Who's Gonna Stand Up?

Long time no talk.

Because my school celebrated Earth Day today, I decided to have Grade 2 listen to the three versions of Neil Young's Who's Gonna Stand Up (and Save the Earth)? They enjoyed the acoustic version, were humbled by the orchestral version, and rocked out to the live version with Crazy Horse - so much so that we made a rock video with them individually playing air guitar, air drums, or singing.

I wasn't sure if they fully understood the message, since even most adults don't understand the severity of the issue or are in denial to it's causes.

As I was quietly finishing a rubric in my room, I heard a student sing the refrain from across the hall:

"Who's gonna stand up and save the world?"

This quiet little boy's voice singing the world's biggest question suddenly struck me hard.

It continues to ring in my mind...

All the best,

Mr. Kozak

Music and fire

Students of fire (and music),

This is a 2D Ruben's tube with sound.

"Yes, I really want to light it up."

Mr. Kozak

guitar strumming

Grade 8 Students,

Upload your guitar song here, making sure to demonstrate:
- an even, constant, sure, beat
- at least three different chords
- smooth chord progressions

I recommend E, D, and A.

Once you've uploaded your video, in your Music Journal, write about:
- what chords you used
- what meter your song was in, and
- what difficulties yoou had

Smile for the camera!

Mr. Kozak

Grade 8 Music equipment list

Grade 8 Theme and Variations Unit

Four Chord song - equipment list

keyboard

keyboard stand

AC adaptor

guitar lead

electric guitar

guitar lead/cable

electric drums

headphones

electric bass

drumsticks

JamHub

mono-to-stereo adaptor

eighth inch headphone adaptor

tuner

pick

extension chord

headphone splitter

The consequences of location and reverb when recording music

This video is an amazing demonstration of how the environment affects reverb. Fantastic editing.

Mashups Part 2

Students,

Here's an article explaining how to find the BPM of a song.

Mr. Kozak

Mashups Part 1

Students of music,

Making mashups is not easy, but the end result can be very, very cool.

Remember the basic rules:
1) The two songs have to be in the same tempo
and
2) The two songs have to be in the same meter

We listened to two examples (Radiohead with Dave Brubeck and James Brown with The Beatles)

If you use your BIG6 research skills, you can probably find a good tutorial to help you.

You can also find song banks listing songs with the same BPM (beats per minute)/tempo.

Good luck mashing up!

Mr. Kozak

Nelson Mandela - 1918-2013

A sad day for one of history's most magnificent citizens, Nelson Mandela.

A great opportunity to listen to some music sung in the Xhosa language.

Rest in peace.
Chris Kozak

David Suzuki's Carbon Manifesto

For those of you who wonder why I changed my theme...

Dr. David Suzuki's Carbon Manifesto.

Mr. Kozak

The Four Chord song-keyboard

Students,

Here are the chords for the four chord song on keyboards:

Mr. Kozak

Amazing Music Site! - BBC Bitesize

Everyone,

This BBC site is a wonderful resource for learning about the elements of music, listening to samples of music, music history, popular music, and world music. It's chat board is changing formats to a blog, so stay tuned. I highly recommend it.

Mr. Kozak

Fair Trade chocolate and music

Students,

Halloween will soon be here, and that means lots of people will be buying chocolate to give out.

Unfortunately, most chocolate is not fair trade.

Watch this informative video to find out more about what fair trade is and why you should make this year a fair trade Halloween year.

Listen to the melody of the Ghanian instruments. You'll be humming the tune by the end of the video.
Mr. Kozak

The San Fransisco Symphony Orchestra

Students,

Learning about classical music can be a little bit scary. There's so much to know about the history of the music, different composers, and sometimes the music can be less exciting than pop music.

Take a look at the San Fransisco Symphony Orchestra website for kids. Write in you Music Journal about whether you think it's too childish for you, but see if you can use it to learn something new about the symphony. 

If the site seems like it's not your level, then check out their regular site. Make notes in your journal about:
- what music they are playing in the future
- how many players are in the symphony

Mr. Kozak

Adjectives to describe music - websites

This website as well as this one are great, wonderful, exemplary, outstanding websites to build your vocabulary to talk about music.

Mr. Kozak

GarageBand Export to mp3 tutorial

Students,

In case you missed it, here's how to export your GarageBand project to mp3.
Mr. Kozak

Music Theory - Interval Identification

Students,

By now, you should be able to understand how certain intervals sound, like the unison, octave, and Perfect 5th. Here is your task for the next few classes.

In the Exercises section, find INTERVAL IDENTIFICATION. Customize the exercise so that your menu looks like this:

If it gets too easy, go back to the customize menu and add more intervals.

Listen, listen, listen! Don't forget to research songs for interval recognition (see other post).

We'll have a quiz when I get back.

Mr. Kozak

  

Songs for Interval Recognition

Grade 8,

While you practice playing intervals on the keyboard, you should be using that great music theory website we all love (see post bellow).

Don't forget, there is a list of songs to help you remember intervals. Make sure to listen to the first song in each list on the left hand side.

Songs for interval recognition from tokyosax

Good luck while I'm away. We'll have a quiz when I get back.
Mr. Kozak

Interval ear training

Students,

The best website for ear training is music theory.net. We are training our ears to hear different intervals - the spaces between two notes. In the exercises, find interval ear training, and customize the exercise to only have unison, octave, major 3rd, perfect 4th, and perfect 5th.

 

After you get 80% from 30 questions, add minor 2nd, minor 3rd, and the Tritone.

This takes patience. You will improve the more you listen.

Mr. Kozak

Music and Emotions

Students,

Please finish your homework for next class. You have to define those emotion words and add a song sample. Don't forget the composer's name.

Mr. Kozak