Fab Friday 1/27 Creative Concept

Last week's string of creative concept videos were particularly catchy and enjoyable. The artists were able to have both a good song and a unique video, something very difficult to pull off. This video from 2008 doesn't necessarily support a strong song; however, the star of the show is clearly the creative concept behind the video itself. You'll be so drawn in by the visuals that you may not care whether the music/lyrics are worthy.

Fab Friday 1/20 OK-Go

We are visiting some catchy, unique, and perhaps even viral videos as we explore popular music. Just my opinion- but as far as catchy and unique go, this band takes the cake. If you haven't experienced the quirky products of OK Go, here are my faves.

Back in the Saddle...and Fab Friday 1/13/12

Couple of things...
8th Graders are beginning their unit on careers in music, with the first stop being multimedia music. With the network at school experiencing problems due to NWEA testing, we were unable to get into some of the sites that will help shed some light on this area. Here are the links to some sites that are relevant, including the production company representing the composer featured in the week's listening log.

-The blog entry that discusses the ideas, jobs, and "how-to" of the music in gaming market.
http://www.beatportal.com/feed/item/how-to-get-music-in-video-games/
-Position, Inc.-the middle man company that carries some very talented artists and composers
www.positionmusic.com
-Home page of composer James Dooley. He wrote "Sanctus", the piece we listened to this week.
http://www.jimdooley.com/


And finally...the video clip we viewed for Fab Friday this week. Truly a viral video when it's had over 16 million hits within a week! (sorry 'bout the italics; can't seem to get rid of it!!)

Merry Christmas MVMS!

Happy Holidays to my students and their families! Thank you for a great holiday concert this week and for your continued support of the choir program. Hope you all have a restful and enjoyable winter break!

Fab Friday Clips 12/9 More Crazy Light Displays

Fab Friday Clip 12/2

Synched Christmas lights with Trans Siberian Orchestra-Wizards in Winter. There are a ton of these out there, but I started with this one because it was about the best synched with the music. There are others with better picture and audio quality, but I really don't like it when the timing is just a little off. I'm one of those people that gets bent out of shape when my windshield wipers don't stay in synch with the song on the radio LOL!

3-D Snowflake How-To

Choir students will be making these to hang in the MS Commons for the holidays. Here's a how-to in case someone wants to try at home! I like to use scrapbook paper to mix up the look a little (plus it helps with these visuals!).

1.First, take a square piece of paper. It doesn't matter the size as long as it is perfectly square. The larger the paper, the larger the finished snowflake.

2. Make a triangular fold, then repeat into a smaller triangle.

 3. The tricky part...it helps if you can set your triangle on the table as in the pic below so you KNOW you're cutting the correct side.

 4. Make 3 parallel cuts from the bottom fold-the one touching the table (as below). Start from the longest side and end closest to the point of your triangle.

 5. Unfold the paper. It should look like a God's Eye. If it looks like a weaving loom full of parallel slices, you cut from the wrong fold on the triangle.

 6. Take the inner-most points and wrap them around to meet. Glue in place.

 7. Now, take the next set of points and wrap them the opposite way to meet. Glue. Notice, you're working from the center outward. Important to ALTERNATE the side that you wrap the points toward.

 8. Repeat for the rest of the points so that you've got 4 total wrap-arounds.

 9. The finished product should look like the pic above.
10. Repeat the entire process with 5 more pieces of paper so you end up with 6 total pieces.

 11. Align the points of pieces and staple (or glue) all at the same spot. (it will be the center of the snowflake)

 12. Glue or staple the joints together at the fattest point of each piece. (Where finger points above...)

 13. This is all the pieces of my purple snowflake. My sweet daughter tried a piece and it didn't get cut correctly, so my flake has 5 sides. :0)

14. Here's the finished product done with white paper! Won't these look cool hanging all over the commons? THANKS to my good friend Mrs. Green for showing me how to make these several years ago at FES! They have served me well over the years...