This week during your music time let's just have some FUN and play!   Start by watching this amazing group called Kaboom Percussion perform "The Cup Song" with some totally new and amazing rhythmic tricks.  Click the red link below to watch them. 

Kaboom Percussion: Good Cup/Bad Cup

You probably recognize the original "cup game" (made popular in the movie, Pitch Perfect).  This group then made up lots of new ways to play rhythms on the cups based on the original pattern.  In music this is called a VARIATION. 

Now it's your turn to grab some cups and see what rhythms and variations you can come up with.  Start with something simple and then add a little flip here and an extra tap there and see what you end up with.  Send me a video of your awesome cup rhythms!!!  

Be sure to use plastic cups, NOT glass. And ask a grown up before you start if the cups you have chosen are okay to use for this music activity!

If you are really into it and you want to learn some of Kaboom's variations, all the tutorials are on this link: 

Kaboom Percussion: Cups Tutorials

WEEK 6- Chrome Music Lab

May 4-8  Grades K-5

Chrome Music Lab is a great learning tool to explore music and its connections to science, math, art and more!  It is a website that makes learning music more accessible through fun, hands-on experiments. Take a break from your reading and math packets to explore a few of these amazing activities!   I have created a separate link for each experiment.  Read the explanation for each activity and try out the ones that sound interesting to you.  HAVE FUN!! 

Song Maker-To make a song, add notes by clicking the grid. Then, share your song with a link. You can also sing a note into your computer mic or use your computer keys. Press the arrow keys to move, enter and backspace to add and remove notes, and spacebar to play.

Rhythm-Rhythms are patterns of sound in time. The most common rhythms repeat every four beats, but it can also be every three, five, six, or more. Click on the grid to build your own rhythms.

Spectrogram-A spectrogram is a picture of sound. A spectrogram shows the frequencies that make up the sound, from low to high, and how they change over time, from left to right. With this experiment you can compare spectrograms of different sounds, or use the mic to see what your own sounds look like.

Chords-A basic chord is made up of three notes. Tap a note on the piano to play a chord starting on that note.

Sound Waves-Sounds travel through the air like waves through water – but a lot faster. The blue dots represent air molecules bouncing back and forth as sound travels through them. Tap the magnifying glass to zoom in and see a red line graphing the position of one molecule, tracing the shape of the wave.

Arpeggios-An arpeggio is a chord played one note at a time. This experiment lets you play arpeggios in different patterns. Tap the wheel to explore major and minor chords.

Kadinsky-This experiment is inspired by Wassily Kandinsky, an artist who compared painting to making music. It turns anything you draw – lines, circles, triangles, or scribbles – into sound.

Melody Maker-Grids like this one are a common interface for creating melodies. Time moves left to right and pitch goes up to down. Tap to add notes, then use the buttons on the bottom to play and change your melody.

Voice Spinner-Spin the spinner like a record player - slow, fast, forward, backward - to hear how it affects the sound. You can also record your own voice, or other sounds around you. The pitch of your voice gets higher when spun faster, and lower when spun slower.

Harmonics-The harmonic series is a set of frequencies with a simple relationship: twice as fast, three times as fast, four times, and so on. Musical intervals emerge from this natural phenomenon, such as the octave and the major chord (like the opening notes of "Star Spangled Banner").

Piano Roll-Originally, a piano roll was a roll of paper that you fed into a self-playing piano to make it play a piece. This experiment is inspired by piano rolls. You can watch the notes flow by, scrub it back and forth, and change the sounds.

Oscillators-An oscillator makes sound by vibrating at a steady rate, known as its frequency. Drag your finger up and down to change the oscillator’s frequency, or swipe to hear different types of oscillators. To hear a really slow oscillator, pick the square shape and touch the very bottom of your screen.

Strings-This experiment lets you explore the natural mathematical relationship between a string’s length and its pitch. For example, the second string is half the length of the first, and it plays the same note an octave higher.

April 27- May 1

3rd, 4th and 5th grade Lesson

ELEMENTS OF MUSIC OVERVIEW

The elements of music are the building blocks that give each piece of music its distinct sound. Being familiar with the elements can help you better understand and appreciate a piece of music.

Pitch refers to how high or low a note sounds. There may be a wide range of pitches in a piece of music.

Melody refers to the sequence of specific notes or pitches. Think of a family song, such as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” or “Happy Birthday to You.” The sequence of pitches makes the song recognizable.

Harmony happens when two or more pitches are played or sung at the same time.

Tempo refers to how fast or slow the basic pulse of a piece of music is. Rhythm describes the pattern of beats that fit into the tempo of a piece of music.

Dynamics is the element of music that describes how loud or soft the sound is. Dynamics can help convey emotion in a piece of music.

Timbre (pronounced tam-bor) is the musical term for the type of sound an instrument or voice makes—its character or personality.

Watch this video about the elements of music.   PBS Music Video

Answer these questions when you are done watching:

1. What do you think about music being called “organized sound”?
2. What elements of music did you know already?
3. What instruments did Mr. Acker use to demonstrate the elements of music?
4. What do you think about the “wrenchophone”?
5. Which elements are most interesting to you and why?

• Ask a grown up to help you find 4 different fillers for your eggs.   Some ideas include rice, dry beans, beads, legos, seeds, or pebbles, but feel free to try out other things as well. 
• Fill one side of the plastic egg with a filler.  Close the egg and carefully tape it closed.  Fill each egg with a different filler and be sure to write down which filler is in which color egg.  (Example: Red-beans, Blue- rice, Green-pebbles, Yellow-beads)
• Test them out and decide which filler material sounds f, mf, mp, and p.  
• Take some pics or video and email them to Mrs. Watson. Tell me about what you put inside your egg shakers and which filler make the loudest sound.