Grades 2 & 3

Students/Guardians: Explore enriching musical activities and mini-lessons, here. Students are NOT expected to submit written work if they have chosen the 100% on-line learning option. You may also use this site to log-in to the Quaver Music Curriculum and to learn about some of the other concepts we'd normally cover in music class. If you have questions, please e-mail Mr. Wiget.

Snow Day Learning

Watch any or all of the videos, below, and sing/dance along!

Lomax: Flea Bath

Lomax: Cat Came Back

Lomax: Row, Row

Lomax: Alabama Bound

The Bremen Town Musicians

What happens when four musical animals set go on an adventure together and stumble upon a gang of thieves? Find out in this hilarious tale! The soundtrack includes music by famous composers Rimsky-Korsakov, Mendelssohn, and Rossini.

Less Common Instruments

This section includes demonstrations of instruments you won't likely find in most bands, music classrooms, orchestras, or recordings.

The Mellotron: Famous Songs!

This instrument uses individual strips of audiotape, assigned to each key, to play recordings of actual instruments when the player depresses each key (like a piano or organ). Follow this link to read more about How Mellotrons Work and What Makes Them So Special. There are also lots of videos and recordings demonstrating how useful this instrument was, especially before

Paul McCartney Demonstrates the Mellotron

A Famous Example: Paul played the Mellotron in the Beatles' song, "Strawberry Fields." If you click the link, you can hear the Mellotron throughout the song in the original recording. It is particularly easy to hear it at the beginning, using recorded samples of flutes.

Theremin

Theremin: An instrument one plays by NOT touching it! This electronic instrument just turned 100 years old. The Theremin is distinguished among musical instruments since it is played without physical contact. The thereminist stands in front of the instrument and moves their hands in the proximity of two metal antennas. The distance from one antenna determines frequency (pitch/high or low), and the distance from the other controls amplitude (volume/loudness).

Wild Instruments

Listen to the smooth sounds of some pretty unlikely *instruments*. We begin with a junkyard virtuoso, proving that one man’s trash truly is another’s orchestra. Then we travel deep underground to witness the world’s largest instruments before we groove along to the seriously spine-chilling tunes of ‘The Apprehension Engine.’

Bizarre Instruments

Which is your favorite?

What To Do at a Concert

Is it acceptable to talk during a performance, as one would do at a folk or rap concert? Should a person arrive late, as baseball fans finding their seats in a stadium often do, send or read text messages, or answer the phone?

What music shares with visual art

Classical music and visual art — painting, sculpture, design, and architecture — echo each other in countless ways. Exploring these resonances can deepen our experience and understanding of both.

Listening to classical works through the lens of a particular piece of art can help us better know a style common to them both — such as Baroque or Impressionism; can help illuminate the particular historical period in which they were created; and can even sharpen our grasp of shared artistic elements — such as rhythm, color, texture, and form. There are also rich traditions of great artworks inspiring musical compositions and of sharing common narratives.

What Does a Conductor Do?

When a person attends an orchestra concert for the first time, the presence of a conductor can come as a surprise, or at least an enigma. Who exactly is that person up there gesticulating at the musicians? Why is he or she necessary? What artistry does he or she contribute?

Amplifying these questions is the mystique certain conductors wield, as if commanding the forces in front of them through sheer charisma. Is that a baton or a sorcerer's wand?

Charisma, though, is just one tool in the conductor's toolbox. A conductor not only needs to grasp all of the orchestra's individual performers, instruments, and musical lines, but must also coordinate them into a unified statement, one that is both technically sound and artistically compelling.

Build Instruments at Home!

Find and create musical instruments using everyday objects you can find around the house!

Click here to learn how.

Identify piano keys

Use this activity to improve your ability to identify the keys on the piano using the musical alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F, and G)

How history influences music

Did you know music often reflects the time and place in which it was written? Historians often look to music to learn more about a society and its culture.

songs of our national life

Short history of the "Star-Spangled Banner"

"Star-Spangled Banner"

This is a recording of children singing our national anthem. Sing along! Remember to float your voice, especially on the higher pitches.

Practice the "Star-Spangled Banner"

This is a recording with the piano part (like you'd hear in music class) and the lyrics. Try singing our national anthem on your own and then ask your folks and siblings to sing with you!

"You're a Grand Old Flag"

Please, sing along! Remember to sing beautifully, floating the higher notes without shouting.

QuaverMusic.com reaching tens of thousands of students through a new innovative and engaging general music program. Check it out! (PRNewsFoto/QuaverMusic.com)

Quaver Music Curriculum

Clay Elementary School subscribes to the Quaver Music Curriculum for students in grades K-6. Some of the resources are available to our students by logging in with their @claylocalschools.org e-mail account. When you're ready to log-in, click the large Quaver logo and then Click HERE to view/download the log-in guide.

Second grade class code: 8HPYW

Third grade class code: 6BVDU

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