LET'S DO THE INSTRUMENT BAR DANCE!

Do you want to use the barred instruments in your classroom more often but just don’t have the time to get them ready between classes or to set them up in the correct pentatonic scale? Spring is my favorite time of year, especially in Kindergarten because the students finally get to learn how to take care of the “big” instruments.

It was about my second or third year of teaching and requesting additional instruments that I had the revelation that I couldn’t do everything and I needed to prep the students on my expectations on how to take the “bars” off of the instruments and why we had to be careful. The lesson “Let’s Do the Bar Dance” emerged!

Demonstrate how to grab each end of a bar and lift straight up like a helicopter. Ask a student to watch and notice what happens to the “peg” when you take the bar off wrong (use one hand and lift at an angle). He/she should notice that the peg bends. Ask the class what would eventually happen to the peg if everyone always used one hand and it kept bending 15-16 times a day. Someone will say “it will break off” and I quickly go into my options once an instrument is broken: put it in the closet - but then someone wouldn’t have an instrument to play, fix it – but I’d have to drill out the old peg and that is a little scary because if I didn’t drill straight I’d ruin the instrument and then have to throw it away or buy a new one - but the school doesn’t have $2000 (I love using a Bass Xylophone for this lesson for the cost perspective)….maybe our best option is to take care of the instruments!

Have the students stand behind an instrument. If you don’t have one instrument per student this is a perfect lesson for students to double up on an instrument or to take turns. If students need to take turns develop some type of signal to rotate. Review how to grab the bar with two hands and ask the students to take one bar off and then to carefully put it back on in the same spot. Ask them to take off another bar with two hands, then ask them to move and dance in their spot with it. After 8-10 seconds ask them to carefully put it back on with two hands. Take off a different bar and dance with it! Repeat the process a couple more times – reminding students they have to use two hands and lift straight up! Eventually, while you are asking them to take off different bars and dance add some background music during the instructions! You could use anything with a fun, strong beat. My students love the following found on iTunes:

·         AfricanTribal Music and Dances (Album) Percussion Instruments (song)

·         WorldMasters - Beat the Drum (Album) Beat the Drum (song)

·         WorldMasters - Beat the Drum  (Album) Africa We Go Go (song)

·         ExperienceAfrican Music: African Drumming, African Soukouss Music and West African DanceMusic  (Album) Beat the Drums (song)

·         ExperienceAfrican Music: African Drumming, African Soukouss Music and West African DanceMusic  (Album) West Africa Drums (song)

Music Listening Lessons for Spring

If you stepped into my classroom, you would quickly notice that music listening is a huge priority for me! I try hard to introduce each of my students to at least one new great piece of music every week. So, I am always looking for lessons to help them move to, visualize, describe all styles and genres of music.  Here are some of my favorite listening lessons for springtime:

Music & Movement

Butterfly Etude, Frederic Chopin

I love this piece because it’s the epitome of spring: lively, light, and cheery. I mostly let students just explore the motions and pathways of a butterfly, which is also a wonderful way to draw their attention to symmetrical movement. 

Here is my sequence; each number is a single listen through the song. I generally do 2 listens per class, which allows the lesson to stretch over 3-4 class periods.  (Sometimes I repeat an activity to allow for more exploration or fun!) 

•        1^st time through: Sit down and fold hands like a butterfly; follow the music with your hands. (Short discussion after about thoughts & ideas)
•        2^nd time: Move around the room like a butterfly. Put some of the movements you explored with your hands into your whole body.
•        3^rd time: Each student gets two scarves, one in each hand. Move around the room like a butterfly and use the scarves to extend those movements.
•        4^th time: Move in small groups while others watch. Ask the observing students what they noticed and what they liked.
•        5^th time: Each student receives a butterfly net. Use the nets to feel the larger phrases of the piece, arching dramatically as you follow those big phrase lines. You will probably want to join them to help demonstrate.
•        6^th time: Split into two groups, one with the butterfly scarves and one with the nets. Then switch and do it again!  Pro tip: Keep these two groups on opposite sides of the room or you will end up with someone’s net on someone else’s head. But you already knew that… 

Mystery Song

Flight of the Bumblebee, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

This is my very favorite listening activity for just about any piece of music. It is versatile, engaging, and truly higher order thinking.  And, it can be done in the last few minutes of class, or it can be paired with history and a discussion for an entire lesson.

At its simplest, I hand students a blank piece of paper and say, “Draw the picture that comes to mind when you hear this piece.”

The Flight of the Bumblebee is a great piece for this exercise because it has distinct sounds that will provoke a variety of mental images. Even if they haven’t heard it before, many of your students will pick up on the idea that this sounds like a chase or running and some will even think of bees.

I do not tell students anything about the piece, they are just doing a cold listen. Typically, I play the piece a few times and allow them time to draw and then I suggest they give it a name. "If you were the composer, what would you title this piece?"

The most important part of this activity is the discussion afterwards. I find that students are almost always eager to share their artwork and explain what they noticed and how that translated to their picture.

As you discuss, connect their drawings to the elements of the music like: the quick tempo makes us feel like we are running or the ascending and descending runs in the violins make us picture something flying up and down.  Use as much music language and terminology as you can, and eventually they will begin to use it too.

Music Listening Egg Hunt

Morning Mood from Peer Gynt Suite, Edvard Greig

An awesome way to make a regular activity extra fun is to turn it into a scavenger hunt, and what could be more perfect for spring than an Easter eggs?

I print a list of listening questions on small slips of paper and hide them in eggs around the room. Students hunt quietly for a single egg while they listen to the music; when they find an egg they return to their spot, open the egg, and read the question. After listening through the entire piece, everyone should be back in their spot and it’s time to ask for volunteers to read their question and provide an answer.  

I print multiples of each question, so some students will be listening for the same thing. This fosters meaningful and somewhat organic discussion, because students will have the same questions but inevitably have different answers.  Here are the questions I used for this piece:

•        Name one instrument that you heard.
•        How would you describe the tempo (speed) of this piece?
•        How would you describe the mood (feeling) of this piece?
•        What do you hear in the music that reminds you of spring?
•        If you heard this song on a movie soundtrack, which movie would you be watching?                 

Happy Listening!

Tutorial and Teaching Tips: Googly Eye Dice

Have you noticed that dice and googly eyes seem to be incredibly popular right now in teaching circles? They are all the rage at the moment, in both music and non-music settings, and I've seen some really fun music blog posts recently on using them in music lessons.

Reading those blog posts reminded me of a project I did several years ago that uses BOTH - yes BOTH dice AND googly eyes! Googly eye dice! They are a perfect tool to use in music lessons or in your classroom in a ton of different ways, so here's a really easy tutorial to show you how to make your own googly eye dice! Plus, they bring on the giggles, which is always a good thing  😁

Ready to get started on this fun little adventure? Let's go!

Favorite Music Education Resources

You all have a book like this...one that is coffee-stained, dog-eared, and almost falling apart. These books are the ones that we love so much we use them all the time! Today, I'm writing about my top ten favorite music education resources, ones that I use repeatedly and that have helped immensely with writing lessons, putting together programs, and more! Click on each picture to purchase the book on West Music. Here goes!

"An American Methodology" by Eisen and Robertson

This resource is a GREAT introduction to the Kodaly philosophy. It includes processes for using preparation, presentation, and practice strategies, specific ideas for each stage, and tons of songs and singing games! It also includes art music examples, which are great for expanding students' listening and literacy skills!

"Lesson Planning in a Kodaly Setting" by Rita Klinger

This is such a great resource for lesson planning, written by the late Rita Klinger. Even if you haven't been Kodaly trained, it has lots of great suggestions for writing lessons, creating transitions, and more! I've used it as a required resource when I've taught Kodaly Level I because it is truly so helpful.

Creative Ways to Use Instruments Every Day!

Ask any student what their favorite lesson in your class is and I bet you that 90% of them will tell you that they love any time they get to use the instruments!   Instruments are fun and exciting and make any lesson sparkle!  Sadly, I think that many of us leave our classroom instruments in their plastic tubs, cabinets, or closets far too much of the time.  Here are a few ideas about how to pull out and use any instruments you might have in fun and exciting ways!

Rhythm Echo/Reading – The Next Level
I’m sure that many of you spend time teaching rhythm patterns by having students echo your example or read notation along with flashcards.  It’s great practice for kids to echo patterns and helps them work on listening even as it improves coordination, steady beat, and rhythmic understanding.  It so easy to add in body percussion in the form of a clap, pat, snap, or stomp.  I love saying something like “I’m going to give you a rhythm and you need to take my words and turn them into claps.”  Students hear “ti-ti, ta, ti-ti, ta” and then they pat the rhythm they hear. You can have them turn your words into pats, claps, snaps, or anything else you want.  Kiddos can click their tongue, pat their tummy, nod their head, blink their eyes, and so much more.  You can easily do this with rhythm cards as well.  Ask students to read the cards and along with saying the words out loud, ask them to clap the rhythm at the same time.

The next step is to take your words and put them onto an instrument.  Give your students rhythm sticks and then have then click the patterns that you speak to them.  Start with easy patterns and increase the difficulty slowly as they speak and click along.  To take this even further, ask them to find a new way to use the instrument.  Maybe they play on the floor, maybe they click the ends of the rhythm stick together, maybe they play behind their back… the possibilities are endless!  In the next lesson you can spend 5 minutes doing the exact same thing with tambourines, drums, wood blocks, etc.

Musical Things to Do While Waiting in Line

For one reason or another, I often find myself waiting with students in a line.  It can be challenging to keep them quiet because let's face it...standing in line is boring!  Here are a few musical things to do while waiting in line.

Steady Beat Follow Me
This quiet game is easy and engaging.  Lead students to keep the steady beat with you, but challenge them to stop on exactly the same beat you do.  To be successful, students have to watch closely and remain quiet.  I tap my head, chin, arms, stomach, knees and nose.  I clap with two fingers or snap.  I nod or shrug my shoulders to the beat and whatever else I can think of that makes no sound or very little sound.

As students are following me, I freeze occasionally.  If they are watching closely, they can freeze on the same beat that I do.  Vary the tempo to keep it interesting.

Snap on This Beat
As students are waiting in line I'll ask them to listen to me count a steady beat and snap only on the even numbers.
|: 12345678 :|

When they have established that rhythm, I'll switch it up.  I'll have them snap on the odd numbers, on 1, 4, 5 and 8 or any combination.  Occasionally when I walk a class back to their room we will do this.  It makes me feel like I'm on West Side Story.

More ideas for teaching notes on the treble clef staff

In our last blog post, five of our bloggers collaborated with some engaging ideas for teaching notes on the treble clef staff. In this blog post, we have more ideas from more of our bloggers!

From Melody: I love using chants to help my students learn the treble notes. As they’re learning and memorizing the chant, they’re learning and memorizing the lines and spaces, without even realizing it! Being able to name the lines and spaces quickly and easily is the goal, and once students are able to do this, their confidence rises and they are more excited than ever to sight-read new songs and piano pieces!

First, I teach each part of the chant by rote (first the lines, then the spaces), and as I say the letters of the lines and spaces, I play them on the piano to create an aural connection with the letters they are chanting. After working on the line notes, we follow up with a fun note-naming race worksheet, and then we do the same after learning the space notes. The students also love playing the line and space notes on the piano.

The first image shows the chant with the appropriate rhythms (for teacher use), and the second image shows the handout with visual elements that I give to the students. I try to incorporate as many different senses as possible to give students the best chance of remembering the the treble clef notes.

After students have memorized the chant and completed the note naming pages, we continue solidifying the line and space notes in subsequent lessons with a variety of fun (and sometimes silly!) activities incorporating their senses in multiple ways.

Click here to download the visuals above.