It’s been quite a busy and stressful week, we recently had a change in administration which brought on some chaos this week with the kids not exactly knowing the authority figure in the school. Luckily things began to calm down as the week progressed and I have high hopes with a new consistent authority figure in the school beginning next week we’ll be back to normal! I’ve been getting a horrible case of cabin fever though. If you know me I LOVE to travel and I think with all the snow and the monotony of the school day I’ve got ants in my pants and I’m ready to GO SOMEWHERE..I know it’s only been three weeks since TMEA but..I’m ready for another adventure!

This month is Music in Our Schools Month.  I have been planning occasional special things from week to week and one thing I like to do is bring in current or recent hits and play them to have a quick discussion at the beginning of the class. It is a great listening activity, gets the students roped into the lesson, and promotes listening to music outside of the classroom in a different way.

This week I did a quick discussion of a song cover. We discussed how one can have an original song and then another artist can take that song that is already recorded and shared and make it their own and record it to share. We talked about how not all the songs on the radio are written by the singer they hear singing it some of them are covers where the singer they know redid someone else’s song.

The great part about Youtube is that you can find song covers from many people. We focused on the song “Let it Go” from the movie Frozen.

• First I played the original: http://youtu.be/moSFlvxnbgk
• Then I played a piece from Demi Lovato singing it: http://youtu.be/kHue-HaXXzg
• We talked about the differences and I tried to get the point across that it might have Demi’s name on it, but Queen Elsa sung it first! Demi is covering it.
• I then picked between the following two- From Alex Boye: http://youtu.be/DAJYk1jOhzk or from Idina Menzel singing it on Jimmy Fallon: http://youtu.be/17QQcK4l6Yw

With the Alex Boye one we had a discussion on how covering a song can leave you open to really be creative with a song you already know and do your own thing. With the video from Jimmy Fallon we talked about how even though it is Queen Elsa singing it, it is still a different song because of the instruments being played in the background, in order to cover a song it needs to be different from the original…and then I promised them I would try to get them together to play the Jimmy Fallon version next week!

Every single class asked if we could do this again next week with a different song.

 A couple other cool covers you can do this discussion with?

Roar by Katy Perry- The Glee Cast does a great cover

Mario Theme song, Play the original and then search for it on Youtube played by an orchestra there are a few great arrangements out there.

What are you doing for MIOSM? How are you going to make it special for your students?