Rediscovering the ElementalPut Pizzazz in Your Process!

DarvaCampbell@aol.comListeningLessonsUnlimited.com

RHYTHM, TIMBRE: A Snap!

Move as the words suggest. Then in a 2 part, then four part canon. Then a canon on one beat.

RHYTHM, TIMBRE: Johnny Whoops! -- Unison, Canon, Canon at will…

HARMONY! MELODY! RHYTHM!Another Do Re Mi Song

Unison, Canon on two measures, Canon on one measure, Canon on the half note

RHYTHM! Drumming Games: Moving With a Partner in Time

With one drum for each couple, move together, playing the drum on designated beats. Move as a couple. Move away from each other, then together.

Choose two beats to play (in an 8 beat phrase). With a partner, one person holds the drum, the other plays. Switch numbers, and trade parts. Finally, each “duo” chooses two beats. Everyone starts together, with the leader (me!) tapping shoulders to freeze, then bring people back in … all in the 8 beat phrase.

Addition and Subtraction: Hand DrumsStep 1 beat and play 7, step 2 and play 6, step 3 and play 5 etc… until you step 8.Reverse, playing 7 and stepping 1, playing 6 and stepping 2, etc… Try going forwards, then backwards. Try with half of the class going forward, the other half going backwards. You will be accompanying each other *While we will use hand drums, this activity works well with clapping.

*Working on Mixed Meter with Body Percussion Odd Numbers: 1, 3, 5, 7, 91 – clap2-3 – chest4-5 – hip hip6-7 – back side, back side8-9 – stomp, stomp

In this order: 1, 123, 12345, 1234567, 123456789

Then … once you’ve got it … mix it up!Try phone numbers … odd numbers only: (573-1911)HARMONY! MELODY! RHYTHM! TIMBRE!

Formation: Circle with every-other person holding a peacock feather.Create a movement for “A” using the Bass Ostinato as a guide.For “B” recorders improvise and feather dancers improvise movement in center of circle

HARMONY! MELODY! RHYTHM! TIMBRE! EXPRESSIVE QUALITIES!

Movement:

Formation: Groups of 4-8, in a line, hands on the shoulders of the person before.

A: Walk around the room, following the person in front, stepping to the bass ostinato (Don’t Rush, Take Your Time)

B: As individuals, improvise movement that matches the words of your ostinato: fast and furious, or slow and smooth. At the end of B, be back in position (a line, hands on shoulders) to go back into A.

Play! Dance! Sing! Music of the Masters for the Elementary Classroom

Don't do too much in one class period.Teach one or two sections, then go on to other activities. Teach the rest another time. As a general rule, don't play the recording until the second or third day they've worked on a piece. Lessons are most successful when preparation time is adequate.

Teach to an objective.These lessons are most practical when used to reinforce the concepts you are teaching. Wherever you are in your curriculum there’s a classical piece to emphasize it!

Listen without the distraction of an activity.Once students are familiar with an activity, have them listen without any activity. One “trick” I like to use is to have them listen to the parts they do NOT know.

Choose which parts to teach.You don't have to do all of every piece. It's sometimes enough to teach the recurring theme, let the students find it in the piece, and have them discover the differences in it as it occurs.

Find an effective way to fit the classics into your program.Having a Composer of the Month and playing the same songs for each of my grade levels has been very successful for me.

Write your own lessons – or get more of mine.Using Singing, Speech, Body Percussion, Instruments, Mime, and Dance provides unlimited opportunities for active listening lessons. Keep coming back to my website: ListeningLessonsUnlimited.com; I update frequently. Join my Composer of the Month club for a new active listening lesson each month, a detailed study of the composer, a video on the lesson or the life of the composer, and many extras to make your job easier.

THE FIVE TECHNIQUES FOR BUILDING ACTIVE LISTENING LESSON:MIME/CREATIVE MOVEMENT (Example: Brahms Hungarian Dance #5) DANCE (Example: Orff Tanz from “Carmina Burana”) BODY PERCUSSION (Example: Bach Badinerie from Orchestral Suite #2) SPEECH (Example: Kabelevsky Galop from “The Comedians”)SINGING (Example: Brahms Hungarian Dance #3)INSTRUMENTS (Example: Kabelevsky Galop from “The Comedians”)

For Orff Fans!Receive a FREE month with your subscription to

The Composer of the Month Club!ListeningLessonsUnlimited.com

Go to ListeningLessonsUnlimited.com and subscribe to the Composer of the Month Club. Then email me at darvacampbell@aol.com and mention San Diego Orff. You will receive an extra listening lesson with your first month’s composer!

The Composer of the Month Club gives you a ready to teach lesson plan for a new composer each month. Lessons include an active listening lesson, a composer bio, visuals for your students everything you need.

Extensions:Transfer these patterns to pitched or unpitched percussion, Have the students compose their own rhythmic patterns and create their own pieces.

Brahms, Hungarian Dance #5A Warm up (Swing bat, touch toes, pitch, scratch, spit)B Batter up (bounce bat four times, swing – watch the ball

(Do 3 X -- the last time in slow motion)C Run the bases (6 steps per base on a small “baseball” diamond)D Slow Mo – Instant replay (4 slow motion baseball field moves, each rewinded quickly)Coda Hat off, down, tossed!

Form: AABBCDAB Coda

Tchaikovsky: Russian TrepekA – splash and scrubB – walk through the parkInterlude – turn it upside downCoda – one giant bucket of paint. SPLASH!

Playing with Meter*Unpitched in 5/4

Teach the Pineapple-Pineapple-Apple pattern.Walk it. Walk the accented beats. Transfer to drums.Students create an ostinato that fits the pattern -- Transfer to unpitched of their choice.Conductor brings students in and out. When they are “out” they “move” their ostinato.

Students break into groups of 4-8 and together create their own pattern using Pineapple, Apple, and Plum.

Music for Early Childhood

While the majority of people are born with average or above average musical aptitude, the majority of people do not have average or above average musical skills. There are many reasons for this, but a primary reason is that if a person does not acquire basic music competency by the age of eight, it is unlikely that he or she will ever become musically competent.

What is musical competency? Musical competency is defined as the ability to find the steady beat of a song and walk it consistently at any given tempo, coupled with the ability to sing in tune, both well-known songs and newly learned melodies.

The acquisition of musical competency comes naturally to most children between birth and the age of seven. After that, the window of opportunity starts to close, and while it may not be too late to achieve this competency, any musical study will be of a remedial nature until competency is acquired.

Our goal as music educators in an early childhood program is to promote basic music competency. Studies show that musical aptitude can be improved through the age of 9, but competency comes easiest to children under the age of 7. Steady beat and singing in tune have to be our primary goals with our preschool, kindergarten, and – if they have not yet achieved competency – first and second graders.

Like all Orff programs, my early childhood program is process, not product, oriented. Get rid of your expectations of how a child will perform. As the children experience music, he or she will gain skills at his or her own pace. Some children will sing with joy immediately. Others will be hesitant to sing. This is perfectly normal. The younger a child is, the fewer words or phrases he or she will sing, typically singing beginning and ending words and listening to the words in between. As a child gets older and develops more skills, more words will be sung.

If you only knew it, many children who do not sing in class are going home and singing all the songs you are doing there. This is a typical response for young children. The children are very wisely practicing privately. When they are ready, they will begin singing in class. Encourage the children to sing, but accept their response, whatever it is. The child who appears to be sitting in a daze is taking everything in, and will use it later in spontaneous music babbling, adding it to their musical vocabulary.

The most important thing you can do is to have fun making music with them while giving them multiple experiences in singing in tune and steady beat. Smile while you sing!

Helpful Techniques:

1) Echo tonal and rhythmic patterns. 2) Keep the beat often, with recorded music, poems and nursery rhymes, and music

you sing. To help a child who is not keeping the beat, pat the beat on his or her shoulders while they patsch.

3) Allow the children ample opportunity to sing alone. Take turns singing phrases, have them taking turns being the leader, singing their names, or have them each sing a phrase. All the research shows that children only learn to sing in tune if they sing alone. When they are in a group singing, they CANNOT tell which voice is theirs. Some of them sing out of tune because it’s the only way they can hear themselves. Show them how to cover one ear to hear their “inner voice.”

4) Songs using the “international chant of childhood” work well for pitch matching. Again, singing alone is vital.

5) Do warm ups that use the head voice. Once children find their head voice it is easier for them to sing in tune. Find many ways of talking about how you want them to sing. My favorite way is “sing it in MY voice.” They seem to get that when they don’t understand other things.

6) Remember, children who sing out of tune don’t know what singing in tune means. They have heard themselves singing off pitch for so long, that’s what they think it’s supposed to sound like. Only by matching pitch with them – alone – can they finally hear what it is supposed to sound like when they are matching pitch. If a child cannot match your pitch, go down and match his or hers, then slowly bring the pitch up, until they lose it again.

7) Don’t be afraid to tell them they are too low or too high. If you don’t tell them, they won’t know. Young children are accustomed to being corrected by adults all day. Hearing they are not on pitch from you is no different than hearing they are pronouncing a word incorrectly in their reading class. Adults take it personally; children don’t.

8) Give them a vested interest in singing in “your voice.” Points drawn in the air or on the board are an incredible motivator.

These are the songs ( or song TYPES) I couldn’t do without in my Preschool and Kindergarten programs. Snail Snail I’m So Glad to See YouMy Poor Hand is Shaking Jack be Nimble, Jack Be QuickStop and Listen Grizzley BearBrass Lock, Brass Key Boa ConstrictorGreet a New Friend Bow Wow WowPizza Pizza Daddio Toss and CatchFrog in the Meadow Johnny Whoops!Here We Go Looby Loo Hot PotatoThe Rhythm in Me! The Song that Has No EndThe Elephants Trunk Hop Old SquirrelHands on Shoulders Everybody Shake Hands and be FriendlyWe will do a selection of these today.

To download my book – a year’s curriculum for early childhood, see:http://www.ChildrenandMusic.com