Choir children had a fantastic morning at The Glasshouse in Gateshead where we participated in The Big Sing. We sang and danced together with children from schools all over the north east. We all had a great time!
Year 6 have been lucky enough to have had some sessions from the South Tyneside Music Service. Throughout the sessions, they have analysed the impact of music upon a film and have evaluated the effect upon the audience. Following this, they have planned and composed their own pieces of film music, including soundtracks, background music and incidental music. They used an app called ‘Garage Band’ to do this, and have explored how to change the dynamics, arrangement, texture and pitch, alongside experimenting with a variety of instrument sounds.
Year 6 attended a live music event at The Westovian Theatre in South Shields. We listened to a band playing a variety of different musical instruments including drums, electric and acoustic guitar and a keyboard. The musicians explained a little about each instrument and how they are played. We also sang a range of famous songs, and joined in with some call and response songs. We clapped along to rhythm and had great fun!
To help us celebrate World Music Day, we invited Fanuel into our school. In assembly, we all enjoyed singing songs, playing games and dancing. Year 6 then enjoyed taking part in a drumming workshop.
In Year 5, children have been learning about South and West African music. They have sung a traditional African song called ‘Shosholoza’ and played chords using glocks to accompany the song. They then added traditional African movements to their song and class 5LR then performed this as an ensemble in front of the whole school. We all enjoyed watching this fantastic performance!
In Year 5, we are lucky enough to be learning to play the Ukulele with Mrs Mason. We have learned how to correctly hold a ukulele, what the strings are called as well as how to play single notes and chords using the correct fingers. We can confidently play ‘My Dog has Fleas’, ‘A Sailor Went to Sea’, ‘Shot Gun’ and ‘Jingle Bells’ with amazing rhythm, timing and accuracy – we even added some woodwind with Ava playing the recorder for ‘G’ and Alexis on percussion using a bell for F and it sounded brilliant! We love our weekly lessons and can’t wait to learn our next song!
In Music, Year 5 have been looking at the length of notes. We have been learning a song called ‘Egypt – Gift of the Nile’ which we can sing really well and we identified the notes of different length. Then we looked for the different notes on an instrumental score and tried to play them using glockenspiels. It was tricky to leave long enough pauses to represent the length of each of the notes. We managed brilliantly and can fluently and confidently play the chorus as well as some of the verse. We are looking forward to our Music lesson next week!
Year 5 have worked hard throughout the year to learn to play the ukulele with Mrs Mason. We held a concert on Wednesday 9th July for our parents and carers. Our first song was called my dog has fleas. This was the first song we learned to play and uses a strumming pattern with open strings. Our second song, a sailor went to sea, used the chord c and demonstrated musical dynamics. We learned that, in music, the letter F means ‘LOUDLY’ and the letter P means ‘play quietly’. You could hear the change in dynamics when we played. Our next song was three little birds by Bob Marley and we used chords C and F in the chorus. One of our favourites was Shotgun by George Ezra. It was the trickiest because of the timing. In this song we used plectrums and a strumming pattern called the island strum. Our penultimate song was the Wellerman song which was a real crowd pleaser! Our final song was country road by John Denver. Our timing was great and we changed chords accurately and fluently.
Choir children attended The Big Sing at The Glasshouse in Gateshead. We enjoyed singing songs about space with a live band and we all had a wonderful time!
On Tuesday 17th June, we were visited by a musician called Fanuel to help us celebrate World Music Day. We enjoyed singing songs and playing games.
Year 6 then took part in a djembe drumming workshop where they learned to play various rhythms using the drums. The session was very informative and Fanuel provided lots of information about how to hold, and play, the drum in different ways to achieve different sound effects. The Year 6 children played and sang along to some traditional rhythms from Zimbabwe. The session even ended with a fun-filled game – they all had a fantastic time!
