Have you ever met anyone that didn’t love “Carol of the Bells”? I haven’t either, and my students are no exception. “Carol of the Bells” and the Orff instrumentarium were destined to go together, and so here is an arrangement that will satisfy every student in your classroom. Everyone can play a part!

There are some chromatic phrases that are difficult to play with access to only F#s and Bbs, so they have been eliminated in this arrangement, but they won’t really be missed because the rest of it is so fun to play.

“Carol of the Bells” is ultimately based on either 3 descending stepwise notes or 4 descending stepwise notes. Invite your students to explore these patterns starting on different pitches. You may refer to the process score for illustrations of the steps I use to teach “Carol of the Bells”.

1. With the right hand, start on high E and find the descending pattern of 4: E-D-C-B.

2. Add the left hand to that pattern starting on C and play hands together.

3. With only the right hand, start again on high E, but this time decorate each note with a pattern of 3 descending notes.

4. Change the B-A-G at the end of pattern 3 to G-F-E.

5. Add the left hand to this pattern, but starting on C.

6. Play patterns from the beginning, but leave out step 3. Add octave As at the end with a flourish! Teach this to the whole class, but ultimately it is the alto xylophones moment in the sun.

7. Invite your students to play “Hark, how the bells” (quarter, eighth eighth, quarter) on the low E. This is the bass xylophone part. For fun, have the AX play their part, and everyone else play the BX part with the stipulation that everyone must play the octave As at the end together. It’s a good listening exercise!

8. All of the above is merely introductory material and we have now reached the moment that everyone has been waiting for. This can be found in the process score at m. 24, or step 9. This is the glockenspiels big solo! Have the alto glockenspiels play the main motif for 4 repetitions, then add the sopranos a third higher.

9. Invite your students to play a pattern of 4 descending notes starting on A. This correlates with the “Ding dong ding dong” part usually sung by the altos. This will be the alto metallophone part. (Mm. 26-29)

10. Now play a pattern of 4 descending notes starting on high F. It should sound like this. F-E-D-C. Change the last note to A to get F-E-D-A. This will be the bass metallophone part. (Mm.30-33)

11. In the process score, the next motivic phrase in mm. 34-37 is one that can be taught by rote.

12. We have arrived at the apex of the piece “Gaily they ring while people sing….”. (Mm. 38-41) Believe it or not, most of the students have usually figured out how to play this by ear because they all know it so well. Indeed, while you have been valiantly teaching the rest of it, some of them have been secretly noodling away at this phrase. It teaches itself!

13. Because the next familiar phrase is so chromatic (“Merry merry merry merry Christmas!), I modified it and eliminated the accidentals. (See mm.
42- 43). Your students can audiate it if they would like.

14. You now know all the important motifs and may mix and match as you see fit. I have attached a score that has worked well with my students. Have fun!!

Click here to download Cyndee’s performance order printables.

Click here to download Cyndee’s individual printables.

The post Carol of the Bells: Orff Arrangement first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

This piece is easily taught from a “road map.”

This piece is easily taught from a “road map.”

– Have the students sit facing the map.

– Starting from the top of the chart with the first pathway, start on the star and stop at the T, taking the mallets for a walk from hi G to D.

– For the second pathway, start and stop on the hi D. This may take a minute, but someone will get it!

– The third pathway works the same way as the first. —String these three pathways together for the A section.

– For the B section, follow the blue pathways from top to bottom.

– Practice this until it is secure, then play the piece from top to bottom.  (An optional glissando may be added at the end to the octave G.)

– Try this in canon! The students can suggest places to start the canon and by trial and error may find that the canon works best after one beat.

Add some movement improvisation! Some things that have been successful with this particular piece are mirror activities, stretchy bands that are made into shifting “kaleidoscopes”, and, perhaps the favorite, pretending to swim in an aquarium with giant fish puppets as props.

Click here for the full score of Duetto for Glockenspiels.

* Note the “road map” can be recreated on a white/SMART board.

The post Duetto for Glockenspiels first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

My daughter spent her senior year of high school in Sweden. This was the first song she learned upon her arrival. Apparently every Swede knows this song whether they admit it or not. It is traditionally performed around the maypole at Midsommer, which is an even bigger holiday than Christmas.

Here’s a story for you, and it’s true!!

Jump frog and jump!
Jump frog and leap!

Okay. It’s not much of a story. Here’s a thought. What if you switched the jumps for leaps and vice versa. What would THAT sound like?

Leap frog and leap!
Leap frog and jump!

Let’s put them together!

Jump frog and jump!
Jump frog and leap!

Leap frog and leap!
Leap frog and jump!

 New story:

Jump little frog! Jump little frog!
1-2-3-4 Jump little frog!!

What happens when we say these at the same time? You can say two of the shorter pattern in the time it takes to tell the original story.

Time for an old fashioned frog jumping contest!! Find a partner. You will have to act out the stories, jumping when it’s time to jump and leaping when it’s time to leap. Start together and see what happens. The original story ends up WAAAAAAY out in front. So to even things up, if you have the shorter pattern, you can take four steps on the “1-2-3-4”.  Now it’s a fair race! When you have had enough of this brand of fun, see if you and your partner can cross the finish line together.

Grab your partner and find some friends and sit in a circle pretzel legs. Make sure your knees are lightly touching your neighbor’s. Taking the original story, you will take your left hand and pat your left knee every time you say the word “Jump!”. For “Leap!” pat your NEIGHBOR’S right knee. Hilarity ensues! Now fill in the other words with your right hand on your right knee. Be careful that your hands don’t all get tangled up.

To transfer this to the barred instruments, your left hand will now play “Jump!” on the low F, “Leap!” on the low C, and everything else with your right hand on the high C.

But wait! What about the other story? That goes with alternating hands on the low C.

Put these two parts together. Here comes the song!

Oh, little frog, oh little frog, you look so strange to me!
Oh, little frog, oh little frog, you look so strange to me!

You have no ears, you have no ears, you also have no tail!

You have no ears, you have no ears, you also have no tail!

Kou-ack-ack-ack, Kou-ack-ack-ack, Kou-ack-ack-ack
Kou-ack-ack-ack (this is what a frog sounds like in Swedish!)

And now we dance:

Oh, little frog, oh little frog, you look so strange to me – Walk clockwise

Oh, little frog, oh little frog, you look so strange to me – Walk counter-clockwise

You have no ears, you have no ears, you also have no tail – Flap hands by ears and then on your posterior for the tail.

Kou-ack-ack-ack – Hop clockwise, second time, hop counter counter clockwise.

But wait!! There’s even more!! Break into small groups and make up your own song and motions about other animals.

The post Små Grodorna: Swedish Frog Song first appeared on Teaching With Orff.