May the Fourth - Happy Star Wars Day 

Here's a rhythm activity you can do to the music of The Imperial March from Star Wars 

Vocabulary for this week: 
imperial - is an adjective from the word empire; it means relating to an empire, for example, "The Imperial March" from Star Wars  is the march of Dath Vader of the Galactic Empire. 
empire -  an empire is a group of nations ruled over by an emperor or ruler. The British Commonwealth was once called the British Empire and was ruled over by Queen Victoria and her descendants. 
wonky - means not working properly or damaged in some way 
honky tonky - is an adjective describing a style of country music from the southern and south west of USA. It involves very rhythmic piano music - originally played in bars or hotels on old pianos which were damaged or badly tuned. 
lanky- means tall and thin (or long and thin if it's describing hair)
cranky  - is slang  to describe someone who is  bad-tempered or in a bad mood 
hanky panky - is slang for mischief 
spunky - is slang for good-looking
literally - means exactly what each word means; for example, "take a stand" means to pick up the music stand and walk away with it. 
metaphorically - means not literally; sometimes a saying or a word has a different meaning, which may not make sense unless the idea behind it is understood; for example, to "take a stand" metaphorically means to share a strong opinion about something that you believe in - or believe is right (or wrong.)  

A new feature of each blog - a totally random music-related video just for the fun of it.  Check out this Irish-dancing parrot.