Day 7 of the 30 Day Song Challenge asks us to listen to a song that makes you feel sad. For this day, I chose a piece for string orchestra and harp by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams called Five Variants of “Dives and Lazarus.” I think this piece is stunning to listen to, but I get the feeling of sadness when I hear it. Even so, I enjoy listening to it because of its beauty and because of the way it features the string orchestra and harp. https://youtu.be/Xq2TG0SymYM
Check these music games out for a bit of fun on a gloomy day   https://www.classicsforkids.com/games.html

​Love you and miss you! 

Ms. Holbrook checking in with you on the 30 Day Song Challenge. Today is Day 6 which is listen to a song that makes you happy. My choice for today reminds me of college because that was when I first heard this song called Boogie Down by Al Jarreau. We used to listen to it all the time. The title makes me smile because it sounds funny! If you don’t know, the definition of the word “boogie” is a style of blues played on the piano with a strong, fast beat or it can also mean dance to fast music. This song has a great beat, great horn lines, and inspires you to move around when you hear it. Plus, you get to hear Al Jarreau scat singing which he is really good at! https://youtu.be/eL8vHOAp9E8

Do you like art? Do you like reading? You'll love the project below.! Click on the link to get directions on how to create your own Scat the Cat file folder story. Watch the video below to learn the "chorus" or repeated section of the story. 

Friday, March 27
I’m back again, I know you’re shocked! This is Ms. Holbrook. Congratulations! You’ve made it to Day 5 of the Song Challenge. We’ll pick it back up on Monday. Today’s challenge was to listen to a song that you have to play LOUD. YES!!!! I know I’m showing my age with this choice but this song was HUGE when I was in high school. We used it as one of the songs in our playlist for pregame basketball warmups too. Anytime I hear Van Halen’s Jump, I have to turn the volume up! https://youtu.be/bq-potK_7Ts
Since I’m already showing my age today, we are going to continue kicking it OLD school. Back when I was little (like right after dinosaurs roamed the earth), we had an electronic game called Simon. It’s a memory game with sounds and colors. You start super easy with only one thing to remember. Simon lights up a color and plays a sound and the you do it back, like Simon says, get it? Each time you get something correct, Simon adds one more to the sequence and you have to do the same thing back. I can remember my brother and I challenging each other to see who could get the furthest along without missing something. Super fun! Check it out. http://www.kidsmathgamesonline.com/memory/simon.html
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​Surprise! It’s Ms. Holbrook again! Today is Day 4 of your 30 Day Song Challenge! On this day, we are challenged to listen to a song that reminds you of springtime. This one was easy for me! I chose Spring from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. This piece features a violin soloist. You may have heard this before but not realized that it’s called Spring. Hope you enjoy listening and watching these talented musicians! https://youtu.be/jBaKtnUaS2c
Now, it’s an opportunity for you to create some virtual music! Have you ever wanted to play drums but you don’t have a drum set? Check out virtual drumming to create your own cool rhythms! https://www.virtualdrumming.com/drums/online-virtual-games/online-virtual-games-drums.html
 

 
 
 

You guessed it, it’s me again (Ms. Holbrook). Day 3 in the 30 Day Song Challenge was to listen to a song that makes you dance. (see Monday’s blog posting for the whole challenge) I chose September by Earth, Wind & Fire. I LOVE this song! It brings a smile to my face for so many reasons and I just have to move around when I hear it! Fun fact – this was the song that was playing in the hospital when my daughter was born so that’s yet another reason why it’s special to me! https://youtu.be/ter0p_iyIxk
Next up is something I found interesting to play around with. Hopefully, you will too! Want to experiment with combining speech and music in a fun way? You can type in words and set them into your own melody, change the melody using your mouse or keyboard, and then play around with trying different voices, scales, and more! Click on the following link to get started! https://creatability.withgoogle.com/word-synth/
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Tuesday, March 24
Hey everyone! Ms. Holbrook again. Day 2 in the 30 Day Song Challenge was to listen to a song with a number in the title. (see yesterday’s blog posting for the whole challenge) I chose Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds. It’s hard not to feel a little bit better about your day after hearing this song! https://youtu.be/F4sNi2PUiWM

Now, here’s something else that I found and thought you would enjoy!
I came across this play along that you could play alone or with others. The thing that makes this play along great for these virtual learning days is that you don’t have to have instruments to use them! Materials that you need are – a box, a metal can or metal box, cutlery (fork, butter knife, spoon), lid. You can have a different person play each of these instruments, you can choose one “instrument” to play and then play others the next time you do the video (if you’re doing this alone), or if you have 2 or 3 people, each person can choose an “instrument” and just don’t worry about the other one! You’ll see what I mean when you open the video. Enjoy playing along to Alla Turka! https://youtu.be/1ebeCOo6XQU

Hey everybody, this is Ms. Holbrook! On Friday, I decided to start the 30 Day Song Challenge. I’m following it for every school day moving forward with Friday, March 20 being my first day. Then, my Day 2 will be Monday, March 23 – Today! I thought this could be a really cool way to discover new music, have family members share songs that they like with me, or have my friends take part in the challenge and have them share music with me. I hope you’ll challenge some friends or family members to join the challenge with you! Maybe you can discover some new tunes to listen to during these days of Virtual School. By the way, my day 1 was Sweet Georgia Brown https://youtu.be/3jYzueKr9Io I mean, who can whistle like that? I sure can’t. I’ll be back tomorrow with more on the song challenge! Also, if your parents want to follow me on Twitter @cholbrookmusic I’m posting ideas, activities and other fun stuff once or twice a day. 

San Francisco Symphony has a fantastic site for you to play around with. You can discover facts about instruments, music and composers as well as listen and play great music. Have a blast! 
http://www.sfskids.org/     

Ever wonder what sound stars make? I love this. 
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-43790555/nasa-s-tess-planet-hunter-what-stars-sound-like