For class on Friday, Sept. 26th we are going to work on the classic funk song by The Meters :Cissy Strut. Below are some links that will help everyone begin to learn the song. I expect everyone to try the song on their own and come in with questions on Friday.

There are only two parts to the song. LEARN BOTH!

Follow this link to hear the original recording.

Guitarists: Follow this link to watch a member of the Meters play each part slowly. Follow this link to view the notes and tablature for each of the two parts. Part A is repeated several times before going on to part B.

Bassists: Follow this link to watch a bassist playing your part. Follow this link to view the notes and tablature for each of the two parts.

Drummers: Listen to the song over and over. Learn the beat patterns for each of the two parts and memorize the overal form (the order of parts) for the whole song.

Pianists: Follow the guitar links and use that to help you learn the guitar riff.

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Our rehearsal on Friday suffered a little bit as some people had difficult interpretting the materials I presented. As I get to know all of you more -THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN. Thanks to everyone for their patience.

In order to make sure that this does not happen next week, I will post below exactly what EVREYONE should work on during the course of the week and be able to play on FRIDAY, September 19th.

Guitarists: We had difficulty translating chords that we know into the key of Bb. Our task for friday is to be able to play the three chords of a twelve bar blues in Bb by friday. Those chords are Bb7, Eb7 and F7. Follow this link to view exactly how to make these chords. (be sure to zoom in on the image if you are having trouble reading it.) Look at the top of the page and you will see fingering charts for these three chords. Follow these links and you can hear music that goes along with line A and line B. DO THESE THREE THINGS: 1.Practice the 3 chords. 2. Play along with the recording for line B. 3. Play along with the recording for line B.

Pianists: You need to be able to play the three chords for our 12-bar blues: Bb7, Eb7 and F7.

Each chord contains 4 notes:

Bb7= Bb, D, F, Ab

Eb7= Eb, G, Bb, Db

F7= F, A, C, Eb

Make sure you can play these 3 chords by Friday. Be able to play them with BOTH HANDS!

Bassists: Follow this link for tabs that will help you play a walking bass line for our 12-bar blues. Make sure you can play this by Friday.

Post any questions here.

Each week two 7th grade students will be responsible for reporting on the important historical music events from that week. Each student should write down a script version of their report that can be read in approximately 30 seconds. During class time students will record their TWIM Podcast ONE WEEK PRIOR TO THEIR ASSINGED WEEK!!

Matt will post the schedule of dates in an upcoming post.

Each 6th, 7th and 8th grade student should bring in to school one non-musical item on which he or she can perform three distinct sounds. Experiment with non-valuable objects that would be ok for you to bring in to school. Try to find timbres that you find particularly interesting or striking.

After sharing these sounds in class we will create a full class planned improvisation to exhibit the expressive potential of timbre. In small groups, students will then create pictoral representations for their sounds and then create a musical score for a short compostion.

Post any questions about the project here.

Podcasts are a great way for music classes to share their work with our community. To begin familiarizing ourselves with writing and recording Podcasts, each 8th grade class will create one Podcast entilted “My Music.”

Students should submit to Matt a CD recording of their favorite artist, song, or genre and write a brief description. (song files can also be emailed to mmclean@lrei.org) In your description you should answer the following questions: “why is this music important to you?” “what do you like about the sound of it?” “when do you usually listen to it?” Be prepared to clearly read your description in 30 seconds or less.

Please post any questions that you might have about the assingment.

Recordings and written descriptions are due on Thursday, September 18th.

Last week the 7th grade began a month-long exploration of Hip Hop music, with the goal of creating their own songs. This unit is designed in collaboration with the Core unit on poetry. Students will have the opportunity to take the poetry they write in Writing Workshop and add a hip hop soundtrack to it to create their own original composition.

Classes will focus on the four ingredients of a hip hop song:
•    Beats
•    Loops
•    Sampling
•    Finally, the Lyric.

Using the computer cart laptops, students will have the opportunity to create each of these ingredients, saving their work on the server to refer back to the next class.

Most lesson plans will follow this scheme: A mini lesson, to introduce the new concept, followed by time with the computers (working in pairs) then re-assemble to share the work-in-progress, then put away.

Stay tuned!

Starting this week, the Little Red Singers will rehearse Tuesdays during lunch/recess. I’ll call this 11:20am – 12:00noon. Any Middle School student who wants to sing can eat a quick lunch at 11:00am, and then go to the auditorium.

The Wednesday afternoon rehearsal remains: 3:00pm (or, after dismissal) until 4:00pm, snack provided!

This gives an opportunity for students who don’t want to go outside for recess in the cold winter can stay inside. I encourage students to give this new schedule a try. There is no need to commit to the Little Red Singers at this time.

We will be exploring new material for the next couple of weeks. More African community harmony, a new song for Martin Luther King, some simply wonderful pieces for school choir, doo-wop – whatever! Let’s sing together and stay warm.

Here is the schedule for the next rotation of the Very Special Guests – the Middle School’s resident house repertoire band: (Please note these are all Friday Activity periods. Some IWPs are available, on a week-to-week basis. If musicians want to sign up for an IWP, the sign-up sheet is posted outside Mark’s office on Monday morning each week:)
1/11 – MLK Assembly practice “Happy Birthday” (Stevie Wonder)
1/18 – Final MLK Assembly practice “Happy Birthday” (Stevie Wonder)
1/25 – 6th Grade – “Love Potion #9”
2/1 – 6th Grade – “Love Potion #9”
2/8 – 6th Grade – “Love Potion #9”
2/13 – Performance of “Love Potion #9”
2/15 – 5th Grade – “Green Onions”
2/22 – 5th Grade – “Green Onions”
(no band 2/29 – Professional Day)
3/7 – 5th Grade – “Green Onions”
3/12 – Performance of “Green Onions”

Frank’s class had music today, Lynn’s class will have to wait until Thursday to begin the New Year of Music. The class decided on new seating, which remains largely the same as last semester. It seems students are mostly comfortable where they were assigned previously. We began to practice songs for the Martin Luther King Assembly, today reviewing Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday.” As a written exercise, each student wrote about two pieces of music they had experienced over the vacation, and we began a discussion about similarities and differences of choice. We will continue this discussion next class. Students are invited to bring in favorite songs to share with the class. More later –

Assignment #3 – Final essay

DUE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8TH, 2007, in music class.

So far:

* You have made a first listening through your recording of choice, and written at least a paragraph of notes, thoughts and reflections on each cut.

* This first listening helped you write a thesis statement paragraph for your essay, based on the listening and our study of Bob Dylan in class.

Now:

*Have a second listening through each track, see if this listening adds to your thoughts and reflections paragraphs, add any new opinions, thoughts or reflections to the final essay.

* Put your thesis statement paragraph at the beginning of your paper.

*Put your essay together, in a finished form, to hand in on the due date.

SUGGESTIONS:

Don’t necessarily listen to your recording from the beginning. Why not start with the last track and work backward? This way, you might get a fresh insight into a song.

Don’t listen to the whole album at one sitting. Listen to it in pieces. Come back to it between other homework.

REMEMBER

Please attach all your earlier pages of this assignment to your finished product, so you have a record of the entire process.

Be sure to cite all sources you used to prepare your essay if you state facts in your writing. These sources are websites, books, even conversations with your parents.

Enjoy your minimester, enjoy your Bob Dylan listening, and I look forward to reading your essays next week.