As another week passes in our city, I thought you would appreciate another Diller-Quaile Voices quote from a young student. It struck me as truly getting at the heart of what we do: “I love music, it makes me feel happy. It makes me feel safe.” – Chester, Age 8.
Below is our Musical Mondays message. We hope that each of these musical activities bring happiness and joy into your home this week.
- Instrument Play– Get On Board is a great song to use while experimenting with instruments. Gather any instruments you have at home and shake, drum, tap, clap along with us! You can even pretend to get on board your very own imaginary train! Take a trip around your house – who knows where the train will take you!
- Movement Game – In class, part of our musicianship time is spent learning and embodying different sets of musical opposites. Children, show your families how we move our bodies to reflect the changes in the music. Below you will find the musical exercises for 2 sets of opposites: legato/staccato (smooth/choppy) and presto/lento(fast/slow). Play these audio recordings for your child to move around the house to the music.
· Piece #1 by Schumman: Legato/Staccato
· Piece #2 by Joplin: Presto/Lento
- Listening Exercises – One of the most important skills we hone as musicians is our ability to listen. In class, one of the ways we do this is by listening to a piece of music and then having a discussion afterwards. Finding the words to articulate our thoughts about music is a cultivated skill. Some of the questions we ask our students are: Did you like or dislike the piece? What did you like or dislike about it? How did it make you feel? Did it make you think of anything? What kind of sounds did you hear – short, long, loud, soft, big, little, high, low?
- Use this performance by EC Pianist Eri Yamamoto to spark a discussion at home.
- Listening & Playing Exercise – Shaking with Bossa Nova Sherrine introduces a new genre of music in this video – Bossa Nova. Grab your shakers and play along with her as she sings in Portugese to The Girl from Ipanema. Now here’s an idea, why not try a song you already know well as a bossa nova? Shake and sing along with our recording of The Itsy Bitsy Spider, as we play to a bossa nova beat!
- Introduction to Woodwinds: Meet the Oboe with Keve
- Book: 5 Little Ducks Book with Stephanie & Walter