We Bee Makin' Music . . . AGAIN!

Any parents out there? 

If anyone is like we were, we took a zillion pictures of our first baby, three pictures of our second baby and none of our third and fourth babies!  Of course, those were the days before digi-cams and cell phones . . . actually before cell phones period, with or without cameras!

Looking back I see that I starting blogging long before the first We Bee Makin' Music class began, and now with the second class, we're already a week into it!  Ahhhh, parents and teachers!  Not so different.

And what a week it has been!  We have many returning students in our class and some new additions --- the new additions being Kindergartners.  Wow!  I was nervous about that at first, but each Kinder has an older sibling -- or two  -- who are there to help show them the ropes and to gently guide them through the process of answering questions, finding notes on the keyboard, and feeling comfortable in a crowd of new faces.

Hooray for Fall and Beein' back my Music Class!

We Bee Showin' Off

Wow!  I can't believe that the end is not only in sight, but will be rushing past me in just two days!

When I was a piano student, I hated recitals.  Memorizing anything --- words or music --- is something not easy for me and when I do manage to get something "committed to memory," time will erode it.  And quickly!  So when Mr G suggested an end of the year celebration, just the word celebration was enough to convince me to give it a try.

Each student is playing pieces he or she chose from themselves.  Most have their pieces memorized, but a few don't.  Is that a big deal with me?  Heavens, NO! 

And We Bee Makin' Music Bell Choir is playing!  . . . and singing.

I am so excited.  Excited for my students.  Excited for their program.  Excited to be looking forward to more Makin' Music next fall.

Oh, for the days . . . .

. . . when I had a student teacher and all I had to think about was what I was going to be doing in music class the next day.  Why, I even had enough time to think about what might Bee Happenin' next week!  And if my Baby Bees, aka music students, lingered after class time was officially over, no big deal, the awesome Mrs D was large and in charge back in the regular old schoolroom.  *big sigh*

But now!  I am busy as a bee (sorry about that terrible pun)!  Rush, rush, rush . . . writing lesson plans . . . ON THE WEEKEND!  Even Sunday afternoon, after all, they say that music is God's universal language, so what better thing to do on Sunday than plan music? 

But would I give this up for anything?  No, not even another hour's sleep each morning!  No, not even for more prep time at school!  No, not even for a million bucks . . . . oops . . . well, that will never happen anyway, so, no not even for a million bucks.

When the feet hit the ground . . .

. . . or should it be "when the fingers hit the keys?"  Either way, we've past the mid-point of the race (trimester) and are making steady progress.

I like teaching by giving students questions to think about, or by giving students examples/info and challenging them to come up with hypotheses.  Of course, these hypotheses may not be earthshaking when working with elementary students, but it was fun this morning to review the values of whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes, both the count value and the fractional value, before presenting A New Note and asking for the students' Best Guesses as to both the count value and the fractional value.  And Mr Third Grader came through with flying colors.  "An eighth note gets half a count," he said.

And *that* is how I managed to slip one of my old favorites, The Erie Canal into today's lesson.  "All right, students, listen to this song and raise your hand when you think you can hear the eighth notes." 

I wonder if I can find anything redeeming in Bill Grogan's Goat?

Din, Dan, Don . . .

I love to listen to French being spoken!  I love all those impossible sounding vowels.  I love all those silent letters at the ends of words . . . How does one ever learn to speak such a lyric language?  Moreover, how can anyone learn to read it?  Are all Zs silent or just the one in Rendezvous?  and what about -et?  Chevrolet, ballet, buffet, crochet, croquette, beret, Met Det (just kidding:  May Day!)

Ah, but here we are:

Frère Jacques, frère Jacques,
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?
Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines!
Din, dan, don. Din, dan, don.

Hummm. . . . when My Little Bees and I sing this in a round, would a French speaking person even recognize the song? Perhaps not, but we love it anyway!


AND . . . have you ever heard a round played by Tone Bells?  I'm sure we did an Excellent Job of playing Scotland's Burning this morning!  Oh, the joy of sharing joy with Little Bees!  Thank you, parents, for sharing with me.

Singin' A Round!

The thought occurs to me, is a blog a daily journal, or is it a collection of memories?  Or what is the difference?  In missing the last few days, I hope that I'm not behind, only slow!

This week we've sung several rounds, my all time favorite being Are you sleeping, Brother John?  I have a brother John.  He was always up and going long before his older sisters.  So this song isn't about him . . . unless it was the evening bells ringing.  Evening found him asleep, wrapped in a blanket in his bed.  My second favorite is Scotland's Burning.  I love the tune with its clever intervals, even a whole octave.  But what story is it telling?  I asked My Little Musical Bees this morning.  One girl said maybe the eggs on the stove caught fire!  That could happen at my house!

Next step, find the words in French to Frere Jacque so those morning bells can ring!

Ding, Dong Bell . . . .

I love to listen to hand bell choirs.  My sister-in-law's parents were in the bell choir in their congregation for years.  For several years, Christmas Eve found me in their quaintly beautiful little chapel in St Anthony, Idaho.  What a treat!

So, We Bee Makin' Hand Bell Music?  Why not?  And we've already practiced Mary Had a Little Lamb and Old MacDonald on the pianos / keyboards.  We know the variations to the tunes.  So yesterday I promised the kids A Big Surprise for tomorrow! 

I used the copy machine to blow up the musical scores -- sounds pretty official saying "score" -- and then used markers to color code the notes to match the color of the hand bells. 

And then like so many techniques introduced these last two weeks, I was totally surprised to realize I needed to teach the students how to hold the bells, hold to sound the bells, and how NOT to touch the clappers!  Ding, dong!  Ding, dong!

Old MacDonald needed five bells to play the melody, but Mary's Little Lamb only needed four.  So I passed out the five bells, some tambourines,  jingle bell shakers and a triangle and away we went to visit the ducks on Old Mac's farm.  Beautiful!  Amazing!  Awesome!  Sounded almost as good as the St Anthony Bell Choir -- almost!

Turned our attention to Mary Had a Little Lamb.  La Maestra counted out the intro:  one, two, three, four; one, two, ready, go.  -- Ugh!  What?  How?  Why?

Stop!  Stop!  Stop! -- cutting my choir off with a clap of my hands! Disbelief!  How could we go from awesome to awful?

Little Mr R politely raised his hand, "Mrs Smith, don't you need to hand out the yellow bells for this song?" 

Uhhmmmm, yes, yes, thank you for pointing that out!  Clearly an orange bell cannot be substituted for a yellow bell!

Thankfully we are all learning together!