Hello Lowell Community. If we haven't met, I'm Anthony Spano and I've taught music here at Lowell for over 17 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

While Koji Kondo's name may not ring a bell, is music certainly will. As the sound director for Nintendo for nearly 40 years, Koji's iconic soundtracks for video game series such as Super Mario Brothers and The Legend of Zelda have become some of the most recognizable melodies in the world.

Tarkan Tevetoğlu, known professionally as Tarkan, is a legendary singer, songwriter, and pop superstar from Turkey whose career spans over the last 25 or more years.

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.

This month, students in grades 3, 4, and 5 will be studying 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.

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

In Kindergarten and grade 1, we 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

Attention 3rd Grade families! At the end of this month, my fellow instrument teachers Ms. Byham, Mr. Thew, and Mr. Stringer will be bringing some of our high school musicians over for a quick performance, demo, and Q&A on our 4th grade instrument program. You can find more info here.

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)

Louis Stringer (strings)

Maxwell Thew (winds, percussion)

Anthony Spano (winds, percussion)

This month, our Kindergarten, first, and second graders will be learning about the four major instrument families (strings, woodwind, brass, and percussion) through live demonstrations, listening and video examples, and even getting to try and variety of the instruments.

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:

Los Pollitos Dicen - traditional Latin American children's song

Canoa Virou - traditional Brazilian/Portugese children's song

Giro Giro Tondo - traditional Italian children's song

Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles

Rocketship Run - Laurie Birkner

A Tisket, A Tasket - Ella Fitzgerald

Follow the Drinking Gourd - traditional African-American code song

Abiyoyo - Book and song by Pete Seeger

We Shall Overcome - American folk song

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

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

Mr. Sun - Raffi

If I Were a Tree - traditional

I Had a Little Rooster - traditional

Blackbird - The Beatles

Yellow Submarine - The Beatles

Kye Kye Cule - traditional, Ghana

My Aunt Came Back - traditional

Three Little Birds - Bob Marley

Down by the Bay - traditional

Skin and Bones - traditional

Pumpkin Bones - Quaver music

Round and Round the World is Turning - English folk song

A Ram Sam Sam - Moroccan folk song

Brown Bear, Brown Bear - singing game adapted from Eric Carle book