Primary Music News

For most of our primary students, this is our second year of learning music together. Our Primary students’ understanding of theory has grown, and we are looking forward to gaining a deeper understanding of music and exploring more creativity and composition this year.

Understanding music is not only about learning to sing or play the pieces with the correct rhythm and pitch, but also learning about the cultural background of the music, the style, the feelings which are produced by listening, singing or playing the songs, as well as the meaning of the songs. We have learnt songs from different countries and cultures, such as the 'Dragon Dance' from China. We played and listened to the sounds Chinese instruments made to work out what instruments were played in this song. We love to dance with happy songs, like 'Sing out an Easter Song', which has wonderful bagpipe sounds as the song has a Scottish background.

Through music and lyrics, writers can express themselves and what is special to them. For example, 'I am Australian' is welcoming everyone to be an Australian. 'Together we can Change the World' is encouraging people to believe that small actions can mean a lot to our environment. These songs affected the emotions of our students. They learned sign language for 'I am Australian', and picked up the rubbish on the playground as the small thing they could do that would effect the environment.

Infant students have composed their own rhythm pieces through clapping, speaking, or writing, while students in primary have composed rhythm pieces, riffs, voice melodies and lyrics. They have also been applying the strategy of “visual music” which they learned last year.

Music is a language that we can all sing with one voice together that can lift our spirits and change our world. I am grateful for our little musicians and their growing love of music in our music classes and choir. I am looking forward to seeing our progress every week.

Mrs Clara Deng

Primary Music Teacher