Year 5

CHRISTMAS 2020

Hello Year 5! Hopefully these resources will help you to practise this year's Christmas and Winter songs at home. We will be recording them at the end of term. Remember to rehearse your class song and then scroll down to practise the whole school songs (Thina Singa, Silver Bells and Jingle Bells). 

Thina Singa (whole school)

Queensbridge Primary · Thina Singa QBS

We think you know the words to this song from South Africa by now!

Jingle Bells in English and Spanish (whole school)

Queensbridge Primary · Jingle Bells

Don't forget to work hard on your Spanish words using the pronunciation guides in the playlist! Can you find something to use as an instrument in the instrumental verse? Pots and pans, or even some jingle bells?

Dashing through the snow
On a one-horse open sleigh,
O’er the fields we go,
Laughing all the way! (Ha, ha, ha!)
Bells on bobtail ring,
Making spirits bright,
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight. Hey!

Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way!
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh!
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way!
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh! 

Cascabel, cascabel
Lindo cascabel!
Con sus notas de alegría
Va anunciando él
Cascabel, cascabel
Lindo cascabel!
Con sus notas de alegría
Va anunciado él

Silver Bells (whole school)

A nice slow waltz celebrating Christmas in the city!

Queensbridge Primary · Silver Bells Practice Demo

Some classes have been learning the British Sign Language version. Learn the signs here with Kate from Hackney Music Service:

Here are some versions by Bing Crosby and the Supremes. It's a popular song, so you can find many more versions online! 

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style
In the air there's a feeling of Christmas
Children laughing, people passing
Meeting smile after smile
And on every street corner you hear

Silver bells, (silver bells) silver bells (silver bells)
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, (ring-a-ling)
Hear them ring, (hear them ring)
Soon it will be Christmas day

Strings of street lights, even stoplights
Blinkin' bright red and green
As the shoppers rush home with their treasures
Hear the snow crunch, see the kids bunch
This is Santa's big day
And above all this bustle you hear

Chorus

AUTUMN 2020 - Ukulele Magic!

We are very excited to be learning Ukulele in Year 5. Every child gets a new Queensbridge blue Ukulele to play at school. So far we have learnt to name the parts of the Ukulele and hold it properly, and we are learning strumming and plucking techniques on open strings. As well as learning how to play, we are learning about the history of the instrument and listening to some inspirational performances. You can explore the following links for home learning and check the Knowledge Organiser for an overview of the curriculum for this term. 

If you are keen to practice at home, see if you can get a copy of this book, Ukulele Magic Book 1. It's really clear to follow. If you are looking to buy a beginners Ukulele, I recommend the Octopus Soprano Ukuleles as a great value and reliable first instrument. Some cheaper models will just disappoint! 

Play along with the Thumb Brush Strum here:

GCEA

Can you remember the names of the strings? These diagrams should help you, and you can see where the open string notes would be written on the stave. Try to practise the rainy patterns that we learnt in class:
drip, drop (E   C)       pitter patter (GAGA)                           splash! (strum)

Knowledge Organiser

Your overview of  everything we are learning about in our ukulele lessons. See below for some listening links!

SOME UKULELE GREATS...

Herb Ohta (AKA Ukulele Master Ohta-San)

Herb Ohta plays his beautiful tune Hawaii in honour of his birthplace, and the home of the Ukulele itself. What do you notice about his strumming and picking patterns? Do you like this song? Ohta was also famous for thrilling interpretations of pop and jazz tunes. 

Herb Ohta Jr. 

Herb's son has also had a career performing on the Ukulele, and I thought you'd like this recording of Sir Duke - a favourite singing assembly song at Queensbridge!

Honoka and Azita

This Hawaiian Duo really know how to play. Listen to their arrangements of Bodysurfing and Misirlou. What different techniques are they using to make a more percussive sound? Who is playing the melody and who is playing the accompaniment? 

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's version of a famous Western film soundtrack.

Do you like the sound effects? As an orchestra, the group plays the different instruments in the ukulele family. Can you hear the different parts played by the low bass or the high soprano Ukuleles?

Kermit on the Uke

The famous song Ukulele Lady as performed by Kermit and Miss Piggy on The Muppet Show. 

George Formby

George Formby is famous as a ukulele player, although he usually played the banjolele - an instrument with four strings like a ukulele, but with a banjo-style body (more like a drum). Formby uses the instrument to accompany comedy songs. I love this one in praise of the ukulele, from the 1935 film 'Off the Dole'. Does anyone in your family remember listening to George Formby? Can you make up a song and strum along in time?

The first ever solo Ukulele recording

This crackly recording is of Hawaiian musician, Frank Ferera. Ferera was the first international star of Hawaiian music and recorded successfully between 1915 and 1930. It seems this recording dates from 1922. Can you hear how he picks out the melody and then fills in the chords with simple strumming patterns? 

Makaha Sons of Ni'Ihau

Featuring the famous ukulele player Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, this Hawaiian band was popular in the 1970s and 1980s. They are singing in Hawaiian, a polynesian language. Can you tell the difference between the sound of the ukulele and the guitars? Israel Kamakawiwo'ole became famous for his ukulele version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, recorded in 1990.

Tegan and Kaylan

I don't think these performers are professional (yet), but they play and sing really nicely, using the ukulele and guitar to accompany pop music. Which is your favourite clip from all of these? 

SPRING 2020

Having fun with Found Sounds
Inspired by Delia Derbyshire and the Radiophonic Workshop (see below), Y5 have been working in groups to record found sounds around school. They listened for sounds in the environment, or made sounds using everyday objects. Each group was asked to record 3 sounds onto the Garageband app*. Then we discussed different ways in which we could manipulate those sounds. We could make them louder or quieter (dynamics), longer or shorter (duration) by using reverb or cutting the recording, or we could change the quality of the sound (the timbre) using one of the special effects in the app. Some of the effects (like the chipmunk setting) changed the pitch (and made us laugh). We experimented with overlapping some of the sounds. What do you think? Are we composers and sound editors in the making? What do these tracks make you think of? What kind of image do they conjure up? What kind of mood do they create?

Mrs W · Found Sounds

*In future we hope to use something like Audacity that will be better suited to this task!

Delia Derbyshire and the Dr Who theme tune
Do you recognise this theme? Did you know that the brains behind the wierd and wonderful sounds belonged to Delia Derbyshire, a British composer and arranger working for BBC Radiophonic Workshop during the 60s. With a background in maths and music, Derbyshire was a trailblazer in composing music by recording 'found sounds' in the environment, and manipulating them with machines with wonderful names like the wobbulator. Year 5 students listened to the original soundtrack and drew graphic scores of the music. Can you see how the melody and bass line differ in the pictures below? Listen to the music and follow the scores. Which one do you think best matches the music? 

 

You can find out more about this exciting method of composing here:

Composing - making music inspired by Space

One of the most famous classical pieces of music inspired by Space is The Planets Suite by the British composer Gustav Holst. In class, we are listening to his movement Mars - the Bringer of War. Holst imagined the character of the planet Mars as warlike - relating to Roman Mythology. The style of a musical 'march' gives the feeling of an army approaching. However, where most marches are in 2 or 4 time, Holst wrote his march with 5 beats. You can hear this clearly in the ostinato pattern played by the strings throughout much of the work:

AUTUMN 2019

Forests and Fairytales
On Monday 4th November, Year 5 will be visiting the Barbican to attend this concert by the London Symphony Orchestra. Be prepared for some spooky moments as we travel through the deep dark woods and back into some historical music to do with fairytales and forests. 
Franz Schubert wrote a song about the story of the mythical Erlkonig. We are going to sing along with a special LSO version. Practise with the track below:


Anglo Saxon Song
We've made up a song to help you to remember some facts and ideas about the Anglo Saxons, to go with your class topic. Can you sing along?

Playing or singing a round or canon

23rd September - Canon in D 
We listened to this famous canon (or round) by the german Baroque composer Joann Pachabel. The piece is played by 3 violins and a bass instrument, and you can hear how each violin comes in with the same melody, two bars later than the previous instrument. Neither the date nor the circumstances of its composition are known (suggested dates range from 1680 to 1706), and the oldest surviving manuscript copy of the piece dates from the 19th century. Can you see the different entries in the picture?

You can listen to the piece in this video with string quartet:

And, of course, as played on the rubber chicken :-) 

16th September - Rhythm Round
Can you learn to perform the rhythm pattern from memory with confidence? Before we play anything in a round, we need to know it really well and play it musically - clear and with good control.