Songs without words in the music classroom

Songs without words are a wonderful opportunity to focus solely on music and movement. This week, we are musiking with the song "Bouncing Ball" from "Growing Up With Music" songbook, and experimenting with form, movement, resting tone ostinato, and rhythm. Originally, I composed this song for an early childhood setting, and often used a stretchy band to enhance it. With upper elementary students, I begin by singing to them, and exploring the song's phrasing throrough locomotor and stationary movement. There are many creative ways to modify this activity. Below are just a few examples.

PHRASE 1

STRETCHY BAND: Seated in a circle, gently bounce stretchy band to macrobeats.

MOVEMENT: Swing arms to macrobeats. Bend knees as you swing.

PHRASE 2

STRETCHY BAND: Move the stretchy band in curvy pathways in front of you. Use indirect, bound flow. Avoid moving to the beat.

MOVEMENT: Give a smooth ride to an imaginary object in the palm of your hand. Explore space in front, behind, and beside you.

PHRASE 3

STRETCHY BAND: Raise and lower the stretchy band to show melodic contour.

MOVEMENT: Move hands to macrobeats as notated below:

pat lap with silent fingers (aka "marshmallow fingers, "spider fingers");
touch hands together as if catching a ball, keeping fingers curved.

Hand Pattern

Comments

"Silent Ball" in the Music Classroom: Another Way to Listen

"Silent Ball" is a game students in my school like to play during indoor recess. According to Wikipedia, it was originally created by an educator from Illinois for a forth grade classroom. In our school, students sit on top of their desks, and silently throw the ball from player to player. The player is out if they: talk drop the ball after catching it miss a reasonable trow throw the ball too hard Today, my students experienced a different way to play silent ball. As they were leaving, one of the third graders exclaimed: "This was the most intense silent ball game ever!" A little background. We were looking forward to celebrating our accomplishments by having extra recess outside, however the weather had different plans: half of the US turned into the frozen tundra, and outside was not an option. My students requested to play silent ball in the music room. Well, since we had access to speakers, I thought, why not play it while listening to the first...

Starting a Ukulele Program: First Steps

Last January, I started a Ukulele program at my school. Ukulele was a completely new instrument for me. I had to learn everything from scratch. This blog post is primarily for teachers who are looking for a place to start. INSTRUMENT BASICS Parts of Ukulele First, learn the proper names of the instrument parts: you'll need to teach it to your students, and refer to it in your lessons. The website www.gettuned.com has a helpful and detailed resource. I used it to familiarize myself with the instrument beyond the basics-I like to know much more than I'm teaching. My friend Jennifer Bailey has a great introductory resource with a diagram of the instrument that I find very helpful. Credit: Jennifer Bailey, Sing to Kids Holding the Ukulele Spend plenty of time learning how to properly hold the ukulele. Get used to walking around with it. Once you begin teaching, your comfort and ease with the instrument will greatly contribute to student success. R...

How to Plan a Successful Early Childhood Music Class

I was introduced to early childhood music in 1997 at Temple University, where I observed music enrichment classes based on Dr. Gordon's Music Learning Theory. It's been over two decades, but I still remember the feeling of excitement and wonder as I watched the beautiful and interactive "dance" of songs, chants, patterns, movement, and play. It looked so easy, but as it turned out, leading a rich and meaningful early childhood music class is not easy at all. It requires an enormous amount of preparation, from understanding how very young children learn music to developing a repertoire of tunes to learning to improvise in every tonality, meter, tempo, and keyality in the moment and on the spot. Over the years of leading early childhood music enrichment classes, I have noticed that each class had a similar shape. While songs and activities varied from week to week, the overall shape followed somewhat of a classical sonata. The following "map" is based o...

Search This Blog