The springboard for the song We Love Rock and Roll was the drumbeat to the song We Will Rock You written by Brian May and recorded and performed by Queen for their 1977 album News of the World. It is one of the most recognizable rock and roll drum beats of all time.

The melody for the verse part of  We Love Rock and Roll was composed by the 2nd and 3rd graders. Students used rhythms that they created during their Rhythm Unit lessons. They then used their rhythms to create melodic phrases using pitch notes in E major.

We will rock you drum beat notation

We Love Rock and Roll

We Love Rock and Roll
We Love Rock and Roll
We Love Rock and Roll
We Love Rock and Roll

Tell me what you love, Tell me what you love bout rock and roll
Tell me what you love, Tell me what you love bout rock and roll
Tell me what you love, Tell me what you love bout rock and roll
We Love Rock and Roll (Sing Twice)

Verse One:
I have a special guitar to play.
I’m gonna play it in a rock and roll way.
riffing to the beat of the funky sounds.
I’ll be the best guitarist in town.

Instrumental (As guitarist plays for eight measures, children do guitar dance)

Verse Two:
I have a special drum set to play.
I’m gonna play it in a rock and roll way.
Jamming to the beat of the groovy sounds.
I’ll be the best drummer in town.

Instrumental (As drummer plays for eight measures, children do drum dance)

Verse Three:
I have a special keyboard to play
I’m gonna play it in a rock and roll way
Vamping to the beat of the jazzy sounds
I’ll be the best keyboardist in town.

Instrumental (As keyboardist plays for eight measures, children do keyboard dance)

We Love Rock and Roll
We Love Rock and Roll
We Love Rock and Roll
We Love Rock and Roll

Tell me what you love, Tell me what you love bout rock and roll
Tell me what you love, Tell me what you love bout rock and roll
Tell me what you love, Tell me what you love bout rock and roll
We Love Rock and Roll (Sing Twice)

The 2/3 classes will perform “We Are The Children of Rock and Roll. This song was inspired by the guitar riff of Crazy Train written by Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads and Bob Daisley. It was released as the first single in 1980 on Osbourne’s debut studio album, Blizzard of Ozz. The song was recorded in 1980.

The riff of Crazy Train is based on a pattern of notes that comes from the F# Minor Scale (also known as the Aeolian Mode). Because of  its “dark” or “somber” sound, the minor scale is a very common scale that guitarists who play “heavy” or “aggressive music like to  play. The rhythm of the riff of Crazy Train is composed in all eighth note.  (See image below)

The song We Are The Children of Rock and Roll uses the main riff of Crazy Train for the chorus part. The riff serves the purpose to cue students on when to come in and sing.  The melody starts on the second beat of the measure which makes it easy for the students to hear the cue from the riff.   The main riff of Crazy Train was transposed to A minor to go with the other parts of the song.

We Are the Children of Rock and Roll

Chorus:

We are the Children of Rock and Roll

We are the Children of Rock and Roll

We are the Children of Rock and Roll

We are the Children of Rock and Roll

Verse One:

We are the champions

We are the warriors

We have a mission to change the world

We’ll ask the questions

We’ll seek the answers

We’ll find solutions for a better world

We are brave; we have the courage

to fight for justice for everyone

We are smart; we’ll gain the knowledge

to heal the earth for everyone

Chorus:

We are the Children of Rock and Roll

We are the Children of Rock and Roll

We are the Children of Rock and Roll

We are the Children of Rock and Roll

Verse two:

We are spectacular

We are magnificent

We have a mission to change the world

We are determined

We are committed

We’ll find solutions for a better world

We are brave. We have the courage,

To fight for justice for everyone

We are smart. We’ll gain the knowledge

To heal the earth for everyone

Bridge:

Shake it up

Shake it up

Shake it, shake it, shake it up

Repeat Chorus to the end

Both first grade classes (Haydee and Vanessa) will perform We Rock.  This song was inspired by the guitar riff in Smoke on the Water by British rock band Deep Purple.  The song contains one of the most famous guitar riff of all time.

Students will perform We Rock  in which they will vocalize the guitar riff using the syllable “wha”.  It will be a  wonderful treat to see children pretending to play their guitars using their voices to imitate the sounds of an electric guitar.

The original song is composed in G pentatonic Scale, but our version of this rock song is composed in an E pentatonic blues scale (E, G, A, Bb, B)

We Rock

We Rock

To the rhythms of the growing flowers

We Rock

To the dancing of the swaying leaves

We Rock

To the laughter of the children in the playground

We Rock, We Rock, We Rock, We Rock (4 times)

Guitar Riff to Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple

We Rock

To the tapping of the falling raindrops

We Rock

To the singing of the buzzing bees

We Rock

To the beauty of the birds flying freely

We Rock, We Rock, We Rock, We Rock (4 times)

Guitar Riff to Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple

Rap for 4 measures

We Rock, We Rock, We Rock, We Rock (4 times) to the end

The song that pre-k students will perform at the spring concert is entitled Pre-K Shuffle.  The inspiration of Pre-K Shuffle is the boogie woogie walking bass  to Chuck Berry’s song called Johnny B Good.  In music a walking bass is a bass accompaniment generally consisting of unsyncopated notes of equal value, usually quarter notes (known in jazz as a “four feel”). Walking bass lines are used in rock, blues, rock-a-billy, r&b, gospel, latin, country, and many other genres.  The structure of a walking base line comes out of the 12 bar blues form.  In a blues song this 12-bar cycle gets repeated over and over through the course of the tune.  Walking basslines use a mixture of scale tones, arpeggios, chromatic runs, and passing tones to outline the chord progression of a song or tune.

12 Bar Blues Form

The blues can be played in any key. In whatever key you are in, 12-bar blues uses the same basic sequence of I, IV, and V chords. It is most easily thought of as three 4-bar sections – the first 4, the middle 4, and the last 4 bars.

The first 4 bars just use the I chord – I, I, I, I.

The middle 4 bars go IV, IV, I, I.

And the last 4 bars go V, IV, I, V. Then you repeat the whole thing again.

The chords in the 12 bar blues form is constructed from specific notes in a scale.  The Pre K Shuffle is composed in a C Major Scale.  The pitches in a C Major Scale are as follows:  C D E F G A B C.  The sequence of these pitches corresponds with a numeric order.  For example C is the first pitch of the scale so its number would be 1.  D is the second pitch in the scale, so its number would be 2.  This sequential pattern continues to the last note of the scale.  The diagram below show a 12-bar blues form in C Major.  Roman numeral I represents a C Major Chord (C, E , G).  Roman numeral IV represents an F Major Chord ( (F, A ,C), and roman numeral V represents a G Major Chord (G, B, D)

                                                           C   D  E   F   G   A   B   C

                                                             1   2   3   4    5   6    7    8 (1)

Pre-K Shuffle 

Verse One: 

 There’s a new dance in town

I think you ought to know

You have to move your body

From your head to your toes

It can be lots of fun

It can bring on a smile

You can dance with your friends

And have good time

Chorus

It’s called the shuffle, the pre-k shuffle

It’s called the shuffle, the pre-k shuffle

It’s called the shuffle; It’s called the shuffle

The pre-k shuffle

Verse Two:     You can do in the schoolyard

You can do it on the beach

You can do it in your dreams

When you’re fast asleep

You can do it with your mom

You can do it with your dad

You can do it when you’re happy

You can do it when you’re sad

 Repeat Chorus

It’s called the shuffle, the pre-k shuffle

It’s called the shuffle, the pre-k shuffle

It’s called the shuffle;  It’s called the shuffle

The pre-k shuffle

Call                                                                        Response

Hey (Child’s Name)                                             Yeah!

 Hey (Child’s Name)                                            Yeah!

 Do you know how to shuffle?                          Yeah!

 Let me see your shuffle                                     Child’s dances his or her shuffle

Repeat Chorus 

Please click on following link to hear to music accompaniment to Pre K shuffle.   Please play it at home so you can help your child practice singing the song.

CPE II will present its annual spring concert on Friday June 20th, 2011.  The title of this year’s concert is Spring Rocks:  A Celebration of Rock and Roll.  Students will perform compositions that were inspired by aspects of particular rock songs.  For example, lisa and Valarie’s class will perform the song Pre-K Shuffle, which was inspired by the walking bass line of Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Good.

One of the purposes of the CPE 2 Spring Concert 2011 Blog is to inform the CPE 2 community about the steps leading up to the Spring Concert.  It is very important that information about the logistics of the concert gets communicated to the greater CPE 2 community.  Hopefully, this blog will make preparing for a the concert  a bit more  communicative.

Another reason for the CPE 2 Spring Concert Blog is to send families the music and lyrics to the songs that students are performing.   This creates a wonderful opportunity for parents to help students prepare for their performance.  It is always a  great joy to see how children get so animated about their performances.  Parents can help by having their child(ren) sing the song for them at home.

The spring concert is the result of students learning about music.  The performances are a celebration of  the the work that students have done.  Many students have learned about music with such extraordinary effort.  They approach learning about music with a willingness to learn and the commitment to understand musical concepts.  The concert will be reflective of that.  The spring concert is not a show for the sake of a show.  It is a sharing of learning.

Please stay posted to the CPE 2 Spring Concert 2011 blog.