Turning a Gym Into a Concert Hall: Part 2

My school does not have a stage, so all performances must take place in the gym. There's not much I can do about the acoustics, but I try my best to improve the aesthetics.  In a previous post, I shared pictures of our stage set-up for the Christmas concert. These pictures in this post are of the stage set-up from our Spring concert.

A couple years ago, PTO raised funds to purchase 12 Wenger Flip Forms. I am very thankful for their support of the arts! These are enough to provide a stage for my Orff instruments and risers for my Choir. At Christmas, I only used 3 sections for the Choir and 6 for the Orff Ensemble. I welcomed many new members to both groups in January, so in this picture you see 4 sections for the Choir and 8 sections for the Orff Ensemble.When the drama club performs, they use all the Flip Forms to form a larger stage. I have metal folding risers in storage if the choir is performing with the drama club for a musical.

Maintenance installed a tension wire across the back side of the gym. 

Our background is a black curtain comprised of 4 king size flat bed sheets sewn together. At the top of the sheets, there are button holes and we hang the curtain with index card rings.

To decorate the back drop at Christmas, I hung paper snowflakes and snowflake ornaments.

For the spring concert, I purchased 3-dimensional plastic music notes from a local novelty store. These can also be purchased online at a variety of stores with a range of $5-7 dollars per package. Each package contains one treble clef, 2 quarter notes, 2 eighth notes, and 2 pairs of sixteenth notes. I purchased 2 packages. The notes are black and I had a black background, so I spray painted them silver and then added some multicolored glitter to make them sparkle and shine.

I attached the notes to the backdrop with string and safety pins. This allowed the notes to remain in place if the gym teacher needed to slide the curtain out of the way.

If you also have to perform in a gym, I would love to see how you transform your space into a performance hall. You may follow this link to Facebook to add your pictures.

Turning a Gym Into a Concert Hall

Our school was renovated about 6 years ago. Unfortunately, they demolished the stage in order to make the kitchen and cafeteria larger. All my performances must be in the gym. Not much can be done to improve the acoustics, but I have worked hard over the years to improve the aesthetics.

Here is a picture of the concert set-up before our performance this afternoon. 

Last year, the PTO raised funds to purchase 12 Wenger Flip Forms to be used as a portable stage and also as risers. I think the students feel more professional and are more focused when they sit on the stage instead of the gym floor. I have a few instruments on rolling carts which remained on the gym floor behind the stage, along with two basses which use chairs to sit. 

The black curtain backdrop is actually 4 king size flat sheets sewn together. A parent volunteer created these and sewed button holes in the top. We used individual binder rings to loop them into an industrial steel wire which was installed by our maintenance department.  The curtain can easily be pushed over to a corner when not in use. It does collect dust very easily, but I simply take a lint roller to spot clean before any performance. 

For this performance, I used safety pins to hang snowflakes as a decoration. I borrowed from the PTO. They have lots of decorations which are used to make our lunchroom festive for the Sweets With Santa event each year. 

The projector and screen were installed with money from the renovation. I make a slide for each song and also a slide to introduce the Orff Ensemble and the Choir. If I use audio tracks to accompany the choir, I embed them into the Powerpoint so that they play immediately when the slide is advanced. Since I can't dim the lights, I choose contrasting colors and a large font to make sure the words can be read well. I also test slides in the gym a few days before and make adjustments if needed. 

If you also have to perform in a gym, I would love to see how you transform your space into a performance hall. You may follow this link to Facebook to add your pictures. https://www.facebook.com/MusicWithMrsDennis/posts/923423201072823

Treble Clef Candy Cane Video Tutorial

Many of you may have already seen my previous posts about Treble Clef Candy Cane ornaments.

This is the 3rd year I have made these for my Choir and Orff kids. I've gotten pretty fast and efficient at making them over the years. I decided to make a video this year. Perhaps it can give you a few tips to save you some time as well.

I have also uploaded the file for the Christmas card in case you don't want to start from scratch.

I uploaded it as a publisher file instead of a pdf so you may edit it to suit your needs.

FREE PRINTABLE

I apologize for not posting this sooner. I'm sure all of you are on Christmas Break already. I'll try to post holiday tips in advance next time. I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas!

To Stop the Train

To Stop The Train is an easy round for children to learn. It can be found on page 280 of Arvida Steen's "Exploring Orff: A Teacher's Guide." Arvida suggests adding movement to visually enhance the round, although she doesn't describe any specific gestures. 

Dr. Robert Amchin, head of the music education department at the University of Louisville, has often included this round in his classes and workshops. In the video below, you can see Dr. Amchin first teaching the movements of the round then adding the words one phrase at a time. Last, he introduces the pitches. To create harmony, he allows the class to become the first group while he sneaks in as the second part of the round. He gradually adds people to group 2 until both groups are equal.

This year, my fellow music teachers and I decided to have our students perform this simple round in our Central Area Music Festival. But, we knew we had to make the round longer and more interesting.  First, we started in unison with movements only and no voices. We added one phrase at a time until we sang the entire song in unison. Then, we sang the song one time through in a 4-part round starting 4 beats apart. Last, we sang the song one time through in an 8-part round starting 2 beats apart. Here is the video of our performance. These are the elementary choir students from 3 neighboring schools.

All of the students really enjoyed this round; it quickly became a favorite! For weeks, I would walk through the hallways or lunchroom and hear someone singing or humming it. Whether you are just performing it in class or you are polishing it for a performance, I hope you and your students enjoy this round.

Treble Clef Candy Cane Ornaments

Since I've been seeing all the "Christmas In July" advertisements on television commercials, I thought I would blog about something I made for my choir and Orff kids at Christmas time.

As I was driving home that evening after our Christmas concert, I was overwhelmed with pride and joy. My students had performed amazingly and I felt compelled to do something for them. The concert was on a Thursday and the last day of school was Friday. Whatever I did had to be done that evening and couldn't cost a ton of money. Then, the idea just hit me. I could turn a candy cane upside down and add a pipe cleaner to make a treble clef.

I stopped by the Dollar Store on my way home and bought some colorful candy canes (Spree brand). I had pipe cleaners already at the house. I used hot glue to affix the pipe cleaners to the candy canes. I taped them to a card that thanked them for their hard work and told them to hang the treble clef on their tree and do not open until after Christmas. I plan on making them again this year (unless I magically get a different idea on my drive home one evening)! I may even buy the materials and have them make their own! That would be a nice assessment, to see if they could bend the pipe cleaner to make a treble clef!

UPDATE: I have created a video tutorial and shared a printable card to go with the ornaments.
Click here for the link.