Christmas themed Music Theory!

Merry Christmas to you all!!

Silly Season begins!

Wow! Where did that year go?? I can't believe we are nearing Christmas already. I am thinking of being a bit crafty this year and thought I'd try some ideas with a music twist.

Enjoy your Silly Season! :-)

Strings in the Cathedral, 2014

Every year in early November, I present a massive concert in either the Cathedral of St Stephen or St John in Brisbane city. All the string students from Year 5 beginners through to our graduating Seniors perform in the glorious accoustic.

This year our program was as follows:

What end of year concert ideas are you thinking about?

Halloween Fun!

It has been loads of fun creating these little worksheets for my students in readiness for Halloween. Although the tradition is not quite as big here in Australia as it is elsewhere, we managed to incorporate some Spooky Madness into our days in the Music Department!

Teaching Music History.

I adore teaching music history and helping my students to appreciate "on whose shoulders we stand" today. Music Analysis tasks can be contextualised to particular times and places in world history and when students understand the inexorable link between people and art in the past, I find it helps to present a lens through which they can view the relationship between people and art in their own contemporary culture.

My most comprehensive Resource Package yet is my "Music through the Ages - Part 1".

The file you purchase includes:

- a 35 page study guide with information and activities covering Ancient Music through to the Baroque era.

- 4 powerpoint presentations with over 150 slides in total covering Ancient Music, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque.

- 10 Musical scores just perfect for student analysis and/or guided listening, featuring Ancient transcriptions, Gregorian Chant, Hildegard from Bingen, Morley, Palestrina, Monteverdi, Bach, Vivaldi, Scarlati and more.

The Art of Romance

I am very proud to present a collection of beautiful Romantic piano works, performed by my wonderful husband, Carson Dron.

Track Listings:
1.Clair de lune (Debussy)
2.Au bord d'une source (Liszt)
3.Intermezzo Op 18 No. 2 (Brahms)
4.Nocturne Op 62 No 1 (Chopin)
5.Nocturne Op 60 No 2 (Chopin)
6.Impromptu Op 90 No 4 (Schubert)
7.Sonetto del Petrarch (Liszt)
8.Berceuse Op 57 in D flat major (Chopin)
9.Etude Op Posthumous No 2 (Chopin)
10.Ballade Op 23 in G minor (Chopin)
11.Prelude in B major (Rachmaninov)
12.Waltz in A flat Op 2 (Chopin)

You can download a preview and purchase the CD as a digital download for only $8! Link to Product.

Film Music Compositions

"Music in Film" is probably my favourite Senior Music Unit. In particular, the composition dimension seems to produce some fantastic student work. This year, for my year 10 Music class, I provided the students a choice of three film segments they could compose a soundtrack for (A spooky animation, A human Flight clip and a Futuristic Nike animation).

Once students had spent a great deal of time analysing the codes and conventions of different film genres, they were able to experiment effectively in creating their own original compositions utilising the compositional devices they had studied in class.

Take a look at these three different student created soundtracks for the same, cute animation I found:

Original Clip:

Student Clip 1:

Student Clip 2:

Student Clip 3:

The following clip was also very popular and I found it on Vimeo. In addition to a "spooky/horror" theme option above, I wanted the students to have the option of exploring "flight" themes. All of the compositions were made using Garage Band and some students opted to record themselves on other instruments and embed it into the soundtrack.

Human Flight Student 1:

Human Flight Student 2:

And finally, a highly popular choice was this Nike Animation found on Youtube:

Find my Film Music resource Pack here 

Nike Student 1: