Hampshire Music Concert
Mr White and Mrs de Souza visited us from Hampshire Music Service. They started off by demonstrating scales using the violin as it is the smallest string instrument and plays the highest notes and the electric double bass which is the largest string instrument and plays very low notes.
Mr White and Mrs de Souza then swapped instruments to a cello and viola. They then played Greensleeves to us and after they played it again but this time added a mute to the bridge of their instruments. The children could recognise that this made the piece of music sound softer and quieter. This is because the mute stops some of the vibration.
This was followed by the Pizzicato Polka which required Mr White and Mrs de Souza to work as a team. They played this piece by plucking their instruments and had to keep in time with each other. Mrs de Souza kept trying to catch Mr White out but it didn't work!
Mr White then explained that when using a bow to play their instruments this is called arco. The bow is made from horse hair and each bow has 250 strands of hair and costs £80 to replace.
Mrs de Souza explained that during some performances there are spaces of silence and the audience should use both listening and sight senses to see when the performance has ended. We then listened to a piece of music from the Shetland Islands and tapped out the beat.
Next, we learnt a very simple song and we sang it in a round. We started off with a round of two and increased this to a round of 4 with Darcey and James then Morgan and Nana Aba playing the violin and electric double bass to keep us in time.
We listen to a couple more pieces of music: Corn Rigs Quadrille and Bach at the Double and the children had the opportunity to ask some questions. From these we found out that the top of the instrument is called a scroll and very often this is a lions head, that the spike is used to prop the large string instruments up and the pegs are used to tune their instrument.
Our thanks to Hampshire Music for a thoroughly enjoyable performance. To find out more about Hampshire Music, please click here.
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