Series of articles on a single subject or theme.
Musical Subjects
Thinking about how to teach particular musical subjects.
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Dynamics
I wonder if some of the other musical subjects are…
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Tonality
So, yes, the relationship between two tones is not necessarily…
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One Small Step…
Whole and half steps are kind of like air. We…
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Meter
Part of a series of posts on the ‘musical subjects‘…
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Musical Subject: Beat
I enjoy working with the subject of ‘beat’. The phenomenon…
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Drawing Music
For the past few weeks, you may have noticed your…
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Leading and Following, Up and Down
Over the past few weeks the 4-5 year-old classes have…
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Leading and Following
Because music is often a social activity, the Dalcroze classroom…
I once wrote every week about a single class of 7-9 year-olds. There are 20 entries, and at the end a sample curriculum for 1st-2nd grades.
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7-9 Year-Olds: September
Welcome parents and family members of the new Dalcroze class for 7 to 9-year-olds at the Lucy Moses School. I am pleased we were able…
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7-9 Year-olds: 9/27/16
The 4:45 group (7-9 year-olds) had their best session yet. Here’s what we did: Explore ways to walk (heels, toes, sideways, large steps, small steps,…
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7-9 Year-olds: 11/2/16
We had a long break (4 weeks) after only a few classes. It was as if we had just seen each other last week, though.…
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7-9 Year-olds: 11/8/16
Here’s what we did this week… Move to the music; when the music stops, stop and clap 4 times. I had to tweak the directions…
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7-9 Year-Old Dalcroze, 11/15/16
This weeks activities: Move to the music. At signal, stop and clap 4 times. At next signal, stop and pat knees 4 times. Continue to…
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7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: 11/22/16
7-9 Year-old Dalcroze; 11/22/16 Make a shape with curves. Make a shape with straight lines. This seemingly simple direction was first intended to be a…
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7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: 12/6/16
Back Telephone The traditional game of telephone (whisper a phrase around the circle and see if it comes back the same) only with rhythms gently…
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7-9 Dalcroze: 12/14/16
Here’s what we did: All move freely; I choose one person’s movement to play after which the class guesses who I was playing. This was…
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7-9 Dalcroze: 1/10/17
Here is our first class of the New Year: If I move, students are still. When I stop, students move freely. Simple instructions (affectionately known…
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7-9 year olds: 1/17/17
Spinning Kids of a certain age often like to spin when they come into a classroom. I’ll leave it to the psychologists to explain why,…
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7-9 Dalcroze: 1/24/17
Here are this week’s activities: Make a straight line with one hand and a circle with the other. Not easy for anyone to do, and most…
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7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: 1/31/17
This week, a guest poster: Laca Tines. She is a student in our methods class (you may have seen her observing), and a wonderful early…
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Dalcroze: 7-9-Year-olds, 2/7/14
Back to my own observations… enjoy! Statue tag All students make a statue. One moves as long as she likes. When she stops, she…
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Dalcroze: 7-9-Year-olds, 2/14/17
Here’s what we did: Statue tag All students make a statue. One moves as long as she likes. When she stops, she makes the shape…
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7-9 year-old Dalcroze: 2/28/17
This was an unusual class in many ways. The girls’ love for dramatic story telling prompted almost an entire class devoted to the development, rehearsal…
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7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: 3/6/17
This was another very unusual class. The story from the previous week was very strong in their minds, and they desperately wanted to continue it.…
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7-9 year-old Dalcroze: 3/21/17
What can you do with 4 spots? The question is quite open, but the kids took it in the spirit intended (uses were restricted to…
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7-9 year-old Dalcroze: 3/28/17
Here’s what we did: Tempo and dynamics Follow ( 2 dotted quarters, 3 eighths, 1 dotted quarter) In this classic Dalcroze exercise, the class moves…
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7-9 Year-old Dalcroze, 4/4/17
This week’s activities: We first reviewed the notation and language for some basic rhythms for compound (ternary) meter: dotted quarters, 3 eighth notes, quarter-eighth. I…
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7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: April
Life caught up with me in April, so this is the first update for class activities in over a month. Here is a brief list of…
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Letter to 1st and 2nd Grade Families
note: here’s an end-of-the-year summary for the families of my 1st and 2nd grade Dalcroze classes. I refer to a list of skills and experiences.…
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Skills and experiences for 1st-2nd Grade Dalcroze: Movement (Part 1 of 4)
The focus for this list is movement. In each Dalcroze class, I give a short warm-up at the beginning. The focus is usually on some…
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1st-2nd Grade Dalcroze Skills and Experiences: Rhythm (Part 2 of 4)
Second in a series of posts describing what a typical class might cover during the year. Now we get to the heart of the matter.…
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1st – 2nd Grade Skills, Experiences and Objectives Associated with Pitch (Part 3)
Here are more curricular lists for 1st-2nd grade. This time the focus is on pitch. Rhythm skills for kids this age are a lot more…
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Ensemble Skills for 1st-2nd Grade (Part 4 of 4)
This is the final part of a series on skills, goals and objectives for 1st-2nd grade Dalcroze classes. The lists from the previous posts on…