Lower School Music Class
	Mr. Michael Copps mcopps@mph.net 315.446.2452 ext. 305

For Performance Dates check the MPH Master Calendar

The vocal music classroom in the Lower School is a place to experience, identify, practice, create, evaluate and reinforce all that music can offer in the students' lives as well as in other cultures of the world. Musical terms are introduced and applied to classroom songs as we create our own accompaniments with rhythm, melody, and Orff instruments. The Orff instruments are used as an integral part of the basic music lesson. Here the children are allowed to improvise and create their own accompaniments, through a pentatonic scale pattern allowing "error free" musical sounds. Creativity is an important part of each stage of learning. The Kodaly Hand signs are incorporated to introduce sight-singing and help to establish good pitch matching as well as the relationship of high, medium, and low sounds.

The use of poetry in music class helps the student to see the similarities of rhythms in speech and music, as well as the structural form, and the emotional effect that words and music can have, both separately and when matched together. The class listens to and talks about composers, their lives and music, and how the world at that time influenced their music. We use songs to celebrate special events of the year as well as recognizing holidays.

The students in Grades One and Two make up the Primary Chorus which performs several times during the school year. Students in Grades Three, Four and Five are invited to join the Lower School Chorus which is part of the Performing Arts rotation.