OBJECTIVES

• Demonstrate melodic patterns that include same/different and 3-pitch melodies
• Demonstrate rhythmic patterns that include quarter note, paired eighth notes, and quarter rest
• Demonstrate a steady beat while contrasting rhythms are being performed
• Play and identify pitched percussion instruments

MATERIALS

• Melodic percussion instruments and mallets (xylophones, metallophones and glockenspiels)
• Visuals
• Colored Scarves for movement

PROCESS

Day One

• Teach the song through directed listening and echo.

• Invite students to listen as the teacher sings the song and ask what they noticed (the colors, rhymes, words/patterns that get more than one turn). How many times did the melodic phrase “Autumn leaves, autumn leaves” happen? (4x). Ask students to echo that phrase, use hand signs for solfeggio if desired. Notate this phrase (see visuals).

• Ask students to sing that part of the song while the teacher sings the rest. Trade parts. Then sing the whole song in unison.
  
• Once the complete melody is secure, introduce the xylophone accompaniment to the notated phrase. Demonstrate and practice the pattern initially using body percussion – patting legs; transfer to instruments. Set the instruments in Do pentatonic on C, removing the Fs and the Bs. For 1st grade consider a chord bordun on the beat, and for 2nd grade an alternating broken bordun (notated in the score). Rotate for turns, so that every student has a turn to play this part of the accompaniment. If necessary, two students can share a xylophone – one playing in the lower octave and one in the upper octave.

Day Two

• Review the song. Ask students “What other part of the song occurs more than once?” (The colors – red, gold, orange, brown). How many times? (2)

• Invite students to add a snap one each color word. Transfer to metallophones. With the metallophones set up in Do pentatonic on C, students may strike any two bars on each color word. Rotate for turns so that all have a chance to play this part. Combine with the xylophone accompaniment from the previous day.

Day Three

• Sing the song together again. Ask students to notice the rhyming words (swirling all around; falling to the ground). Introduce the students to the glockenspiel part that will ‘interrupt’ the song, playing a special part after each of these phrases. After singing “swirling all around”, the glockenspiels improvise swirling, stirring sounds using sliding and glissandos with all bars on. After singing “falling to the ground”, each glockenspiel player strikes each note in turn from the highest note to the lowest note on their instrument one time – like leaves falling from the tree. This does not have to be in a unison tempo.
  
• Introduce a colored scarf movement to pair with the glockenspiel part. If possible, pair a scarf dancer with a glockenspiel player so that at the end, the last note of the scale corresponds to their dancer’s last leaf falling. Dancers can follow the player, or the player can follow the dancer. Dancers are scattered and “planted” in the space holding scarves in the colors mentioned in the song and other fall colors. During the first glockenspiel improv their scarves and limbs move like they are being blown by the wind. During the last descending scale, their scarf leaves are dropped one by one. Scarves can be tossed into the air and allowed to float to the ground, or simply dropped one at a time.
  
• With students working in pairs – one on glockenspiel, one as the tree holding colored scarves – sing the song with the extension and then trade parts.

Day Four

• This is the day to put the whole piece together. Everyone sings and all have a special part – either as a scarf dancer or as an instrument player. Review the song, remind students of each of the accompanying parts – xylophones for “Autumn leave, autumn leaves”, metallophones in clusters on the color words “red, gold, orange, brown” and the glockenspiels improvising after “swirling all around” and the high to low scale for the falling leaves after “falling to the ground”. Consider inviting the classroom teacher to come and watch and/or capture a video to share with parents.

Day Five (optional extension)

• Practice melodic dictation using the melodic tone set of this song. Focus on one 3-note grouping at a time: Sol-La-Mi and Mi-Re-Do. Either a 2-line staff or 5-line staff may be used.

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

The post Autumn Leaves first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

Spring is in the air, or so we hope! The weather is often a topic of conversation, and the sounds of spring offer a wonderful opportunity to sing, say, dance and play in the music classroom.

Music educators usually agree that some important goals for the youngest learners through the end of first grade include developing tuneful singing, steady beat, and experiencing musical opposites. Learning classroom procedures, building independence at making a circle, moving appropriately in the music room to access supplies, handling instruments with care, and expressing their thoughts through creative movement are becoming more natural with each passing week. Along this train of thought, students are guided to begin barred instrument exploration. They always seem to be asking when will it be their turn to play ‘those big instruments’!

The following lesson ideas are designed to broaden experiences and explore new concepts while giving our youngest learners opportunities to deepen their skills in responding to and performing a steady beat as well as singing and dancing.

Many rain-themed songs, poems, dances and art works are accessible to even the very youngest learners. Over the course of several lessons, students can explore the theme of rain, which will give them an opportunity to sing, move, and create while giving focus to in-tune singing and steady beat.

Drip, Drop: The Sound of Rain

One introduction to the differing sounds and intensities of rain could stem from the book Listen to the Rain by authors Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault. During the read-aloud, consider setting the mood in the classroom by playing a recording of rain in the background, and fade it out when the rain ends within the text. Afterwards, discuss all of the activities one may do in the rain. Questions like, “Do you ever go outside in the rain?” “What do you wear?” “Is there anything you bring with you?” “Have you ever played in the rain?” “What did you do that was really fun?” are prompts that can yield very exciting movement explorations! Some common answers might be: “walk and spin our umbrellas”, or “jump in puddles”.

Choose one idea for the students to explore first, for example, “jump in puddles”. Have students explore this idea by pretending to walk down a sidewalk and then jump in puddles. Next, musically contextualize their movement experience by having the students walk between and around the puddles. As this occurs, the teacher improvises walking music, perhaps on a xylophone, to match the walking movement. Interspersing the “jumping in the puddles” experience, the teacher narrates lightly, “Walk towards the puddle, and pause”. Pause the music by playing a tremolo. Then, adding musical tension, the students prepare their jump, and at a predetermined musical signal, they spring into the puddle and splash around all encouraged by the musical stimulus and accompaniment provided by the teacher.

Simple, improvised accompaniment on xylophone can provide a musical soundtrack for the students as they create movement gestures. These ideas materialize, having been developed first in language.

Pitter, Patter: Move Your Feet, Look and Listen

“Chee Chee Cha” from the New England Dancing Masters’ book, Down in the Valley is a ready to go resource! It is a child-friendly arrangement of “Singing in the Rain,” and is a structured activity song that has repetitive lyrics and cumulative movement. This song will inevitably end in giggles! Pair this high-energy experience with a look at the painting, New York Street Under the Rain by Stansilav Sidorov. Guide students to discuss what they see within the painting (objects, people, the taxi, etc.) as well as the colors (“Which objects did the artist paint with bright colors?”) and how this affects the way we perceive the mood of painting. Help them toward thinking more deeply about the taxi in the rain. “What does the driver of a car need to do in order to drive safely in the rain?” Answers like “turn on the headlights” and “use the windshield wipers” are good starting points, and a robust conversation could grow from just about any aspect of the painting.

To lighten the mood after discussing a rainy day, a fingerplay can create a joyful release. Try this little gem, “Windshield Wiper” while listening to windshield wiper sounds via YouTube. Simply repeat the fingerplay several times while moving with an intentional steady beat, in place, and then through space supported by the sound of the wipers on the video.

Rain Drops, Heart Beats, and Borduns

“Rain, Rain Go Away” may be one of the most well-known children’s songs in our culture. It is a great way to bring focus to and learn to track the steady beat on a heartbeat chart. While students sing and track, the teacher can play a simple bordun (a steady beat accompaniment played on an open fifth, in this case, the notes D and A) on a bass metallophone or xylophone to reinforce the steady beat and promote in-tune singing.

You can print this beat chart to use with your students: Beat Chart and Rain, Rain, Go Away mm 1 and 2

Extend students an invitation to play the xylophone with this adaptation: During the “???” portions of the song, the teacher sings individual students’ names to come up and play the bordun together on bass-sized instruments.  In order to keep track of those who get a “special job”, you can check the student’s name off in a grade book. (This helps in future classes to keep track of which students have not yet had a turn.) Repeat several times to give multiple turns.

We use the following lyrics:

“Dripsy Dropsy” Glockenspiel

A springtime visit with glockenspiels, the smallest barred instruments, brings more creative exploration opportunities with the poem, “Dripsy Dropsy” by Leanne Guenther.

At first, students can explore the poem by showing their impressions of how they might mirror the way the rain is falling in the text by using their fingertips in the air. Students could demonstrate their impressions as well by transferring these to the sounds of a glockenspiel. Guided questions can help the students solidify their thoughts. “What would the ‘dripsy, dropsy’ raindrops sound like? Can you show me?” or, “What would the ‘pitter patter’ sound like on the glockenspiel?”

Continue to explore lines of the poem, “falling to the ground”, then, “fast then slow, until it stops” should create contrasting impressions. It is freeing for students to explore in the realm of what is possible instead of what is correct. The goal is creating a sound idea and this activity provides a gentle, aesthetically-minded framework.

The song “Rain, Rain” could be further explored as a pathway to improvisation, allowing two or three students at a time to explore on the glockenspiels while the bordun plays. An ABA form could materialize: “Rain Rain” – Glockenspiel Improvisations – “Rain Rain.” It is a feasible goal by the end of a given class that all students have had a chance to perform a special job on an instrument for the day.

Listening Transitions

The theme of springtime rain can also open and close a class session. As students enter or exit the room, different pieces of music based on rain could accompany a beginning or end of class stretch sequence. Some examples of these pieces include ones like the “Raindrop” Prelude in D flat Major, Op.28 No.15, by Frederic Chopin, or a contemporary piece like “Rain” by Brian Crain.

Stations

As a culmination of our rain adventures, several stations can be set up around the room for the students to rotate through. One station could be created that gives students experience demonstrating their ability to play a steady beat simple bordun to “Rain, Rain, Go Away”, another station with an opportunity to improvise and explore glockenspiels with the poem “Dripsy Dropsy” by Leanne Guenther, and a final station could take shape that helps practice tracking the beat to “Rain, Rain, Go Away” on heartbeat charts.

You can feel the joy throughout the room when transitions from station to station are facilitated with different verses of “Chee Chee Cha” from the New England Dancing Masters. The rotation through stations gives the teacher a chance to see and hear each student’s growth in understanding music concepts while keeping the classroom climate light and fun.

It is my hope that these ideas inspire you to explore the sounds of rain with your own students!

Happy Spring!

Lisa Sempsey teaches K-6 music and movement and is the K-12 Art and Music Curriculum Coordinator in Columbia Borough School District, Columbia, PA.  She has completed three levels of Kodály, three levels of Orff-Schulwerk training, and holds a Master of Education in Leadership for Teaching and Learning. Lisa enjoys sharing ideas with educators, and has presented workshops at both the local and national levels.

Resources and Links:

Listen to the Rain by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault (published by Henry Holt and Co., ISBN-13:  9780805006827)

Gentle Night Rain – YouTube link

Down in the Valley by the New England Dancing Masters

“Windshield Wiper” fingerplay

Water Drops on Car Roof, Windshield Wiper Sound – YouTube link

“Dripsy Dropsy” poem by Leanne Guenther

The post Drip, Drop, Pitter, Patter, and Explore! first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

Drue M. Bullington

A glimpse into one teacher’s answer to the challenges of having students manage the use and storage of a variety of instruments in an active elemental music and movement classroom.

One of the best things about being a classroom music teacher has to be all of the great instruments and learning “things” we use in our lessons and are able to share with our students. One of the challenges is managing their use in our classes effectively during instruction and storing them in an organized way when not in use.

After 15 years of trial and error—and I mean a lot of trial and error—I have come up with some approaches to solve a number of problems classroom music teachers face once they acquire instruments and begin to incorporate them into their lesson plans. One thing I learned very early on is that things never work in the real classroom like they do at a workshop when the presenter says, “everyone find an instrument…” The bedlam that ensued after such a suggestion I made in my classroom many years ago is where this journey began.

First let’s consider a few non-negotiable parameters most classroom music teachers are facing. The main consideration is a high number of classes, often of differing grade levels with little or no time in between classes. A second issue is a low, or non-existent amount of planning and preparation time. There is so much to do, and so little time to “get ready” for the doing! These two factors were the reasons my approach to managing the “things” in my classroom came to be almost entirely student-centered. It seemed more beneficial to everyone if I spent my time planning and preparing for instruction in the role of director and the students took on the role of stage managers.

In as many ways, and as early as possible, I strive to give the responsibility of getting out and putting away instruments to my students. This requires that the teacher prepares the learning space in such a way that the instruments can be stored, accessed, and put away easily and consistently. Secondly, it requires that the teacher clearly communicate and reinforce procedures for how students will go about getting out and putting instruments away in a safe and orderly way.

Let’s take look at the physical spaces that have been prepared for instruments to be stored, and the procedures used by students to get them out and put them away.

Orff Instruments

Soprano and Alto Xylophones and Metallophones

Storage:

After years of having the instruments “out” on the floor in “ready-to-use” position, I realized that we really needed the space for movement. So, I built two shelves on the long open wall in the back of my classroom. (I am pretty good at wood working having spent a lot of time as a kid with my dad in his wood shop.) I had some really great maintenance guys at my school put them up for me. This provides a space on the floor along the wall for the alto xylophones and metallophones, which are a bit heavier, to sit on the floor, and a space above these for the sopranos, which are lighter, to sit on the first shelf. This reduced the space which these instruments took up in my classroom from about 150 square feet to about 24 square feet!

Each instrument has a little piece of floor tape (The P.E. teacher at my school uses this on her gym floor, and shares with me. It can be removed without any residue remaining.) in the bottom corner or the player side of the instrument. On the tape, a number is written in silver sharpie. On the shelf, or on the floor, the same tape and the same number are written and placed in such a way that they line up with each other- I tell the students that they should line up like a shadow.

The soprano xylophones are numbered 1-7, and the soprano metallophones numbered 8-10; the alto xylophones are 11-17, and the metallophones 18-20. Basses are labeled 21-25.

Procedures:

Individual students or partners can quickly be assigned an instrument number by me and they can go get it from the shelf. I ask them to pick up the mallets, which always lay on top of the instrument, and put them in their crab claw, which is just to hold the mallet by pinching them between the thumb and palm, and carry the instrument out into the space and set it down.

When the students take the bars off, in order to keep the space orderly, I ask them to put the bars they remove on the floor in order from largest to smallest on the left side of the instrument. When doing partner work, this helps students to slide the instrument back and forth in front of them, rather than have the students moving around all of the time.

After we’re done with whatever we’ve been doing, the students put the bars back on the instrument, carry it back to the shelf, line up the numbers on the two pieces of tape and put the mallets back on top of the bars.

With this approach it is possible that students can get 20+ instruments and be playing as a group in less than 3 minutes. They can put them away and be ready for the next activity in even less time.

Bass Xylophones and Metallophones

The bass xylophones and metallophones in my classroom are also numbered and on wheels. I often assign them by numbers as well, although less often than the alto and soprano instruments. The wheeled stands have a number on them, as well as a corresponding number on the floor, so that they can be wheeled away from and returned easily to their place.

One thing I did add to these instruments is a place to store several bars that are not being used. I found that the plastic sleeves that the adjustable wooden statues I got from IKEA are shipped in are the perfect size to hold several of these bars or accidentals.

I model a lot on my “teacher” bass xylophone, and in order to help with transfer, I have written the note name on the ends of the bars so that students can visually see when seated in front of me, what notes are being played and the set ups for various pentatonic, hexatonic, diatonic, etc., scales.

Procedure:

This is the same as above using numbers. These instruments are moved around a lot less given their size. However, when being used in the performance space and then returned, I don’t have to manage or move the instruments around, they just get back to their homes automatically because the students are used to the numbering system.

Accidental Bags

Each Orff instrument has a custom-made pouch for storing the accidental bars. (These are prototypes as we experiment with how they work in the classroom) They are fitted so they can hang on the wider side of the instrument during transport around the room, to the stage, etc., and are numbered to be stored with the corresponding instruments. The budget money I’ve spent on lost accidental bars is withering to think about. They are like socks! These, along with the glockenspiel accidental bar pouches were hand made by our family friend, Wanda.

The portable accidental pouches will help keep a large instrumentarium orderly during the whirlwind of performance when a lot of shuffling has to happen in a short amount of time.

She also made some fantastic covers, which protect the rosewood bars from light damage over time. One great addition we added in the design of these are the pouches in the cover which will hold up to 4 sets of mallets. We will happily share some information about how to acquire these accessories if you’d like a set of pouches or covers for your classroom. The covers prevent people from tampering with your instruments when they are in public spaces at times like before and after concerts when you can’t really watch them.

Both the pouches and the dust covers are in the design and development stages. We’d love to hear some feedback on what you like, or what you’d wish for in something like this in your classroom.

A trick that Wanda came up with while we were figuring out the pouches and the dust covers was an answer to my problem of bars falling off when kids are carrying the instruments around, or when they are loaded on carts, etc. She suggested (and it is pure genius!) to take some elastic and tie a length of it in a knot, and hook it under the handles of the Orff instrument at both ends. This effectively clamps the bars down to a degree that keeps them from falling off when the instrument tips over, or is tilted.

Of course, you can’t turn them upside down, but it does really help when the instrument is in transport. I’m excited to use this trick in the future. I don’t know about you, but I loathe the sound of xylophone and metallophone bars crashing to the floor!

Contra Bass Bars

Storage:

I keep my bass bars on the side counter and on a table in the back corner of my classroom.

Procedure:

This is one instrument that requires that I at least help get them out and put them away in most classes. My 5^th and 6^th graders are pretty good at it so I tend to have a 6^th grade helper get these instruments down in the morning, we use them in classes, and sit them to the side until the end of the day and then have a 6^th grade helper put them away at the end of the day.

If we are doing some performing where the bass bars need to be mobile, I use the bottom level of an old AV cart with a yoga mat on it, put the bass bars we need on there and then the instruments are ready for their time on and off stage as needed. Kids can handle moving these pretty easily now, and there is no worry on my part about them being dropped or damaged.

Glockenspiels

Storage:

Our classroom has 12 glockenspiels- 6 sopranos and 6 altos. Using my woodworking skills, I built a cabinet where each of these instruments slides neatly into a “garage” designed specifically for this purpose. These instruments are numbered as well to help students get the instruments back onto the correct garage when class is over.

The mallets are stored in the garage with the instruments, as well as a little pouch with a corresponding number, which help keep the accidental bars from getting lost. The students put the instruments on top of plastic baskets from the dollar store. They turn them upside down and place the glockenspiel on top to give more height. I found that student posture, playing technique and musicality of the sound is so much better with the instruments up off of the floor.

Procedure:

The teacher gives students a number or they are just supposed to get “a glockenspiel” and mallets. First, they get a basket and place these where they plan to set themselves up for our class activity. Next, they bring their instrument and mallets and place it down on the basket and set up their bars as needed. If they are working in partners, one partner gets the instrument and mallets and the other partner gets the basket. Bars that were removed are still always placed on the floor to the left. This allows the instrument on the basket to slide back and forth easily as we take turns.

Next week we’ll bring you Part 2 of Drue’s instrument storage and organization solutions. For now, please share your favorite storage hacks in the comments. Your idea may be just the thing to help another teacher make it work!

The post Making It Work: Instrument Storage and Organization first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

Take good care of your Studio 49 Orff Instruments for their long lasting health and great sound!

Materials:
– Address Labels
– Permanent Marker
– Towels
– Bungee cords

The post Instrument Repair Hospital: Labeling and Storage first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

Take good care of your Studio 49 Orff Instruments for their long lasting health and great sound!

Materials:
– Wood glue
– Rag

The post Instrument Repair Hospital: Buzzing first appeared on Teaching With Orff.