Recorder Assessment

Instrument Families

Woodwinds

So I am showing my inner geek this week with theme songs from my favorite movies. This is a flute piece playing the Jurassic Park theme song. The flute is an example of the woodwinds family because sound is made by blowing across a surface. If you look at the musicians mouth she is blowing across the mouthpiece directing her air into the instrument producing sound. 

Brass

 

Trumpet, trombone, baritone, tuba, and French horn are part of the brass family. Brass instruments make sound when the musician’s lips buzz with air against the mouthpiece producing sound. If you look closely at the musicians mouth you can see that his mouth is held completely different than the flute players. He is making the buzzing need to produce sound on this instrument.

Strings

String instruments include a guitar, harp, banjo, violin, or even a cello. The strings produce sound by being plucked or bowed. In this video the musicians is using a pick and producing sound.

Percussion

This video is Travis Barker from Blink 182 playing a marching snare drum. The last family and my personal favorite is the percussion family. Examples from this family include the timpani, triangle, drums, cymbals, tambourine, or even the glockenspiel. Sound from these instruments are made by hitting, striking or even rubbing the instruments. The above video shows Travis Barker using drumsticks to produce the sound.

                                                                          

Singing a Song

 

I have tried and tried to upload a singing video, finally I got one out of like six I made on various computers, phones etc. This is not the best one but its the only one I can get to upload!

Good/Bag Singing

This is my example of bad singing technique. She gets a 100% for effort. For starters she doesn't pronounce the words in the song properly. Being a famous song you have to be able to pronounce the words. She was leaning and some what hunched when singing which wouldn't allow her to breath properly. If you look at some points it looks like she is gasping for air. She sounds very nasally and doesn't appear to be breathing through her diaphragm or keeping her diaphragm tight. She also sings notes that are not even on a scale, Simon says at the end of the video she is making up notes and trying to hit really high notes that don't exist. She is forcing the song way to much.

 This guy Noah, is my example of good. He sings "Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO. If you have no clue how the original song sounds. Please stop what your doing and listen to it then Noah's version. I love his version so much more. He is sitting playing the guitar but he uses proper breathing techniques. He doesn't gasp for air or force the song. He doesn't try to sound like the original artist. He makes the song his own. He has a deep voice and uses good dynamics when singing. He's eyebrows are also up as they are suppose to be.