Hello Lowell Community. If we haven't met, I'm Anthony Spano and I've taught music here at Lowell for over 18 years. I hope to be preparing these newsletters on a regular basis to update you on what we've done, are doing, and will be doing in your child's music classes. Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments:

anthony.spano@watertown.k12.ma.us

This Thursday, the 1st of May, the Watertown Fine and Performing Arts department will be hosting our first all-district choral concert. We'll be combining singers from grades 4-12 in one big performance at Watertown Middle School starting at 6pm.

Our Musician of the Month for April is American vocalist, song writer, and guitarist Brandi Carlile. Born in 1981, Brandi's music combines rock, Americana, folk, country, and bluegrass sounds.

This month, our PreK - grade 2 students have been engaged in a second West African drumming unit. Each child gets their own djembe drum on which we will study beat, rhythm, and some authentic West African drum grooves.

WPS subscribes to Soundtrap, an online recording, sequencing, and sound editing program. Each student in grades 3-5 get their own login via they're WPS Google account. Throughout the month in music class, students will be creating their own projects using both Soundtrap's built in loops media library. 4th and 5th graders will be taking it a step further this year and composing their own loops which they will record into their projects. Students are more than welcome to work on their projects from home by simply logging in from any computer.

Students in grades 2-5 have been studying the piano in class. The piano makes a great vehicle to teach basic musicianship, theory, and note reading.

Later this year, Kindergarten and grade 1 will start by simply exploring the keyboard experimenting with high and low, loud and soft, steps and skips between notes, and chromatic vs. diatonic patterns. Then, we'll be using a simpler finger-number notation system to play familiar melodies, first just using the black key groups, and ultimately, the white keys.

In grades 2 and 3, we spent several weeks learning "middle-C position" which centers both hands at middle C allowing us to begin reading and playing a variety of simple, single-note diatonic melodies. Over the next few weeks, we will be reading basic notation and practicing some of these simple songs. The packet we use in class is linked below.

In our older grades (4-5), we've been working through the same "Middle-C packet" as mentioned for grades 2 and 3 above. As the students have a bit more background reading and playing, they're given more open workshop time in class to work on songs in the packet of their choosing that match their ability level. This month, we've been holding informal "recitals" in each class where students can perform the song they've practiced either privately for me, or for the whole class.

Black key melodies - finger notation (Kindergarten and Grade 1)

Middle C packet - standard notation (Grades 2-5)

White Key melodies - finger notation

Scales and Triads

"Hallelujah" - by Leonard Cohen - chord changes

Earlier this winter, students in grades 3, 4, and 5 studied guitar. We first learn basic mechanics, guitar technique, and picking on the open strings. Later, we learn to create new sounds on the fret board. Finally, we study simple single note riffs and melodies using a guitar notation system called tablature.

Click here to view or download the song book we use in class.

Singing is central to our music curriculum at all age levels. As I tell the students, your voice is the "oldest instrument in the world" and we carry it around with us everywhere we go. Below are just a few of the songs we've been singing in class this month:

Hey Jude - The Beatles

Fanga Alafia - traditional Yoruba song from West Africa

Edelweiss - from The Sound of Music

Do Re Mi - from The Sound of Music

Round and Round the Earth is Turning - traditional round from England

Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles

A Ram Sam Sam - traditional round from Morocco

Bele Mama - traditional round from Cameroon

Gramma Moses - traditional African American game song

Follow the Drinking Gourd - African American code song

A Tisket, A Tasket - traditional, performed by Ella Fitzgerald

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize - American civil rights song

We Shall Overcome - American folk song

Ode to Joy - from Beethoven's Symphony #9, English translation

Rocketship Run - Laurie Birkner

Giro Giro Tondo - traditional Italian children's song

Three Little Birds - Bob Marley

La Bamba - Richie Valens

In the Hall of the Mountain King - from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite

Skin and Bones - traditional

Pumpkin Bones - Quaver music

If I Were a Tree - traditional

Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen

Stand by Me - Ben E. King

Doggie Doggie, Where's Your Bone - Folk game/song

Mr. Sun - Raffi

Blackbird - The Beatles

Yellow Submarine - The Beatles

Down by the Bay - traditional

Hello Song - sung to the Farmer in the Dell melody

Willaby Wallaby - Raffi

Students in grades 4 and 5 can participate in our Lowell chorus. In chorus, we focus on diaphragmatic breathing, balance, diction/enunciation, and rudimentary harmony including part singing, round, and 2-part harmony.

If your child is participating and you haven't yet officially signed them up, you can do so here.

We had a wonderful performance in December for our staff, students, and families. We're looking forward to several more performances this spring including the first annual district-wide "Sing Out" in May and our Lowell Spring Concert in June. Here are some of the songs we've been looking at in rehearsal this month.

"Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service - recording

"Waterloo Sunset" by The Kinks - recording

"Tshotsholoza," a traditional South African song - recording

"Sesere Eeye," traditional song from the Torres Strait Islands - recording/dance

"Stand by Me," by Ben E. King - recording

Our instrument program has been very successful thus far this year. We have excellent participation from many of our 4th and 5th grade students and we're hoping to have some creative performance opportunities later in the school year. If you have any questions regarding your child's instrument lessons, feel free to email their instrument teacher at any time:

Macullen Byham (strings)

Maxwell Thew (winds, percussion)

Anthony Spano (winds, percussion)

Lauren Girouard (winds, percussion)