I am very excited to create music with you this year.  To start the year, I just wanted to introduce myself and my beautiful family.  I am Mrs. Swenson and I love to sing (obviously) and I'm obsessed with musical theater.  I also like to spend time with my family.  My husband Joe loves to golf and cheer for all sports especially Football and Baseball (he's a Seattle Fan). Bentley loves soccer, swimming, riding bikes, playing trains and cars, superheroes, and his Kindle!  Eli is just starting to walk and he is trouble maker and gets into EVERYTHING.  He loved to dance, throw balls (and toys), and blow kisses.
It is hard to say goodbye to summer, but I look forward to a new year and lots of fun in Chorus and Music Exploration.

In chorus we will start the year working on our hardest piece. This is SING originally recorded by the Pentatonix! Their version and our version are both below! I will be adding our other songs to the blog weekly.  

6th Grade is singing: SING, Stand By Me, Pie Jesu and Lift Your Voice
7th and 8th Grade is singing: SING, Seize The Day, Inscription of Hope and Up to the Mountain. 

Today we will walking through the Exhibition together listening to each of the pieces and seeing the pictures.  We will not listen to the whole piece but as we listen you may want to write down some notes of what you hear on your hand out.  Once we have listened to 1-2 minutes of each of the 10 pieces we will do a little "guessing game."  And see if you can guess which picture matches which of the 4 songs I play.    Enjoy walking through the pictures at the exhibition!
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00:00 - Promenade 01:57 - Gnomus  05:56 - The Old Castle 11:13 - Tuileries 12:18 - Bydlo 15:08 - Promenade 16:08 - Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells 17:21 - Samuel Goldberg & Schmuyle 19:38 - Limoges 21:05 - Catacombs  25:42 - The Hut on Fowl Legs (Baba Yaga) 29:12 - The Great Gate of Kiev

Listen to this familiar song from Mocking Jay Part 1.  What dynamic(s) do you hear?  Today you will work on playing this theme on the glockenspiel.  Work on playing this dynamic in different ways.  

Use this link to complete the Scavenger hunt.  You are researching percussion instruments so scroll down to the percussion section (last 6 instruments).  Click on each instrument and read about them to fill in any blanks on your sheet and then go on to the next instrument.  You WILL have to read about each instrument to answer the questions :) If you finish early work on String family. 
​makingmusicfun.net/htm/mmf-music-library-meet-the-orchestra-index.htm

What an awesome first two weeks?  We learned "When I Grow Up" and so many students took turns soloing.  I was very proud of not only how fabulous you sounded but how brave you all were and supportive of your peers.  This week we are beginning our work on new songs.  6th Graders are working on "Scales and Arpeggios" and the concept of singing steps and skips.  7th and 8th Graders are about to embark on a piece from Japan called "In This Ancient House."  Here are some videos to help you practice your pieces at home!