Marie Murphy Music Update

Welcome to the first of several Marie Murphy Music newsletters that you will receive this semester while your child is taking Music class during their Allied Arts block! I am so excited to have your child in class this semester. Each grade level will be focusing on a specific area of music:

• 6th Grade – World Music
• 7th Grade – Film Scores
• 8th Grade – The History of Rock and Roll

Additionally, each grade will complete a composition/arrangement project and a guitar unit. As the semester goes on, I look forward to emailing you updates on what our Marie Murphy Musicians are doing in class. If you ever have questions, please feel free to reach out to me at hammondd@avoca37.org!

6th Graders began the semester by learning about the different instruments of the orchestra using the book The Composer is Dead by Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket). This mystery, which is fully accompanied by an orchestra and narrator, takes students through each section of the orchestra – String, Woodwind, Brass, and Percussion – as they investigate various instruments in each part of the orchestra.

Students created a Wanted poster for an orchestral instrument of their choice, explaining what section the instrument belonged to, what it sounds like, how it is played, and more.

6th Graders also began their study of World Music, and thus far, they have studied the music of India and China. As part of these World Music mini-units, students learn about styles of music, instruments, important musicians, and the role of music in the culture of each place. Students have also learned that are all Ethnomusicologists – people who study the music of different cultures or nations! They are learning to classify instruments as ethnomusicologists do – by how each instrument produces sound.

7th Graders have started the semester learning about film scores – the music of the movies! Students started by expanding their understanding of the history of film and how music was an important part of the movie-going experience, even when the movies were silent! Students learned about different techniques that film score composers use to help tell the story that takes place onscreen.

Currently, students are working in groups to analyze an excerpt from a film score and the scene it accompanies. They will synthesize their findings into Google Slides presentations and share their work with the class.

While students work towards completing their analysis of composition in film, they will also be beginning the process of writing their own compositions, which they eventually orchestrate in GarageBand!

We will begin by reviewing the music theory we began in 6th grade, and we will build upon those lessons with a study of writing melody, constructing chord progressions, and putting them together. Students will use our MIDI Lab computer stations, along with applications such as Sibelius and GarageBand to create their own pieces.

Our Marie Murphy 8th Graders are taking a deeper look at American musical history, starting with the Blues. Students learned about the birth of the Blues in the sharecropping communities of the rural South and how through the Great Migration, the Blues made its way to cities across the country. The merging of blues and jazz led to a new style - Rhythm.& Blues. Rhythm & Blues, in turn, led to Rock & Roll.

Along the way, students have been introduced to important figures in American musical history, including Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley. As we continue forward, students will learn more about important American musical figures in Rock, will listen to their music, analyze their lyrics, and build understanding of the historical and cultural context from which their music came.

As we work our way forward in time, students will learn how Rock and Roll expanded from being a solely American music to being a phenomenon across the world. A crucial musical group responsible for this was the Beatles. As part of their study of the Beatles, students will create a GarageBand remix of a selected Beatles song. Students will choose a new musical style for the song and use a lead sheet to create a new and unique version in GarageBand. Students will use our MIDI lab computer stations to complete this fun project.