Music

This week in Music, our F1s learnt a new song set to the familiar melody of Frère Jacques (Brother John). We began by singing the solfa to check our pitch, and it was wonderful to see how confident the children were using almost the entire solfa scale. We then added movement to the lyrics before examining the musical notation together, identifying crotchets and quavers in the score.

We kept exploring with crotchets and quavers, using Lego and Duplo blocks to represent the long and the shorter note values. As the children created their own rhythmic patterns, I was especially impressed by our Year 1s, who drew on their previous learning by incorporating rests into their compositions. 

Our 2/3/4 class concluded their work on the Torres Strait Islander song Taba Naba, performing with the warup (drum), rasps, and clapsticks. Each instrument played a different rhythmic pattern, and the children used musical notation to follow their individual parts while relying on their listening skills and musicality to stay together as an ensemble. It was wonderful to see them play with growing confidence, excellent teamwork and a strong sense of rhythm.

I gave the 5/6s a very quick run through of the Western music timeline for context leading up to avant-garde composer John Cage. We discussed the structured rules and forms of composers throughout history before discovering how Cage challenged traditional ideas of what music could be by thinking completely outside the box. We 'heard' his most famous work 4'33'' and we also sampled the ongoing performance of ORGAN²/ASLSP (As Slow As Possible) set to conclude in the year 2640. I am looking forward to seeing the creativity of our senior students shine as they begin composing their own original works next week.