B-b-b-buzz your lips - b-b-brass instruments!

Up next: The brass family!

Trumpet (link to the University of Minnesota Marching Band's 2013 homecoming show with a big trumpet feature on the first piece of music that they play, "Scream Machine")

Adolph "Bud" Herseth plays the trumpet solo in the beginning of this Chicago Symphony Orchestra performance of Gustav Mahler's 5th symphony

Maynard Ferguson and his band performing "Birdland" (Can you pick out the other instrument sounds in the video as well?)

Horn

Dale Clevenger (who retired as the principal hornist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2013) performing Mozart's 2nd horn concerto (the solo starts about 50 seconds in)

Mellophone

This is the marching band version of the horn (kind of like the sousaphone is the marching band version of a tuba). Listen for it in the following Drum Corps International clip of the Bluecoats performing their 2011 show, "Brave New World." The mellos are the instruments with the melody, and they're in the front of the group doing all sorts of leg choreography. (See if you can find the contras too - that's the other marching version of a tuba, up on your shoulder!)

Trombone

Trombone Shorty

John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever," trombone quartet style 

Listen for the piccolo solo that I played for you in class...on trombone!

Bass Trombone

Euphonium

Adam Frey plays the song "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's opera Turandot - this was originally a vocal solo, but it sounds beautiful on the euphonium too!

Tuba

This is Carol Jantsch from the Philadelphia Orchestra playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" with some middle school/high school students.

Sousaphone

Nat McIntosh beatboxing into a sousaphone

If it's made of wood or it used to be, then it's in the woodwind family!

The 4th and 5th graders continue their instrumental studies with the woodwind family!

Flute (classical link, contemporary (modern-time) link, beatboxing flute)

Emmanuel Pahud playing C.P.E. Bach's Sonata, Allegro movement

"Charanga" by Michael Colquhoun, performed by Tereasa Payne

Beatboxing flute - Greg Pattillo, playing the theme from Super Mario Brothers

Piccolo (video of Ms. Galligan performing "Scars and Scrapes Forever," a parody of "Stars and Stripes Forever")

Clarinet

Julian Bliss playing "Flight of the Bumblebee"

Julian Bliss playing part of the Mozart clarinet concerto

Percy Grainger's "Molly on the Shore," for clarinet choir
Can you find some of the low clarinets?

Saxophone

"Strange Humors" by John Mackey, for saxophone quartet (soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax, and bari sax) and djembe (hand drum)

"Moanin'" by Charles Mingus

Listen to the baritone sax solo at the beginning of this fun jazz chart!

Oboe (link to DSO Kids page on the oboe)

Albrecht Mayer playing Ralph Vaughan Williams' Oboe Concerto finale

English Horn (link to the DSO Kids page on the English Horn)

English horn solo from Antonin Dvorak's New World Symphony

Bassoon (link to DSO Kids page on bassoon)

The Breaking Winds bassoon quartet (they met at Eastman School of Music) playing a Lady Gaga medley

Contrabassoon (link to DSO Kids page on contrabassoon)

Dominic Morgan from the London Symphony Orchestra demonstrating contrabassoon

Music Notes: End of September 2014

Music Notes

End of September 2014

  

Hello, everyone!

My name is Ms. Corinne Galligan, and I’m the new music teacher at Hillcrest. I invite you to check out our music classroom blog at:

http://musicathillcrest.blogspot.com

So far this year, we've played name games, learned music room rule songs, had a birthday learning celebration of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and reviewed different music concepts. If you haven’t been serenaded with any of the rules songs (or the original tunes they were taken from), ask your child(ren) about the music rules! You can find more about the rules on the music blog.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” celebrated its 200^th birthday on September 14, so we celebrated by learning the history behind it (grades 3-5), reviewing the official etiquette during its performance (K-5), and practicing that etiquette while singing the song (K-5). You can learn more about what we learned in class by checking out the music blog.

Students also learned about ways to earn DRUM (Demonstrating Respect and Understanding in Music) cards for individual recognition of above-and-beyond behaviors. When students earn three DRUM cards, they may redeem them for a reward (like eating lunch with me or sitting in my chair during one class). Students can choose to earn DRUM cards by being leaders within the music classroom, answering questions very well, posing thought-provoking questions, completing DRUM card opportunities posted on the music blog (and sent to their school email addresses), or attending/performing in music performances of any kind outside of the school day. If you’re interested in attending performances, here are a couple of (free! optional!) upcoming ones in the community:

                   Wednesday, October 22      7 pm               Pulaski Area Community Band Concert

                                                                                                PHS Ripley PAC

                   Saturday, November 1         7 pm               Red Raider Showcase Concert

                                                                                                PHS Ripley PAC

If they are able to attend a performance, in order for me to verify their attendance, I ask that children bring in a program with their name on it and tell me (or write on the program) something about it: something new they learned, their favorite part of it, etc.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. I look forward to meeting you throughout the school year!

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

Hit, rub, scrape, or shake - that's what makes percussion great!

The 4th and 5th graders started their unit on instrument families with the percussion family!

Snare Drum (link to video below)

Bass Drum (link to Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) Kids page on the bass drum, including a sound clip of it)

Marching Percussion (including snare drum, bass drum, and tenor drums; link to video below - the Bluecoats drumline warming up for a competition in 2014)

Timpani (link to video below)

Xylophone (link to DSO Kids page on the xylophone, including three sound clips of it)

Marimba (link to video below; everything is bigger than the xylophone - the bars, the resonators (tubes underneath the bars that amplify the sound), the range, and the sound, which has longer resonance than the xylophone - a way to remember this difference is "massive marimba")

Also, check out this video of Pulaski High School student Destin Wernicke performing his composition for marimba, "Going Home." (If you search his name on YouTube, you can also find videos of him performing on drumset, piano, and more.)

Vibraphone (link to world-famous jazz vibraphonist Joe Locke's video page of his website. We watched the beginning of "Summertime" in class.)

Glockenspiel (aka orchestra bells or bells) (link to DSO Kids page on the glockenspiel, including three sound clips of it)

Chimes (aka tubular bells) (link to video below)

Piano
The piano is often considered a percussion instrument because its sound is produced by a hammer striking a string when the corresponding key is pressed (link to animated video below).

Want to see other ways the piano can be used as a percussion instrument? This video by the Piano Guys is really neat! (Actually, all their videos are neat - check them out on YouTube!)

Crash Cymbals (watch the video for timpani near the top of this post, and pay attention to the crash cymbals. Remember the purposes for holding the cymbals so high - the sound waves can carry over the orchestra instead of getting blocked/absorbed by the orchestra, and humans are visual creatures, so it's easier to pick out the sound when you can see the instrument creating the sound.)

Tambourine (link to video below)

Sleigh Bells (link to video below)

Remember, the second technique he shows in the video is the preferred technique.

Maracas (link to video below)

Triangle (link to DSO Kids page on the triangle)

Cowbell (link to video below)

Guiro (link to video below)

Drum Set (link to video below)

Congas (link to video below)

Bongos (link to video below)