Many of you may remember reading this in music class at Thurston. The Remarkable Farkle McBride talks about all of the instruments through a story about a boy that can't seem to figure out what instrument to play. He makes some bad choices on the way, but eventually realizes something. Here is the story with instruments to see and hear, adding to the book.
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Four students: Regina Lin, Antonia "Nio" Ajero, Erin Fitzgerald, and Ella Kim play this piece together. Eight hands, four bodies, and one piano bench! You can read more about them here. Our student teacher this semester, Mr. Hadwick, made a great impression on the Thurston students. He taught everyone so many things in his 9 weeks with us. One thing he shared with the students was his favorite a cappella group, "The King's Singers." The 3rd and 5th graders also worked on playing this song on ukulele. The 5th graders saw the same piece performed by Elton John and compared the two. It was magical to watch the students see this video. Most of them sat silently and still for the entire video. The harmonies are beautiful. Here are both versions.
Here is another Andrew Huang video. His "Cabbage" video (further down on the Videos page here on the website) was a huge success in music class. Here is a video of him playing music using legos. This Star Wars parody was created by the Piano Guys. It started out as a joke when the editors decided to edit light sabers to the their cello bows in a video. The fans loved it, and since the Piano Guys love Star Wars too, they decided to create this parody. It took them 6 months to create it. Their website says: "It took more than 7,000 frames, 72 audio tracks, 24 hours of filming through the night in front of a green screen, the most props and costumes we’ve ever used, several broken bows and strings, and over 1,000 hours of editing and rendering — we felt like we had taken on the entire EMPIRE! We are grateful to those behind the green screen — behind the editing bay — behind all the cool effects. Every single frame had to be edited in order to make the light sabers work (a total of over 7,000 frames)!" This group, Tao: The Martial Arts of Drumming, is a Japanese drum and dance ensemble that was formed in 1993. They combine Japanese tradition with Korean, Maori, and Indonesian influences. They tour around the world. Here is their version of High Hopes, made popular by Panic at the Disco. Here are two versions of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (the 1st movement). The first is a Line Rider video. The second is a visual version of the same piece. Ludwig Von Beethoven wrote this piece between 1804-1808. It is one of the most recognized classical pieces of music of all time. In the second version, notice if you can see when the familiar pattern of the first four notes is going to come back.
The title of this video (above) may not be completely accurate, but it does show some fun and unique instruments. You will probably see some familiar instruments and some that may be new to you. A few of them you can check out from the Ann Arbor Public Library! Click to check out a Theramin or Otamatone from the AADL. The song "Little Talks" is by Icelandic indie folk/indie pop rock band, Of Monsters and Men. It was released in 2011 and has been a popular song around the world. Here is it in a different form, still using real instruments, but also Coca Cola bottles! This video below was made by Aaron Grooves. He has his own youtube channel (AaronGrooves) which states that he is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and teacher. His primary objective is to make the world a more joyful place through music, logic, and love. This video is of him tap dancing and playing ukulele. He is also using a looping machine so he can layer on his different rhythm and ukulele ostinatos to create some pretty cool music! |
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Watch these great videos of all types of music. Let me know what you think! -Ms Rothfeld Archives
October 2021
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