Welcome to the Lowell Music Program!
Watertown Middle School presents "Mary Poppins."
This weekend, Watertown Middle School presents the classic musical Mary Poppins. There will be three performances at the Watertown Middle School Auditorium
Friday, 28 March, 7pm
Saturday, 29 March, 7pm
Sunday, 30 March, 2pm
Tickets are $10 and free for Watertown Students.
Please join us this year on Friday, the 11th of April for our 12th annual MusicFest brought to you by our own Watertown Friends of Music. MusicFest is an opportunity for anyone in the Watertown community to perform enjoy music. The festival takes place across several hours at Watertown Middle School and features several performance stages, refreshments, and the ever-popular Instrument Petting Zoo for young and prospective musicians. Scan the code for more information or to sign up to be a performer.
Musician of the Month for March: Abel Selaocoe
Our Musician of the Month for March is South African cellist, composer, and vocalist Abel Selaocoe. Born in 1992, Abel uses his cello and dynamic vocal ability to combine Western classical sounds with traditional Xhosa, Zulu, and other South African sounds.
Piano/Keyboard
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
"Hallelujah" - by Leonard Cohen - chord changes
Guitar - Grades 3-5
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.
Songs we're Singing
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
Lowell Chorus
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
4th and 5th Grade Instruments
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)
