Recorder Karate

Recorder Karate is a fun way to learn to play the recorder using some ideas from the martial art of karate. All students in years 4, 5 and 6 will be learning to play the recorder at our school as part of the Performing Arts programme.

Click on this link to listen to the pieces that you'll be learning. You will need a username and password which you will be told about in class. http://www.musick8.com/rkdojo/rksounds.php

If you wan't to practice your fingering, here is a useful chart to show you how! Click on this link to go to the web page.

This video shows Year 4 playing their recorders after a couple of lessons:

Fantastic Music Machine

A post over at learningIT , titled "Sound Art", sent me to this video:

"This incredible machine was built as a collaborative effort between the Robert M. Trammell Music Conservatory and the
Sharon Wick School of Engineering at the University of Iowa.
Amazingly, 97% of the machines components came from
JOHN DEERE Industries and More.. Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft, Iowa.
YES, farm equipment!

"It took the team a combined 13,029 hours of set-up, alignment,calibration, and tuning before filming this video, but as you can see, it was WELL worth the effort.
It is now on display in the Matthew Gerhard Alumni Hall at the
University and is already slated to be donated to the Smithsonian."

The Typewriter Song

We've been using GarageBand in ICT...and there are two typewriters in the room....

The Typewriter Song

Interesting Orchestra Instruments

If you enjoyed the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, you'll be interested in these instruments, created by a musician in Japan:



Heita, who describes himself as a "Vegetable musician, Amateur poet" has posted 31 videos at YouTube of his various vegetable instruments: Burdock, Egg, Ostrich Egg, Carrot, Broccoli, Apple, Pumpkin, and Radish ocarinas, Cucumber trumpet, Carrot slide slide flutes, Radish slide flutes - an amazing variety of instruments!

Here's the Big Broccoli ocarina:

Button Beats

Visit a very interesting web page if you like to experiment with sound: Button Beats
Here are a few samples:


ButtonBeats.com



ButtonBeats.com




ButtonBeats.com

Click on this link to go to the web page and sample all the fun ways to create sound. (The pages have ads in the margins - be careful.)

Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration, featuring Itzhak Perlman, Yo Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGill

First, watch this interview by Michelle Miller with Yo Yo Ma:






This video is posted on YouTube

Next, listen to John Williams' new "arrangement" for Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration, featuring Itzhak Perlman, Yo Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGill:




This video is on YouTube

String Ensemble

Listen to the first rehearsal of our new String Ensemble!