MR7 Cover Design

From the crowded desk of Mark Leehy, Publisher at Bushfire Press

Music Room book 7 (upper primary) is in the last stages of post-production and on track for a mid-year release. Among other things, we have been finalising the cover. This is pretty important because, apart from needing to be fun and inviting, it needs to tell the user what to expect inside!

Over the years, the covers of Music Room have been a music room door with a window showing a group of students in their music lesson. The students get older as the years progress. They also progress in their musical explorations – from simple circle work to making music on classroom instruments and found & made objects, to exploring genres & styles. We also had a note pinned to the door on each cover: EVERYONE WELCOME! COME ON EVERYBODY! LET’S GO! LET’S GET THE FEELING! LET’S MAKE A NOISE! LET’S PUT IT TOGETHER! These slogans addressed the general ‘feel’ of each level.

What to do for book 7 … ?
Our artist, Bradfield Dumpleton, was keen to ‘open the classroom door’ and let the kids out. Which is pretty much how all of us had been thinking. And – as the slogan for this level was LET’S PUT IT OUT THERE! it seemed the perfect idea. Now all we had to do was get the actual look right – to give a hint as to the contents.

Here’s Bradfield’s first pencil rough. You can click on it to see it in more detail. Not quite there. Let’s see … hip hop and rhyming techniques are covered in this book … and students are encouraged to bring guitars and keyboards into their work … and the program ends with a musical party …

Here’s the second pencil rough.

Much better. Again, click on the image to see it in more detail.

Stay tuned for the final pic – we’ll blog it as soon as it’s got the green light.



Mark Leehy
Publisher, Bushfire Press

The Last Music Room

From the crowded desk of Mark Leehy, Publisher at Bushfire Press

Hi All

It sure has been a busy term 1 for us here at Bushfire Press. We have been recording and filming material for Music Room book 7 – upper primary. This is the final instalment in the series and has been the hardest but most rewarding level of the program. It was so important to keep up the standard and to keep up the level of student engagement – which, as you know, is trickier with senior primary students. So we retained the services of some wonderful and outstanding experts. The result is a fabulous set of units:

Rhythm & Rhyme - rap & hip hop rhythms & rhyming loops, turnarounds, chords,

Body & Beat - rhythm, movement & choreography, body percussion, found objects

Words & Music - generating lyrics, making melodies, using tempo, creating songs, grooves & colours

Fun ‘n’ Games - a cracker of an ending to the program, with musical puzzles, musical art, listening & singing games, moving games, musical parlour games, battle of the bands … and a class party!

As usual there are 4 audio CDs of music (one per unit) and over an hour of DVD footage – including a premier hip hop crew, an introduction to gumleaf and didgeridu from Gunnai Man (and recent ‘Spicks & Specks’ guest) Wayne Thorpe, the art of beatboxing demystified by vocal gymnast Mal Webb … and a host of dance steps, theory and playing techniques.

We'll keep you posted as we get into production.

See you next time

Mark Leehy
Publisher, Bushfire Press