In Year 1/2 music we have been learning how to orchestrate the songs we are singing.  Our performance of ‘Starlight Starbright’ at assembly demonstrated how we can play something different to what we sing. To make our music more interesting we added texture with different layers of sound.   We added a drone on xylophones, an ostinato which is a pattern that repeats and some colour with a splash of triangle.

In Year 2/3/4 we have now been learning recorder for 6 lessons and we have found that learning to play sensitively as an ensemble is very difficult. 

Playing an instrument involves a lot of thinking- 

• We have to think of how long we hold the note for.
• We have to think of what pitch the note is.
• And we have to think of how to place our fingers to play that pitch.
• Then most importantly we need to think about blowing gently.

We performed ‘The Mouse And The Moon’ at assembly. We played it so sensitively that you could imagine a little mouse quietly looking up to the full moon on a still cold night.

In Year 5/6 we performed a tune called ‘Trucks Out The Front’ composed by Jacinta Foale.  When thinking about how to perform this tune we thought about some of the elements of music.  We thought about texture which is how to layer the sounds.  We thought about dynamics.  We thought about form which are the sections of the piece.  By considering these elements we tried to portray an old truck starting up and driving into the distance down an old dusty track.

Congratulations should also go out to this year’s Recorder Consort.  ‘The Canoe Song’ was their first performance for the year.  Hopefully we will hear more from them in the coming terms.

Sarah Tollner
Music Teacher