Year 6

CHRISTMAS 2020

Hello Year 6! Hopefully these resources will help you to practise this year's Whole School Christmas and Winter songs at home. We will be recording them at the end of term. We can't wait to hear your new songs that you have been writing in class as well!

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 6. 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
Y6 Got the Blues
As well as learning about the Blues through listening to famous singers like Bessie Smith, Howlin' Wolf and Lightnin' Hopkins (see below), we have been creating our own blues verses. We'd like to share our experiments with writing and recording our tracks, but it's important to highlight that we are sharing these to show the process of learning about a genre that is quite new to most of us. We are really proud of what we have achieved. We didn't have much time, and we weren't even able to practise singing the tune very much as a group, because of Covid safety concerns! Quite a few children were VERY reluctant to sing solo. So Mrs Woolfenden is incredibly proud of what we have created. I hope all of Y6 are too. 
Here's the playlist. If you let it run - it's almost like one long song. Enjoy.

Mrs W · Y6 got the 2020 Blues

Here's what we did in order to create these tracks:

• Listened to some great Blues singers.
• Learnt the tune for the Mean Old Bedbug Blues, as sung by Bessie Smith.
• Learnt about the features of the 12-bar blues, including the structure of 3 lines with the first two lines often repeating.
• Decided on the theme for our own blues song - everyday struggles, problems, worries, lockdown,  injustices, annoyances - whatever gives us the blues!
• Wrote a verse using the blues 'meme' "Woke up this morning.." to get us started.
• Learnt the chord progression (and how to count a number of bars together).
• Recorded the guitar accompaniment on the Garageband app.
• Recorded our solo singing in a quiet room.
• Added an instrumental response if we had time.

Phew! On Garageband, we learnt to:

• Create and name a new track
• Change the key and length of the piece (we needed 12 bars for the 12-bar blues!)
• Edit chords to include the major 7th chords that are important for the bluesy sound
• Change the tempo of the track
• Record an accompaniment using Smart Guitar, making sure to change chord at the correct moment
• Add a vocal track, using headphones to sing along with the guitar track
• Add another instrument track using the keyboard setting. (Otto brought his Saxophone to record a live, speedily improvised, instrumental track, and a couple of students have experimented with adding drums) 
• Always save our work!

The Blues
We are starting to explore Blues music, beginning with the Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith. Bessie was the most popular female singer of 1920s-30s America. She sang about lots of issues and injustices affecting women, such as domestic violence and people living in poverty. Here's her version of the Mean Old Bedbug Blues. 

Bedbugs were part of daily life for many in 1920s U.S.A. Singing the Blues was one way of sharing hardships and expressing feelings about injustice.The song was written by Walter 'Fuzzy' Lewis in the same year. You can hear his version below. How does it differ from Bessie's version?

You can find out much more about the Blues on the GENRE OF THE WEEK page. 

Digital Beats
Well done to Jack for being the first person to create a digital backing track for our Stay Safe rap. It's pretty funky as he has lots of off-beat notes. Can you rap along to the beat? I love the moment where all of the notes come together at the end. What do you like about his beat? Please comment below!

Keep sending them in, Year 6. Here are some more brilliant tracks... 

A fast-paced, catchy track by Ines P. I like the way the melody builds. What about you?

Another high tempo dance tune from Pearl. The repeated riff works well, with some variation at the end. Can you spot the long high-pitched note that keeps coming back?
Uzair has used some great techniques for his melody. Can you see where he repeats the first pattern a tone lower? He also tries a short palindromic pattern at the end.


Lili has chosen to create one bar of music that loops again and again. This technique is used a lot in digital music, or even in live performances with a looping machine. A repeated pattern like this is called an ostinato. Remember: we have previously studied ostinati in classical music and cyclical patterns in African drumming from Senegal.