Australian music for stage 5-unit of work including modifications and extensions
Welcome to this unit of work for stage 5 on Australian music. This unit will be focusing on Aboriginal music, with activities for performance, listening and composition learning experiences.
The tasks have been modified to accommodate a student with special needs, and a gifted student who would require extension activities.
Let It Be unit for stage 4
Welcome students and teachers!
To access the unit of work for Let It Be, simply click here to begin. Enjoy!
Bass in the place.
Just a quick one. I had band rehearsals last night. I’ve always known I love my instrument. But when I’m playing with my band and it’s sounding pretty good, I just love it that bit more. Is bass not the most fun instrument in the universe? I’m hoping we start doing some more reggae tunes, that’s where I get to have fun. My band is starting to sound good. Hopefully start doing some wedding gigs soon, then get back into the original stuff.
Earning money will be nice, but it’s the writing and the original songs that I get the most out of. Our songs are pretty quirky, but I like that. Weddings will get the band some money, then we can get back to being an original band. As long as I’m playing bass with the band, it’s all good.
Eddie Eddie Eddie!
Yes. He. Is. The. Man. Eddie Vedder.
My friend and I saw Eddie Vedder’s solo show on Sunday night at the beautiful State Theatre. AmaZING! Bzingah! He is so effortless on stage. Just him, his guitar and a stomp box. He also whipped out a mandolin, an acoustic and an electric eukelele! That was cool. I was extremely happy that he played quite a few songs from the soundtrack he wrote for Into The Wild. Those songs were great live.
It was a great set. I would have been glad if he played Daughter, but he can’t play everything! One guy was constantly yelling out for Yellow Leadbetter, to which Eddie responded, “I regret to inform you that is not on the menu tonight, I hope you enjoy the other options available. Have you listened to that song recently? I can barely sing it!”. Honest man that.
Very satisfied with the gig indeed. Ed the Ved is a cool cucumber.
Mat McHugh solo show @ Lizottes, Dee Why. Dee Why bother?
So recently I went to see Mat McHugh play Lizottes at Dee Why. Fantastic venue. I’d been the week before to see Paul Greene. Amazing! His drummer is a close friend of mine and I felt so happy for her getting to play at such a great place. The crowd was great. It’s a sit-down venue that doubles as a restaurant. For whatever reason, people were restless when it came to McHugh. For a venue that insists on punters eating a substantial meal when ordering alcohol and has drink limits, the crowd was rowdy. This isn’t an issue in a mosh pit or at a rock gig. You expect it there, and it’s fun to be a part of the mosh, even if it gets a bit rough. But why bother coming to a sit-down, solo, acoustic show, if you simply want to talk loudly about your mate being stupid/horny/drunk/ugly until he decides he’s had enough.
McHugh handled the crowd well, and delivered an amazing set including some of my favourite Beautiful Girls songs. I just wish people had more respect for an acoustic act where little do they know, on stage you hear the crowd talking over your musical expressions shamelessly. I’m 24, I don’t want to sound like a grandma complaining about people having a chat. But in this setting, it’s not cool. Maybe the grandma’s are on to something? Yeah, respect.
Ken Robinson lecture (2006) Schools kill creativity
When I started watching this lecture I realised I had seen it before. My supervising teacher showed it to me when I was on my first prac last semester. Watching it again, I can understand why she thought it was important for me to see. I think Robinson makes an extremely relevant point. He made me question why creativity is not as important in our education as academia. I agree with him that this is the case, at least it was in my experience in NSW as a student. I remember the HSC and how the students were aware that choosing particular subjects, such as 3 and 4 unit maths, physics, 3 and 4 unit english and others would probably result in a higher UAI.
I also remember being at the end of year 12 and deciding to pursue music as a career and the way people would react to that. It is true that so many people (not my parents thankfully) would make comments about the lack of career opportunities in the industry. I felt inspired by the lecture to always maintain my passion for creativity and to try and help students realise the importance of being creative. I think it’s sad and it’s true that the arts are not given as much emphasis at school as other subjects.
As someone who is hoping to be teaching in high schools next year, I will aim to show my students how rewarding music is when they begin creating.
Claireh.Music.Thoughts. 