Happy St. Patrick's Day! Song Recording

Happy St. Patrick's day from the music room! This past week, the students at Bryant heard and sang a variety of Irish music. We even learned how to Irish jig! One of our favorite Irish songs from this week is an Irish folk song called "Michael Finnegan." Here are two recording's of Ms. Puente's class singing this song. In the recordings you will hear the class sing in 2 parts--melody and harmony. Since this was the 2nd grader's first experience singing the chord roots to a song, I was very happy with what they were able to do after just a short period of time. I love watching and hearing them become much more independent singers and musicians and this is just one example of that. Great job everyone!!!



Also, I have to share with you one of my favorite Muppet videos. It is their version of the old Irish favorite, "Danny Boy" and it just gets me everytime :) Enjoy.

A2SO Concert and Visit

Yesterday, Mr. Kinasz, Ms. McManus, and Ms. Puente's 2nd grade classes went on a field trip to Hill Auditorium to see a performance by the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra. While unfortunately I was unable to go, I heard from the students and teachers that it was a great performance and the students really enjoyed it!

As a special bonus, the conductor of the A2SO, Mr. Arie Lipsky, came to Bryant this morning to talk to our 2nd graders about music. He told them how he grew up in Israel and started out playing the flute and piccolo and then how he started to play the cello. He brought all of these instruments with him and played beautifully on all three. The students were absolutely enthralled with his presentation, and loved listening to his stories. He also talked about how the instruments produce sound, the correlation between size and pitch, and loud vs. soft, which was a great connection with what the 2nd graders are currently learning about in science. Lastly, he taught them some conducting patterns and gave the students a chance to try them out. Overall, it was a wonderful experience and we are so grateful to Mr. Lipsky and the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra for giving us this opportunity!

"Bread in the Oven" Recording!

Check out these recordings of Ms. Micou's and Mrs. Bass's 1st grade classes singing in 2 part harmony on the song "Bread in the Oven." To start, we learned the chord roots to the song (Do Do Do Sol, Do Do Sol Do). Once they were comfortable singing the chord roots on their own, I sang the melody while they sang the harmony. Then, they learned the melody to the song and sang that while I sang the chord roots. Lastly, we split the class up into to two groups, where one group sang the chord roots and the other group sang the melody and this is what we came up with! I am so impressed with how well they were able to keep their parts and how they were able to do this after only spending about 10 minutes learning the song.

Way to go Ms. Micou's class, Mrs. Bass's class and all of the other 1st grade classes! Like I told you in class, I did not start learning how to sing in 2 part harmony until I was in middle school, so I am blown away by how musical you all are! Awesome job!

Happy "Music in Our Schools" Month!

I've come up with the theory that the music is within. We don't bring it in; it's already there. We just have to figure out how to get it out." ~~Howard Roberts, Jazz Guitarist. 

From our music room to your home, I wanted to wish all of our Bryant families a happy “Music In Our Schools” Month! Did you know that in March, we not only celebrate reading but music as well?! During this month where we recognize the importance of music in our children’s education, I wanted to say how honored I am to get to teach music at Bryant and to get to watch our students grow not only as musicians, but as great learners and people. From the beginning of the year, I have seen each child grow in their expressivity, creativity, musicality and much, much more. I look forward to seeing what the rest of the year has to bring and cannot wait to see all of you at our “Spring Sing” concerts in May!