Welcome Back to Tuscany Music!

 Hello Tuscany Students!  I am excited for music this year - in PERSON!  It will look a little bit different this year and each student will get to make an "Instrument Kit" with items from around your house.  Please watch the following video, so you know what things you can put into your kit.  NOTE: the craft sticks are not needed in the KINDERGARTEN bags. 

When your kit is ready, please bring it to school labelled -- all item, plus ziplock bag - and we will store it here to be ready to use!  If this is not possible, please contact me, Ms. Miller and we can figure it out together.

INSTRUMENT KIT

Saxophone versus the Clarinet

National Music Center Presents:

Saxophone vs Clarinet, which is better?  LINK

National Music Center and the Dulcimer

What is a Dulcimer?

Check out this video link to find out!


National Music Center Making Own Dulcimer.  LINK

Line Rider BEETHOVEN

Beethoven meets Line Rider by Doodle Chaos

What was significant about Beethoven?  he was deaf.  When Beethoven would play piano, he would cut off the legs, sit on the floor and put his head on top of the piano while he played in order to feel the vibrations.

When Beethoven composed the Moonlight Sonata, he could partially hear sounds.  He composed this beautiful piece of music, because it reminded him of the moon setting over Lake Lucerne.  Beethoven also dedicated this music to one of his pupils -- Countess Guilietta Guicciardi.  It seems he really liked her!

Listen to the ingenious Line Rider version of this beautiful composition.  LINK

You can even draw a picture of a moon setting over a lake, or any other picture this makes you think about.  It would be fun to create a dance to this as well.  Would the dance be fast or slow? How could you show loud and quiet dynamics with a dance?

Answers to Brain Benders

Hi Tuscany;

In case you checked out the Brain Benders post and are curious about the answers, here they are!

1. Forward I am heavy, backward I am not.   Answer: TON

Box #7:  answer: uni-cycle
Box #8: answer: horseshoe bay, Bay bridge, half-moon bay
Box #9: answer: end of the month (notice the last letter is underlined)
Box #10: answer: backward glance  (the letters spell the word glance, only they are backwards)


I hope you have tried to create your own Brain Bender.  Dr. Arlene Taylor wrote a whole book with Brain Benders and riddles.  She says that "Brain Benders, a type of brain aerobic exercise are designed to challenge and stimulate the neurons... Brain Benders are considered whole-brained puzzles because you need both cerebral hemispheres to solve them.  Most brains use the left hemisphere to figure out the letters and words, while the right hemisphere pays attention to their spatial positioning.  So be careful to note the relative position of the words not only to each other but also to their position in each box." p. vii

So, if you are writing your own puzzle, you need to write your brain bender in a box, as that is important to the meaning of the word. 

4 Instruments to Make At Home

Percussion Instruments to Make at Home

This video demonstrates how to make 4 different non-pitched (meaning it does not make a melody) instruments at home.  Be sure to hit pause at the beginning of each section to gather the materials needed to make each instrument and also hit pause when you are working on each step.  

Think about how the instruments are making sound.  How would you describe how each one makes sound? Do you think if you used beans instead of rice that the sound would be different?  What other filler would work?

LINK to VIDEO

Run Rhythms with STOMP and HARLEM GLOBE TROTTERS

Here is another example of some rhythms with just basketballs. STOMP and some HARLEM GLOBE TROTTERS got together to create some fun rhythms.  I bet you could do the same!

LINK to MUSIC