september's birthday musician is...
Born on September 5, 1912
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Kindergarten and first grade started the lesson by watching a video by The Piano Guys where they cover One Direction's "That's What Makes You Beautiful" [watch the video HERE] . After the video, the class discussed some of the different ways they played the piano, including plucking the strings, using strings of a violin bow, and hitting parts of the piano body.
We then talked about our birthday musician, John Cage, and how he wrote music for prepared piano where objects are place on and in the strings of a grand piano to change how the piano sounds. We finished by watching a of Cage's prepared piano with different size screw put in between the strings of the piano [watch the video HERE]. |
Second, third, and fourth grade helped create a chance music composition on the SmartBoard by placing different shapes on a spiral line. The students then chose which untuned percussion instruments would play on which shape and then the class played their composition by following where the teacher pointed on the spiral line.
The classes also discussed a composer, John Cage, who loved chance music. He didn't care about telling a story or making you feel something, which is why he wrote chance music - it's just sounds, not a story or an emotion.
The classes also discussed a composer, John Cage, who loved chance music. He didn't care about telling a story or making you feel something, which is why he wrote chance music - it's just sounds, not a story or an emotion.
Fifth grade began the lesson by considering the question "What is the difference between music and sound?" We discussed this idea and students were reminded that there are no wrong or right answers to this question. Miss C then told the students her personal answer to the question is "music is organized sound", meaning there is a beginning and an end, with a plan for what happens in the middle.
John Cage, September's birthday musician, believed sound and music shouldn't be all that different. He didn't care about telling a story or making you feel something, he just organized sounds. The songs had a beginning and an end with a plan for the middle, but it didn't have to sound pretty or memorable. We then watch a video of John Cage talking about his views on sound versus music [watch the video HERE - we watched until 0:54, then skipped to 1:48, and ended at 3:39]. |
Miss C then told the class about a time that Cage wanted to find total silence so he went into a soundproof room. He was surprised to find that even in this room, there was still sound because he could hear his heart beating and all the other noises of his body working. After this, he decided to write his most famous song, "4:33", which is four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence. There is a beginning and an end with a plan for the middle - no one plays anything. His goal was to make people hear the sounds around them they usually take for granted. We finished the lesson by watching an orchestra perform "4:33" [watch the video HERE].