Music 

What's been happening in Music?

F/1

As we approach the Concert, the focus is increasingly on developing good singing skills and memorising the songs that we are going to perform. In the next couple of weeks, each colour group is going to be allocated a song that they will be working on and polishing for the Concert. Their song will be one that we have already been learning (heads up: one last new song is coming your way next week!) and the focus will be on memorising, using singing voice (remember: "Thiiiiis is my singing voooooice!") and presentation.

I was very heartened by the responses to this week's singing task - "Keep on Dancing" - and if everyone keeps up this level of engagement and dedication to their performance skills, we are going to "raise the roof"!

NB - more about the Concert below.

2/3

Students in 2/3A, B and C all voted for the song that their grade will be performing, and on Wednesday they found out which ones they got! All three songs are very upbeat, humorous and descriptive. This week, their task was to start choreographing their song with some cool moves so that it looks interesting when we film it for the Concert. Lots of great ideas came forth, and I captured a few of them in the video below:

4/5/6

The last couple of weeks have involved a drum kit challenge - on a home made drum kit! This week the task was playing a set pattern to a VERY drum-centric song: Run Boy Run. Last week, though, students had to create their own pattern to their class song, using whatever objects they could find to put together a home made drum kit. The results were very impressive! Check out some of their work in this video:

And it doesn't stop there - I have started to mix together the individual voice recordings that students submitted a few weeks ago. It's certainly a thorough process (!!) but the preliminary results are definitely worth it! I have prepared a short draft of 46G's voices singing I'm Still Standing.

The intention is to record a simple piano part for each song and put this to their voices so that it is just like singing together in class! For the moment, I've put this one with the original recording:

2020 Concert

Alternate arrangements continue behind the scenes for this year’s Concert. The changes in restrictions have made it difficult for our planning, but as a school we are determined to celebrate Music and Performing Arts at Newlands in any way we can. 

Filming is still intended for early Term 4 if restrictions allow children to be at school at that time – which we are all hoping will be the case! The intention is to film all acts for the Concert at the school so that they can be edited and ready for a screening according to whatever restrictions are in place at the time.  

Nevertheless, you may be interested to know that this year’s State Schools Spectacular, which is scheduled for the last week of Term 3 and in the middle of stage 4 restrictions, is still going ahead in virtual form: all students involved will be filming their dance / act individually and these will be spliced together for a final video. 

How’s that for determination?! We give this as an example to show that no matter what the odds, we will always be looking for a solution to ensure that our children are given an opportunity to perform and contribute to the School Concert. As always, watch this space to see what our next steps will be.