Objectives for Rain of Leaves:

I can-

-Sing create melodies in la hexatonic

-Perform rhythms accurately and independently with appropriate playing technique

-Play a melodic ostinato with a steady beat

Essential Questions:

–How do musicians make creative decisions? (Create)

-How do musicians improve the quality of their creative work and performance? (Create/Perform)

-When is a creative work ready to share? (Create)

-How does understanding the structure of the music inform the performance or response? (Perform/Respond)

-How do performers interpret musical works? (Perform) and discern expressive intent? (Respond)

-When is a performance or creative work ready to share? (Create/Perform)

Process:

1. Teacher leads the class in tonal Learning Sequence Activities (LSAs) focusing on la hexatonic or incomplete minor.

• LSAs should include call and response of 2-4 tones that outline the i chord and the V chord. I suggest having a pattern that compliments the song melody. Mix your LSAs with the whole class and individuals echoing your patterns.o La-do-mi
  o Mi-re-ti-so
  o La-do-la

• Once they are successful echoing your patterns, pick a pattern that you can use and have the students improvise a different one using the same pitches.

2. Ask students share about the colors of autumn, the special sounds of autumn, and any special movement that happens with leaves in the autumn. Create a list of words on the board using their ideas.

3. Sing the song for them. Teacher leads rhythmic LSAs in the same meter of the song using rhythmic solfege (du-de system preferred).

• Rhythmic LSAs should begin with call and response of the same patterns, and then move to
• Call and response where the students change what the teacher calls. This way the students are already audiating and creating new rhythms to use later.

4. Sing the song again asking them to listen for any of the words from their list that appeared in the song, and where they occurred. Sing again, having students listen for any words that would indicate a shape, or a movement direction. On the third listening, students create the shapes (big, small etc) and use locomotor movement to indicate the direction of the leaves, ending in a low shape on the floor.

5. Check for audiation of tonal center by singing the song again, stopping at various spots where the students respond by singing ‘la’ on the correct pitch.

6. Have a brief discussion with the students regarding the tonal center of the piece, and how the movement will indicate the minor tonality and mood of the piece. Repeat the movement exploration, taking note to point out students that are using different levels, pathways, freezing on their shapes, and exploring different directions with the direction of the melody.

7. Ask students to snap on the rhyming words (fall, small, brown, down) while you sing. Add snaps on the remaining bold text. Ask students what the order of the colors are in the song, then have them sing the entire song while snapping.

It raining big it’s raining small,

it’s raining autumn leaves in fall,

it’s raining gold and red and brown,

as autumn leaves come tumbling down.

8. Transfer the snaps to unpitched instruments of the students’ choosing, then sing and play in the appropriate places. Analyze the melody-which portion of the melody ends on the tonal center of la? Where does most of the melody stay? What direction is the melody moving? Is it moving by skips or mostly steps? (This step will help them not only sing the melody better, but will help them create their own melodies later in the lesson)

9. At mallet instruments in F hexatonic (DEFGA CD) students identify the tonal center of low la on the instrument (D). Add a tremolo on D while singing the melody and playing the finger cymbal part on their chosen instrument.

10. Sing and model the AX part in the air while they mirror you above their instruments. Have students identify how many times the ostinato is played the same, and what happens at the end. Hold a discussion about why they think that may be (to create a complete cadence.)

11. Using the original list of autumn words, allow the class to create a word chain of 8 beats. Clap the word chain twice. Transfer the rhythm to A, with the repeat on either D.

12. When students are ready, explore moving up and down the scale in the direction that leaves might fall, tumble, or swirl when carried by a wind, beginning the improvisation on A so that they have the possibility to go either direction. Hold a discussion about where the tonal center of the piece is, and where the improvisation should end. (NOTE: this has already been established by all the previous activities that focus on the tonal center).

Explore options of using repeated pitches, and different melodic contours demonstrating falling leaves. Hold a discussion regarding the fact that in hexatonic, ti & re are best if used as “passing tones.” Allow more time for creating melodies, encouraging them to create their own rhythms as well if they are ready. (many of my students forget the original word chain so end up improvising anyway )

13. Share improvisations with a shoulder-partner, encouraging them to say what they noticed about their neighbor’s piece. Ex: “I noticed you went up and down mostly by steps and ended on D.” Have them share with the class what they noticed in an example they heard that created an interesting melody. (This should be things like repeated sections, a surprise leap, the melody moving stepwise in both directions etc.) Repeat the process; have the neighbor share what they noticed about how the melody has changed or evolved. (Hint: Some students may be able to verbalize to their partner WHY they made the change-when this happens, I know the students are thinking musically and engaging in the process with higher order musical thinking, rather than just playing randomly)

Perform:

Allow the class to create a final performance using all the experiences from the lesson:

• Movement
• Speech
• Unpitched instruments to create sound effects
• Improvisations
• Original melody with accompaniment

Example:

Introduction: unpitched percussion to create a sound carpet with leaf movement while Bass Metallophone plays a tremolo on D

A- Song with accompaniment

B- Improvisations of a few students (could be chosen by timbre of instrument-glocks, metallophones, xylophones etc)

A- Song with accompaniment

C- Improvisations

A-  Song with accompaniment

Coda: Tremolo on BM with movement

Click here to download a pdf of this lesson.

The post Lesson: Rain of Leaves first appeared on Teaching With Orff.

Joan: It was several decades ago that I was first exposed to the ideas of Edwin Gordon. Even as a young teacher studying my first Level of Orff Schulwerk at the time, I knew that Music Learning Theory (MLT) was something important and I needed to investigate. Since then, I have done much reading, attended as many workshops as possible, and worked directly with Music Learning Theory teachers. A few years ago, I was excited to meet and work with Dr.Wendy van Gent of Northern State University in Aberdeen, SD while I was living in Bismarck, ND.

Over the years I have come to appreciate the importance Music Learning Theory places on the diverse richness and vastness of the many tonalities and meters that we have access to in the Schulwerk. Exposing my students to as many tonalities and meters as possible at younger ages while passing beanbags, moving, and working with speech pieces helped them to develop a rich palate of meters and tonalities for musical understanding and musicianship. I found that integrating a multitude of tonalities and meters with my younger students through exploration and responding activities enabled them to understand and create at a higher level when teaching the pieces in Volumes II & IV.

The importance Gordon places on the Laban efforts and movement to experience effort, flow, weight, time and space fit so well with my movement curriculum that I had already developed. The emphasis on learning musical language using the Whole-Part-Whole approach helped solidify my belief that integrating Music Learning Theory into my Orff-based classroom was important in developing a sequential curriculum where my students could explore and develop a meaningful musical vocabulary gained through learning by doing.

Wendy: My journey to MLT came after my public school teaching career. When I left the classroom to pursue my terminal degree, I had the good fortune to work with Dr. Cindy Taggart at Michigan State University. The seeds she planted grew as I began to understand why my teaching techniques and choral program in Virginia Beach, VA were so successful. MLT provided the foundation for the next step in my career as I became a Music Teacher Educator. I embrace the many techniques and methods of delivery for music teachers, and work to connect them to MLT as an explanation of how to refine them before delivery. In other words, “How can I improve my lesson using Orff-Schulwerk techniques while I am planning?” Here are the basic tenets of MLT that can guide lesson planning and delivery:

What is Music Learning Theory?

A Fundamental Definition

We learn music the same way we learn language (Gordon, 2007, 2008; GIML, 2019).

MLT is an explanation of how the brain learns when learning music. It differs from a method or technique of delivery in that it is a learning theory. While multiple methods of delivery can be effective, Dr. Gordon developed his own based on his theory. This ‘Gordon Approach’ should not be confused with MLT. Rather, the reason his techniques are so effective is because they are connected to the theory about how we learn music. I believe that many techniques can be effective, and improved by understanding how our students learn.

Why Should We Consider MLT?

Research

MLT is based on a large body of research. Research conducted and published since the 1970s supports the explanation of learning music through techniques Dr. Gordon expressed. In my opinion and experience, that makes it worthwhile.

Logical

MLT is highly logical. MLT suggests that all humans are born with an aptitude for music. If we use the language/music thought, then if all people are born with an aptitude for language (communication), then all people are born with an aptitude for music.
For example, consider these sequences for language and music (Shouldice, 2015):

Language

1. Listening
2. Speaking
3. Thinking/Conversing
4. Reading
5. Writing

Music

1. Listening
2. Singing, Chanting, Moving,
3. Playing
4. Audiation/Improvising
5. Reading
6. Writing

What does MLT look like in an Orff-Schulwerk lesson?

Next week we will take a look at a lesson Joan has been doing in her classroom for many years. Using MLT thought-processes, Wendy will explain why this lesson has been so successful in helping students develop higher order thinking skills and musical understanding. When one plans lessons integrating the thought process of MLT with the processes of imitate, explore, create, our students are able to think and act with purposeful musicianship.

References

Bolton, B. M., Taggart, C. C., Reynolds, A., Valerio, W. H., & Gordon, E. (2001). Jump right in: The music curriculum: Book 2 Teacher/Student Editions. Chicago, IL: GIA Publications, Inc.
Gordon, E. (2007). Learning sequences in music : a contemporary music learning theory (2007 ed.). Chicago: GIA Publications.
Gordon, E. (2010). Essential preparation for beginning instrumental music instruction. Chicago, IL: GIA Publications.
Gordon, E. (2019). The Gordon Institute for Music Learning. Retrieved from http://giml.org/mlt/audiation/
Shouldice, H. (Producer). (2015). An overview of two core ideas of Gordon’s Music Learning Theory (MLT): Audiation and Sequential Music Learning. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/2vl3tSFC0HY

The post Music Learning Theory & Orff Schulwerk first appeared on Teaching With Orff.