National Kazoo Day

So, you know how there are some really strange holidays out there? For example, yesterday was Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day. Well, today is National Kazoo Day. Enjoy it with these examples of kazoo prowess.

Here's a kazoo cover of Metallica's "Enter Sandman."

And here's a kazoo cover of "One Day More" from the musical Les Miserables.

2013 Winter Concert

I want to congratulation all of the Lannoye students on a wonderful pair of winter concert performances! I heard nothing but praise from members of the audience. They were happy to hear the 3rd graders singing in Russian and the 4th graders singing in Hebrew, to hear so many students playing instruments, and to hear students singing in rounds (3rd and 4th grade) and descants (5th grade - "Christmas through the Eyes of a Child"). Again, thank you to all of the people who made this possible!

If you couldn't make it to the concert (or if you want to relive it), here are the videos of each song!

Kindergarten: 

"Snow is Falling Today"

"My Red Sled"

1st Grade

"If I Could Fly like a Snowflake"

"For You"

2nd Grade

"Snowman Choir"

"Merry Christmas Bells"

Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and 2nd Grade

Accompanied by 5th grade on recorders

"The World Says Merry Christmas"

3rd Grade

Here We Come A-Caroling

Yolochka

4th Grade

"Do You Hear?"

"Shalom Chaverim"

5th Grade

"Music Alone Shall Live"

"Christmas through the Eyes of a Child"

3rd Grade, 4th Grade, and 5th Grade

"My Favorite Things"

Whole School, K-5

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

Practice Makes Better

Some inspiration to get started...

"Practice is the hardest part of learning, and training is the essence of transformation." (Ann Voskamp, author)

"Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice reduces the imperfection." (Toba Beta, author)

"Forget perfect on the first try. In the face of frustration, your best tool is a few deep breaths, and remembering that you can do anything once you've practiced two hundred times." (Miriam Peskowitz, author)

"Talent is only a starting point." (Irving Berlin, composer)

"What I have achieved by industry and practice, anyone else with tolerable natural gift and ability can also achieve." (Johann Sebastian Bach, composer)

"Champions keep playing until they get it right." (Billie Jean King, tennis player)

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit." (Aristotle, philosopher)

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started." (Mark Twain, author)

And some inspiration to keep going...

"I can accept failure - everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying." (Michael Jordan, basketball player)

"It's fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure." (Bill Gates, inventor, programmer, investor)

"Don't be afraid to fail. Don't waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It's okay to fail. If you're not failing, you're not growing." (H. Stanley Judd, author)

"A failure is not always a mistake; it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying." (B. F. Skinner, psychologist)

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." (Thomas Edison, inventor)

"For every failure, there's an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour." (Mary Kay Ash, entrepreneur)

"Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle." (Napoleon Hill, author)

"All growth depends on activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work." (Calvin Coolidge, 30th U.S. president)

Now pick up that recorder/basketball/pencil/math problem/book/controller/snowboard/etc. and get to work! It might be difficult...but it will be worth it. Be gentle to yourself, observe things without judging, and realize that perfection won't happen right away. If you start practicing now, though, you'll get better faster than if you choose not to practice! :)

http://www.tonedeafstore.com/collections/posters/products/fail-chart 

DRUM card opportunity: Using proper spelling and grammar (and proper punctuation and capitalization!), tell me how practice, failure, and success are all related. If you'd like, you can also share your reaction to the "Practice Makes Better" post.

Nontraditional Music Videos

Fun fact: MTV (Music Television) launched on August 1, 1981, airing "Video Killed the Radio Star." However, music videos had been around for quite a few years before MTV began.

Some music videos are pretty straightforward, with singing, instruments, maybe some dancing, and perhaps it takes place at some exotic location with great weather. This requires planning, multiple recording takes, and lots of people. Other music videos are different. Here are some neat, "nontraditional" music videos.

The Artist: OK Go
The Song: "Here it Goes Again"
The Nontraditional Aspect: This video includes dancing...on treadmills. (Please do not try this at home. Or the gym. Or anywhere else.) It took the band 17 tries to get the dance right!

The Artist: OK Go
The Song: "This Too Shall Pass"
The Nontraditional Aspect: This video utilizes what is called a Rube Goldberg machine, which takes some simple task and accomplishes it using some comical, complicated contraption. An example of this would be the game Mouse Trap. This video does the same thing. How many steps does it take to get to the end result?

The Artist: OK Go
The Song: "Needing/Getting"
The Nontraditional Aspect: This video was an advertisement for the Chevy Sonic. It uses different additions to the car to make sounds on different found instruments set up on a driving course in a desert. For two months, the band worked with an acoustical engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, planning the instruments, the course, and everything in between. They used lots of math, science, and good old experimentation! The lead singer also went to stunt driving school during the preparations for shooting the video. One of the band members wrote a computer program to figure out how fast the car had to go throughout the song. Here's the final product:

The Artist: Daft Punk
The Song: Harder Better Faster Stronger
The Nontraditional Aspect: The lyrics in this song are very repetitive, so you'll find out how one fan decided to mix it up a bit.

The Artist: Oren Lavie
The Song: Her Morning Elegance
The Nontraditional Aspect: This video shows a variety of actions and places, all one on background object. This shows how awesome video editing can be!

The Artist: Coldplay
The Song: Strawberry Swing
The Nontraditional Aspect: All of the animation on this looks like chalk, but it's hand-drawn and then combined with technology.

The Artist: Jesse & Joy
The Song: Chocolate
The Nontraditional Aspect: This is another video with a variety of animation. It's also in Spanish.

The Artist: a-ha
The Song: Take on Me
The Nontraditional Aspect: This video took home six awards from the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards. Imagine your comic book or graphic novel coming to life.

The Artist: The White Stripes
The Song: Fell in Love with a Girl
The Nontraditional Aspect: Do you like LEGOs? This video was shot frame by frame, rebuilding the LEGOs for each shot. It won three MTV Video Music Awards in 2002.

Music Notes: End of December 2013

Music Notes

December 2013

Greetings from the Lannoye music room!

I’m very proud of all of our students for the spectacular winter concert performance they gave earlier this week! They were great vocalists, instrumentalists, speakers, and audience members. Audience members were able to witness this cross-sectional view of students’ growth from kindergarten through 5^th grade. We had a great turnout and a wonderful day of performing!

As a reminder, whenever your child goes to any performance (band, choir, etc.) outside of the school day, if s/he brings back a program with a sentence written on it stating one thing s/he liked about the concert and why, s/he will receive a DRUM (Demonstrating Respect and Understanding in Music) card. I encourage everyone to explore the musical performances in the area. Speaking of which, there is a time change for tomorrow night’s Christmas Collage concert, featuring the Pulaski Area Community Band, children’s choir, and Ringers & Singers.

            Thursday, December 19          7 - 8 pm           Community Band Christmas Collage
                                                                                                PHS Ripley PAC

Attending outside performances is not required, but it is a great way to explore the musical happenings in the community (and a way for your child to earn a DRUM card). J

Glancing ahead to area performances in 2014…

If your family is interested, there is a variety of shows coming to the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in Appleton in the next six months, including Wicked (The Wizard of Oz told from the Wicked Witch of the West’s perspective), Step Afrika! (a professional step show), Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Sister Act, The Phantom of the Opera (the longest-running show in Broadway history), and the Fox Valley Symphony’s performance of Carmina Burana. There will also be a variety of performances at the Weidner Center in Green Bay, including Man of la Mancha (the musical about the literary character Don Quixote), West African Dance of Madison, and the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Ode to Joy. The Meyer Theatre in Green Bay is also hosting numerous events, including Doctors in Recital (over 50 area physicians perform musically to raise money for local charities), Gaelic Storm, and multiple performances by both the Civic Symphony of Green Bay and the Allouez Village Band. Over break, I will assemble a blog post with all of this information in it and more, including ticket prices and links to the events.

Moving back to the present, the 2^nd graders are finishing up their unit on The Nutcracker this week. In addition to learning about (and listening to) the story, they learned about the similarities and differences between authors, composers, and choreographers. They also learned a fun fact about composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: He was convinced that if he conducted an orchestra, his head would fall off! He combated this fear by holding his head with one hand and conducting with the other. The students also took a field trip to see the Northeastern Wisconsin Dance Organization perform highlights of Act II of The Nutcracker last Friday, and they found it enjoyable, with “relaxing music,” as one student told me afterward.

I've really enjoyed the portion of 2013 that I spent with your children, and I’m looking forward to continuing our learning and music-making journey in 2014! Happy holidays and safe travels, everyone!

As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Ms. Corinne Galligan
(920) 822-0433
cmgalligan@pulaskischools.org
lannoyemusic.blogspot.com 

Happy Holidays!

In the spirit of the holidays, I thought I would share some fun music-related holiday videos with you all!

Straight No Chaser: "12 Days of Christmas"
Straight No Chaser is a male a cappella group (no instruments). Here is their rendition of "The 12 Days of Christmas"...with some other songs thrown in the middle of it!

Claymation Christmas: "Carol of the Bells"
This piece probably sounds familiar, but it might look different in this video! The narrator has a "hunch" (get it - because Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, is conducting it?) that it will be a good performance. Instead of having people play the bells, the bells play themselves! One of the bells is rather naughty, though...how will they get through the piece of music?!

Claymation Christmas: "Here We Come A-Waffling"
This clip from Claymation Christmas is a parody (silly version) of the song "Here We Come A-Wassailing." This is the original version of the 3rd graders' song "Here We Come A-Caroling." However, "wassailing" kind of sounds like "waffling," so there is a bit of confusion...until some carolers turn up singing the original song and explain that wassailing is caroling!

The Piano Guys: "Angels We Have Heard on High"
This is the 32-fingers-and-8-thumbs (how many people is that?) version of "Angels We Have Heard on High."

The Piano Guys: "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
Isn't it such a bummer when nothing you do impresses your own dog?

The Piano Guys: "We Three Kings"
I'd be a little scared to play on an ice rink...

The Piano Guys: "O Come, Emmanuel"
This has always been one of my favorite Christmas songs. It just has such a beautiful melody!

The Piano Guys: "Carol of the Bells" for 12 cellos
This video shows the awesomeness of video editing.

Pentatonix: "The Little Drummer Boy"
Pentatonix is an a cappella (without instruments) group. They do some really neat song arrangements!

Pentatonix: "Angels We Have Heard on High"'

Lindsey Stirling: Celtic Carol
Lindsey Stirling composes, arranges, and choreographs her own music and dances. She's a YouTube violin sensation with lots of videos and lots of views! (And no, she's not always dressed like an elf.)

"I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"

"Christmas Don't Be Late" (The Chipmunks Song)

United States Air Force Band: Holiday Flash Mob 2013
Featuring both "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and "Joy to the World"
The USAF Band (plus a few strings and singers) did a flash mob performance at the National Air and Space Museum.

Do you have any other videos you think should be in this post? Send me an email at cmgalligan@pulaskischools.org with the link, and if I agree, I'll add it!

Found Instruments: Ice, Garbage Cans, Sports Equipment, Vegetables, Cars...and more!

Not all instruments have a place in the band or orchestra. Some of them are called found instruments, which basically means that if you can pick something up and make a sound on it...congratulations, you've found an instrument!

Not all found instruments fit nicely into the woodwind/brass/string/percussion categories, but they fit into even broader instrument categories. These categories are the following:

• Idiophone (produces sound through vibration, like claves, guiro, xylophone, maracas, etc.)
• Membranophone (produces sound by vibrating a stretched membrane, like that of a drum head; examples include drums and kazoos)
• Chordophone (produces sound by vibrating one or more strings; includes piano, violin, banjo, etc.)
• Aerophone (produces sound using a vibrating column of air, like flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, whip, slide whistle, etc.)
• Electrophone (produces sound electronically, like the clavinova (the piano in the classroom) or theremin) 

Now for the cool part: seeing found instruments in action!

Ice of Lake Baikal in Siberia (a super-cold, very large part of Russia)

Stomp!

Basketballs and shoes

Vegetables

All sorts of things...not necessarily all "found," but quite complex (link to the creative process for the music video and all the planning that went into it - super neat!)

Household objects
Please note that this is a Swedish comedy film with trained actors. Do not treat your electrical appliances like this. Do not use other people's toothbrushes. Do not spray all of the hairspray and perfume you can get your hands on at once. Be safe. This has been a public service announcement from the music room.

Created from garbage in a landfill

This video is especially neat because not all areas of the world have the money for music education, and this is one way that a town in Paraguay has devised to combat this issue.

If you want to earn a DRUM card, watch at least 2 of these videos and tell me what you thought about them in at least 3-5 sentences using proper spelling and grammar (as well as proper punctuation and capitalization!).