Music

“Musicing” at Montlake Elementary School

“Musicing” is what our Music Teacher, Mr. Moore, calls the experience of “Creating Music while Learning Music.”  Learning by Doing. Creating with guidance. Participating as Sound Organizers. Embracing the Elements of Music. Mr. Moore has extensive experience as a General Music Specialist, Choir Director, Ensemble Coordinator, Piano/Voice Instructor and Experimental Electronic Music Facilitator.  He is a Certified Orff-Schulwerk Instructor, holds two graduate degrees, in Music and Music Education and is a Certified Educator of the Yamaha Music Education Foundation.

Students meet for Music Class once each week and small Ensembles such as Choir, Drum Circle and Ukulele Club for selected Grade Levels are forming for the balance of the year.

“Musicing” for each grade level includes the following Elements of Music:

• Singing: Accurately and Expressively
• Rhythm: Reading and Performance
• Movement: as Structured Dance and Creative Expression
• Notation: of Music, Writing and Reading
• Percussion Instruments: Pitched and Unpitched
• Ensemble: Creation and Performance
• Listening: Actively and Analytically

From year to year Students accumulate Increasingly More Complex Skills and Experiences with the MUSICAL ELEMENTS as listed above. Following is a brief list of what is added to our “Musicing” each year:

• Kindergarten: Positive Class Participation, Steady Beat, Clapping Together, Group Partner Activities, Listening/Moving, Following Verbal Instructions, Sound Identification, and Musical Notation…then
• First: Partner Songs, Group Dancing,  Simple Unpitched Percussion Instruments, Reading of Simple Printed Lyrics, Expanded Music Vocabulary, Continual Review of Musical Elements from previous year…Then
• Second: Simple Blending and Layering of Acquired Skills, More complex Unpitched Percussion  Instruments, Pitched Percussion Instruments of Xylophones and Glockenspiels, Reading, Performing and Composing Basic Rhythm Patterns, Brief Improvisations, Simple Musical Compositions, Higher Level of Ensemble Participation, and Increasing Ability to Communicate Musically…Then
• Third: Learning to Play the Recorder (a simple wind instrument of the Flute family), Performing Different Parts Together in Ensembles, and Greater Expectations for Independent Preparation… Then
• Fourth/Fifth: Demonstration of Acquired Musical Knowledge and Skills, Exposure and Introductory work with Ukuleles, Review and Growth Playing Recorders and Preparation For More Complex Performance Opportunities.

 To contact Mr. Moore, please e-mail tpmoore@seattleschools.org.