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I was looking online today for some flute-violin duets. I just LOVE the internet for all the good that is available. There if FREE sheet music available for music that is in the public domain. For example, www.8notes.com is a wonderful resource!  I went printed out sheet music for several lovely flute-violin duets from that website.

Just in case you aren’t familiar with the term “public domain,” music (and art and literature) that is in the public domain essentially means that the copyright has expired or it is available for use without payment or permission.

There is a lot of music available on the internet that is being shared illegally. Beware! You shouldn’t print out music that has a copyright symbol on it without express written permission from the publisher. Here’s my rule of thumb: if you didn’t buy it or own it, you shouldn’t have it. Whenever my children have printed out a pop song that someone scanned and posted on the internet, I have them go shred it. Musicians don’t need to be starving on account of us! 🙂

There is a lot of great music that is free legally, and if you can’t find a song you want, well, write one! And then share it free on the internet for others to enjoy! 🙂

 

While looking for a song tonight for my son, I found this tidbit from recent medicine and music-related research.

It’s no surprise to me! When I suffered from debilitating anxiety a number of years ago, it was music that helped me heal more than anything else.

So keep on listening to beautiful, uplifting music! It’s doing you good through and through! 🙂

This is our last song for the year! Frère Jacques (Jacques means “John” in French, and “Frère” means “brother”) is a traditional children’s song. You can learn to sing it in either French or English.

Here’s the song sung in French: 

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

And in English:
Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?
Brother John? Brother John?
Morning bells are ringing, Morning bells are ringing,
Ding, ding, dong! Ding, ding, dong!

Here is the Solfa:

drmd drmd mfs mfs slsfmd slsfmd ds,d ds,d

Here is the rhythm notation:

 

 

 

 

 

You can print out the sheet music for the key of C major (do=C) here.

You can print out the sheet music for the key of D major (do-D) here.

You can learn to play it on the piano from this website.

Here is the sheet music for the resonator bells (with Solfa and without).

Once you have learned the notes to the song on your instrument, you can play along with a violin or cello recording at 40 bpm, 50 bpm, and 60 bpm. (I will hopefully get these made soon!!)

Once you have learned the notes of the song and can play along with the recording, then try playing along with it, beginning after the first two measures. This means you will start playing the beginning of your song when the recording is at mi-fa-sol (the first “Brother John”).

Here are the songs that you should listen to, write down first in Solfa and then in rhythm notation. The answers are here.

The EXAMPLE looks and sounds like this:

d            m          f           m

d     m     f    m   dm  fm d

 

 

 

 

Here are the rest to notate in Solfa and rhythm:

1.

2. 

3.

4.

We have started planting interval seeds. Last week we learned about seconds, thirds, fourths, and fifths. We practiced fifths (d-s) all week.

This week we’re focusing on thirds (d-m and s-m). There are two kinds of thirds we’re going to plant in our brains: major thirds (d-m or m-d) and minor thirds (m-s or s-m).

 

And last of all we’re going to plant a triad seed in our brain. A triad is a major third (d-m) plus a minor third (m-s), which makes the fifth (d-s) that we learned last week. When the notes are stacked up on top of each other like a snowman (d-m-s), it’s a chord called a triad. We call the do of any triad the ROOT. (Great word for planting a triad in our brains, right? From seeds sprout roots! I love it!)

 

 

 

Here are some songs you know that will help you remember the sound of thirds in music:

Major third: “Mary Had a Little Lamb” or “Do a Deer” (the lines that say “a female deer”)

Minor third: “Rain, Rain” or “So Long, Farewell” (from “The Sound of Music”)

And here’s a song my daughter brought home to learn for her choir recently. In googling a video of it, I realized that this song has been sung by gospel choirs around the globe! . But the song originally was “a 1967 gospel music arrangement of an 18th-century hymn” (Wikipedia) that Edwin Hawkins wrote for his group, the Edwin Hawkins singers.

The first 4 notes are thirds–la to do is a minor third and do to mi is a major third. (“Oh, Happy Day”) (la-do-do-mi).

Here’s the same song sung by a boy in Brazil. At about 0:49, you’ll here some more familiar intervals you might recognize! What do you hear?

Here’s a song written just about major and minor thirds! It gets a little confusing until you understand that he’s singing about the middle note (mi) of the triad, and whether it’s minor or major. We’ll learn more about that another day!

In 2013, I wrote a story called “The Story of Music” for our curriculum. I would love to have children illustrate it! You can read the story here.

If you would like to color a picture for the book, please do! Then scan it and email it to me! (Or for my students, bring it to class.) If I use your illustration in my book, I will give you the credit, so be sure to write your first name in the corner of your illustration.

Thanks so much!

Here’s what’s been happening with Delicious Music:

I have been teaching lessons at school but haven’t had time to get my lesson plans online due to my family needs and the holidays. I hope to post those lessons when I can! It might be next year when I cycle back through to teach them again, but hopefully it will be before then! I have learned that when fitting this project into my life, I have to just keep on moving forward and add more the next time I repeat the cycle.

I have an opportunity to teach my own children in our beginning orchestra class at school, and so I am now going to focus on those lesson plans and support materials. You’ll find them under the Lesson Plans tab. My goal is to post information for the parents in my blog and hope that the parents will make comments on the pages to provide feedback on how things are going for them as they help their child learn as the program rolls out.

I’ve written a couple of extremely simple songs (nothing fancy here) that I can use both in the kindergarten classes and in orchestra, the idea being that when the children join beginning orchestra, they will already have the songs in their head. That way they focus their energies more on learning how to play a song more than on learning the song itself.

I’m really excited to be building this string instruction on the knowledge that a number of my students gained when I taught them music in kindergarten! Teaching music is really fun, even for an inexperienced neophyte like me.