Performing Arts

In Music this semester, we’ve been exploring how we can perform songs that are important to us. We began by identifying songs and instruments that we like. Then we wondered what we could play if we didn’t have any “real’ instruments. Apart from instruments that have been bought, we could also make some instruments and we did this. (Thanks for all those who sent in boxes and bottles and junk for this!) We also found instruments- well they weren’t really instruments, but we found things in the environment that we could use as instruments. We also explored our bodies as instruments by making sounds with our hands, feet and mouths. 

Did you know that even if we are playing the same song with the same instruments, we can still make it sound different? We can vary the volume (loud, soft), the tempo (fast, slow) the pitch (high, low). We practised keeping the beat and some of us also explored rhythm and structure. Through all of our experiences, we learnt more about our own preferences and were able to choose how to perform a song that was important to us. We’re making some great videos of these performances that you’ll be able to see at our culminating event in the last week of the term. 

Meanwhile, we prepared for our visiting performers who presented the show, “Music in my suitcase.” These musicians played songs that are important to people from Turkey, Wales, France and Macedonia. We listened to these songs, learning some actions and words. That meant we could join in and have even more fun when they performed last Tuesday.