Dear Mr.

Butcher In the past few weeks we have been making scary noises with only are body parts, noises like wolf howls, zombies and ghosts. I really like learning about the elements of music because we can incorporate them in our haunted place project, like make screams really high pitched. I think it's nice of you to let us use the software on our own because back in 5th grade we would have to do it all as a group. Speak to you soon, Leo

Dear Mr.Butcher, We just used are our piece as an example for the grading rubric. I think we did quite well because we got an overall grade of 8. I think we can improve it now that we have had people comment like make the scream shorter and what not. It has been really fun trying to make a creepy atmosphere using the elements of music which are Pitch,Tempo, Dynamics, Silence, Duration,Texture, Rhythm and Timbre. See you soon Leo

Dear Mr.Butcher, I thought we did really well on our haunted place project. I really liked every ones work. What we could do is have a teachers grade and a students grade for are actual grade. So for example you give us a 6 and then the class gives us a 7 we could have 2 grades for whatever music project we are doing so that way we wouldnt have to lower or higher any ones grade. Speak to you soon Leo

I understand the elements of music now much better than before. The elements are pitch which is how high or low a note is, dynamics is basically the volume, tempo is the speed of the music, texture is the layers of music, rhythm is you sub-divide the beat or pulse, timbre is how you describe a sound in words, duration is the length of the note and silence is the absence of sound. Those are the 8 elements of music. I think I did really good on my test because I scored an 8/8 so I think I know the elements off my heart now. Good detail Leo, well done. MrB

On Friday I had lots of fun learning the beats, it was really fun because you made it so simple and funny. Some of them are tiddle tom, tom tiddle, spider, fly,snake and caterpillar. The most confusing one was the caterpillar because the beat went so fast. I think everyone else got it because something different sticks with you forever.

I personally thought listening and writing down beats was quite hard, but as soon as you told us the trick where you put down dots to count the beats it was a little easier. Even after that lesson I still have to practice to make it perfect. Clapping the beats is now a piece of cake thanks to the funny tricks you taught us. I have a question; Why do you have to learn to clap and write down the beats to be a good musician ?. You dont have to! The more skills you have as a musician the better you get. If you hear a tune you like you could write it down straight away. Any musical ideas you have could be notated so you dont forget them. MrB This music class we were learning about pitch. I thought I wasnt bad but I wasnt the best either. I personally thought Ella was the best though. I can improve my skills in telling notes by reading them as if they were a book every evening. I find it easy to tell notes on the treble clef but on the bass clef I will need some work. This week we were naming the notes on the keyboard. I was working with Faith and she was really really the best at it. I thought it was hard to find the note fast, but after a while I was getting the hang of it. When it got to sharps and flats I started making flats as sharps and sharps as flats, it was really confusing but I still got it in the bag. It is a little confusing but it is only practice. This is a good DW, well done. Remember to add as much detail as you can for revision purposes. MrB

This week we were playing the pianos. I really love just sitting there with a piano to my self because it lets my hands go free and play anything I want. I am going to find some music that is not too challenging and not too

hard for me for next week because I need to get something done or else I will be playing the same thing over and over again.

This week we played some tunes on the piano and reviewed are notes. This was good practice for my memory because I need to remember those notes for the test coming up. I also need to be quick about which note is which so I can read music faster and better then usual. Today we took a music test and I think I did quite well. I got a ten out of ten on my rhythm test and I hope to get a good grade on my pitch test. Today we played piano freely so I decided to practice Earth Song and doodle around on the piano trying different rhythm's. I am practicing every day for ten minutes and every time I walk into my room I always play something even if its 11:00 p.m.
Thats great Leo, I do the same thing at home. Keep up the good work. MrB

2012 This music class we were learning how to identify instruments by there sound. I found this really hard because I am not used to it and a lot of them sound the same. Sadly the power went out so we couldn't finish the lesson. What we did learn though is the important thing not what we did not.

This music class we were learning how to recognize the sounds of string instruments. I thought it was really tricky to tell the difference between the viola and the violin. They sound so alike, but I just have to listen for a really high pitch and I know its a violin not a viola.

This music class we were hearing the brass instruments and sounding them out. The hardest two to recognize was the french horn and the trombone. I still find it difficult to recognize the sounds of things, but it is improving really fast. This music class we took a test on the sounds of instruments. I think I did quite well. I studied when I could. This music class we were talking about the sounds you would use for an animal or an object. I thought it was really hard because each animal has there own sound or instrument. I know a few of by heart, like the bird and guns but the duck and other things. This music class you showed us Mixcraft. I really like it, you can have fun and create something that sounds professional. I really like how you can use the keyboard to type up the notes you want. Today I created animals using Mixcraft. I thought it was really fun and in a way difficult. I kneed to practice some tunes on it instead of letting the notes climb higher and higher. This music class we were still making animals out of instruments. I made a bird with a flute and I made a beaver with the clarinet. I now love Mixcraft because you can do nearly anything musical on it. I just finished making the fox and the owl today. I think of a fox as sly, so I had to find an instrument that sounded sly. I thought it through and used the viola. The owl is to me wise and calm. I chose a glockenspiel for that hum at the end and because it is relaxing. I am recording my voice now and nearly finished. I think it is going to be hard to place the sound tracks with the voice recordings because I will have to do lots of copy and pasting and moving tracks around. I am doing a lot of it at home and will be done soon.

I am now finished with my Gruffalo story. I thought it was really annoying dragging all of the sound tracks to the audio track. I have really liked this unit because it allows me to be creative with the sounds and to place notes wherever I want. Well done Leo. MrB

Today I finished touching up everything I needed to do to make the Gruffalo story perfect. It was not so good that we did not present today because some of us worked really hard for today. I am proud of what I did and I hope the class likes it.

Today we played the drums and learned an African beat. I really enjoyed learning how to play the rhythm because when we put it all together it really did sound like African music. I found it easy to play the beat because I listen to some drum beats on my ipod sometimes. Term 3 This week we have been working on our medieval and renaissance music project. I think it is going well so far but being the sub editor is putting a lot of pressure on me to get the information to the editor. I think it is nice to know the composers and the instruments from the Medieval times and the renaissance times. We are still working on the slide show this week because not everyone finished and some people copy and pasted so they had to do it again. I cant wait to see the final product because Im sure Justine did it well. If it comes together thats great, but if it doesnt then we know why. Lots of people were playing games or watching irrelevant videos so they couldnt get their work done.

Today we presented our slideshow and it was great. Only one person didnt do their work, but it was still great. I think all the people who worked on getting the information on this should be proud and especially Justine who put together the whole entire slideshow on her own in class doing none of it at home. It was great, but we still could make improvements and adjustments to it. We presented the renaissance slide-show today. It wasnt as good as the medieval time period one though. We didnt have any music on it and there were many mistakes. What I wasnt happy about was all the copy and pasting. If people do want to copy and paste then they shouldnt leave hyperlinks on their slide. All in all it was a very good presentation! Today we have been discussing modes for our original folk music. I think I am going to use a G chord or a C chord. I think it is very difficult to try and make up an original pattern. I like the G chord because it seems very easy to make things sound good. I like the C chord because it sounds sad and I have a good idea for it. I figured out what my folk tune is going to be and I have just started to write it out. I am having trouble writing the actual music so I am going to practice at home. I am really enjoying making these tunes because it allows you to get creative. Today I finished my folk music piece and it sounded pretty good. I changed the piano to the bagpipes and sped the tempo up and altogether it sounded quite good. I loved making this piece because it allowed me to be really creative with what notes I wanted to use. Today I made another folk music piece using bells. It sounds like bells in the morning and I think it was a good choice of instrument for this piece. I put a lot of effort into this and it all payed off. I really enjoyed this unit and also learnt quite a lot.

We presented our work today and it was great! Everyone put a lot of effort into their piece and it really payed off. This unit was a bunch of fun and I cant wait to do something like it again next year. Grade 7 Today we learnt about graphic notation. I think it is really cool that the notes are only represented by volume and pitch. I had a lot of fun on the first piece you gave where we had to follow because I was lost at first and I finally started to get it. We are still doing graphic notation and Im still loving it. We took a quiz on the graphic notation and I did pretty well but theres still a lot of room for improvement. If I had to choose between graphic notation and regular notes, I would probably still choose notes because they are what they say. You cant play anything different because it wouldnt be right. Today I started to write my own graphic notation on your award winning storyboard. I think I am doing ok but there is always room for improvement. I have used a piano, a drum, a rainshaker,and some voice. I think will turn out ok though. Today I became part of Faiths group and had to play piano for her piece. I thought it was really good and sounded correct but we had no lead instrument to tell us how when to play and to stop. I also think that the graphic notation was a little off because the piano was a straight line and the note wouldnt hold as long as I needed it to so I had to create a pattern of three notes in a row. All together it was really good though. Today our group finished are graphic notation piece. I think it sounds exactly like a stormy day and is accurate in graphic notation. I think it will sound good once we figure out whos playing what. It is really hard to practice because of all the noise but I guess its the same for everyone.

Today we performed our graphic notation piece to the class. They all sounded really good and a lot like a storm. It was interesting that one of the groups didnt use drums as thunder. Drums would be the obvious choice for thunder because it makes a load deep noise. But yet, they still pulled it off and created a successful piece of music. To do better I would try to change the instruments up a little. In our group, our pianos volume was too high so the piano sounded overpowering. I good fun doing graphic notation and hope to do it for a little bit longer until I finally get it perfect. Today we graded all are graphic scores. I thought most of them were pretty good. I think we got an eight on ours. To improve our graphic score we should have practised a bit more and we could have chosen some different instruments. All together though we did a brilliant job. Today we took the same quiz as we did at the start of the unit and it was great. I improved Massively! Last time I got an eight, and now I got a twenty one out of twenty one. I studied for it so Im glad I did well. Today we talked about the Frankenstein movie clip we have to add music to. It looked pretty good but also challenging. I have an idea of what I want it to sound like. I think it is going to be difficult to have to incorporate so many instruments into this movie clip. I am excited and ready for the challenge. Today we listened to some music and had guess what it represented. I thought I did good and got most of them correct. I figured out a trick, if you think you know it imagine that animal or form of transport in the music. For example the flight of the bumblebee, you can actually imagine the bee to the music. I liked this lesson and if you get this it will help you later in life. Today we played around with Mixcraft and remembered how to use it. I am just starting to create a piece of music and it is sounding really good right now. I love doing these projects because almost nothings wrong or right. I have an idea of what I am going to do. I am going to include strings, piano and drums. When its finished it will sound just like what its meant to.

Today I continued to work on my music piece. I think Im doing well so far because I have gotten halfway through the Frankenstein clip. I am still really enjoying this activity. One thing I have to improve on in my piece is adding more texture and trying new instruments instead of the ones I know. Today in music we continued to work on our film for the Frankenstein movie. I have added a lot more texture to my piece and a lot of effects, especially to the part where the monster jumps out from the cliff. I added lots of echoing because it was in slow motion. I am still really enjoying this and am ready to more. Today we are still working on the film clip. I realized that I am nearly finished. I just have to add some more effects into the composition to get the feeling that the movie is realistic. I am still liking this unit and am enjoying it alot. I like it because nothing is wrong and nothing is correct. I just finished my film clip for the frankenstein project. I figured out that when the guy falls down the tunnel I should make the English horn go down in pitch because the tunnel leads down. I am still enjoying this unit because I am free to experiment with different sounds and effects. I think I am doing well because it took me awhile to finish my project so its thorough and well thought out. I thought I was done last class but actually there is a lot more to be done. I have added a lot more texture, especially to the mountain climb and the part where the monster jumps out. I think I can squeeze some more instruments into the piece.