Good Morning, I hope you all are staying safe and washing hands. I wanted to share some musical things for you to experiment with for the week of April 6th -10th. 

Open up your chrome browser and go to the following link:

https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Harmonics/ 

This is an experiment about harmonics. This is how sound waves are related or how notes are related to each other. We see here 6 different wave ratios. 1,2,3,4,5,&,6. Touch or click on each different sound wave to hear the sound they each make. Let's try and play the song "Taps" using these harmonics. Play the following sequence of notes in order: (3,3,4------3,4,5,----3,4,5,---3,4,5----,3,4,5-----4,5,6,--5,4,3,---3,3-4----). Some of you that may play a brass instrument may recognize this relationship of notes. It's all the notes that you can play without changing slide position or valves. These notes are like those played on a trumpet or bugle by changing the tightness of your lips inside the mouthpiece of the horn. What other songs could you play using only harmonics? 

Let's check out the arpeggio app. 

https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Arpeggios/

This app allows us to make music using broken chords or arpeggios. If you hit the play buttun in the center it will begin making an arpeggio. Try to start by selecting "C" at the top first. Next select "F" and then "G". If you change these in time with the music you might be able to create some background music for a song. Change the tempo to fit the song you want to try. This app structure is similar to what we see when we are talking about the circle of fifths. You might look up the lyrics and chords to a simple song and use the arpeggio app to make the background music. Or you might even create a song all of your own. There are several different instruments that you can change and several different arpeggio options for a different sound. If you have some of your papers from music class. This would be similar to when we strum a song on the ukulele except it is plucking one string at a time. The chords on the inner circle are minor chords. The ones on the outer circle are major chords. Perhaps you can make your own songs using these arpeggios. Clicking on a new letter name will change the chords for you. Parents you might remember playing an autoharp in school. This is similar to that in many ways. 

If this is your first time coming to the music page please start with some of the lessons in the early weeks. 

Maybe you have your own ukulele at home but it isn't in tune. The video link below is a youtube video to help you tune. It will play each string several times for you to check that it matches. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xKTKjwGCVg

For those of you who have been playing the ukulele for a couple of years, let's give this tutorial for "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6iPnBZJR1E

In the K-2 world there is nothing more important than reading during this time away from school. One of my all time favorites is "Pete the Cat: I love My White Shoes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj_z6zGQVyM

One of my favorite songs to share is one by Pete Seeger on the banjo called "Foolish Frog". It is a tremendously silly song so check it out below. Check our some of Pete's songs as well. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X_mzCaJgNs&list=OLAK5uy_mPAS7jxxdhHS0jNMWRYQjOvb0Avhsk-bQ&index=2

I hope you will find some musical things to do over this break.

Drama Club News: We have made the hard decision to postpone our production of "Wizard of Oz" until  fall 2020.  This will require our current 8th grade students to come back from Boone to rehearse with us. With the loss of rehearsal times, there is no way to pull the production together for this year. No date has been scheduled for this yet. The production company Tams-Witmark has been very understanding about this whole situation and our needs to reschedule. 

Thank you all for your continued support for the Arts @ RVES

Joshua McFadden 

 Week 2 Music Class activities at home. 

Elementary Students (K-4) Students should choose 3 different activities on Chrome Music Lab.

One artist that I love in the K-2 world of music is Raffi. Here is a link to some of his songs. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P2LSwwPBuo&list=PLzeLlJ6GyPIgCRkDHTYSYHSQkRB4W6-f1

Another great kids song artist that I’ve come to love over the years is Roger Day! He has silly songs on just about every topic you can imagine. They are educational too!

https://www.youtube.com/user/RogerDayMusic

Middle School (5th -8th Grades) They should create an account with https://www.roland.com/backstage/login for free. Then they will be able to download Roland Zenbeats which we have played with in class. They can create their own beats and music there.  https://www.roland.com/us/products/zenbeats/ This is a free software app where they can create music of their own making loops, playing with synth sounds, and even recording. They might even be able to write a rap to a beat they have made about being quarantined just for fun. 

Ukulele Tab Link.

The last time we had school some of the classes had made it to “Oh Susanna” on the ukulele

I found a clever video demonstrating the song and shows a tablature for the song. He is playing the melody in red at the same time he plays a harmony in blue. Try to play the red part first then add the blue for a real challenge. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73z0Sb8IazY

When we are learning to play an instrument like the ukulele or guitar, I think it’s important to listen to people that have mastered the instrument. Jake Shimabukuro is definitely a ukulele master. This is his take on “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYhcN8p4yhg

Good Morning, 

Maybe you are looking for some fun music activities during your break. I will share some things here that the students will find beneficial. 

Week 1 March 16-20

K-4 Students can do some musical experiments using Chrome Music Lab. https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/ There are many fun and education activities here relating to pitch and music making. There are experiments there to play with soundwave science as well. They particularly enjoy the voice spinner to record their voices and play it forwards/backwards quickly and slowly. 

5th-8th grade students that have their own ukulele can practice some of the pieces we have been working on in music class. 

Here is a link to "Ode to Joy" https://capotastomusic.blogspot.com/2011/10/ode-to-joy-free-ukulele-tab-sheet-music.html 

Students that have access to their own guitar may play a similar tablature on the guitar. it is in a different key but uses the same fingers and frets. 

https://www.andyguitar.co.uk/online-lessons/lessons/song-1-ode-to-joy/

Students may access the online magazine we use in class "Music Alive" This month's issue is available to digital download and has an article about Luke Ccombs The link below for bluetoad.com will take you there. 

https://bluetoad.com/publication/?m=61739&l=1