Mr. Maroney's Music Room

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It’s Music Monday!

May 4, 2020 / / 6 Comments

Happy Music Monday, everyone!

Every year, on the first Monday of May, students all across Canada come together to share songs with each other and to discuss what music means to everyone. It’s one of my favourite days of the school year, and I’m sad that we’re not able to celebrate it together in person this year.

That doesn’t mean that we can’t celebrate it online, though!

Here’s a video of me playing one of my favourite songs. I wanted to share this with you today, because not only do I love this song, but I think it also has a really important message about music. Even though it doesn’t have any words, it still tells a story and shares a message, which is different for everyone who hears it. I think that’s the beauty of music: it can connect to people without even needing to speak any words. The song is  “Words Unspoken”, by Steven Martin. I hope you enjoy it 🙂

I’d love to hear from students of all grades about why music is important to you. Do you have a favourite song? A favourite instrument? Does music help you when you’re feeling sad or stressed?  You can share your thoughts in the comments, or send me an email at derek.maroney@burnabyschools.ca, I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

 

 

 

Vancouver Symphony virtual concert

April 30, 2020 / / 0 Comments

If you’ve never seen a symphony before, this is a great chance! The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) is putting on live concerts almost every week, entirely free to watch online. The next concert is happening tonight (April 30th) at 7:30, and it’s a great chance to see these musicians perform live. Maybe you can even recognize some of the instruments!

Tonight’s concert includes compositions by Bach and Mozart, two of the most famous and important classical composers, so you won’t want to miss it 🙂

https://www.vancouversymphony.ca/vso-digital-performances/

Let’s write a song!

April 30, 2020 / / 2 Comments

Today we’re going to learn how to write a very easy (and super serious) song using two different apps: Word Synth and Song Maker.

After you’ve watched the crash-course video, try making your own song! I’d love to see what you’re able to come up with, so feel free to post a link to your creation down in the comment section if you’d like to share it!

(This lesson is best for intermediates, but primaries are also more than welcome to follow along and make their own song)

Word Synth

April 29, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Here’s a really simple app that lets you combine words with notes! It works pretty similarly to the Song Maker app, so it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out if you’ve already used that one. There’s also a really short tutorial that explains everything that you need to know about it.

Word Synth

See if you can write a short 5-word sentence (maybe about something that you did today?), and use those words to create a melody on the app. That’s all you have to do for now, and once you’re done, take a screenshot of your melody. You can post that in the comments if you’d like to share it, but you don’t have to. Hang onto your melody because we’ll be doing another project with it shortly. Have fun!

Recorder notes

April 28, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Hello recorder players!

I’ve created a list of all of the different fingerings of the most common notes on the recorder.

Basic Recorder notes

For advanced players, you probably know most of these notes already, although there might be a few new ones to memorize (G# is probably new for most of you).

For beginners, I’ve also included an explanation about how to read these diagrams. Don’t worry about having to memorize all of these notes yet, we’ll be learning them slowly so that you don’t get overwhelmed. Of course, if you’d like to challenge yourself by learning more notes, go for it!

For everyone, I’d recommend printing out this diagram or saving it to your computer so that it is easily accessible. It’ll make learning the notes so much easier if you don’t have to keep coming back to this blog post to find them.

More songs coming soon!

Happy Earth Day 2020!

April 21, 2020 / / 10 Comments

(Intended for primaries)

It’s Earth Day tomorrow, April 22nd! What does Earth Day mean to you? Music is a great way of passing on ideas about how we can help our planet, so see if you can add your own verse to the song!

Or, you could try playing along to the song at home. It doesn’t even have to be with a “real” instrument, be creative with it!

Let’s meet the orchestra!

April 17, 2020 / / 40 Comments

Have you ever seen an orchestra performance before? Maybe this is your first time hearing the word “orchestra”, and that’s ok!

Here’s a short video that gives us a tour around all of the different instruments that are part of an orchestra. There are a lot of them, so see if you can remember the names of at least 2 of them! If you were already pretty familiar with the orchestra, were there any instruments that you didn’t know before watching the video?

4 Bass jam!

April 17, 2020 / / 2 Comments

Is there such thing as too much bass? Maybe, but not for me, at least. It’s no secret that I love playing electric bass, so watching a video like this puts right in my happy place. Check out this jam session, and I’d love to hear which musician was your favourite!

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