Composing Ourselves!

It's that time of year again and everyone in Sing Out is madly busy writing songs, and practicing Jingle Bells!

We've all been thinking about our big theme, 'Express Yourself!' Every class group has chosen a different topic, and so far we have a very useful song from Southill Juniors, all about how to calm down when you feel angry! 6th class in St Mary's are writing a song about dancing, and Galvone's 4th Class are writing about one of our favourite words at Sing Out HQ; CREATIVITY! They really are a creative bunch. 3 verses in one day!!!!

So far, we're working on lyrics, but the melodies will soon follow. Stay tuned and in the next few weeks we might have a little snippet or two for you!

In the meantime, KEEP PLAYING and KEEP SINGING!!!

Time is FLYING!!!

Sorry for our silence here at Sing Out HQ! It's been a crazy first two months, and we've been very busy! Here are the highlights!

We hit the ground running in September, with our first performance of the school year in the University Concert Hall lobby! The Sing Out Orchestra and Singers performed with members of the Irish Chamber Orchestra to help the fantastic organisation, Cluid, celebrate the European Year of Active Aging! You can check out Cluid and all their good work by clicking here! Thanks so much to Sue Rowley and Gavin Donaldson for their kindness, and the donation of two new violins for our orchestra!

We were SO excited to welcome the Venezuelan Percussion Ensemble (VPE) to Limerick at the start of October. These ten fantastic musicians grew up within El Sistema, the project which inspired Sing Out, so it was very special to meet them! They gave a wonderful family concert in UCH, and we even got to perform with them! What a day! Thanks SO much to the VPE, and we hope to see you back in Ireland soon! You can see the guys in action by clicking here!

In between all of this, we've been busy working away on this year's theme, 'Express Yourself.' We've been exploring lots of different kinds of music, and how each of them can be used to show different emotions and tell different stories! Our favourite song so far has been Emeli Sande's 'Wonder.' What a great way to express yourself!

Next week, after a nice mid-term break, we'll be starting to write our own songs, in preparation for our Great Big Gig next June! It's all going on at Sing Out HQ! Watch this space!

Sing Out with Strings 2012

WOW!!! We can't believe the summer is over, that was fast!!

We're back in the office planning here at Sing Out HQ for an exciting year ahead! This year's theme is 'Express Yourself!' We'll be looking at the many ways music helps us to show how we feel and what we think! In the next few months lots of new ideas, songs and stories will feature on our blog, but in the meantime, here's a little toon for your afternoon!!!

Express yourself!

Yuki and her violin!

Everyone at Sing Out knows how precious an instrument is to the musician who plays it. We care for our instruments and they are a big part of who we are. Last week our wonderful violin teacher, Yuki Nishioka, discovered that her violin had been stolen. The violin was very important to her, not only because she loves to play it, but also because it was a gift from her grandmother before Yuki moved from Japan to Ireland. Yuki was devastated to lose her violin, and things were looking bleak! But then.....

Yuki posted the news of the theft on her facebook page, and one by one, people began to share the news. Over 900 people shared Yuki's story around the country, and Live 95FM made an appeal on local radio. And on Thursday night a concerned citizen brought the violin back to the Garda station, safe and sound! We are so delighted for Yuki, and so happy to see how the community can come together to make good things happen! A great start to our week!

Yuki Nishioka, Sing Out Violin Teacher
Click here to listen to Yuki's reaction.

Summer Toons!!!

Even though it's officially the summer holidays, things are still super busy here at Sing Out HQ! Kathleen's tapping away in the office, making plans for next year! Meanwhile, Gillian, Yuki and Lisa have been busy over at Galvone giving some extra summer time lessons to a few of Sing Out's students! Here's a little something they've been working on (the camera's a bit shaky but we think it makes it look very atmospheric!) Looks like Pachelbel's going to make a welcome addition to our repertoire in September! Well done guys!

Meet the Musician welcomes Kevin McNally and Ronan Daly!

For our final Meet the Musician, St Mary's Boys and Southill Juniors met Kevin and Ronan from the West Cork Ukulele Orchestra! The WCUO started as a group of friends who wanted to play and sing together for fun! There are nine members and they travel around the country to play gigs. They have even performed on the Late Late Show!

This was such a great visit, and we heard lots of different kinds of songs. Ronan told us all about the ukulele, which comes from Hawaii and means 'jumping flea.' Kevin brought along his guitar and an instrument we had never met before - the mandolin! If you'd like to hear one of their songs, just click here and sing along! What a lovely way to end our year! Thanks so much Kevin and Ronan!

Meet the Musician welcomes Michelle Mulcahy!

In Galvone's last Meet the Musician session, we were delighted to meet Michelle Mulcahy! She is a very talented harpist and travels around the world performing her music.

Michelle told us lots of interesting things about the harp! The tradition is over 2000 years old, and the oldest harps only had a few strings. The instrument has developed a lot over time though and the harp Michelle plays has 39 strings. We talk a lot in Sing Out about the way music can change our mood. When Michelle played she asked us to close our eyes and see how the music made us feel. There were lots of different reactions - some people felt very sleepy, some people felt happy, others thought of people they loved or of different memories. But everyone felt very relaxed! If you'd like to see what we mean, click here!

Thank you Michelle for bringing your beautiful music to our school!

Meet the Musician welcomes Jean McGlynn!

In Sing Out with Strings, we thought we knew all about the relationship between music and story telling... until we met Jean McGlynn! Last week, Jean came to visit Galvone National School to tell us about her job as a Musical Theatre actor! She has played lots of different roles and worked in London's West End! In this Meet the Musician, Jean showed us how you can use make-up, costumes and wigs to create a brand new character.

In just 20 minutes, she turned from Jean

into McCavity the Cat!!!

Before we knew it, our school assembly hall had turned into a stage show and we were all part of it! AMAZING!! Thanks Jean for one of the most exciting Meet the Musician sessions EVER!

Meet the Musician welcomes Hermitage Green!

It's all go here at Sing Out HQ so we're a wee bit behind in our news! We've had loads of fantastic visitors in the past three weeks! We were very excited to welcome Dan Murphy and Darragh Griffin from the band, Hermitage Green! They came to visit all three Sing Out schools and told us about the many different kinds of music they like to play, from Irish Traditional to Flamenco. We met some new instruments; a slide guitar and a didgeridoo! You can see how Darragh and Dan used both instruments, and hear a bit more about the didgeridoo in this clip!

We were also delighted to meet Dermot Sheedy, who plays bodrán with Hermitage Green at some of their gigs. He told us all about the Irish drum, and gave us one of the most impressive Meet the Musician solos ever! You can check out Dermot's amazing skills here! A BIG THANK YOU to Dan, Darragh and Dermot!

Meet the Musician welcomes Andrew Jordan and Shannon Burns.

It's not often we get two different sets of visitors in one week! We were particularly lucky to have Shannon Burns and Andrew Jordan visit us at Southill Junior school last Monday. Andrew is from Limerick, and Shannon is from New York and together they direct the Redemptorist Centre of Music. We had the chance to see and hear two new instruments up close - the saxophone and the trumpet! They showed us the different ways that both instruments can be played, loud and soft, fast and slow, as soloists and as a duo! Thanks Shannon and Andrew!

Meet the Musician welcomes Conor Ryan and Dave Keary!

We were so excited last week to meet these fantastic musicians! Conor is a singer, a member of the Limerick band 'Leading Armies' and he was recently on The Voice! Dave is a guitarist and runs his own recording studio. http://www.reddoorproductions.ie/ He plays with many different musicians including Van Morrison! We had the chance to ask loads of questions, and heard all about Conor's favourite type of music, Jazz. Here's a little clip of the duo performing 'At Last.' Thanks Conor and Dave! Come back and visit soon!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ98vIQn9VY&feature=youtu.be

Meet the Musician welcomes Juliet Turner and Steve Macartney

It's an exciting month for Sing Out with Strings! For the next few weeks, it's 'Meet the Musician' time. Every week, different musicians come to our schools to give concerts. We get to see their instruments up close, hear new types of music and ask them loads of questions!

We kicked off this year's 'Meet the Musician' with Kathleen's big sister, Juliet Turner and her friend Steve Macartney who plays in the band, 'Farriers'! Juliet and Steve are both singers and song writers, and they both play guitar. We heard about two different types of music, Folk and Bluegrass. They sang some songs for us, and told us about their lives as musicians! And we sang a few songs for them too! Here's a little clip of one of Juliet's songs, People Have Names.
Juliet liked lots of our songs but her favourites were 'The Sea Tragedy' written by St Mary's Boys 6th class, and the Southill Junior School theme song! A HUGE thank you to Juliet and Steve!

Our Big Day!

WHAT A DAY!!!

We've been practicing so hard for the last few months and yesterday we presented a concert of our very own music, 'Oceans, Adventures and New Worlds.' 290 children from Southill Junior School, St Mary's Boys School and Galvone National School took to the stage to sing and play the violin.

We had an incredible time at the Lime Tree theatre in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. Thank you so much to everyone who helped to make it possible!

http://www.live95fm.ie/news/news-item/rousing-reception-for-sing-out-with-strings-performers/916a8f50-1688-42e9-ba6b-a99484f17935

A Little Preview

Wow, this term is going really quickly! We're very busy learning songs, and practicing our orchestra pieces. Last Thursday we had the chance to give a preview with the Irish Chamber Orchestra at the University Concert Hall! Click here to see us in action!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU-zhtSU06I&context=C48f2c3aADvjVQa1PpcFNHqjRuDvGW0ykLEdAc4G5CrppdR0fADm8

Mid-Term Break and still busy!

Even though it's mid-term break, things are still busy here at Sing Out HQ! Each of the schools are learning each others songs now, so there are lots of lyrics to learn over the break! We're starting to get very excited for our May Concert, which will take place in the Ak Ilen Wooden Boat Building School! Just think! As we sing our sea shanties and sailor's ballads, we'll be surrounded by real boats!

In other news, we just received a fantastic video from the University of Limerick, showing our visit with Mr Howard Crosby, Bing Crosby's nephew! It's never quiet here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S3NzQxaelo

And the word of the week is...?

What is so special about music … what do you need if you want to write lyrics to a song … what makes the difference between different songs?
Now we can answer some of these questions, with our new word … RHYTHM!!
As an example for Rhythm this week we listened to the piece “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” sang by the London Community Gospel Choir.
They change the rhythm of the piece and therefore the song sounds completely different. Amaaazing!!


Now whenever we perform at a concert, we know that one of the most important things to remember is, we must all practise and feel the same rhythm in order to perform the piece of music together as a big group!

Galvone's Violin Bootcamp

A special WELL DONE to Miss Drew's 4th class in Galvone, who successfully completed a TWO WEEK violin bootcamp! That's 20 lessons in 10 days! On Friday they gave a special in-school performance for their families and they were fantastic!


Thumbs up 4th class! We're all really proud of you!

Word of the Week....... JOY!

This week we've been chatting about one little word - JOY! We can practice, practice, practice, but if we don't remember to enjoy making music there's just no point!


So this week, as we continue to learn new songs, we took some time out to listen to one of the most joyful singing groups Kathleen could find - The Soweto Gospel Choir. They sing with loads of energy and enthusiasm, and you can tell that singing makes them happy! So we're taking a leaf out of their book. Whether we're singing in class or working hard to prepare for our next big concert, we're remembering that the most important thing in music is to ENJOY it!

Awesome Listening = CAKE!

Well done to Senior Infants and First Class at St Mary's! They were the best listeners of Autumn 2011 and their violin teacher, Gillian, baked them a very special cake to celebrate!

Word of the Week..........

This week's Word of the Week was....

Determination - Making a decision to do something well, and seeing it through, even when it's not easy!

We talked about the different kinds of people who have determination - olympic athletes, students studying for exams, doctors, teachers. And we thought about how we need determination in music. It's not always easy learning or writing a new piece of music, but we work together and have determination to see it through. One great example of this is Only Men Aloud's version of 'What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor?'
Even though it's quite a simple song, their version is really complicated! You can tell that they worked really hard to make it sound so good!

Our song of the week is 'The Sea Tragedy,' a ballad written by 6th class in St Mary's Boys. It's a great song, and everyone is really enjoying learning it!

Satellite program started in Presentation Primary School

Based on the ever increasing popularity of the Sing Out with Strings program in Limerick, Presentation Primary has decided to join in on the act and start their own program funded by the school itself.

Under the guidance of Lisa Grosman, their resident violin teacher Ciarán Collins, began a three week boot camp to give the children in the school the best possible start to their music playing. The boot camp was such a success that Lisa invited the children to play in the University Concert Hall along with the other participating schools and the Irish Chamber Orchestra. This was a fantastic experience for the children, many of whom only began to play in September and they were a credit to their school on the day.

The program will be continued in the school into the New Year, but only on a much smaller scale due to lack of funds. One can’t doubt the success of the program in the other participating schools and Presentation Primary would hope that the funding may be made available so they could also gain from the benefits of having Sing Out with Strings too!
Ciarán Collins, Presentation Primary School

Words of the Week

Every week in Sing Out with Strings, we meet a new word that helps us to be better musicians! We've had loads of new words so far, like Listening, Pitch, Melody, Creativity, and Courage. This term we'll keep you updated on all of our new words, and what we're learning in our music workshops.

Our first word of 2012 is.... BEAUTY! When we think about music, beauty comes into lots of things. Beautiful lyrics, beautiful sounds, beautiful pictures to go with our songs, a beautiful feeling for the audience when they hear our music. So this term we'll be thinking about beauty in everything from practicing our songs to painting pictures for our stage, so that when we perform in May we'll be ready for a BEAUTIFUL concert! :)

A Very Busy Year

It's been a really busy year at Sing Out with Strings, and in all our excitement we neglected our blog! So in 2012, our New Year's resolution is to keep you posted on all our activities!

2011 was a fantastic year for everyone involved in Sing Out. So many things happened so here are our highlights!

• Pupils from Galvone National School, Presentation Primary School and St Mary's Boys School composed a special song for the Dalai Lama, entitled 'Forgiveness is a Gift.' We had the huge honour of performing this for His Holiness when he spoke at the University of Limerick in April. This was one of our best moments so far, and since the performance, our song has been requested by schools as far away as India! You can hear the song by clicking here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT7AxefQXvo
• St Mary's Boys School began their school orchestra and have been meeting every Thursday after school with their teachers. They're doing really well and we're very proud of their commitment.
• In December we gathered together to perform 'Jingle Bells' with the Irish Chamber Orchestra at the University Concert Hall. Pupils, teachers, orchestra members and parents all joined in to make this a fantastic way to end our year.

2011 was brilliant, but we think 2012 will be even better! We've been working hard on our theme 'Oceans, Adventures and New Worlds', to compose songs about the sea. These songs will be featured at our next big concert in May 2012. Watch this space!