To Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s

Young Children’s Concert

YOUNG CHILDREN’S CONCERT 2015

The Little Adventurer of SCO: Fascinating Sound Waves!

22 May 2015 (10.30am)

23 May 2015 (2.30 pm and 5pm)

Concert Hall, Singapore Conference Hall

Conductor: Quek Ling Kiong

《 Under The Sea 》 Composed by Alan Menken

Rearranged by Dayn Ong

《Discover The Magic of Music》 Composed by Tan Kah Yong

《王子与狮子 Prince Sang Nila Utama and Singa》 Composed by Law Wai Lun

《音乐历险记 A Musical Adventure》 Composed by Tan Kah Yong

《飞天 Flying Apsaras》 Composed by Xu Jing Xin & Chen Da Wei

《Do Re Mi》 Rearranged by Tan Kah Yong

《马来童谣竹个响》 Composed by Law Wai Lun

《马刀舞 Sabre Dance》 Composed by Ha Qia Tu Liang

rearranged by Wu Xiao Zhong

《Carmen Suite》-《Habanera》 &《Seguedille》 Composed by George Bizet

Rearranged by Seetoh Poh Lam

《龙腾虎跃 A Well-matched Fight》 Composed by Li Min Xiong

《Songs of Insect World》 Composed by Phang Kok Jun

Designed as a support to your classroom work, this booklet should be viewed as an instructional resource to prepare children for their upcoming Young Children’s Concert experience.

When students come to the Singapore Conference Hall, they should have the opportunity to experience the program in a meaningful way – one that builds upon basic prior knowledge and skills.

We hope that this guide is useful in providing a context for the concert. We have created the study guide to provide you – the teacher – with the knowledge to lead your students on the wonderful journey to learn all about music.

The Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Know our Conductor!

Basic Concert Etiquette

Our Instrument Families

The String Family

The Woodwind Family

The Plucked String Family

The Percussion Family

Theory

Activities

Credits

Inaugurated in 1997, the 85-musician Singapore Chinese

Orchestra (SCO) is Singapore’s only professional Chinese

orchestra as well as a flagship local arts group. Its patron is Prime

Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Since its inception, SCO has taken on the twin role of preserving

traditional arts and culture and establishing new frontiers through

the incorporation of Southeast Asian cultural elements in its music.

It has also impressed a broadening audience with its blockbuster

presentations and is fast establishing itself among its counterparts

around the world.

In line with its vision to be a world-renowned people’s orchestra,

SCO widens its outreach by performing regularly at various national

parks, communities and schools. In its efforts to bring our

communities and schools together, the orchestra celebrated

Singapore’s 39th National Day in 2004 with a spectacular concert –

Our People, Our Music – featuring 2,400 local music enthusiasts.

This momentous event was surpassed on 28 June 2014 by SCO’s

second instalment of Our People Our Music, with the breaking of

two Guinness World Records – the Largest Chinese Drum

Ensemble of 4,557 performers and the Largest Chinese Orchestra

of 3,558 performers at the Singapore Sports Hub.

It is with this vision that SCO continues to inspire, influence and

educate through its music.

He’s none other than Mr Quek Ling Kiong! Previously the Percussion Principal of SCO, Mr Quek Ling Kiong is well-versed in both Chinese Percussion and Western classical percussion, having learnt from renowned masters such as Li Min Xiong and Xue Bao Lun. Mr Quek learned conducting from Cultural Medallion recipient Tay Teow Kiat and famed Chinese conductor Xia Fei Yun. His career in professional conducting took off when he became SCO’s first Conducting Assistant in 2003. Mr Quek is currently SCO’s Resident Conductor and is also an adjunct teacher at the Singapore School Of The Arts and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. A strong advocate of Chinese music education and outreach, Mr Quek has introduced and choreographed many programmes designed to suit SCO’s young audience. He believes that these concerts are important for piquing children’s curiosity in music and motivating them to pick up a Chinese instrument. During SCO’s children’s concerts, Mr Quek not only conducts but also gamely dresses up in costume, acts and sings. He never forgets about mingling with the audience after each children’s concert, so let’s see if you can catch him in the crowd after this show!

*Insert picture

The Audience

Each and every one of our audience has a very important role to play! Preparing the students for the sequence of events prior to the start of the concert will enable them to understand concert behavior better. Here are some things your students can look out for:

1. Orchestra members assemble on stage. 2. The concert master (gaohu musician) will enter and signal to the orchestra

members to start tuning. It is most appropriate for the audience to applaud the entrance of the concert master.

3. Have the children listen and watch carefully as the concert master signals

for the gaoyinsheng 高音笙 musician to play the note “A”. The orchestra

will then make a wonderful sound as they all tune to this note. 4. After the tuning is finished, the concert master will take his seat and the

show is then ready to begin!

The Good Listener

Do encourage students to suggest some guidelines to observe during a concert. The following points are to be covered:

Allow themselves to be quiet and still

Pay Attention to the performance

Show Appreciation by observing the musicians’ skills and instruments

Be generous with Applause when they enjoy the performance

Students should be encouraged not to

chat or make noise as they may miss an important part of the music

leave their seats because it will be very distracting to their neighbours

take photographs with flash because it is distracting to the musicians

Huqin

胡琴

Double Bass

低音提琴 Cello

大提琴

Guanzi

管子

Zhongyinsuona

中音唢呐

Gaoyinsuona

高音唢呐

Dizi

笛子

Chuantongsheng

传统笙

Zhongyinsheng

中音笙

Diyinsheng

低音笙

Sanxian

三弦

Liuqin

柳琴

Pipa

琵琶

Xiaoruan

小阮

Zhongruan

中阮

Daruan

大阮

Guzheng

古筝

Yangqin

扬琴

Konghou

箜篌

Harp

竖琴

Chimes

风铃

Drum

鼓

Woodblock

木鱼

Cymbals

小镲

Timpani

定音鼓

Glockenspiel

铁片琴

Gong

锣

Ten-faced

Gong

十面锣

Tuned Drums (Paigu)

排鼓

Example High Pitch Low Pitch

Pipe/ Tubular

instruments

Flute

Chimes

Bells

Short length Long length

Instruments with

sound boxes

Guitar

Ruan

Erhu

Cello

Small mass/volume Big mass/volume

Pitch is the degree of highness or lowness of a tone; the quality of a sound governed by the rate of vibrations producing it.

All sounds require vibration—quick back-and-forth motion of an object. To illustrate this, pluck a stretched rubber band. The sound you hear comes from the vibration of the rubber band.

A sound’s pitch is directly related to its rate of vibration: the higher the pitch, the fast the vibration; the lower the pitch, the slower the vibration.

Tubular Instruments - Bells

Thinking Questions

Why do some musical instruments make low pitched sounds and others

produce high pitched sounds?

How does varying the length of an instrument create different pitches?

How does the size/volume of an instrument affect its pitch?

Instruments with

sound boxes

Ukulele

Guitar

The Water Xylophone (for ages 5 – 9)

Materials

5 or more drinking glasses or glass bottles,

identical in size

Water

Wooden stick such as a pencil

Instructions

Line the glasses up next to each other and fill

them with different amounts of water. Add

food dyes to the water in each glass. The first

should have just a little water while the last

should almost full, the ones in between should

have slightly more than the last.

Hit the glass with the least amount of water

and listen to the sound produced. Then, hit

the glass with the most water. Which glass

produced a higher sound?

See if you can play a tune by hitting the glasses

in a certain order.

Play A Tune

Hot Cross Buns

Using THREE identical glasses, try to get the

pitch “Do”, “Re” and “Mi”.

Mark each glass ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’.

Mary Had A Little Lamb

Using FOUR identical glasses, try to get the

pitch “Do”, “Re”, “Mi” and “So”.

Mark each glass ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’ and ‘5’.

What’s happening?

Each of the glasses will have a different tone

when hit with the pencil, the glass with the

most water will have the lowest tone while

the glass with the least water will have the

highest. Small vibrations are made when you

hit the glass, this creates sound waves which

travel through the water. More water (i.e.

more mass) means slower vibrations and a

deeper tone.

*Eco-friendly Tip: Collect rainwater for this

fun activity!

*Artful Tip: Mix in some food dye for some

colouring fun!

*ICT Tip: Download a chromatic tuner app

for a pitch-perfect glass xylophone!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Using SIX identical glasses, try to get the pitch

“Do”, “Re”, “Mi”, “Fa”, “So” and “La”.

Mark each glass ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’, ‘4’, ‘5’ and ‘6’.

Make Your Own Wind Instrument! (for ages 5 – 9) Credits: Make Pan Pipes, http://learningideasgradesk-

8.blogspot.sg/2011/02/making-wind-instrument.html

Materials

6-8 straws

Cardboard

Glue

Scissors

Instructions

Cut 2 rectangular pieces of cardboard for each instrument you are going to

make. Each cardboard piece should be about 6 inches by 1.5 inches.

Place and glue the straws on one of the pieces of cardboard. Make sure you

leave about 1 inch of straw above the cardboard.

Glue the other piece of cardboard over the first piece of cardboard. The

straws will now be sandwiched between both pieces of cardboard.

Trim the bottom of the straws with a scissors so that each one is a little

shorter than the one before it.

Have the ends of the straws pointing downward and hold the straws to your

mouth as you blow across the tops to make music! Pitch Bingo (for ages 7 - 12) Credits: http://funmusicco.com/pitchbingo/

Materials

Bingo strips

Pitch bingo flashcards

Pencils

Instructions

Distribute the Bingo strips to the students and inform them to only mark off

one letter each time they see it. Teach the students how to identify the notes

on the flashcards beforehand.

Show the class a flashcard. For example, if the note on the flashcard is G, all

students with G on their Bingo strips should strike the letter out.

Carry on with the other flashcards in random order, until a student in the

class calls out ‘Bingo’ when the letters on his/her Bingo strip are all struck

out, signalling the end of the game.

The Conductor Game (for ages 5 – 9) This activity raises the awareness of pitch in the children and allows them to control pitch

movements with their hands.

Instructions

Demonstrate to the children what a conductor does: explain that when you move your

arm HIGH up in the air, you want them to make a "Laa" sound with a HIGH pitch.

If you put your arm down LOW, they should make a LOW-sounding "Laa". Also, indicate

the signals for starting (e.g. "okay" sign) and stopping (e.g. wrapping hand into a fist).

Begin by moving your arm up and down, and making slow and quick movements.

When you have finished, other children can be the conductor, and they can control the

pitch of the "Laas" (high arm=high pitch, low arm=low pitch).

‘High’ and Seek (for ages 5 – 9)

Materials

A small object to hunt for

Instructions

Give the class a quick music lesson by teaching the students to sing the first 5 notes (1, 2,

3, 4 & 5) of a major scale using a “Laa” sound.

Show the object to the children and give everyone a good chance to see what it looks

like.

Choose one child (“hunter”) to go outside of the room for a few minutes. While they are

outside, hide the object somewhere. Make sure the rest of the class know where it is

hidden.

The rest of the class should make a “Laa” sound while the child is hunting:

1 (Do) – lowest, means the hunter is far away from the object

2 (Re) – the hunter is getting closer

3 (Mi) – the hunter is mid-way to the object

4 (Fa) – the hunter is very close to the object

5 (So) – highest, the hunter is standing exactly where the object is

Kodaly Tip: Instruct the students to use the Curwen/Glover Hand signs as they make the “Laa” sound.

Allow the children to practise a few times for them to understand what pitch to sing

according to the position of the hunter. Invite the hunter back in.

By listening to the rest of the class, the “hunter” should be able to find the hidden object

(make sure the “hunter” knows this before he / she begins hunting!). This activity can be

repeated a number of times.

Curwen/Glover Hand Signs Singalong (for ages 5 – 9)

Instructions

Teach the students to sing with the hand gestures of the 7 musical notes. The low ‘Do’ begins at the tummy and the

upper ‘Do’ is at eye level.

Sing-a-long to the tune of “Do Re Mi” by Richard Rodgers

DO is strong, just like a fist

RE is sliding like a slope

MI is flat like a table top

FA - a thumb that’s pointing down

SO is straight up like a wall

LA is picking up a ball

TI is pointing to the sky

DO that will bring you back to the fist

Image credits: Classics for Kids

Lyrics credits: Mr Quek Ling Kiong

(for ages 9 – 12)

Sounds are made by vibrating objects. Students can feel

sound vibrations by placing their fingertips on their

throats and humming a sound. Having them exaggerate

the sound will make them easier to feel.

Explore the different sounds which can be

produced in the classroom. For example, students

clapping their hands, marching in place, tapping on

the tables, etc. Have them compare and contrast

the characteristics of the sounds. Ask the students

what kind of sounds soft materials make versus

hard materials.

Draw a table on the board with the words “High”,

“Mid” and “Low” on the columns, and “Small”,

“Medium” and “Large” as the rows. Using a

recording of “???”, together with accompanying

pictures of the instruments of the orchestra, lead your

students on an exploration of the relationship between

the size of the instruments and the range of their sound

(how high or how low they can play).

As students are listening to a specific instrument, show them the picture of the instruments

and then ask the class where the sound and size of the instrument fall on the scale. Write

the name of the instrument in that box. Once gone through a variety of instrument sizes, ask

the class if there is a pattern on the board.

Depending on the level of the students, you can incorporate investigative work by having the

class come up with a hypothesis before you begin and gather the data through listening

before arriving at a conclusion.

(for ages 9 – 12)

Materials

A 1.5L plastic soft drink bottle

Water

Instructions

Demonstrate how to produce a sound by blowing across the top

of an empty bottle. Ask students to suggest what is vibrating.

Ask them what will happen if water is added to the bottle, and

then demonstrate by blowing across the top of the bottle

again.

Ask the students to predict what will happen if more water is

added to the bottle. Let the students try to make sounds by blowing a

steady stream of air across the top of the bottles.

Group Work

Get students to test out their predictions and record their observations in a

table. They could use a chromatic tuner app to measure the pitch of the

sound produced.

Extension:

Ask the students to describe how the recorder (music instrument)

works.

Get the students to investigate what happens to the pitch if the

bottle is tapped instead.

Credits (TBC)