The guided composition activity towards the end of the lesson allows students to spread their wings a bit. They could use the ice cream flavors I created or choose their own. Most of my students choose the latter. I call these activities guided because I give them a basic structure, but they also have opportunities to make decisions and be creative. I also give my students opportunities to decide on their final form. We have utilized many elements in this lesson, but ultimately they decide how to put it together.

This lesson will work even if you don’t have enough barred instruments for every student. You can have one instrument for every two students, and the lesson works just as well. Some of you are reading this saying, I don’t even have that many. Again, this lesson will still work. Hand drums, wood blocks, rhythm sticks, or any un-pitched percussion instruments will work as our primary focus is on rhythm. The pitched percussion instruments just add a different flavor.

I hope you enjoy creating with your students this spring and take some time for a frosty treat this summer.

– Angela

Ice Cream Please

Concepts:

• Hand Drum Technique  
• Canon  
• Rondo Form  
• Rhythmic Building Bricks  
• *Composition

Click here to make a copy of the Teaching Slide Deck

[Based off of Rhythmic Canon, Music for Children, Vol I. pg. 74 #7 by Margaret Murray ] 

• What is your favorite flavor of Ice Cream? 
• Present visual of the three rhythmic units 
• Teacher speaks the pattern 
• What order did I say these in?  1 -2 -3 – 3 – 1 
• Teacher speak the pattern, perform body percussion (clap) 
• Underline word Please & Me – let’s make those a different level of Body Percussion (pat or stomp)
• Teacher speak the pattern, perform body percussion (clap & pat) one phrase at a time- Students echo
• Repeat as needed until S are comfortable with the rhythm 
• Challenge students to do it without your help. Tell them you are going to try and trick them. Teacher performs part 2 of the canon.  Can students hold their own? 
• Divide the class in half. 
• Perform the pattern without speech only Body Percussion – Try in a 2-beat canon and 4-beat canon 
• How is it different? Which do the students like the best? 
• What would happen if you tried a 1 beat canon? (This is a challenge but fun to try.  Some groups can do it- others can not) 

• T discusses hand drum technique: 
  • Play drum with dominant hand  
  • Two main sounds – ‘down’ with thumb and ‘up’ with middle & ring fingers  
  • Be sure to ‘bounce’ off the drum  

• T tells S to use the ‘down’ stroke for the pats and the ‘up’ stroke for the claps -T Models
• S play rhythm on drum  
• When S are comfortable on drum – play rhythm in 2-beat canon  

ON ANOTHER DAY! 

• Introduce the ice cream map with rhythmic building bricks- insert the building bricks into the ice cream map
  • Example:  I want some Ice, Tin Roof Sundae, Ice; I want some Rocky Road 
    Yes indeed! 
• Rotate several students to come up and choose their flavors to place in the chart. 
• Have students clap and say the new pattern. 
• Have students transfer rhythms to hand drums or other un-pitched percussion instrument.

• Option:  Have all students go to Orff Barred instruments and set in a Pentatonic (example C pentatonic they would take off their B’s & F’s)
  • At the instruments, can students play the rhythm that was created on the Ice Cream Map on only the note C? Can they expand to the notes C,D,E? Can they expand to the whole pentaton? (C, D, E, G, A)
  • Encourage students to play rhythm on any notes they wish; but end the last word (deed) on a C (your home tone). 

• You could just work on this as a class or you might choose to work in small groups to create your own building brick ice cream. 
• Talk about Rondo Form (The A keeps coming back) Day one is the A section – the whole class or small group creations are the contrasting sections. 
• Create Ronod Form – Perform as a class.   

• Another Option: Have small groups create a guided composition. See the project sheet below. Guided Composition will take more time, but students enjoy the freedom to choose and create. 

Building Bricks in Duple Meter (these are the basics, to begin with) You could create your own or have your students create their own based on these rhythms.

*Chocolate can be said in different ways depending on your region. Feel free to replace*

Example of Project Sheet I use with students

Click here to download a pdf of Angela’s lesson plan.

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Using Earth Song by Frank Ticheli, students are given elemental composition tools to craft unique movement accompaniments to a poignant and timely vocal piece with themes of peace and hope – just in time for Earth Day 2024!

Earth Song is a gorgeous vocal composition with origins in the work Sanctuary for wind ensemble. Diatonically living in F major and a strong form in 4/4 time, the lush and swelling 4-beat phrases elude traditional cadential harmony, and settle into an E phrygian resolution by the end. The atonality and undetermined harmonic destination create an incredible springboard for creative, unique movement compositions by students. The compositional process is prompted and guided by thinking maps designed to elicit biome characteristics from around the globe, pull out movement vocabulary for decision making, and utilizes visual organizers to aid in compositional brainstorming and refinement along the way.

Thinking maps and graphic organizers are a favorite way of mine to begin movement activities, because it naturally filters and focuses language prompts that evolve into the impetus of movement decisions.

From here, the class as a whole will split into small groups, each assigned to their own biome. They will transfer their biome and the movement words pulled out of the brainstorming session into a targeted organizer for their unique movement piece.

At this point, I expose them to the music we will be working with, Earth Song. I love to use the recording made by Virtual Choir HQ, featuring 167 singers hailing from 21 different professional choirs around the world.

I find it powerful to post the lyrics as we listen:

Sing, Be, Live, See.
This dark stormy hour,
The wind, it stirs.
The scorched earth
Cries out in vain:
O war and power,
You blind and blur,
The torn heart
Cries out in pain.
But music and singing
Have been my refuge,
And music and singing
Shall be my light.
A light of song
Shining Strong: Alleluia!
Through darkness, pain, and strife, I’ll
Sing, Be, Live, See…
Peace.

In a quick additional brainstorm, I ask them to describe the feelings, emotions, and impressions they get from listening to this piece. This will be crucial to leading them into creating movement pieces that “fit” with the recording of Earth Song that we will be using. For instance, if the Jungle group are planning on thrashing around like toucans and monkeys, this would help them adapt to interpretations that fit better with the mood of Earth Song.

Then, I post a collection of Movement Vocabulary words (using categories derived from Creative Dance by Anne Greene Gilbert) for them to use as they return to their groups’ Movement Plan.

With these guides and prompting vocabulary at their disposal, they are tasked with using the remaining fields of their plan to map out exactly how each word from their biome characteristics can translate into a movement representation. Plenty of time is given to experiment, test ideas, and refine.

As students develop three different gestures for their biome words, give them the additional task of creating transition movements to get from the end of one part and to the beginning of the next part.

• How would you travel to “reset” for the next part?
• How would you move to “stay in character” during the transition?
• How would you communicate without words to your group to move through each section and transition?

Now it is time to coach each composition to fit into the phrase lengths of Earth Song.

Start playing slow 4-beat phrases on a drum and ask the students to stretch and sustain each of the three sections of their movement piece across 4 beats, and then use the following 4 beats to transition or travel, and then begin the next section of their movement pieces over the next 4 beats, etc. The form will evolve into:

Plenty of time should be given for refinement and edit during the phase of the process.

“Finally, on a daily level, risk a slower pace in your own work with children, a pace that allows time to consider creative questions and their answers. Personal reflection and construction of knowledge takes more time than simply dictating knowledge.” – Peter Webster, “Thinking in Music Education, Encouraging the Inner Voice.”

Time must be allotted to allow students to feel, analyze, and constructively work through places that “feel weird” or “don’t fit” and to work toward the group consensus, and ultimately feel really good and confident executing their final version.

Now it is time to add Earth Song in. I like to let them just listen one more time, breathing with the 4 beat phrases, and following along on their group’s plan and with the roadmap. On a second pass through, we will practice grafting the movement onto the recording, and spend more time sharing out to the other groups.

As a final group version, I like to put the groups into canon, having one group begin, and introducing the following groups one at a time in offset intervals. The layers of movement and characteristic expression, unified by the breath of the 4 beat phrases is so dynamic and fascinating.

This activity can be incorporated into a larger collection of activities for a variety of performances. From humble building blocks of vocabulary, the results are a multidimensional expression of creativity, layered with a gorgeous choral piece singing for peace.

Project Details

Beginning with accessible and cross-disciplinary guides and organizers, this activity follows the concrete definable language associated with Earth’s biomes, and unlocks creative expressive movement in small group settings. The compositional process is guided but unbound, and the inspiration is rooted in emotional and deeply moving choral music.

4th graders will brainstorm, prioritize, and compose movement poetry and performance pieces, and be able to articulate their creative process. 

• Fourth Grade, Standard 1. Expression of Music: Demonstrate practice and refinement processes to develop independent musicianship
• Fourth Grade, Standard 2. Creation of Music: Compose, improvise, and arrange sounds and musical ideas to communicate purposeful intent.
• Fourth Grade, Standard 3. Theory of Music: Identify and demonstrate complex form, meter, and timbre elements – Form: Aurally identify a variety of forms including recurring themes, interludes, canons and theme/variations.
• Fourth Grade, Standard 4. Aesthetic Valuation of Music: Evaluate and respond to music using criteria to make informed musical decisions.

• Use as a part in a greater showcase with Earth/environment/science/SEL/collaborative/peace themes

• As a gateway into larger movement or creative composition activities
• As an accompaniment to a story or piece of literature

Think of this activity as a beginning, with endless process variables and directions you could take. Some of the variations could include but are by no means limited to:

Poetry

Thinking maps and graphic organizers are a readily accessible entry point and guide through this activity, but beginning with poetry is just as effective. Consider collecting haikus, cinquain, or tetractys poems that are short, focused, and unfold musically, and have the students identify movement words in their poems and take up the process from that point of inspiration. Or, have students compose their own earth-themed poetry and pull out the movement prompts from their own creations.

Music

Do you have an arrangement that would accompany this activity? Grafting creative movement onto student arrangements and compositions can be done following the outlined process, by breaking down the components of a movement piece and its transitions, and fitting them into the phrase lengths of any piece of music.

Visual Additions

Working with Light

• Putting the movers behind a shadow screen unleashes incredible visual dynamics to an activity like this, and would no doubt spark a rabbit hole of compositional ideas in your students.
• Projecting light down onto the performers, perhaps a different hue for each represented biome would add to the distinctness and qualities of each group’s impetus for compositionAdding Movement Props
  • Adding scarves, ribbons, stretchy bands, or lights like this (a special thanks to Dave Thaxton for the discovery of these bad boys) would be an engaging layer to add to each movement piece
  • placing groups on tiered levels in a performance would add fascinating depth to the visual presentation
  • Adding a projection of scenes of nature or even the Earth Song performance would elicit the theme and add an interesting accompaniment

Assessment

Evaluating the efficacy of this type of activity can be tricky, subjective, and unclear. In activities that are creative and compositional in nature, with unclear and open-ended outcomes, I like to utilize an area of evaluation that is incredibly valuable: assessment as learning, ie: assessment done by the student, as the activity is evolving. An idea introduced to me by the incredible Victoria Redfern-Cave at AOSA National Conference 2017, this is clearly and easily achieved by leading the students through self-created rubrics that define and track what success looks like in a compositional activity. This naturally helps eliminate moments where students are asking questions such as, “Is this what you want?” or “I don’t get it.”

Student-Created Rubrics as a a guide through an abstract activity, and checklist for success:

• Create categories that can be assessed by someone watching a performance of this activity. These should be categories where the students have received actual instruction, such as how each section of the movement is developed and composed, what transitions look like and how are they considered successful, and how we work with the members of our groups.
• Create levels of possibility and valuation that are age appropriate. I find this often boils down to “Did you do this thing? Check yes or no”
• Fill-in the blanks with descriptive language. 

An example of a rubric made in a whole-class discussion, identifying what effective participation looks like and defining success could look like this:

The post Earth Song first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

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Want to Learn More?

Later this year, I have a book being published by Oxford University Press titled, Using Technology with Elementary Music Approaches. This book gives lessons and ideas on how to integrate technology into the approaches of Dr. Feierabend (First Steps in Music), Zoltan Kodály, and Orff Schulwerk. It also has a chapter for integrating technology into Project-Based Learning (PBL). The summaries of the approaches were written by experts in the field: Dr. Missy Strong (Feierabend’s First Steps), Glennis Patterson (Kodály), and Ardith Collins (Orff Schulwerk)

The post Making It Work: Teaching With Technology first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

Day 1

Teach “Canon” and sing as a two or three-part canon. (Music for Children I, #41 pg. 132 with adjusted rhythm to fit text)

Day 2

As a class, have students brainstorm superheroes and create an eight-beat rhythm using superhero names. For example,

Together, create body percussion to go with superhero rhythm, perform as a B section with the canon.

Day 3

In small groups the children choose two superhero’s from my stack of Super Hero Trading Cards and keep them secret from the other groups. You can make your own “superhero deck” with resources from the internet, purchase superhero playing cards on Amazon or old superhero trading cards on E-bay. The students create a list of adjectives that fit the superhero’s personality. (Courageous, fearless, epic, brave etc.) After creating the word list, they choose the hero they like best. Each group shares their list of adjectives and the other groups try to guess who it is. (This step may take two classes, depending on your students.)

Here is an example:

Day 4

Students create a 32-beat rhythm about their superhero using at least two of the adjectives from their lists. They CAN NOT use the word VERY. The speech pattern should be in an elemental form and the last beat should be a quarter note or quarter rest.  Examples of elemental form are as follows:

a a b a
a a a b
a b c a
a b a a
a b a c
a b b a

Day 5

Create “Action Cards” that say CM (creative movement), BP (body percussion), UTP (untuned percussion) and BP (barred percussion). The groups randomly select an action card and transfer their 32-beat rhythm to the action listed on their card. Share the creations with the class.

Day 6

Review composition, the canon, and the body percussion and rhythm from class two. As a class, decide on a form for the final product. The children may choose to use all of the parts or not.

Start with an introduction, and end with a strong coda.

The post Lesson: Super Heroes first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

Orff Schulwerk and New Beginnings

This lesson will use a process in which important nouns, verbs, and descriptive language are chosen and used as a springboard for individual and group creativity. A canon will serve as a unifying piece of music and a music literacy component will take shape as this piece of music comes to life slowly through solfege.

We will explore components of folk dance through the New England Dancing Masters version of “Sweets of May,” found in Chimes of Dunkirk (an invaluable resource) and use these figures to create our own adaptation of this folk dance. We’ll go one step further and create a new elemental composition of instrumental music to be played on Orff Instruments which includes ideas generated from exploring the the magical poetry of the children’s book. The final product will even include exploratory improvisations!

The power of Orff Schulwerk comes from unlocking the potential for creativity and awakening the endless possibilities of Music by Children!

Please click here to download a pdf of the lesson, which details Drue’s process and includes links to his Google slide presentation and printable cards.

The post Colors Springing, Voices Ringing first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

Exploring Vaughan Williams through Kitchen Utensils

A food-themed exploration of Vaughan Williams’ “March Past of the Kitchen Utensils” through movement and play! 

YOU’RE INVITED! 

As educators who use movement to initiate music learning, we often explore a variety of themes to make connections with our students and to make these experiences lively and playful. One topic that never gets old in my classroom is food! My second grade students used Ralph Vaughan Williams’ composition “March Past of the Kitchen Utensils” to begin a musical feast. As a french horn player who also started her teaching career as a high school band director, I have long loved instrumental music. I seek high quality pieces for my students, and this particular composition has become a favorite in my classroom because of its lively feel. It is one of five sections of Williams’ larger suite of incidental music, composed for a 1909 production “The Wasps,” an Old Comedy written by Aristophanes, a playwright from ancient Athens. “The Wasps” tells the somewhat humorous story of a man that loved the law and trials so much that he actually stages with two household dogs concerning a piece of stolen cheese. The kitchen utensils serve as witnesses to this trial created to appease the man’s needful feeling to do something judicious. 

When I added the novelty of actually having a plastic utensil toy to hold while they marched about, their posture and purpose rose to a whole new level. They tirelessly practice steady beat as they experience the form through movement. 

We reviewed what a marching style of walking can look like and explored how we can march to the beat. You may also introduce the term “march past,” referring to a procession, sometimes military, and its connection to what students probably know as a “parade.” Students first tapped the steady beat while they listened to the piece, alternating different ways to tap the beat by watching and mirroring me. We then discussed what they heard in the music using their own words to describe the change in mood, tempo, and style. The basic form of the piece is ABA; for our musical feast we called this form a “musical sandwich.” During the A section, students marched to the steady beat (locomotor). When they heard the B section they feverishly cooked up their favorite dish in their kitchen (nonlocomotor). They returned to the marching until the end of the piece and proudly delivered their delectable treat to the table (locomotor).

On their second try, I gave students a toy plastic utensil to use to enhance their action and play. With the novelty of having a utensil to hold while they marched about, their posture and purpose rose to a whole new level. They tirelessly practiced steady beat as they experienced the form through movement. After sharing this lesson with my classes, many students had the idea of raising their utensil into the air on the accented notes, which I thought was brilliant! After listening, Faith, a second grader, pointed out: “Some of it repeated and some of it didn’t. When we got to the middle part there were beautiful sounds when we were mixing.” Through several experiences with the piece, she began to fully understand the structure. Of course, at the end of the piece we share what delicious dish we have “just prepared” with a neighbor. They can just tell them or “give them a bite too.” 

EXPLORING FORM 

In their next classes, I had students create their own stories for different sections of the piece. We tried some of the ideas and created choreography to fit their story. Students worked in teams to draw the plan, like a map, for their story. We explored hiking through a forest, getting lost, and then finding our way again, as well as many other ideas. One of my favorite ideas was swimming through the ocean, getting caught in a whirlpool, and then getting out again, as the music does have a nautical feel. Nolan said that he like creating his own story because “you could think of your own movements and you don’t have to just do the marching story.” Kids love having ownership in the classroom and being able to create on their own. 

This video segment shows students performing the B section, then returning to the A section:

MORE POSSIBILITIES 

The ABA form lends itself to connection with the form of other pieces. This piece has many possibilities and it has definitely spiced things up for kids in my music class. Later in the lesson, students used food manipulatives to create rhythm phrases to speak and then add body percussion. These manipulatives allow students to group their sounds into measures and add a repeat sign easily. We turned this into a rondo with the spoken phrase “Yum! Yum!  Eat it all up!” repeated four times.repeat sign easily. We turned this into a rondo with the spoken phrase “Yum! Yum!  Eat it all up!” repeated four times. 

Additional food related possibilities: 

One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J. Pinczes 

Traditional tales and songs: 

Pumpkin Stew 

Going on a Picnic 

Mabel, Mabel 

Chop, Chop, Chippity Chop 

The Muffin Man 

Listen to more selections from Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Wasps” 

Explore other pieces of incidental music 

Explore other dramas, and make connections to history of ancient Greece 

Food also serves as a great connection with different traditions and cultures! 

The possibilities are endless… 

Where will your musical journey take you? 

Melissa Burroughs is a National Board Certified Early and Middle Childhood Music Teacher at Doby’s Bridge Elementary in Fort Mill, South Carolina and an adjunct professor teaching Integrated Arts at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. She received her undergraduate and Master’s degrees there. Although she has used Orff Schulwerk in her classroom for a while, her study of Orff Schulwerk levels began at Winthrop University with Level I in 2014. She completed Level II at George Mason University in 2016 with plans to complete Level III in the near future. Melissa is the co-founder of “Good Vibes,” a new ukulele collective starting in York County, South Carolina and volunteers with children’s music at her church. She serves as a STEAM Leader Corps teacher working in her school in conjunction with Discovery Ed to promote the arts as a powerful tool to shape the lives of children. 

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A Rhythm and Movement Lesson for Grades 4-6

Download a printable version of Michael Chandler’s lesson here.

Objectives:

• Working with beat and divided beat through movement, body percussion, and instruments.
• Choreographing simple movement to elemental forms.
• Rhythmic and melodic improvisation and composition with elemental forms.
• Arranging and orchestrating a performance piece.

Materials:

• Unpitched percussion instruments including drums and temple blocks.
• Mallet instruments 

Day One

• Students are scattered throughout the class space as the teacher plays steady quarter notes or eighth notes on the temple blocks or a drum. Students listen, react, and move through shared space to the rhythms played by the teacher, speaking the words walk or tip-toe and coordinating their steps to match the rhythms they hear played.
• Students find a partner and create a 4-beat clapping pattern consisting of quarter and eighth notes. Partners can use knee patting, clapping, or snapping, but at some point they must connect through a partner clap with one or both hands. Once the pattern is secure, it should be performed twice in a row for a total of 8 beats.
• Partners then create a separate movement sequence of 8 beats. They may move apart and come back together, trade places in some way, or go around one another returning to their original spot. The sequence will likely follow a 4+4 structure to make 8 beats, and it may include any other unique additions that make it look more interesting.
• Students perform the previous clapping pattern twice (8 beats) and then follow it with the 8-beat traveling sequence for a total of 16 beats. Practice until secure, and ask each half of the class to perform for the other half. Students select ideas from among everyone’s to create a single partner dance for the entire class to perform together in pairs.
• Through echo imitation, teach the poem Good, Better, Best. The text may be spoken in unison or in a 2-beat canon after two beats.

• Combine the class-created dance with the text. The phrases of the text mirror the phrases of the class dance (4+4+8).

Day Two

• Present the students with five rhythmic building blocks using model words that demonstrate positive characteristics.

• After imitating each word through rhythmic speech, students combine them in pairs at first and then improvising word chains of four to create an 8-beat phrase. One word should be repeated in each word chain, but two may be repeated for forms like aabb or abab. Avoid through-composed chains (no abcd).
• Students organize into three groups, and each group composes an 8-beat word chain that illustrates an elemental form. Once the form and the rhythm are decided, it should be performed twice for a total of 16 beats. Each group transfers its rhythm to unpitched percussion or hand drums and choreographs it with simple movement.
• Review and perform the poem Good, Better, Best through rhythmic speech. Teach the two accompanying speech ostinati separately (see below) and combine all three parts, allowing each group to experience each part of the texture. Assign a part to each group and perform the piece as a rondo with the poem and speech ostinati as the A section and each group’s unpitched percussion composition as an episode.

Day Three

• Students begin at mallet instruments and choose a pentatonic scale (do-based or any other pentatonic mode such as re– or la-based). Decide on whether to use the authentic range (tonic to tonic with 5th in the middle) or the plagal range (5th to 5th with tonic in the middle). This will depend on the scale chosen and which note is the tonic. Try to use a range comfortable for singing.
• Students play the scale up and down and end on the tonic to hear its characteristic sound. Teacher claps a series of simple 4-beat rhythmic patterns for students to explore playing on the bars. Ask them to use specific areas of the scale such as the tonic to the 5th or the 5th to the tonic. If using the do– or la-based scale, use re only as a passing tone or as an upper or lower neighbor.
• Students review the text to Good, Better, Best and play it lightly with alternating hands on the tonic pitch of the scale selected by the class.
• Working one phrase at a time, allow students to improvise and share individual ideas that lead to a class-composed melody for the entire text. Make note of the class’ final version so it can be notated later with notation software.
• Using primarily the tonic and 5th, ask students to work with a partner to improvise a 4-beat ostinato accompaniment pattern that can accompany the class melody. See examples in Music for Children Volume I, pages 82–83 and pages 86–87.
• Review both speech ostinati and transfer them to contrasting unpitched percussion parts (such as triangle and woodblock). Add these two parts to the texture of the final arrangement.
• Invite half of the class to perform the arrangement as created by the class while students in the other half find partners to perform the dance created earlier. To extend the form, the class can sing the melody once and then repeat it with the melody played on instruments only. Depending on the melody’s range, it could be played on recorder (do Pentatonic on G in the plagal range, is great for recorder).
• Notate the final class arrangement with notation software, and give each child a copy. A copy of each class’ arrangement can also be displayed for parents for open house.

Extension

• Using the previous arrangement as an A section in a rondo, students can use a rhythmic text, such as the one below, for improvised melodic solos. This text works well for melodic question and answer improvisation (8-beat question and 8-beat answer).

The post Good, Better, Best first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

Amy Fenton shares a creative process for capturing the rhythms of the season in her Halloween lesson for soprano recorder: Candy Corn Composition.

The post Lesson: Candy Corn Composition first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

Click on the link to download the lesson: Purposeful Pathways: Old Mother Brown

The post Purposeful Pathways Lesson: Old Mother Brown first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

This is a real series of lessons I did with my first graders starting at the beginning of April and they performed the end product on their concert, May 15.  Believe me, if I can do it, so can you!

Here was my teaching process, but please feel free to adapt it however you want to fit your needs:

Day 1

Using the Smartboard, show the four “railroad rhythms”, and echo-speak them with the accurate rhythms.  Then challenge the students to say it together when you point to one.

Cover up the railroad rhythms, then reveal four two-beat rhythm patterns.  Have the class read and clap these patterns together.

Get rid of the screen shade and invite students to come up and connect each railroad rhythm with its matching two-beat pattern.

On the next page, the teacher picks four railroad rhythm boxes from the bottom and has the class read and clap the pattern together.  Don’t forget to introduce the repeat sign, if students are not familiar with it yet.

Repeat the step above, but this time allow for one or two boxes to be repeated.

Invite each student to come up and pick a box then read and clap their rhythm patterns together.  I then saved these patterns to use for the next lesson.

Day 2

Teach the class a simple song about trains.  (I used “A Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track” from the Wee Sing series, but “Engine Engine Number Nine” would work well or any other short train-related song)

Perform the sixteen-beat railroad rhythms from last time in rondo with the train-related song (ie – song, rhythm #1, song, rhythm #2, etc.)

Day 3

Print off a page with two of each rhythm box, then cut the boxes out and put them in a plastic bag (make enough for half of class).

Have students work in pairs to create their own four-box pattern that they can clap and read aloud.

Have the class perform a grand rondo of the train song and partners clapping and reading their patterns.  This is a great way to assess the students and I recorded two or three favorite railroad patterns to save for the next lesson.

Day 4

The teacher picks out a few untuned percussion instruments and has students vote on which ones are best for which sounds.  My students chose sandpaper blocks for “chugga chugga”, hand drums for “whoo whoo”, maracas for “tsss…”, and just voices for “all aboard”.

Perform a rondo with the song and their favorite patterns from last time on instruments.  Don’t forget to allow them to switch instruments a few times!

Day 5

Teach a simple bordun and other tuned or untuned percussion parts to go along with the train song.  My bordun was a simple half-note beat on bass xylophones, contrabass bars, and sandpaper blocks.  I also added pentatonic tone clusters on soprano xylophones and untuned percussion on word cues from the song.

Perform the song with instruments in a rondo with the rhythm patterns on the untuned percussion instruments.

Day 6 and Beyond

Keep rehearsing the different instrument parts and make sure all students get a chance on all the parts.

Eventually pick which students will play which instruments for the concert.  For my school, I had only one class play instruments on this while the other two sang and two or three weeks before the concert, assigned each student in that class a specific instrument.

Add a train whistle played by the teacher to start off the song each time it happens in the rondo.

Side note:  I originally wanted to have the song and patterns have a faster tempo every time (reinforcing our fast/slow tempo discussion earlier in the quarter), but it didn’t work out this time – I still think it’d be a fun performance idea though!

——————–

I hope this example of how I was able to take simple rhythms and a short song and turn it into a concert-worthy piece helps you realize that an Orff style of music-making does not have to be limited to the classroom.  A program does not have to rely on simply singing with a CD to have long enough songs – allow your students to compose and use the rondo form to your advantage!  Show the parents what your students are doing in their music classroom – we are not simply “singing teachers”, we are facilitating musical creation and challenging students to work together to make music!

What is your favorite way to take something simple and make it worthy of a concert performance?  How do you showcase what actually goes on in your classroom for parents and families?

The post Do It Yourself: How to Take Something Simple and Make It Concert-Worthy first appeared on Teaching With Orff.