Songs for practice over the Turkey day break!!

There are three songs that can be practiced while on Thanksgiving break, including "La Fiesta De La Posada, Carol of the Bells and Feliz Navidad." 

Here are YouTube Videos to all three songs:

La Fiesta De La Posada (Advance the video ahead for about a minute as there is some talking before the song)

Carol of the Bells (This is a Chinese Choir singing in English.  They are singing very slow so this is good to practice to...)

Feliz Navidad (A Jose Feliciano Standard...)

So Many Things, So Little Time...

We are back from fall break and moving in a quick way toward the end of the semester!  Chorus students are working on regular class work as well as improving their musicianship.
A field trip/ festival comiing up is at Palo Verde High School on October 29.  Students have a singing test on Friday to help them to prepare for the semester test in December.  A piece of that semester test will be used to determine who goes to the Palo Verde Festival. 

THE GOAL:  To help students to read music independently. 

 

Student are to read the piece using rhythmic understanding and solfeggio to help them to understand how it sounds.  Click Here for a copy of the entire piece.

The Assignment...

Yes, I know that this is a shameless way to have you all visit the website, but you all should visit regularly to know what is going on.  Here is the assignment:

We need students to work the parking lot and sell water this Saturday and other Saturdays.  You are to choose the Saturday you are going to work.  Write it down, (the date) and have your parent sign it.   It should have the sentence, "I (your name) will work selling water and parking lot spaces for the following UofA football game: (Game date here) .  

If your parent can work the game as well to supervise the water sales, please have them indicate that on the same form.

I NEED THIS TO BE TURNED IN BY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14.

Remember, one condition to attend the field trip to the state capitol is to work at least one game.  The 7 students who worked the last two games only have to write the date that they worked (September 1 and September 8)

Remember, time sheets are also due on Friday!!!  Just a note that says you sang for 10 minutes for 5 days totaling 50 minutes with a parent signature.  This is from last Saturday to this Friday.

Water anyone?  

Today (September 8, 2012) Chorus members converged upon many unsuspecting fans of the UofA Wildcats with water at an AMAZING price (WE SOLD OUT!!) and ample parking at a prime spot by the UofA stadium.  The kids, being as resourceful as they are, made up a "Water Song" to help sell the containers of H20.  While the song may not rival the "Sons of the Pioneers," (We will learn that one for next week) it displayed the creative and "plucky" spirit of our chorus members.  Click on the video above!

WE NEED PARENTS!!!!!

Can you volunteer to supervise the chorus kids while they hold signs for parking or sell water to UofA fans going to the football games?  Please call Mr. Levario at either 225-1872 or his cell at 520-241-9329.   There are home football games on these dates:

9/15/12

9/29/12

10/20/12

10/27/12

11/10/12

                11/23/12 (Black Friday)

    

All in a day's (or week's)work...

This week, the beginning chorus began it's quest to find the best three songs to sing from the musical "Oliver."  So far we have practiced "Consider Yourself," and "Food Glorious Food!"
We have yet to tackle other songs from the musical that will "contrast" the active and robust songs that we currently know. 
A small contingiency came to "Open House" and sang through the "Instruments of the Orchestra" in unison, giving the audience something more to listen to than just the rules of the music classroom!

During that same evening, the Advanced chorus started cutting the rug with a song entitled "Give Me That Spotlight!"  This song was done in the manner of a Broadway number with singing AND choreography.

Hopefully there will be some videos posted of each of the those performances.

On the week of August 27-31, the Advanced chorus, had lessons on copyright, 2 part harmony, and on improvement of the "head voice."  Our song of study was "Good Morning to you" (otherwise known as the "Happy Birthday Song."  We "analyzed" the song in terms of pitch, creating a workable harmony and why it is rare to hear it done on TV or Movies.



We then got to experiment with our new found knowledge and performed the song for our Science teacher "Ms Bittel." (Yes, it was her birthday!)  The video is below:



The kids show much promise this year and I am very proud of their efforts!

I will be posting some images of 6th grade chorus work very soon!

Welcome to a new year!!!

This is the 2012-13 school year and I am excited about the activities planned!  The new 6th grade Chorus is quite able to tackle some challenging and entertaining songs and the Advanced Chorus is currently working on a song and dance number for Open House (at least a little bit of it!)

The video below shows the music/theater classroom that is constantly changing.  Check it out!


One of our first performances this year will be at Open House, which occurs on August 23, 2012.  The students of the Beginning chorus have been working on a novelty song about instruments of the Orchestra and the Advanced chorus have been working on a song and dance number.  Hope to see you there!

The year in recap

Well the 2011-2012 year had its eventful activities along with an improvement on the vocal skills of many of the participants.  Here is a quick look at the events of the year:

• Open House!  We opened with accompanying the Musical Theater singing "Belle."
• November- Mr Levario was informed that there is a possibility that we would be singing at an event during an Arizona Birthday celebrationin conjuction with a Social Studies unit on naturalization.  We were told that we would sing at the UofA College of Law during the naturalization ceremony of future American Citizens.  It was suggested we start working on the National Anthem and a song entitled "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor.  We later we expected to learn the Arizona State song.  we Mid November, we again participated in the TUSD Choral Festival.  We sang, a medley of Erie Canal and 16 tons, a song in German called "Wiegenlied,' and a more contemporary piece entitled "Fireflies."  If any of you loyal readers have pictures of ANY event, post them on a comment or send them to Mr. Levario, thomas.levario@tusd1.org. 
• On November 15, the beginning chorus had a concert with the 6th grade performing arts class.

• December we accompanied the Band/Orchestra a little early to accomodate the impending birth of Ms. Davidson's bundle of joy (it was a boy BTW)
• Mid-December we had our annual trip to sing at the State Capitol followed by our lunch at Arizona Mills. 
  

  
  

  
  
• February-We found out that the performance at the College of Law was postponed, but we could still sing our numbers at a school event on Arizona's Centennial Birthday, February 14.  A great performance, however, we saved "Tired and Poor" for when the naturalization event was re-scheduled (spoiler-it was not rescheduled).
• March-CHORUS SPRING CONCERT!!  Since we hadn't heard about when the College of Law performance was to be rescheduled, the Advanced chorus went ahead and premiered Give Me your Tired, Your Poor.  They had assistance from Mansfeld alum Juan Flores as well as from Brian Levario.   The concert also featured a performance of a few songs from the beginning chorus.  The beginning chorus actually had another perfromance coming up in May, so their major focus was on that event.
• May 3, the 2nd annual Multicultural night featuring a local mariachi group, a group of alumni folklorico dancers, a salsa contest, displays of work from Spanish class, a Korean song from the advanced chorus and a show about American Jazz by the beginning chorus.  It was quite an evening and a success for the beginning chorus with future thespians in the mix!!
• May 10, our final "concert" of sorts, both the beginning and advanced choruses performed along with the orchestra for visiting schools in the cafeteria, giving a great impression of the strong arts programs available at Mansfeld.

It is unfortunate that there are few photographs of events of the past school year, but again I will welcome any to be posted later.  Please send to the email above or post them on a comment!  The video below is of the advanced chorus practicing the Korean song "Ahrirang" for the performance on May 3.  In it one can hear some of the improvements in vocal quality of the group as well as student habits and behaviors typical of students waiting for the end of the school year.  Enjoy!

For shame...

The school year is over and can you believe it?  There were no posts since December 2011 to share what we have accomplished.  It's too bad that this student run blog site was rarely used, but it does point to the fact that this is one item of communication that needs to improve.  In a future post, I will add some of the events/activities that this 2011-2012 chorus participated in....STAY TUNED!!!!


Tom Levario