Amy M. Burns

Elementary Music Technology and Integration

Amy M. Burns has taught PreK-grade 4 general music for over 25 years at Far Hills Country Day School (FH) (https://www.fhcds.org/). She also teaches grade 5 instrument class, directs the FH Philharmonic, is the Performing Arts Department Manager, and teaches privately in the after-school conservatory after being the director for over 20 years. She has authored four books and numerous articles on how to integrate tech into the elementary music classroom. She has presented many sessions on the topic, including four keynote addresses in TX, IN, St. Maarten, and AU. She is the recipient of the 2005 Technology in Music Education (TI:ME) Teacher of the Year, the 2016 New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA) Master Music Teacher, the 2016 Governor’s Leader in Arts Education, and the 2017 NJ Nonpublic School Teacher of the Year Awards. Her most recent publication, Using Technology with Elementary Music Approaches (2020), published by Oxford University Press (OUP) is available from OUP and Amazon. Burns is also the Community Coordinator for Midnight Music (MMC) at https://midnightmusic.com/, the General Music Chair for NJMEA Board of Directors, and the Elementary Music Consultant for MusicFirst (https://www.musicfirst.com/), a company built by music educators for music educators, dedicated to helping music teachers and their students make the most of technology in the classroom.

March Rhythm Play-Along and Body Percussion Play-Along Videos Featuring All-Female Groups

March 11, 2022  /  Amy M. Burns

Here in the States, March is Women’s History Month as well as Music In Our Schools Month. For this month, I chose to create a rhythm play-along video that features a medley of four all-female groups that span four decades of music. The rhythm patterns include whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes, and quarter rests.

Update: I added the Body Percussion Play-Along this week that accompanies the rhythm play-along video!

The groups and songs that are featured are:

Caffey, C. (1981). We Got The Beat. [Recorded by The Go-Go's]. On Beauty and the Beat [Audio File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wvue2OT-FA

Holland-Dozer-Holland. (1964). Baby Love. [Recorded by The Supremes]. On Where Did Our Love Go? [Audio File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO_zEzrJRuE

Dent, A., Knowles, B., & Knowles, M. (2001). Survivor. [Recorded by Destiny's Child]. On Survivor [Audio File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmc8bQoL-J0

Edwards, B., & Rodgers, N. (1979). We Are Family. [Recorded by Sister Sledge]. On We Are Family [Audio File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMVe_HcyP9Y

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The Go-Go’s We Got The Beat

The Go-Go’s are an American All-Female Rock Band started in 1978 in California. It has featured numerous band members and became very popular in the 1980s with the song, “We Got The Beat,” off the album Beauty and the Beat. The musicians featured on this recording are Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboards, Belinda Carlisle on lead vocals, Gina Schock on drums, Kathy Valentine on bass guitar, and Jane Wiedlin on rhythm guitar. This debut album topped the charts, which was a first for an all-female band that wrote and performed all of their music. “We Got The Beat” is considered The Go-Go’s signature song.

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The Supreme’s Baby Love

The Supremes broke onto the music scene as a premier act of Motown Records in the 1960s. They paved the way for future African American R&B and soul music groups. Their popularity rivaled The Beatles during the 1960s. After a few changes in the group’s members as well as a name change (they started as The Primettes), the group’s members were Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, and Mary Wilson. “Baby Love”, from their second studio album titled, Where Did Our Love Go?, was one of 12 singles from them that went to #1 on the American charts.

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Destiny’s Child’s Survivor

The song, “Survivor”, comes from Destiny’s Child third studio album of the same name. The Grammy Award-winning song and MTV Award-winning video topped the charts at #2. The group’s members that recorded the song are Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. The group had gone through numerous changes in membership. So much so that a radio station compared them to the show, Survivor. After hearing this comparison, Beyoncé decided to turn that joke into a song, which became a big hit.

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Sister Sledge’s We Are Family

Sister Sledge defined the disco sound and their single, “We Are Family” topped the charts at #3 from their debut album of the same title. It is hard to believe that this iconic song did not hit #1 nor won the Grammy Award that year because it is still a popular song today. The group consists of the sisters, Debbie, Joni, Kim, and Kathy Sledge. After the passing of Joni Sledge in 2017, some of the adult children of the original members have formed the band, Sledgendary, which according to the website, “BRING THE PARTY to any occasion!”

Body Percussion Play-Along Video

Body Percussion Clipart credited to Midnight Music: https://midnightmusic.com.au/2020/12/midnight-musics-body-percussion-clipart-library/

Teaching manipulatives coming soon to my TPT channel (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/S...).

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