2017 Term 1, Week 9: Time for tests

This week we are assessing our progress on the ukulele, in reading and clapping rhythm patterns (Seniors and Intermediates) in singing (Seniors) and in following instructions and keeping in time in dances and clapping games, and singing (Juniors). 

Add bar lines to make 5 bars with four beats in each bar. 

Dances: 
Juniors warm up: Lullaby Time
Happy 70th Birthday, Sir Elton John!  
Here's our tribute to Elton John, Crocodile Rock 
Hold Still 
Freeze Game
Everything is Awesome (Note: If you mirror this song, note that their left will be your right. Best to organise in rows of 5 - 7 before hand for linking arms part of song.)

Johnny B Goode - Chuck Berry 1965 (our dance version) 
Johnny B Goode -  Live with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 1995 

Ukulele: Basic (note that G7 can be played instead of G in these songs.)
Coconut song (C7)
Banana Boat Song (F, C7) 
Rock 'n' Roll medley (C, F, G7) Rockin' Robin, Blue Suede Shoes, Hound Dog 
Surfin' USA  (C, F, G7)
Best Day of My Life   C, F (and a wee bit of Dm) 
The Lion sleeps tonight (C, F ,G or G7)
You are my sunshine (C, F, G or G7) Fast forward to 35 seconds in. 
Yellow Bird (C, F, G7)
La Bamba (C, F, G)
Don't Worry, Be Happy   (C, Dm, F) 
Roll over Beethoven   (Use the 12 bar blues in C pattern below for this.)

Ukulele  more advanced. 
I'm Yours  C, Am, F, G 
Love, Love, Love C, Am, F, G 
One Call Away   C, Am, F, G 
Count on Me  C,  Em, Am, G, F, Dm 
Fight Song   G, Em7, C, G, D, 
Sweet Home Alabama  D, C, G, F

Dynamics Quiz: 
Try this interactive quiz out to test your knowledge of the vocabulary of music dynamics.  It's a drag and drop game and may need a bit of practice to work it out. 

Songs: 
Threw it out the Window (Scroll down this blog post to find the lyrics) 
Baby Shark song
Watch out all you two legged mice
Wonky Donkey (Lyrics only)

Rose, Rose (piano backing only)
Rose, Rose (Sung as a round)

Note that the music above may not exactly match the music or singing in the links above. Can you hear where there are differences? (Clue: listen and watch bar 1.) 

2017, Term 1, Week 8: RIP Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry and Bob Dylan 

This week Chuck Berry died, aged 90.  He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century , and was one of the first rock and roll guitarists.  Many of the world's greatest rock and pop musicians have covered his songs, performed on stage with him, and acknowledged his influence on their own music style.

Chuck Berry and Tina Turner

Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley 

Chuck Berry and Bruce Springsteen

Chuck Berry and Mick Jagger

He was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry on October 18, 1926, in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Both his parents were the grandchildren of slaves. His father was a carpenter and a deacon in his church, and his mother was one of the few black women of her generation to gain a college education. Berry grew up in a middle class black neighbourhood and had never seen a white person until he saw firemen putting out a fire when he was three. He thought they had turned white with fear of the flames.

Berry learnt to play guitar as a teenager and performed first at his high school. He was involved in an attempted armed robbery and spent some time in a reform school, then worked for his father and for General Motors as a janitor. He also studied hairdressing and cosmetology at night school and became a beautician. In the 1950s he joined a band and had his first Top 10 hit with Maybelline, followed by several others, including Sweet Little Sixteen,  Roll Over Beethoven, and Johnny B Goode which is in the top ten rock songs of all time and is considered to be one of the most recognisable rock songs of all time. It was the first hit song to be written about rock and roll music, and is loosely auto-biographical. 
                                   
Chuck Berry is also famous for his duck walk. Although other guitarists may have done it before him, he popularised it and is credited as the inventor.  Berry said that he used to do it as a child to entertain his family, and that when he performed it on stage in 1956, the audience loved it so much he included it in his routine from then on.

Johnny B Goode played by Michael J Fox also appears in Back to the Future.  Note that one of the characters rings his cousin Chuck Berry to say he's found the new sound Chuck had been looking for . . . 

Add bar lines to make five bars of four beats in each bar. 

Ukulele: 
Yellow Bird (C,  F, G 7) 
Rock 'n' Roll medley   (C,  F, G7) Rockin' Robin, Blue Suede Shoes, Hound Dog 
Coconut song (C7)
Banana Boat Song (F, C7)
La Bamba (C, F, G)
You are my sunshine (C, F, G) Fast forward to 35 seconds in.
The Lion sleeps tonight (C, F ,G)
Roll over Beethoven - play along with Chuck Berry in C Major

Advanced 
I'm Yours   Introducing G and A minor.  

"Johnny B. Goode"

Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans,
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood,
Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode
Who never ever learned to read or write so well,
But he could play a guitar just like a ringing a bell.

[Chorus:]
Go Go
Go, Johnny, go, go
Go, Johnny, go, go
Go, Johnny, go, go
Go, Johnny, go, go
Johnny B. Goode

He used to carry his guitar in a gunny sack
Or sit beneath the tree by the railroad track.
Oh, the engineers would see him sitting in the shade,
Strumming with the rhythm that the drivers made.
The people passing by, they would stop and say,
"Oh, my, but that little country boy could play!"

[Chorus]

His mother told him, "Someday you will be a man,
And you will be the leader of a big old band.
Many people coming from miles around
To hear you play your music when the sun go down.
Maybe someday your name will be in lights
Saying 'Johnny B. Goode tonight'."

[Chorus]

2017, Term 1, Week 7: Saint Patrick's Day

Juniors warm up: Lullaby Time

Add bar lines to have four beats in each bar. 

Saint Patrick's Day 

Saint Patrick’s Day  is March 17th and it is a special holiday in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It marks the death of the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick. 

Not a lot is known about Patrick, but we do know that he was born in Britain, and at the age of 16 was captured by Irish raiders and taken back to Ireland where he was kept as a slave, working as a shepherd. He became Christian, and escaped from Ireland to return to Britain where he trained as a priest. He then returned to Ireland to convert the largely pagan Irish to Christianity. It is said that Saint Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland - although there were never any snakes in Ireland, although this is just a saying. Eventually he returned to Britain where he died.

Saint Patrick’s Day is a day when many people with (or without) Irish ancestry celebrate the Irish culture and history. It is also a popular festival in the USA where many Irish people immigrated since the 1700s. Early Irish immigrants to America started the tradition of a Saint Patrick’s Day parade which still happens today. 

People wear green and often drink Irish beer or whiskey and eat Irish food - especially corned beef and cabbage.

A shamrock (a four-leafed clover),  pot of gold and leprechauns are all associated with Saint Patrick’s Day and are all associated with good luck.

Irish dancing has become very popular. Riverdance is a world-famous dance company who have created a lot of interest in Irish dancing. Here's their most famous dance. 

Here's Happy Feet doing their version of Lord of the Dance   

Instruments often used in Irish music. 

Find the tin whistle, bodhran (bow-ron),  harp,  piano, guitar, accordian, uillean pipes (illan). 

Here's an Irish song called "Toss the Feathers" by The Corrs  What instruments can you identify? 

The Rattlin Bog   (Click on title for link to music) 

(Chorus 2x)
O ro the rattlin' bog
The bog down in the valley - o
O ro the rattlin' bog
The bog down in the valley - o
And in the bog there was a tree
A rare tree, a rattlin' tree
With the tree in the hole
and the hole in the bog,
and the bog down in the valley-o

(Chorus 1 x)
And on the tree there was a limb
A rare limb, a rattlin' limb,
With the limb on the tree,
and the tree in the hole,
and the hole in the bog
and the bog down in the valley-o. 

And on the limb there was a branch ...
And on the branch there was a twig ...
And on the twig there was a nest ...
And in the nest there was an egg ...
And in the egg there was a chick ...
And on the chick there was feather ...
And on the feather there was a flea ...

I'll tell me Ma  (Click on title for link to music) 
I'll tell me ma when I go home
The boys won't leave the girls alone
They'll pull my hair, they stole my comb
Well, that's alright till I go home

She is handsome, she is pretty
She is the belle of Belfast City
She is courtin' one, two, three
Please won't you tell me, who is she?

Albert Mooney say's he loves her
All the boy's are fighting for her
They knock at the door and ring at the bell
Oh my true love, are you well?

Out she comes as white as snow
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
Ole Jenny Murray says she'll die
If you don't get the fella with the roving eye

Let the wind and the rain and hail blow high
And the snow come tumbling from the sky
She's as nice as apple pie
She'll get her own lad by and by

When she gets a lad of her own
She won't tell her ma when she comes home
Let them all come as they will
For it's Albert Mooney she loves still

I'll tell me ma when I go home
The boys won't leave the girls alone
They'll pull my hair, they stole my comb
Well, that's alright till I go home

She is handsome, she is pretty
She is the bell of Belfast City
She is courtin' one, two, three
Please won't you tell me, who is she?

I'll tell me ma when I go home
The boys won't leave the girls alone
They'll pull my hair, they stole my comb
Well, that's alright till I go home

She is handsome, she is pretty
She is the bell of Belfast City
She is courtin' one, two, three
Please won't you tell me, who is she?

Molly Malone  F  C7

In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
As she wheeled her wheelbarrow
through streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels alive a-live O!

A-live a-live O! A-live a-live O!
Crying cockles and mussels alive a-live O!

She was a fishmonger and sure‘twas no wonder
For so were her father and mother before
And they both wheeled their barrows
through streets broad and narrow Crying cockles and mussels alive a-live O!

She died of a fever and no one could save her
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone
Now her ghost wheels her barrow
through streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels alive a-live O!

Other Songs

Rose, Rose (piano backing only)
Rose, Rose (Sung as a round) 

Watch out all you two-legged mice 

Baby Shark song

Other dances 

Lullaby Time
Freeze Game
Hold Still
Feeling Good
Dynamite
Hot Potato
Sid Shuffle
We no Speak Americano

    

2017, Term 1 Week 6: Haydn Seek . . .

Haydn loved playing tricks and jokes on people - including his audiences. 

Dances - Juniors: 
Lullaby Time 
Freeze Game
Hold Still 
Feeling Good 
Dynamite 
Hot Potato 
Sid Shuffle 
We no Speak Americano

Intermediates - Brooklyn Hustle from Saturday Night Fever)  Note: This is not a mirror image dance - the instructor's  left and right moves need to be your left and right moves. Take care that you check each movement out for this.) Teach yourself to do this dance by following the instructor. Work with a partner or a small group. 

Songs - Juniors: 
Baby Shark song 
Watch out all you two legged mice 
Wonky Donkey   (Lyrics only) 

Seniors: 
Rose, Rose  (piano backing only)
Rose, Rose (Sung as a round) 

Add bar lines to make 5 bars with 4 beats in each bar.

Here's another version of Hayden's Surprise symphony.  What do you think the audience were expecting?

 "Haydn Seek" Quiz: 

Scroll down to the end of this post to find the answers.

Haydn's Trumpet Concerto
Skip to 10:00 to watch the last few seconds of the second movement before the beginning of the Allegro (3rd movement). Notice that the audience do not applaud between movements - they wait until the very end of the entire concerto.  

Look and listen for: 
- how does the conductor know when to start the last movement? 
- what does the trumpeter do at the end of the second movement before she starts to play again?
- how does the conductor indicate the dynamics (volume)in this piece of music?
- examples of pianissimo, piano and forte,  fortissimo, crescendo and decrescendo. 
- examples of sudden and gradual changes in dynamics
- what happens at the end of the performance?  Watch very carefully to see what you can notice that you learnt about last week. 




Vocabulary: 
concerto: piece of music in three parts - called movements. 
movement: one part of a larger or longer pice of music 
allegro:  a word to describe the tempo of a piece of music to be played quickly, lively and cheerfully 
finale: the  final piece of music in a longer composition, or the last item in a concert. 

You can watch this video from the beginning - or skip to 10:30 possibly the most well-known part of Hayden's Trumpet Concerto: the third movement finale, also called the Allegro. 

A concerto is a piece of music usually in three movements where one instrument (usually) plays with an orchestra accompanying them in support.  (Think of Tom and Jerry's Cat Concerto  cartoon where the cat plays the piano and the orchestra plays in the background.)  

And just for fun - and the relievers in our music classes on Friday:  
(1) Here is Danny Kaye telling the story of the Little Fiddle.  
- Listen for the way he describes the instruments: fiddle (What is another name for the fiddle?), French horn, trumpet, glockenspiel, kettle drum

(2) A cute little short movie from Pixar - about how to cope with things going badly. Notice how the narrator tells the story in time with the music. 
 

 Answers to Haydn Seek Quiz 

- He was born on 31st March, 1732, in Austria. 
- He died 31st May 1809 in Vienna, Austria. 
- He started singing in a cathedral choir when he was just 5 years old. 
- He left the choir when he was 16, after his voice broke and he no longer had a good voice. 
- He cut the pigtail off a fellow chorister and was caned in public as punishment. 
- He is considered to be one of the greatest classical composers. 
- He is sometimes known by the nickname "Papa Haydn". 
- He taught Beethoven for a short time. 
- He became very rich and famous in his own life time, unlike Mozart. 
- He liked playing  tricks and pranks on people - like in the Surprise Symphony. 
- He was quite ugly and couldn't understand why so many attractive women liked him. 
- His younger brother Michael Hayden (1737 - 1806) is also a well-known composer. 
- Mozart and Haydn each thought the other was an exceptional composer. 
- He has been reburied several times - the latest in 1954. 
- After he was first buried, his head was stolen, and it wasn't reunited with the rest of his body until its final reburial in 1954.