Music with Emily 

This week our 3/4 class started their music class outdoors in our recently landscaped green space.  After their incursion with the 4/5 class for Indiginous Literacy, they played a music game, to get their wiggles out, before moving back into the music space to carry on with their ukulele unit.

Whats been happening in music this term....so far.

This term students in 3,4,5 & 6 have been learning to play the ukulele. 

We start each lesson with some inspiration from interesting uke players from around the world (such as Jake Shimabukuro, Honoka and Azita, Eddie Vedder and Taimane Gardner).We are recognising the unique sound a ukulele makes and how it can be used to play many different music styles and in many different ways.

Finger exercises and warm-ups come next in our lessons as finger strength and dexterity are crucial for playing a stringed instrument. 

We have learnt how the rhythm in the music is made by the strumming hand (usually right hand) and how when you change the strumming pattern it makes the piece sound different. We have had some sore skin around our fingernails and are learning how to protect our soft hands when our hands are new to a repetitive action like strumming. It is a lot harder than it looks!

Our left hands and fingers have been learning to hold the ukulele correctly and to place fingers on the fretboard in the correct places to make different chords. The chords we have mastered so far are C, G, Am and F. This week we watched a clever song ‘mashup’ that demonstrated just how many pop songs have that exact chord progression. So many! So now the sky’s our limit, we can strum along with many well-known songs that use the chord progression I, V, vi, IV.

Some of our class members are Spooky Ukie players and already have many of the beginner skills for making great ukulele music. These students have been mentors in our classes and have also been improving their picking skills to add another layer to the pieces we’re learning. 

Prep, 1 and 2 student have been continuing to sing, move and make morning music each Monday and Wednesday mornings. Such a great way to wake up our bodies and brains.

This term they are learning more about rhythm and how to make, read and write different rhythms. Their understanding of Tas (crotchets) and tis (quavers) has improved playing Poison Rhythm,  Clapping Stick games and Rhythm Chairs.

Here are P/1 students making up rhythms with the Ta and ti-ti cards and writing the notation on whiteboards.