More Tubano Fun!

Last week our students started getting familiar with our new tubanos. We had so much fun we had to continue the drumming this week! After reviewing the three-part drum ensembles we learned last week, First-Fourth Grade learned some other ways we can expand our ensembles.

2015/01/img_2612.jpg

First and Second Graders discussed complementary rhythms, which fill in the “negative space (thanks, Ms. Bomba!)” of our songs and poems. After identifying the portions of the existing rhythms where not much was going on, the students composed their own complementary rhythms to fill in the gaps. First Grade created a rhythm that was difficult enough to need a first and second ending! It was a great time to amp up our music literacy skills with the addition of some new symbols to help us find our way around the score. Second Grade created two complementary ostinati (short patterns that repeat) and then added yet another part in the form of the new drone we’ve learned this year – the level drone!

2015/01/img_2610.jpg

Not to be outdone, Third Grade took all of those steps and improvised a recorder melody over the top of it. We used another poem we knew for its rhythm and used the three notes we know – E, G, and A – to play an acrobatic tritonic melody improvised on the spot. Fourth Grade did all of that, as well, but we were ready for a new kind of drone. Look out for the broken single moving drone in the bass xylophones, getting us ready for functional harmony next year!

2015/01/img_2611.jpg

Want to hear what all of this sounds like? Click the links below!

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Posted in Music, Specials Posts.