Book Week Planning for Symphony of Stories Part 3a: What instrument should I play? Strings?

Our school has a wonderful music department and the students get at least an hour a week with a specialist music teacher. Some of the students also go to music tuition to learn to play a musical instrument. All of Year 2 learn either the violin or the cello. So this blog will look at musical instruments and which ones to play. 

The orchestra is directed by a conductor, the person who has to keep the players on track, in time and motivated. Our library has this amazing book, The Conductor  by Laetitia Devernay.

This is a striking and award-winning illustrated volume originally published in French tells the story (without words) of a whimsical symphony conductor who ventures into the forest and conducts a musical movement of trees that magically become birds in flight. Spread after beautiful spread draw the reader in as this charming tale explores in colour, perspective, and motion an amazing musical transformation. You can almost hear the score swelling off the pages... 

You can watch this book, set to music here. 

 This book provides a very comprehensive history of how musical instruments came to be.

• Before Music  by Annette Bay Pimentel

There are a lot of instruments to choose from. Perhaps this book will help.

• 88 Instruments  by Chris Barton & Louis Thomas

A fun, rhythmic picture book about finding the music that is perfect for you! A boy who loves to make noise gets to pick only one instrument (at his parents urging) in a music store, but there is too much to choose from! There's triangles and sousaphones! There's guitars and harpsichords! Bagpipes and cellos and trombones! How can he find the one that is just right for him out of all those options?

or this:

• Let's Play an Instrument  by Junissa Bianda & Rachelle Burk

On every page, simple language and big, beautiful illustrations teach little ones about woodwind, string, brass, and percussion instruments. They'll learn what each one is called, how it works, the sounds it makes, and why it helps make music so amazing!

The first section of the orchestra is the strings, that is all the instruments that that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Most of the string instruments in the orchestra are played using a horsehair bow. These are the violins, the violas, cellos and double bases. Harps and harpsichord's are considered stringed instruments but they are not played with a bow.

There's an abundance of picture books in the library that feature string instruments. Look for these:

 

13th December World Violin Day

Unfortunately there is no one at school to celebrate Violin Day. We are already on summer holidays, but at my school all of Year 2 take part in a 'strings program' where they learn to play the violin or cello. When they first begin, being in the room next door at school, is excruciating but by the time the end of year concert comes round I am amazed at how good they sound, so next year when the Year 2 students are allocated their new instrument I am going to do a display in the library of all these wonderful 'violin' books.
• Patrick by Quentin Blake. When Patrick plays his violin extraordinary things happen.
• Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss and Marjorie Priceman among other things this is a fun introduction to the orchestra
• A Violin for Elva by Mary Lyn Ray and Tricia Tusa. Elva wants a violin but her parents say no.
• The Pear Violin by Bingbo and Gumi. A clever squirrel turns half a pear into a violin and makes beautiful music in the forest.
• Hana Hashimoto: Sixth Violin by Chieri Uegaki and Qin Leng. Hana has had three violin lessons when she decides to enter a talent quest.
• The Man with the Violin by Kathy Stinson and Dusan Petricic tells the story of Joshua Bell, a famous classical violinist who gave a free concert in a subway in Washington.
• The Violin Man  by Colin Thompson is about Oscar who plays his violin outside a theatre but longs to play inside the theatre.
• The Anzac Violin by Jennifer Beck and Robyn Belton is the true story of New Zealand soldier, Alexander Aitken who took his violin everywhere he went.
• Ada's Violin by Susan Hood and Sally Were Comport tells the amazing story of a group of children who play musical instruments built from recycled rubbish in Paraguay.
• The Magic Violin by Victor Kelleher. Jimbo plays the violin just like Year 2 do at the beginning...terribly.
• Kizmet and the Case of the Smashed Violin  by Frank Woodley is a short chapter book that has Kizmet trying to find out who is smashed a priceless Stradivarius violin.