Teacher’s Preparatory Guide for the 2004 Tiny Tots Concerts

CHRISTOPHER SEAMAN, MUSIC DIRECTOR

String Street Brass Boulevard

Woodwind Way Percussion Parkway

May 12,14 & 18, 2004 Michael Butterman, Conductor

Principal Conductor for Education and Outreach The Louise & Henry Epstein Family Chair

Sponsored by

Dear Educator: We are happy that you’ll be joining us for this year’s Tiny Tots concert entitled “The RPO Neighborhood.” This Teacher’s Guide is being provided to help you prepare your students for the concert. We hope that it is easy to use, whether or not you have any musical background. Please share the pictures with your students as your read the text to them and feel free to adjust the activities to the individual needs of your classroom.

The RPO Neighborhood Table of Contents

List of Pieces 1

Meet Your Conductor! 1

Let’s Go to the Concert 2

String Street 3

String Activity 4

Woodwind Way 5

Woodwind and Brass Activities 6

Brass Boulevard 7

Percussion Parkway 8

Percussion and Neighborhood Activities 9

Words to Sing-Alongs 10

Resources for Teachers 11

The Tiny Tots concerts are sponsored by Target and Thomson West. Additional support for all of the RPO's Education and Outreach programs is provided by NYS Council on the

Arts, a State agency; Monroe County; NYS Senator Jim Alesi; City of Rochester; NYS Senator Michael F. Nozzolio; NYS Assembly, secured by Assemblyman Joseph D. Morelle; NYS Senator Joe Robach; CitiBank;

Cornell/Weinstein Family Foundation; Democrat and Chronicle; Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield of the Rochester Region; Frontier, a Citizens Communication Company; Glover Crask Charitable Trust; Kraft

Foods, Inc.; Mary S. Mulligan Trust; Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation; Rochester Gas & Electric, an Energy East Company; and Xerox.

Here is a list of pieces you will hear at the concert.

Joe RAPOSO Sesame Street Theme Edvard GRIEG “Prelude” from Holberg Suite Arr. Roger DAILY On the Bridge to Woodwind Way (Sing-Along) Felix MENDELSSOHN “Scherzo” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream Arr. Ramon RICKER Row, Row, Row Your Boat (Sing-Along) Peter Tchaikovsky Polonaise from Eugene Onegin Arr. Roger DAILY Wheels on the Bus (Sing-Along) Richard HAYMAN Pops Hoedown John WILLIAMS “Harry’s Wondrous World” from Harry Potter Suite

Michael Butterman has held the position of Principal Conductor for Education and Outreach (the Louise and Henry Epstein Family Chair) since the 2000-2001 season. He conducts all of the orchestra’s concerts for young people, leads many other programs in the symphony’s season, and represents the organization in the community. Mr. Butterman is also the Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in Florida.

Mr. Butterman began studying music at the age of seven. He took piano lessons beginning in the second grade, and added violin the next year. He enjoyed music so much that he became a violinist in the Northern Virginia Youth Symphony, and practiced piano for hours

each day. He eventually entered and won several piano competitions when he was in high school.

Although he loved music, he decided to concentrate on studies in chemistry when he was in college. He remained involved in music by playing piano for his school’s choruses. One year, he was asked to conduct the choruses, and discovered how much he enjoyed working with other musicians to prepare concert programs. Mr. Butterman then decided to get some specialized training in conducting, and enrolled at Indiana University.

He was offered a teaching position at Louisiana State University and lived in Baton Rouge for five years. Today, he lives in Florida with his wife, Jennifer, who plays violin in the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.

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Meet Your Conductor!

Now that you’re at the performance hall, it’s time for the concert to begin! There are three things that will happen before the music starts.

1. Ready... First the concertmaster will walk to the front of the orchestra and bow as you applaud. The concertmaster is the first violinist who is in charge of tuning the orchestra.

2. Set... Then the concertmaster will point to the oboe player who will then give the tuning note . First the woodwind and brass players will check to make sure their instruments are in tune with that note, then the string players will do the same.

3. Go!

Which path leads you to your bus for the RPO Tiny Tots concert?

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The cello is played vertically and held between the performer’s knees. It is sometimes said that the cello is like the human voice, be-cause it can play as high as a soprano can sing and as low as a bass can sing.

Next in size is the viola. It is a little bigger than the violin and smaller than the cello. Like the violin it is played held under the chin.

The violin is the smallest and highest sounding of all of the string instruments. There are two sections of violins in every orchestra.

The harp has 47 strings, which are plucked rather than bowed. They are also color-coded. C’s are red, F’s are black or blue, and all of the other notes are white.

The bass is the lowest sounding and biggest of the

bowed string instruments. Bass players sit on very high stools or stand behind their instruments to play.

String Street

The instruments of the string family include violin, viola, cello, bass, and harp. Each have strings made of wire or nylon. All except for the harp are played with a bow that is made of wood and horse’s hair. The musician makes a sound by drawing the bow across the strings or by plucking the strings with their fingers.

Because they are all similar in shape, but differ-ent sizes, the violin, viola,

cello, and bass live in similar houses that reflect their size. The harp has a different house because it is different shape and is not played with a bow.

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Activity Where are the parts of the cello?

In this activity, children are asked to compare the placement of different parts of the cello to their own bodies. Holding up a picture of a cello, point to and name each component. Then ask the children where it would be on them if they were a cello. For examples, see the picture below.

Scroll - Ask children to touch their head..

Strings - Ask children pull four strings from their chin to their knees.

Belly - Ask children to find their bellies.

F - hole - Ask children to “draw” the shapes of two f-holes on their bellies.

Tailpiece - Ask children to find their knees and their ankles.

Endpin - Just like the cello stands on its endpin, we stand on our feet.

Bridge - Ask children to put their hands on their waist.

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Tuning pegs - Ask children to put their tuning peg in at base of their head or top of their neck, like Frankenstein. Fingerboard - Ask children to find their neck.

The Oboe uses a double reed to create its distinct sound. The reed is made of two piece of cane tied tightly together, which vibrate against each other

when air is blown into the oboe. Oboes are usually made from a special African wood called Grenadilla. It is high in pitch, but not as high as the flute.

The flute and piccolo are the highest sounding of the woodwinds. Originally made of wood, they are now made of precious metals, like silver or gold. The piccolo is half the length of the flute and can be played a whole octave higher. Both instruments are held sideways when played, allowing the musician to blow across the mouth-piece rather than into it.

The clarinet looks a bit like the oboe, but it has a very different sound. It has a single reed, which vibrates against a mouthpiece. It’s range is also wider than the oboe’s. The clarinet can play a lit-tle bit higher and much lower. The clarinet is often made from Grenadilla wood.

The woodwind instruments are the flute, the oboe, the clarinet, and the bassoon. Members of the woodwind family either are or were once made of wood. They produce sound in several different ways, creating many different tone qualities.

Woodwind Way

The largest and lowest sounding woodwind is the bassoon. Like the oboe, the bassoon uses a double

Because the members of the woodwind family all

produce sound in different ways and have very different sounds,

they all have very different houses. The

flute’s igloo is the only one made entirely

without wood.

reed - only much bigger! Bassoon players sit on a strap attached to the instrument to hold it in place. The bassoon can be made from several different types of wood and of all of the woodwinds, it has the most keys.

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Activities Timbre Matching Game

Preparation: Take pairs of opaque containers such as film canisters, empty margarine tubs, or paper covered bottles and fill them with various materials that make different sounds when shaken. For example, you could use sand, rice, dry macaroni, coins, a marble, small stones, or bells. Then seal the containers or tape them shut, so that the covers will not come off to prevents peaking or spilling. Activity: Give one shaker to each child and have them shake it and listen very carefully. Then have them find the other person who has the same sound as them by comparing the noises the different shakers make.

Measuring Brass Instruments

This measuring activity will give children a basic idea of how long tubes are shaped into brass instruments. Bring in a garden hose or very long piece of rope and lay it down straight on the ground. Then have the children measure it. This can be done by counting the number of steps they can take along the length, the number of people who can lie down head to foot next to it, the number of shoes that can be placed along it, the traditional way (inched and feet) or any other way the teacher or students can come up with. After you have done this, curl the rope or hose up into different shapes - spirals, rectangles, triangles, etc. - and have the children measure it again, using the same units of measure. Does the rope/hose take up more space or less? Is it longer and shorter? Is it easier to hold all stretched out, or rolled up? Finally, compare the coiled shapes to those of the brass instruments in the orchestra.

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Trombones have existed for over 600 years. Unlike the other three brass instruments, the trombone uses a slide to change the notes it plays, rather than valves. Because of this, composers often write glissandos for them. A glissando, which comes from the Italian word “to slide,” is a series of notes played quickly and very closely together. If stretched out, the tubing of the trombone would measure about nine feet.

The smallest and highest sounding of all of the brass instruments is the trumpet. If you stretched out the tubing in a trumpet, it would be about six and a half feet long. Trumpet players use three valves to change pitch. Long ago, trumpets were often used to signal soldiers during battles.

The French horn was initially developed in Germany, but we call it the French horn, be-cause the modern model was completed in France. The French horn is made of twelve feet of tubing and has a beautiful mellow sound. Players press the valves with their left hand to create different notes and put their right hand in the bell to adjust them.

Made from about thirty-two feet of tubing, the tuba is the largest and lowest sounding instrument of the brass family. When playing, tuba players hold their instrument upright in their laps. There are usually four valves on the tuba, used to change the pitch of notes.

Brass Boulevard

The Brass instruments are the trumpet, French horn, trombone, and tuba. These instruments are made of brass and each have a cup-shaped mouthpiece that ampli-fies the sound. By the time the sound reaches the audience, it is smooth and beauti-

Because the brass instru-ments all produce sound the same way, they all

live in less varied houses than the woodwinds.

However, they do still come in all different sizes and shapes, so their houses do too.

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Percussion Parkway

Cow Bell

Maracas

Tambourine

Triangles

Cymbals

Chimes Xylophone

Bass Drum

Timpani

Conga

Djembe

Snare Drum

Guiro

Percussion Parkway is a very crowded street! There are so many percussion instruments because they all sound very different. For that reason they also all have different

houses. The idiophones live on the left side of the street and the membranophones

live on the right.

A Percussion instrument is any instrument that makes sound when it is hit, shaken, or scraped. The percussion family is divided into two groups, idiophones and membranophones. Membranophones produce sound by means of a tightly stretched membrane, which is struck, either with mallets or the performer’s hand. Idiophones produce sound using only the material they are made from, without an external resonator, like a drum head, strings or a reed.

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Activities Rhythm and Tempo Game

New Vocabulary TEMPO - the rate of speed, whether slow or fast, at which music is played. To begin this activity, establish a slow “walking tempo” and faster “running tempo,” by clapping or drumming steady beats while the children listen. Explain to them that one is slower and one is faster. Now ask the children to either walk or run with the tempo depend-ing on whether they think it is fast or slow. You may also want to have a whistle, which can be blown to signal “freeze.” To make the game more challenging, you could also consider adding syncopated “skipping” or “dance rhythms.”

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Make Your Own Neighborhood A neighborhood is not only a group of people who live on the same street. Even though every person is different, they need to cooperate and find common ground to work from. They may even share ideals or goals. In this sense, an orchestra is a neighborhood, because the musicians are all working together to perform music. Classrooms are also neighborhoods and the follow-ing activity allows students to create their own representational neighborhood. Preperation: Cut out house shapes from construction paper, poster board, or cardboard and write each student’s name on one. Activity: First ask the children what makes your classroom a community or neighborhood. Possible reasons include shared values, the classroom that you share, food you eat together, the language you speak, games you play together or friendship. Then hand out the houses and have each child decorate their own house by coloring, painting or gluing things to them. When the houses are finished you can arrange them into a neighborhood by posting them on to a large piece of poster board or a bulleting board that has been decorated to look like a street. You can also attach a piece of wide gray ribbon to the wall to make a road and then hang the houses up along it.

Words to Sing-Alongs

On the Bridge to Woodwind Way To the tune of “On the Bridge to Avignon” On the bridge to Woodwind Way, We are walking, we are walking. On the bridge to Woodwind Way, This is how we walk today. (step, step, step, step) On the bridge to Woodwind Way, We are whistling, we are whistling. On the bridge to Woodwind Way, This is how we whistle today. (Whistle)

Row, Row, Row Your Boat To be sung in rounds Row, row, row your boat Gently down the stream, Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily. Life is but a dream.

Wheels on the Bus The wheels on the bus go ‘round and ‘round, ‘Round and ‘round, ‘round and ‘round. The wheels on the bus go ‘round and ‘round All through the town. The strings on the bus go pluck, pluck, pluck… The woodwinds on the bus go tweet, tweet, tweet… The brass on the bus goes wah, wah, wah… The wheels on the bus go ‘round and ‘round...

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Resources for Teachers

Early Childhood Education: www.earlychildhood.com (craft and activity ideas, articles on education)

www.hummingbirded.com (lesson plans, message boards, and links to related websites)

www. theideabox.com (activities, songs, games, and crafts, message boards for parents and educators)

www.naeyc.org (the official website for the National Association for the Education of Young Children)

www.perpetualpreschool.com (themed activities, discussion forums for teachers, online workshops)

Online Catalogues: www.mflp.com (Music for Little People: a catalogue for children’s music, videos, instruments, and toys)

www.westmusic.com (West Music: specializing in early and primary music education)

www.musicmotion.com (Music in Motion: a music education and gift catalogue)

Books: Mole Music by David McPhail Mole learns to play the violin, and dreams of playing for an audience some day.

Max Found Two Sticks by Brian Pinkney Max astounds and confuses his neighborhood as he spends the afternoon drumming with the two sticks he finds.

The Remarkable Farkle McBride by John Lithgow A young prodigy named Farkle learns to play each instrument. Finally, he real-izes that the whole orchestra is his instrument and becomes a conductor.

Zin! Zin! Zin!: A Violin by Lloyd Moss An exuberant tribute to classical music and the musicians who play it.

Musical Instruments A to Z by Bobbie Kalman Satchmo’s Blues by Alan Schroeder Young Louis dreams of becoming a trumpet player and works hard to earn enough money to buy his first trumpet.

2004 Tiny Tots Program Evaluation Teacher’s Name: School:

(Circle the appropriate numbers for the concert you attended) Distinguished- Excellent- Good- Poor- exceeds meets meets most does not meet expectations expectations expectations expectations The Program: - had music appropriate 4 3 2 1 for my student. - was the appropriate length 4 3 2 1 - had appropriate narration 4 3 2 1 - had an appropriate theme/story 4 3 2 1 - helped my students meet 4 3 2 1 NYS Standards Overall Program Rating: 4 3 2 1 The Facilities (auditorium, seating, lighting, etc.): - were appropriate 4 3 2 1 Services: My request for attending on a 4 3 2 1 specific date was honored I received timely notice of the 4 3 2 1 repertoire for this concert Ushers/guides were helpful 4 3 2 1 Technology: Did you download any part of the curriculum guide from the RPO website Yes No If not, why? Suggestions to improve programming: Strengths of the program: Other suggestions:

Please fax this form back to: Adrienne Valencia, (585) 325-4905 Or mail to RPO Education Department, 108 East Ave., Rochester, NY 14604

CHRISTOPHER SEAMAN, MUSIC DIRECTOR