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Welcome to Quaver Music Mondays on SamiCone.com!
You remember me talking about Quaver, right?
Quaver Music was created as a supplement for elementary music teachers and homeschoolers as a way to pass on a passion for music through high-energy and entertaining DVDs that each cover an an essential music element. The 15 DVD set also includes full-color guides with teaching tips, hands-on student projects, and other tools that go along with each episode.
So when I realized school was ending, I wanted to be purposeful about spending time with my kids this summer…but I also wanted to make sure to accomplish a few very important things: learning more about music (specifically piano), working on the computer, teaching them tennis and reading more.
As a wife, blogger & mom who has never homeschooled (or thought anything of the sort was possible), my ideas for how to structure summer learning, yet make it fun, didn’t exactly come together as quickly as I would have liked. But that’s when it dawned on my: I realized I could accomplish several of these objectives with just one program: Quaver Music!
So every Monday this summer, our family will have Quaver Music Mondays where we’ll be going through different units and showing you how you can do the same thing with your family…even if you don’t have the DVDs! If you want a sneak peak of what Quaver is all about, you can check out a video preview (warning, you WILL get hooked!):
This week we’re starting with the basic building blocks of music, as found on the first DVD in Unit 1 (Music Theory) of Quaver’s Marvelous World of Music: Beat (Episode 1) & Meter (Episode 2).
After watching the 15 minute episodes (2 come on each DVD and we find it hard to stop after just one!), the kids completed the worksheets found in the back of the Teacher Guide:
Even if you don’t have the DVDs, we’ve come up with fun (& free!) activities for you to follow along our Quaver Music Mondays online with your family!
Exploring Beat and Meter at QuaverMusic.com:
- Check out QBackBeat:
- Go to Quaver’s Studio and click on the drums to find QBackBeat. Here, your kids can compose drum loops by interacting with Quaver’s drum machine. Build your own kit of drums, make a drum solo, or load a song and play along.
- Start out with a QDo: go to the File tab at the bottom of your screen, Click OPEN, and then the QDo’s tab, and OPEN the first QDo to let Gwenda walk you through a QBackBeat project!
- When you’re ready to take things up a notch, you can use QuaverNotes – the site’s virtual currency at less than a penny each – to purchase new drum sounds for your Drum Kit! Click Kit Lab or the Store Tab to access these Premium Features.
- Try Quaver’s SuperSolo activity. Here’s a great idea for using QBackBeat in your lesson right from Quaver! Link to blog: https://quavermusicblog.com/
2011/10/18/qtorial-6- improvising-supersolo-with- quavers-qbackbeat/
- Play QMeasureUp:
- Head to your personal QArcade to play this super fun Mini-Game reinforcing Meter! Click the Music Room Tab at the bottom of your screen and then click on the Arcade Machine. Play this tetris-style game at the Easy Level to start, and dig into more detail with this Behind-the-Scenes blog post: https://quavermusicblog.com/
2012/01/19/behind-the-scenes- qmeasureup/
So come back every Monday through the end of July for more fun & free music education activities with Quaver Music Mondays! What do you hope your kids will learn by the end of the summer?
