Tag: Listening

Activity 8: Mars and Venus again… but this time it’s Free Jazz

John Coltrane

This week, we will listen to two pieces that share the same names as Holst’s compositions “Mars” and “Venus”, but are otherwise as completely different from Holst’s music as you can imagine.
You might remember the name John Coltrane from previous lessons. Yes, he is one of my favourite musicians, and he is also one of the most important saxophone players in the history of jazz music.
In 1967, John Coltrane teamed up with a drummer named Rashied Ali to record a free jazz album that was called “Interstellar Space”.

Rashied Ali

Free jazz is a special type of jazz music that might sound unusual to you at first. Like most other jazz music, free jazz features lots of improvisation, which is when the musicians use their creativity to make up new parts that fit with the song while they are playing it.
What makes free jazz special is that it usually doesn’t use harmony, tempo, form, and other musical elements in the same ways that we are used to hearing them. Free jazz often “breaks the rules” that we use in other types of music.
Just like Holst’s “The Planets”, the first two pieces of “Interstellar Space” are called Mars and Venus. Remember, even though they share the same names, they are different compositions done in a very different styles of music.
Click here to listen to MARS by John Coltrane with Rashied Ali.
Click here to listen to VENUS by John Coltrane with Rashied Ali.

 

  1. What is your first reaction to this music? What words would you use to describe it and how it makes you feel?
  2. What are some differences you hear between Holst’s “The Planets” and Coltrane’s “Interstellar Space”?
  3. Are there any similarities between Holt’s Mars and Coltrane’s Mars? How about their Venus pieces?
  4. Do you like “The Planets” or “Interstellar Space” more? Or do you like them both… or not like either? (This is your personal opinion and musical taste, there is NO WRONG ANSWER here!)

Post your answers in a reply in Teams or email them to me.

 

Activity 8: Instruments of the Orchestra

Use this website to review the instruments of the orchestra. Choose 1 instrument from each family (group) to look at and listen to: https://www.mydso.com/dso-kids/learn-and-listen/instruments

If you click on an instrument name on that website, you will see a picture of that instrument. There will also be a music box where you can hear what it sounds like. Feel free to explore even more instruments on the website if you like.

 

click here for the video if you are having trouble playing it on my website.

 

After reviewing 1 (or more) different instrument from each family, watch this video of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (made up of students aged 13-19 years old) performing a piece of music by Gustav Holst called MARS: The Bringer of War. The planet Mars is named after the ancient Roman god of war, which was Holst’s inspiration for the title and mood of this music

click here for the video if you are having trouble playing it on my website.

After, answer these questions in Teams or in an email to me.
  1. What instruments did you recognize in this video?
  2. Were there any instruments that you saw on the orchestra page that you did not see or hear in this video?
  3. What was your favourite instrument in this video?

Activity 7: The Planets

Gustav Holst was an English composer who wrote a very famous suite of music called The Planets over 100 years ago.

The Planets was made of of 7 movements (different pieces of music that connect together). Each movement was named after a different planet and a different mood or characteristic Holst associated with that planet.

The Planets was written to be played by a full orchestra. Holst used the different sounds made possible by all the instruments in the orchestra to give each movement of The Planets a very different mood and feeling.

Mars: god of war

The first movement of Holst’s The Planets is called MARS: The Bringer of War. The planet Mars is named after the ancient Roman god of war, which was Holst’s inspiration for the mood of this movement.

Watch this video of MARS: The Bringer of War performed by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (made up of students aged 13-19 years old). Do you think this music is a good fit for a “bringer of war”?

 

click here for the video if you are having trouble playing it on my website.

 

Venus: goddess of love

The second movement is called VENUS: The Bringer of Peace. The planet Venus is named after the ancient Roman goddess of love.

Watch the same orchestra perform VENUS: The Bringer of Peace. What differences do you notice between this movement and the first one?

click here for the video if you are having trouble playing it on my website.

Listening Questions: Please answer these in Teams or in an email to me.

  1. What did you notice about the “mood” of each movement?
  2. Are there any instruments that you hear more or less of in each movement?
  3. How are the dynamics (loud/soft) or tempo (fast/slow) different for each movement?
  4. Does anything else catch your attention? What else did you notice that was different or similar between the two movements?

 

If it is helpful for question #2, here is a website to review the instruments of the orchestra: https://www.mydso.com/dso-kids/learn-and-listen/instruments

 

If you are feeling super keen or just need an excellent soundtrack to put on while doing your other homework, here is the complete performance of all 7 movements of The Planets by Holst, plus an extra movement for Pluto written over 80 years later by another composer named Colin Matthews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be7uEyyNIT4

Music Activity 6: Solfa Practice and the Poison Melody Game

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO if you are having trouble playing it on my website.

Go to https://musicplayonline.com/solfa-practice-echo-sing/ and sing along with the videos on these activities:

Echo Sing (La-So-Mi-Re-Do)

Poison Melody (La-So-Mi-Re-Do)

and Listen & Sing (So-Mi)

Each activity starts with only SO and MI, you will need to click on the tabs that include other notes in order to add them to the videos.

Let me know on TEAMS what is the hardest one that you try!

Activity 4: Peter and the Wolf

Explore the instruments of the orchestra through a very famous musical story.

Watch my video first, then follow these links to all 4 parts of the activity on MusicPlay:

Peter and the Wolf – PART 1 – the BIRD and the DUCK

Peter and the Wolf – PART 2 – the CAT, the GRANDFATHER, and the WOLF

Peter and the Wolf – PART 3 – PETER and the HUNTERS

Peter and the Wolf – PART 4 – the FULL STORY (this part is longer than the others, feel free to come back to it later this week if you need a break after the first 3.

Lesson 3: Musical Autobiography

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO if you are having trouble playing it on my website.

 

An AUTOBIOGRAPHY is a one of the ways an author can tell their own life story – in writing. It is written by that author in their own words. A music autobiography uses important songs or pieces of music to tell your story.
________________________________________

Assignment:
Write one short “chapter” (a paragraph) of your Music Autobiography about a song you love to listen to.
It can be a song with lyrics (words), or a piece of music without words.

________________________________________
Instructions
1. Choose ONE song to share. This song is music that you love to listen to or that has special importance to you.
Your choice might be based on one of the following suggestions…
Hearing this music …

  •  … makes me want to sing or dance
  •  … reminds me of a special person in my family (mom, dad, brother, sister, grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, cousin, etc. )
  •  … helps me remember (a favourite trip, a family celebration, a special occasion, a fun family tradition, a favourite movie, etc.)
  •   … helps me celebrate my culture
  • … is a favourite song of my family
  •  … makes me feel ____

________________________________________
2. Present your song by …

  1. answering a few questions to tell why you love to listen to this music or why it is important to you
  2. adding a link to a recording of the song (or tell Mr. Martin where to find it) – YouTube, or .mp3 / .mp4 file, etc

________________________________________

3. Hand in your assignment to Mr. Martin by Tuesday, April 28th at 3 pm.

  • You can post your document (or do it on paper and take a picture) as a reply to the Lesson 3 post on TEAMS if you would like to share your musical autobiography chapter with everyone in the class.
  •  If you prefer that only I see it, you can e-mail your document (or do it on paper and take a picture) to me (james.martin@burnabyschools.ca), make sure to put “autobiography” in the subject of the email

 

DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE ASSIGNMENT (word document) HERE  (you will need to click on the DOWNLOAD button to save a copy before you can start working on it)

OR

Fill out and submit an online form version of the assignment here

Lesson 3: Don’t Stop

I think it’s about time we all learned to sing a new song!

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO on STREAM if you are having trouble playing it on my website

or CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO FILE

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO if you are having trouble playing it on my website.

DON’T STOP – by FLEETWOOD MAC

If you wake up and don’t want to smile
If it takes just a little while
Open your eyes and look at the day
You’ll see things in a different way

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
It’ll be, better than before
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone

Why not think about times to come?
And not about the things that you’ve done
If your life was bad to you
Just think what tomorrow will do

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
It’ll be, better than before,
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone

All I want is to see you smile
If it takes just a little while
I know you don’t believe that it’s true
I never meant any harm to you

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
It’ll be, better than before,
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
It’ll be, better than before
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone

Ooh, don’t you look back
Ooh, don’t you look back
Ooh, don’t you look back
Ooh, don’t you look back