2015 Term 3, Week 8: Guitarist John Williams

                       

This is John Williams playing Cavatina.

John Williams was born in 1941 in Australia. He is one of the most accomplished classical guitarists in the world and is well known for playing in ensembles as well as solo performances. John’s father was from England and his mother was Australian. Her father was an Australian-born Chinese and he was a very well-known lawyer in Melbourne.

John’s father, Len Williams, played jazz and classical guitar and gave John his first guitar when John was four years old. The family returned to England in the early 1950s and Len started up a guitar school. Later on, Len set up a monkey sanctuary in Cornwall and was as well known for that as he was for his music school.

John Williams went to music schools and academies in England and Italy, and studied piano at the Royal College of Music in London - because there was no guitar department. When he graduated from there, he was offered the job of creating the first guitar department at the Royal College of Music in London.

He started playing concerts and had immediate success, being recognised as “a prince of the guitar”. He performed in many countries around the world and recorded many albums of classical music - at a time when most people associated guitarists with pop and rock music.

As well as being known for his classical guitar playing, John Williams has also played in a group called Sky, playing a mix of rock, classical and jazz music. He even played with Pete Townshend of The Who and has composed and arranged music.

He is possibly most well known for playing Cavatina (composed by Stanley Myers), which became the theme for the movie The Deer Hunter (1978).

This is Sky playing an arrangement of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. John Williams is playing the acoustic guitar.

This is a video of John Williams at the BBC Proms in 2005 performing with an orchestra. 

This week's tongue twister:

Is this a giant rat or a miniature guitar?

 In this game you can make words by dragging the note names FACE and EGBDF to under each note on the staff. 

Note names

 Here's a game where you can name notes on a staff. It has 100 notes in each round, so be prepared for a long game.  It has a range of very easy (where we are starting) to very advanced. You can adjust the speed too.

Speed note reading tutor

Here's this week's unusual use of a guitar. Can you work out what parts are used where?

Juniors: 

Here's a Muppet video about a turtle. The turtle in our poem?  

2015 Term 3, Week 7: Guitarist Django Reinhardt

 This is Django Reinhardt performing live with Stephane Grapelli and the Quintette du Hot Club. 

Django Reinhardt is considered to be one of the world’s all-time greatest guitarists. 

He was born in 1910 in Belgium   His parents were  French gypsies and he grew up in gypsy camps near Paris, in France.  His father was a musician and entertainer, and his mother was a dancer.  His real name was Jean  but he was called Django which means “I awake” in the Romani language of his parents.  

When he was young, he learnt to play the violin and an instrument which was a cross between a banjo and a guitar.  He mostly taught himself  to play by copying other musicians, and he never learnt to read or write music.  By the time he was 13 years old,  he was able to make a living playing  music.   He had very little school education and  only learnt the basics of reading and writing when he was an adult.

A young Django Reinhardt - before his fingers were damaged.

He  played popular French music and then became interested in American jazz music and he was becoming a very promising musician in the Paris  club scene in  the mid 1920s. 

In 1928 he suffered serious burns in a fire in his caravan and he severely damaged the fourth and fifth fingers on his left hand and could no longer  use them to press on the guitar strings.  He continued to play the guitar using on his index finger, middle finger and thumb for guitar solos.  (Watch the video to see how he did it.)

Famous French singer Edith Piaf looks at Django's damaged hand.

Can you see how his fingers and hand were damaged in the fire?

He developed a new style of  jazz guitar technique - sometimes called ‘hot’ jazz or gypsy swing. Django formed a band with another French musician called Stéphane Grappelli who played the violin.  They were called  the Quintette du Hot Club de France and were considered to be one of the most original jazz bands of all time.  

Reinhardt died in France in 1953 from a massive stroke. He was aged 43. 

Here's another video of the Quintette du Hot Club playing J'attendrai.   What do you notice about the guitars?

This is a short video about the death of Django and his funeral. It has some interesting information about gypsy customs and culture. 

Follow this link to learn about notation - the names of the notes we use in music. 

Follow this link to the website for this image.

 Dances:Seniors
Surfin' USA  (Beachboys)

Juniors 
I'm Gonna Catch You!

This week's tongue twister:

Mystery Picture: Do you know what this is? 

Scroll down to the end of the post to find out. 

 

This week's unusual guitar. 

This guitar boat was made in Australia  for this music video by Josh Pyke, called Make You Happy .

Mystery picture answer: 
It's the inside of a violin. Can you see the sound holes (f-shaped holes)? 

2015 Term 3, Week 6: Guitarist Tommy Emmanuel

 This Friday, 28th August  is Daffodil Day in New Zealand. This is the Cancer Society's  major fundraising event.

This week's tongue twister:

 Last year we learnt this little  song about Daffodil Day.   

Dance like the sun
Swing with the breeze
Daffodil,  daffodil, sing with me.
Daffodil, daffodil, daffodil,
So pretty and yellow on my windowsill. 

It was written by a musician and singer called Suzi Fray who wrote it for a friend who had died of cancer. Sadly, earlier this year, Suzi herself was diagnosed with cancer and died in June. 

Here's a time-lapse of daffodils  Listen to the music. What can you tell about the instruments?

 This week's Junior dances:
 Shout!   Everyone loved this dance last week. 
The Freeze Game You get to walk, run, hop, march and skip - and freeze!
Jump Up   Another one form last week - which has slow motion as well as fast moves. 

This week's Senior dances: 
 Shout!   Because you enjoyed it so much last week
Kung Fu fighting -because everyone enjoyed this one too. 


This week we are looking at other instruments in the string family.  This is a guitar. It's a special kind of a guitar called an acoustic guitar. That means that the sound comes from the vibrations of the strings resonating though the guitar's body.  The strings can be plucked or strummed.  Look at the two pictures of the guitars. Sometimes the same thing can be called different names.

Classical Gas was composed and originally recorded and performed by Mason Williams. The original version, recorded in 1968, has orchestral backing. What instruments can you hear?  (Here's a video from then, but it's not very good quality.)

Here's a 2012 version of Mason Williams  playing Classical Gas with Deborah Henson-Conant accompanying him on an electric harp.

 Since then,  it has been covered many times, including by Tommy Emmanuel  below. How many different ways does he use the guitar to make sounds? Look at his guitar - why  do you think it is so worn? Why do you think he uses this guitar instead of getting a new one - that isn't so worn?

This is a deck made in the shape of a guitar. The tuning pegs are actually solar lighting panels.

And for a bit of fun . . . Here's the world's first 3D printed violin.  What do you think it sounds like? If you heard it without seeing it, what would you think you were listening to? 

2015 Term 3, Week 5: Remember Red Nose Day this Friday

 This Friday, 21st of August is Red Nose Day to raise funds for Cure Kids. You can find out more about Red Nose Day here.  At our school we are having a mufti day to raise funds for Red Nose Day.

New Dances for this week: 
(Juniors) 
ABC by the Jackson 5 
Jump Up  

(Seniors) 

The Hustle   A real '70s disco dance.
Shout!  How not to behave in the library? 


This week's tongue twister: Unique New York  - and try saying it with a New Zealand accent (Nyoo = New)

Unique New York

We all know the correct names for these instruments now. 

 And there's one more - called an octobass. They are very rare - and very big!  Have a look at this movie clip to see how much bigger it is than a double bass! 

Compare the size of the octobass with the violin.

And while we are still learning about strings: 

David Garrett, a German violinist, holds the Guinness world record for being the fastest violin player.  Here he is in 2009  playing Flight of the Bumble Bee.  

David Garrett

The Flight of the Bumblebee?

This group of musicians is called Well-Strung. They sing and they play strings, and in this video they have done a "mash-up"  of a very old piece of music with a very new piece.  Do you recognise both of them? 

Well Strung

 This week week we are returning to the glockenspiel to learn to play more music. 

First, let's have a look at the  glockenspiel keys. 

glockenspiel keys

  Look at the length of the keys. The longer the key the higher or lower the sound?  How does that compare to the sound of a stringed instrument and the length of the strings? 

Piano and electric keyboard keys, and notes on a stave.

What is the same between the glockenspiel and the piano keys? 
What is different?

Look for the note  names on the keys of your glockenspiel.  

You can find out more about how to play a glockenspiel here.
 

Learn how to hold the mallet correctly first.

Let's start with some really easy songs, just using the names of the notes.

Can you sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star while you play it?

Can you work out the names for each of these notes?

Here's a much harder one for those of you who can already read music. You can play - or sing - this as a round.

We are still working on the song Islands with lyrics and sign language.  

Follow this link for ukulele chords and lyrics for Islands.  We will use the ukulele chords for  glockenspiel accompaniment as well.

2015 Term 3, Week 4: Making a Song and Dance of it . . .

This week's tongue twister:

Following on from our last few weeks' blogs about stringed instruments of the orchestra, here's some examples of more modern versions of stringed instruments.  
This is a group called Asteria Strings and they are playing at a music awards show in Turkey.

Asteria Strings

They are playing electric instruments which look a little different to what you would expect. 

Electric violins

Electric violins

Can you work out what each instrument is? How can you tell?
The music they are playing is called  the Allegretto from Palladio by Karl Jenkins, and it was  written in 1995, so it is a very recent piece of music. 


This one  by Asteria is called "Storm"  from Winter by Vivaldi
and includes dancers. What instruments can you recognise? 

 Check out the tab above for "Songs we Sing"  for some of our favourite songs.

After August, we will no longer be able to use our hall as it will be demolished soon. This week we are going to practise some of our favourite  - and new - dances and songs s we can have some combined class singing and dancing in the hall before it goes forever. Here's some of our favourite dances - and some new ones to practise for our  dance party. 

I like to move it move it - because just about everybody has had to move  classrooms and offices at least once over the past year - and for some, more than once

Celebration - because we will get a new hall eventually. 

Footloose from the movie Footloose.  

Kung Fu fighting - but only when you're dancing!

Who let the dogs out?

Barbara Ann  
 
Mickey  

Hot, hot, hot - after all that dancing! 

Juniors:  Here are some special dances for you


The Chicken Dance 

The Hamster Dance

I've Been Working on the Railroad 

Sid Shuffle from Ice Age: Continental Drift.

I'm a Gummy Bear 

Freeze 

 And we will do last week's poem again - with sound effects - and the previous week's poem about the Turtle.    But try the  tongue twisters as a warm up first.

 
  

2015 Term 3, Week 3: The Centenary of Chunuk Bair

Instead of our usual assembly to commemorate Anzac Day on the 25th of April, this year we are commemorating another special event in our Anzac history.

Poppies growing at Chunuk Bair

This week marks the centenary of the battle  of Chunuk Bair in Gallipoli. We all know about New Zealand's involvement in the Gallipoli landing, on April 25th, and this day has come to represent New Zealand's involvement in all conflicts - and peace-keeping duties - and is called Anzac Day. 

 Some people argue that August 8th and the Battle for Chunuk Bair  is more relevant than April 25th as a date to represent the achievements of New Zealand troops in battle - even though the the campaign ultimately failed. 

Chunuk Bair is in the very top left hand corner.

The Battle for Chunuk Bair in August 1915  was New Zealand’s most significant action in the Gallipoli campaign,  and it was also the first action  to include the MaoriContingent. Chunuk Bair was one of the highest hills, and its capture would help the Allies take control of the Gallipoli peninsula.  Australian troops  would take the summit at Lone Pine,  a battalion of Gurkhas from the Indian Brigade were to take another summit called Hill Q,  and British troops were to land at SuvlaBay  as part of  a major campaign to break the  stalemate at Gallipoli.

The  NZ operation started  on the 6th of August.  Men of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade and the Maori Contingent had cleared a path for the other troops to follow.  But delays meant that the attack on Chunuk Bair was ordered before all the infantrymen were  in place. The Auckland Battalion suffered heavy casualties in the mid-morning attack on the 7th of August,   and the Wellington Battalion, led by Lieutenant - Colonel William Malone, were ordered to follow into direct enemy fire. Malone was a tough but respected commander. It is said that he told his superior, Brigadier-General Johnston:

 "We are not taking orders from you people… My men are not going to commit suicide!"

Malone risked a court martial for refusing to follow this order,  but he  insisted that his men would move out later that night instead.

By early the next morning,  on 8th August,  Malone’s men had reached the summit and they fought desperately to hold off the Turks, while waiting for reinforcements to arrive to help them.  Unfortunately, reinforcements were unable to reach the summit because they were  exposed to enemy fire.

The Sari Bair Range

It was not until that night that the reinforcements finally arrived to help Malone’s men,  and they endured  the following day’s long  battle in the summer heat, but more support was still needed to hold the position.

The New Zealanders were finally relieved  by British Battalions, but these quickly fell to a Turkish counter-attack led by Mustafa Kemal, who went on to become the founding president of Turkey. The Turks had taken back control of Chunuk Bair, and the stalemate continued.

Out of the 760 men of the Wellington Battalion who started, only 47 were left uninjured. The rest were dead or wounded, including  Lieutenant-Colonel William Malone who  had been killed by an Allied shell.

Meanwhile, the Australians had successfully taken control  of Lone Pine - with huge loss oflives, and many wounded -  but no further advancements could be made by the Allies,  and this situation lasted until all the Allies were evacuated from  Gallipoli in December.

A view of Gallipoli in 1915.

Corporal Cyril Basset was awarded New Zealand’s only Victoria Cross at Gallipoli,  for his bravery laying and maintaining communication wires in the face of enemy fire at Chunuk Bair.  Basset did not believe he did anything more than any of the other men who died, and attributed his luck in staying alive to the fact that he was so short that the bullets sailed over him. He said, 

"All my mates ever got  were wooden crosses."

A New Zealand memorial  now stands on the summit of Chunuk Bair. It has a narrow slit, through which the rising sun shines on 8 August.

The memorial to fallen New Zealanders at Chunuk Bair. Note also the memorial to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who led the attack against the Allies at Chunuk Bair.

This is a song about Chunuk Bair which was recorded for the Anzac Day commemoration last year.



This is a link to to the digital track and lyrics of the song Chunuk Bair by New Zealand Band Gravel Road. 

A tv news item on the centenary of Chunuk Bair - This one's about Lieutenant-Colonel William Malone. 

Gallipoli Poem by Alistair Te Ariki Campbell 

These are some songs that were sung in World War 1: 
 Keep the Home Fires Burning - sung at the Chunuk Bair memorial service on Anzac Day, 2015. 

Here's an original version of Keep the Home Fires Burning from 1917. (It was written in 1914)


This week's tongue twister: Try starting off with: Soldier's shoulder then work up to the entire sentence.  You may find that the sentence is easier to say than "Soldier's shoulder".  I wonder why?

 

Juniors: 

 We are going to have some fun with this poem. How many of these sound effects can you make?