Tag: 1st-2nd grade

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 alternate at each signal.
  • This is a continuation of the same game we played last week, with an added challenge: keeping track of a past event.
• 1 voice/2 voices: walk alone if you hear a single line melody, find a partner when the music changes to a melody with a second voice added in harmony.
  • We built this up slowly to get used to finding partners (a different one every time). First, I simply called “Change.” Then I gave a verbal signal while playing the piano. Soon, I was able to take away the verbal signal. We added a quick reaction turn around after a while.
• Toss the Beanbag-scarf on the highest note of the sequence.
  • I never actually gave the students instructions for this. I grafted the game onto a story (at their request) that I invented on the spot (they seem to be good at getting me to do this – it is another keeper). A forest full of hungry tigers (their suggestion) wakes to find magic balls of light next to them. They discover that by tossing them into the air, they are led to food. I used patterns of 4 quarter notes, changing the timing of the high note every so often.
• Hey Ho
  • At the end of the story, I began to sing this round, which is actually about not having “food nor drink nor money” but still being “merry.” We’ll come back to it next week.
• Solfege: Glockenspiel Exploration
  • I brought out a glockenspiel which has the notes arranged into the black and white formation on a piano. We used numbers to sing La Cloche from last week. We improvised call and response phrases. They were free to sing back any melody they liked, with or without numbers, most chose to experiment with numbers. A few are able to do this accurately, most not. If their numbers did not match what they were singing, I simply played back what their melody would have sounded like if they matched. I did this without comment as I do not want them to worry about ‘being right.’ This ability will develop on its own over time. All of the melodies made good musical sense apart from this. We were able to discuss the effect of ending on C, or not ending on C (C being ‘home’ in the key of C).

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 to this until the music felt right to me. In the past, I have made it work with a signal (usually a high accented note from the piano). It ended up being a study in cadence and call and response. We tried it in a variety of tempos, but the most successful was with a lively skipping rhythm. We had to practice changing from feet to hands (this requires the ability to stop the momentum of the body). The students can really only do this successfully when they begin to anticipate when the stops are going to come, in this case at the cadence points.
• 2, 3 and 4 time
  • Quick Reaction, with me calling ‘2’ for grouping of two beats (e.g. 2/4 time), “3” for three time, etc. We reviewed this first sitting in a circle, with patterns of clapping, patching and snapping. After they got good at switching without much effort, I started singing “Bim Bom,” from last week. I asked them which meter felt like it fit the best. They came to 2 time pretty quickly.
  • Step/Clap, Quick Reaction. Same game with movement. At first I called out the number. Later, they were able to Follow (another common Dalcroze game) the changes in the music without me calling out. I embedded this activity in a story (since they crave stories each week) involving three kinds of clocks: a Tick Tock Clock, a Tick Tock Tock Clock, and a Tick Tock Tock Tock Clock. I improvised this story, but enjoyed telling it – it may be a keeper!
• La Cloche
  • I had planned to returned to this song about chimes, but one of the students remembered it and requested it after the story because it seemed to fit the theme so well. We spent the rest of the tine learning the words (I also gratefully received some help on my French pronunciation), exploring the melodic contour with gesture and on the xylophone. We tried to sing it as a round, but they are not quite ready for that. I am sure we will get there eventually with this very sharp and musical bunch.

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. Here’s what we did:

• Warm-up: A group of children stand throughout the room. They cannot move unless they have the magic ball. The ball only retains its power if it keeps moving and, like any gift, is given away.
  • We start with one ball. The children each get to see different ways of moving, and eagerly await their turn. I soon add more balls. Some find it difficult to stand still when there is lots of activity around them. They must practice inhibiting their natural impulse. This game seemed to be a hit.
• Meter (groupings of 2, 3 and 4 beats)
  • Students seated. Practice hearing and responding (patch and clap) to different meters played on the drum. First I call the changes (this is called a Quick Reaction game), next I just play and they show me what they year.
    • The students demonstrated mastery pretty quickly.
  • Students move in the room. Association game: If you hear music with no meter, move alone; music in 2 means move with a partner in space; music in 3 means move with a partner in place; music in 4 means move all together.
    • There were a lot of directions to this game. Some were able to discern the various meters (I was at the piano); some were able to remember the directions; and some were able to do both. I would reduce the number of responses next time.
  • Hearing 4 sixteenth notes
    • To the above game, I added a start/stop game, which I framed as a story (some were requesting a story): A magic fairy flies through the town waving her magic wand whenever she feels like. She has no idea of the effect, though. Everytime she waves it, the entire city freezes. When she waves it again, everyone is again able to move. The sound of her wand is 4 sixteenth notes.
      • I was able to make fairly sophisticated melodies, and, over time, did not have to emphasize the 4 sixteenth notes as much. The story puts many of them directly into the work.
    • Bim Bom
      • I introduced this song, which is in 2 and features 4 sixteenth notes frequently. I’ll return to it next week. We sat in a group and they wiggled their fingers whenever they heard the 16th note rhythm.
    • Review of beat, division and multiple in binary meters (this simply means quarter, eighth and half note)
      • I modeled each rhythm, and handed out percussion instruments, asking each student to keep the rhythm going. I brought out note cards with the notation symbol on it. As we layered up the sounds, it began to remind me of a clock, so I began to sing a French round called La Cloche (a round which I discovered I did not know as well as I had hoped – I have to practice it for next time!).
        • All of the students seem well able to maintain a steady rhythm, but find it hard to synchronize with the group. This is natural, and something I will work to address in future classes. We traded instruments and tried to build up the ensemble a second time. Eventually, I just encouraged everyone to play freely. It seemed to me most were listening to the other instruments as they played. I like to work with ensembles of different instruments (as opposed to all playing sticks, for example) to encourage this kind of listening while improvising.
      • The Human Scale
        • The students remembered this game from a month ago, and requested to play it. Our time was almost up, but we got into formation (there are 8 students – perfect!). The range was a little high (I’ll fix that for next time), but I am surprised that many can hear and reproduce their note (especially hard in some positions). I dictated the round to them with numbers, but we did not have enough time to really execute this well. As they left, I reminded them of the other round we did the previous class (over a month ago) “If You Dance.” Many seemed to remember it.

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, through molasses, without picking up your feet, etc.)
  • Sometimes at this age, creativity can take a back seat for a while as skill mastery moves to the fore. In this case though, the students were quite actively exploring from many different angles. Music accompanied each soloist’s walk, as did, eventually, the entire group.
• Quick Reaction: Students walk; at the command ‘hop’, execute one skip.
  • The music for the skip is a dotted eighth and sixteenth. The quick reaction exercise requires close listening to perform well. The changes in the music hopefully are a good balance of expectation and surprise.
• Register follow: if you hear high notes, move your hands; low notes move your feet.
  • I played quarters, eighths and half notes. The students became pretty adept at switching in unexpected places. We began to combine two different rhythms in feet and hands, known as a ‘dissociation’.
• Song: If You Dance
  • This is a round which we will return to. It contains quarters, eighths and half notes. We practiced stepping the rhythm of the song. By the end of the practice, the class was able to sing the round (without me ever explicitly teaching the song).
• Human Scale
  • Students are arranged in a row, and assigned a particular note of the scale (1-8). Conductor (me or a student) points to a student, and he or she sings their note. The kids got pretty good at this. They were able to sing up and down with their individual notes, and could match pitch with the piano if the conductor called for larger leaps. Towards the end of the exercise, the conductors became smarter about their melody making, facilitating greater accuracy in their human ‘instrument’.

Because of the way the Jewish Holidays fall in the month of October, there are no classes now until November. Enjoy the month!

Michael