Our young musicians in Year 2 are singing, creating, and worshipping with heart, all while discovering the joy of music and unto the glory of God!
A recipe to being good singers
We have established that though we can all sing, we may not necessarily sing well. Therefore, it is important to learn a variety of singing techniques to enhance our singing ability.
We explored different reasons to why we would want to become good singers. Many students shared their personal goals and dreams – such as to become a popstar, to be in a choir group, to lead their church’s worship sessions, and many more. We discussed that with every reason; the main purpose needs to point us back to our almighty God – to bring Him glory and praise.
With each singing practice, it leads us to humility. Even though we may think that we are better than others in singing, we realise that we still have so much room for improvement. For instance, some of us discovered that we would need to follow the beat, sing in a higher pitch or sing in tune to become better singers.
Introduction to Bossa Beat
In Year 2, we are learning our singing and dance moves to ‘Bossa Beat’. When the students were first introduced to this genre of music – Brazilian Relaxed Beat, a few responses were:
“The song sounds weird.”
“It feels silly.”
“I feel happy listening to it.”
“The tune’s strange.”
“I enjoy this song even though I think it’s from a different culture.”
All of these were reasonable responses to music that they are unfamiliar with. Yet, students learnt to embrace and appreciate the differences in music whilst being respectful.
In the next couple of weeks, we will learn to play the glockenspiel part for ‘Bossa Beat’. I am sure we will all enjoy and master this song very soon!
Let’s create a worship song
We reflect God’s creativity in our world through the wonder of music.
We learnt to collaboratively create a simple mi sol la chord and lyrics for a worship song. When completed, we practised and performed on a glockenspiel to our friends in class. It is evident that worshipping our Lord is not restricted to age; children as young as seven can compose songs to praise God and still be pleasing to His ears.
Household music instruments
I understand that as parents, a lot of the times, we may not appreciate the overstimulating banging sounds our children make at home. However, in music, this is a space where they can freely enjoy, create and explore making different sounds.
Students were provided with a set of everyday items, and they used them to construct simple musical instruments, such as a rice shaker, drums, bean shakers and rhythm chopsticks. Later, they all joined in with a music accompaniment and music was made.
We thank God for giving us every opportunity to enjoy and play music in a safe learning environment.
