Archive for merciern

Check out our Choral Roundtable

KESNE got some people together to talk about choral practices in the times of COVID-19.

 

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Friday Find: Guerrilla Handbell Strikeforce

Okay – so it is February, I’ll admit this one is a bit late this year, but highly appropriate. Don’t you think that the Salvation would raise so much more money if they trained their ringers with a slightly higher quality bell?

Friday Find Guerrilla Handbell Strikeforce

I personally love how after they are done the Salvation Army worker just stands there for a few seconds before he goes back to ringing his bell.

The Friday Find is a weekly feature of kesne.org and features videos that would appeal to music educators, folk historians, and music lovers in general. You can view an archive of our Friday Finds here. If you would like to suggest a Friday Find please contact our Media Secretary via our contact form and include the subject Friday Find Suggestion.

Friday Find: Conduct Us!

Every wonder what would happen if you just allowed anyone to conduct a chamber ensemble? Well that is what Improv Everywhere wondered, and here were the results.

Friday Find - Improve Everywhere Conduct Us

Imagine what this would like like in a world imagined by Kodaly Educators? Not only would each person walking down the street be able to successfully conduct the group with artistry and poise, they might also be able to relieve some of the players as well so that they could get a coffee break.

Hat’s off to the folks of Improv Everywhere for giving some culture back to the world!

The Friday Find is a weekly feature of kesne.org and features videos that would appeal to music educators, folk historians, and music lovers in general. You can view an archive of our Friday Finds here. If you would like to suggest a Friday Find please contact our Media Secretary via our contact form and include the subject Friday Find Suggestion.

Friday Find: Great Emotions

Today’s Friday find is a trip down a musical roller coaster. This dramatic visualization was an promotional video for the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and follows the first violin through the opening of the fourth movement to Ferdinand Ries 2nd Symphony.

The orchestra described the video as follows: Read more

Friday Find: Call Me Bottles?

This Friday Find comes to us from KESNE Vice President Keira Brown.

When is popular music appropriate for the classroom? Well, sometimes popular music can be really well done, just because it is popular doesn’t mean it is bad. Sometimes it also makes sense to bring it into the classroom to show how inspired musicians can turn any song into something interesting and impressive.

 

The Friday Find is a weekly feature of kesne.org and features videos that would appeal to music educators, folk historians, and music lovers in general. You can view an archive of our Friday Finds here. If you would like to suggest a Friday Find please contact our Media Secretary via our contact form and include the subject Friday Find Suggestion.

Friday Find: Walking on the Air

It is still winter right?

This week’s Friday Find comes from member Jura Litchfield who wrote the following:

“Walking in the Air” comes from the animated movie “The Snowman” which I believe can be found in its entirety on youtube. I found it to be a good example of a movie without words in which the music develops the mood and presents the “sound pictures” that kids can identify, such as a descending melody when the hero descends the stairs, etc.
I have found that the idea of flying above the earth in the song ” Walking in the Air” is a great metaphor for finding one’s head voice.  I find other youtube clips of boys singing this song to demonstrate that it is a song for boys as well as girls.  My experience is that third graders and fourth, too, respond very favorably to this song and are willing to sing it in head voice.

Thanks to Jura for the great suggestions and the great video!

The Friday Find is a weekly feature of kesne.org and features videos that would appeal to music educators, folk historians, and music lovers in general. You can view an archive of our Friday Finds here. If you would like to suggest a Friday Find please contact our Media Secretary via our contact form and include the subject Friday Find Suggestion.

Friday Find: Beatboxing Flute?

You do know what beatboxing is, right? If you have never heard of it you probably aren’t alone, but please allow us to blow you mind. Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion taken to a very high level of virtuosity. Beatboxing has it routs in vocal art forms out of Indian bol and Chinese Kouji, both which are thousands of years old. However, modern beatboxing has a much more contemporary influence.

Modern History

Beatboxing’s modern history was pioneered when members of hip-hop groups like Doug E. Fresh. Popular with vocal acappella groups, beatboxing exploded in various vocal circles. Mixing with other influences from hip-hop’s electronic “beat boxes” and turn table like sounds, beatboxing has continued to morph over the years and now even has a form of notation all of its own.

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Friday Find: Tone Matrix

Allow me to begin with an apology. There is no video for the Friday Find this week. Now allow me to offer an explanation – what I have for you is far more amazing than a video. Last week we featured Bobby McFerrin in our Friday Find. In that video Bobby talks about the power of the pentatonic scale, something every Kodaly teacher knows about. Then later that week a non-music major friend linked me to this cool flash tool she had found called a tone matrix.

What is a tone matrix? Well it is this!

So how does it work? Read more

Friday Find: Power of the Pentatonic

It has been a long while since our last Friday find! It has been on hiatus mostly due to a very busy work schedule combined with a backlog of summer projects. It is my resolution to make a better effort this year about getting them up in a timely manner. Without adieu here is Bobby McFerrin presenting “The Power of the Pentatonic” – commentary is behind the cut!

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