Five Instruments That Are The Easiest To Clean When You Have No Time

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It is overwhelming to think that you have to clean every single instrument that you want to use during a class so well that there is no possible way any germs are left behind ~ especially for those of us on a cart! Here are 5 instruments that I use regularly that are small enough to store nearby and shaped so that I can clean one end then hand that side to the student while I clean the other end. I clean all instruments before I pass them out then again when I pick them up, so that I make sure every bit is covered!!

  1. Rhythm sticks ~ We all have them (for the most part) and there are all kinds of things you can do with them! Up until I attended a Music Together class with Jennifer Holland, I only had the kids make sounds in the traditional way. When I attended her class with my little one, I saw her doing all kinds of fun things ~ from holding them up on their heads to look like antennae to holding the sticks parallel to each other with enough space for kids to look through. Since then, we have added on and kids have been inspired to share their own ideas!
  2. Boomwhackers ~ Are a bit bigger than the others, but they are great for teaching melody in a time when we aren’t really singing or using melodic instruments as regularly. I store them in a large plastic hamper and put the whole bin on the top shelf of my cart. I have enough of each so that if I decide to change notes mid-lesson, it isn’t a problem… and let’s face it, whacking something THIS year, sounds pretty great!!
  3. Triangles ~ These take some maneuvering to clean, as the shape complicates things a bit. The kids need to hold it steady so that I can clean everywhere. My students love using these for half notes and the rhythm sticks for quarters. We had fun playing around with them when we were beginning our STOMP series!
  4. Egg shakers ~ I love to use these with the little ones and cleaning is a breeze! They are small enough to clean in one hand covered with a wipe and pass out.
  5. Maracas ~ Also a simple instrument to clean and pass out! These are great in that they can be played in pairs or, if you absolutely need to, you can separate them and give each student only one.

If you would like to learn how to clean the rest of the instruments in your room, the West Music blog post ~ Keeping Your Instruments Clean | West Music Company ~ is a fabulous resource! It covers it all!

If there are instruments that you have found to be simple to use during this time, please let us know in the comments below!

“STOMP” Composition: Part 4

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Winter is coming……our winter concert, that is! I am excited for what the kids have prepared and look forward to sharing it with their parents! As you know, I have been working on STOMP pieces with the older kids, but the kids have taken them to a new place ~ which of course, I LOVE!!!! The fourth graders want to add a Christmas narrative to theirs and the fifth graders are fired up about playing a chord progression with Boomwhackers (the same as you would use with hand chimes or bells) as either to be played while they play their rhythms or as a B Section. We are still working out those details.

FOURTH GRADE:

I teach in a Presbyterian School, so I am able to use religious material as part of my repertoire. I found this poem online and thought it fit well. The kids wanted a play, but because of time constraints and Covid 19 logistics, it was not possible. I think this is a nice alternative, though: Christmas Carol by Sara Teasdale

The presentation will connect to the holiday season while meeting state standards and I always try to have kids create at least some part of their performance! They need to make it theirs!

I will assign kids to read each stanza and create a TALA for kids to play their rhythmic pieces. We haven’t decided instrumentation yet, but my hope is for each short composition to reflect the stanza it is following.

It will be lots of fun in any case!

FIFTH GRADE:

Below is the simple chord progression that I used with my 5th graders. Each student was assigned a Boomwhacker and was to play when their note came up. (I love using Boomwhackers right now because you can clean them so easily after each use!)

Just like in bells, kids need to count and pay attention to the music to know when they came in. The kids loved playing it and were excited to see if they could come in at the right time!

The question we need to explore is when do we want to play the rhythms we created ~ while some kids play the progression or have this be the A section and use the created rhythms as the B, C, D and E sections….. you know how I love Rondo form!!

So we will answer all of these questions in the coming classes…. December is coming up fast, but I would rather have kids have a say than do it myself. I am sure there will be extra rehearsals, but it is all worth it in the end! #Ilovemyjob

How to Create a Chain Story with Sound Effects

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Last week I had a little fun with my younger students. I passed out rhythm sticks, and we created a “chain story” with sound effects. What is a chain story, you ask? According to Wiktionary, it is “A story, each section of which is written by a different author picking up where the previous one left off”. As each student contributed their idea, the story got sillier and sillier!!

Rhythm sticks are not the most diverse instrument, but they worked for now, as it was an “on the fly” lesson. I had planned on doing something else, but I was standing in front of the kids and not really feeling it….so I switched on a dime. I do that from time to time.

Here’s the lesson:

  1. We started off experimenting with what sounds our sticks could make and how tempo and dynamics could create different effects. If a bunny or 2 were running through the forest, would that sound the same as a wolf sneaking up on them? (they had a forest theme going on for some reason). How would we play our instruments to illustrate that action?
  2. I started the story with one sentence and created a sound effect to immediately follow. Then everyone joined in.
  3. I pointed to a student and he needed to create a sentence to follow mine and create his own sound effect. We then all joined in with our sticks.
  4. The next student created a sentence and created his own sound effect so on….
  5. We ended up going around the room a few times until I asked one of the students to create a final sentence.

The kids had a great time and we were able to explore how to make different sounds with one instrument! I can’t wait to try this out with my other classes!!  

Halloween Games For A Virtual/ Socially Distant World

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Like everything else in 2020, Halloween will be different both at home and in the classroom! In looking at what activities I did last year, I want to share a few adjustments for this crazy time and add a couple of more! Please add your favorite activities in the comments below!

Activities from last year:

  • Skin and Bones
    • Your class can do this without the stretchy band and either stand in a large circle outside with a boom box to play the song or have them stand 6 ft apart in your classroom. For the “Boo” at the end, they can strike a pose, throw their hands up, jump, etc… ~ have the kids choose!
  • “I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat”
    • You can chant and/ or whisper this story (or parts of the story) to highlight the different types of voices
    • Assign 1 or 2 kids to each animal or creature (or bones). When their part is mentioned, they can choose to act it out, play a specific instrument, etc..

New Activities:

  • I found a fun activity HERE that can easily work in the music classroom ~ “Witches Brew”.
    • The first player starts the game by saying, “I am a witch making my brew and into the cauldron I just threw…” (this part can be chanted rhythmically) frog’s eyes,” (they can make up an ingredient of their choosing). 
    • The second player then continues by repeating the statement of the first player and adding her own ingredient at the end.
    • The next player repeats the first and second person’s statements and adds on a third ingredient. Play continues around the circle in this manner. Any player who forgets the preceding list of ingredients or can’t come up with a new ingredient is out of the game. The last player standing wins!
  • “Pumpkin Hunter” ~ This game can be played outside or in a classroom. Hide a number of small paper pumpkins ~ one for each student. Choose 2-3 instruments to indicate that the finder is very far away from it, getting closer to it or right near it! As the child looks for the pumpkin, play the specific instrument to indicate how close he/ she is to the pumpkin. You can also use one instrument and play a specific rhythm instead! If you want to use a real pumpkin, that is also an option, as it can be sanitized after each use!

Have a great rest of your week and I look forward to hearing the fun games you all have been doing with your kids!!

“STOMP” Composition: Part 3

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After last week’s lesson, I wanted to demonstrate to the kids how they can also use a score to see when all parts play at the same time. This highlights how everyone MUST be following the SAME steady beat!

Building on last week’s 2 measure rhythm, I added two more measures for both parts and asked 4 students to come up and create a 4/4 measure to fill them in:

As this class is broken up into 2 groups, this is what each group came up with:

GROUP 1

  1. | I M I I | Z Z Z Z |  I   I  M I | Z Z Z Z |
  2. |Z Z Z Z | d  d    | M I  M I | d    d   |

GROUP 2

  • | I M I I | Z Z Z Z | d  d    | d       I I |        
  • |Z Z Z Z | d  d   | I I M I | M M I I |

These were the final scores, as we kept messing around with them to see what we liked the best! Next week, kids will create their own 4 measure composition with their table mate complete with a score. For instrumentation on this first one, they can use whatever they have available at their tables. I can’t wait to see what they create!  

“Stomp” Composition: Part 2

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Last week’s STOMP lesson was a total bomb! Usually I would be able to salvage such a lesson midway, but between mask wearing and social distancing, it was impossible! What did I learn? Those tried and true tricks that we all rely on to connect with our kids and draw them in, are no longer possible in this situation. Our facial expressions and/ or proximity do not hold as much weight as before and so we must connect in some other way. If possible, smaller groups are better and any props/ instruments that you can safely use are worth it!

Originally I had taken the kids outside to do some synchronized steady beat work to shake things up a bit, but we were too spread out and with masks, we had a hard time hearing each other. Instead, I decided to bring everyone inside and play with instruments! Here is the lesson:

  • Do some rhythmic echoes
  • Create a rhythm: |I M I I | d d |
  • Have everyone clap it
  • Write in a repeat sign
  • Clap it again
  • Divide class into 2 groups
  • Have group 1 play first measure then group 2 play second measure
  • Do this a few times until they have it
  • Give group one rhythm sticks and group 2 triangles
  • Play it again
  • Then I asked kids to remember the last lesson when we passed around the steady beat and created a written score for it.
  • We now have 2 parts; how do we write that in score form?
  • Here is the rhythm again: |I M I I | d d |
  • Does part 1 play the first measure? (yes) So we write that in, but do they play the second? (no) So what do we need to write there to indicate that they do not play? (rests) YES!!
    1. |I M I I | Z Z Z Z |
  • What about part 2?
  1. |Z Z Z Z | d d | is what they figured out!

The cool side lesson was how to write rests for a whole measure. I started out writing 4 quarter rests because that is what we had done in the last lesson, but kids who played an instrument either mentioned writing in 2 half rests to replace the 2 half notes OR 1 whole rest for the whole measure. Either way, it was a perfect learning opportunity where the kids brought us to the next level! …and you know how I love that!!!

This was a simple rhythm to highlight how to create a score, but you could easily make it more challenging ~ add syncopated rhythms, dynamics, more measures, more parts, etc.… This is also a starting point. Let the kids add on at will and make it their own!

 

 

 

 

“Stomp” Composition: Part 1

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I was going through YouTube one day and found Stomp performances and an old video they did years ago called “Stomp Out Loud”. I used it when I was teaching in Cambridge, MA awhile back and it was a huge success! Kids created their own 8 measure rhythmic compositions in 4 parts ~ every group had 4 kids and they all wrote their own part. They then put it together with the others. We had a lot of fun!

This year I want to do the same kind of composition with my 4th and 5th graders. It is a project that we can do over the whole semester that doesn’t involve singing and can be easily taped and uploaded to YouTube for a winter concert. There will be a bit to this, so I will share it with you in parts.

Here is the first part:

I showed my class about 20 minutes of “Stomp Out Loud”. They watched it through once, then the second time, I had some questions:

  • What instruments did the performers use? (any and everything ~ nonconventional) What could you use at your desk to create sounds?
  • When the broom sequence gets really going at minute 6:10ish ~ are all of the brooms playing at the same time ~ no.
  • Then at minute 8:38 ~ what happens? (the steady beat is passed around)
  • Do they ever play together? (right after they pass the beat around)
  • How do we show this on paper? How does the composer let the players know to play that?

…which bring me to the next concept ~ how do we show more than one performer playing at the same time?

  • MOST IMPORTANT: Everyone MUST be following the same steady beat!! We did our steady beat exploration to get going! You can find it HERE! The kids enjoyed playing together and adding in a “yellow” or “blue” whenever they felt like it! I also was able to assess where everyone is ~ a huge help as we move forward!
  • I then reminded the kids of the activity from last year when we passed around a stick to a steady beat. We sat in a circle and each kid got had a turn to tap the stick on the floor then pass it, tap, pass, tap, pass and so on…
  • Because of Covid 19, we are simply going to pass around the steady beat by patching our legs one at a time ~ I patch, then the person next to me (6 ft away) patches, then the person “next” to him patches and so on. There should only be one sound at a time, but keeping a steady beat.
  • Once we got going, kids were passing the beat nicely!
  • I then wrote 8 parts on the board (I will only go through the first 4 parts). I asked who played the very first note? (I did) So I wrote a quarter on the first beat in part one. I then asked each kid what they played ~ nothing. They had a rest (depicted here by the letter Z). Who played the second note? Part 2 ~ so part 2 gets a quarter on beat 2 and everyone else rests on beat 2,and so on…. Until it looks like this:
    1. | I Z Z Z | Z Z Z Z |
    2. | Z I Z Z | Z Z Z Z |
    3. | Z Z I Z | Z Z Z Z |
    4. | Z Z Z I | Z Z Z Z |
  • I then asked “what if I want part 3 to play on beat one with me? What needs to change? The kids answered, “Change the first rest on part 3 to a quarter!” Wahoo!!
  • I was able to write this in conventional notation, but if you have kids who cannot read, Note Knacks can help! Do the same thing, but use the blocks instead!

I explained that this was a mini score and showed them an example of a symphony score. We talked about it a bit to give them a sense of how it worked. I told them that they will be writing scores for their “Stomp” compositions, but with fewer parts (of course 😊).

Next week we will begin exploring sound sources and different ways of how we can put them together ~ stay tuned!

Fairytales For Your Winter Concert!

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This year seems to be the perfect year to do a semester long project with each grade level where we have a theme, but teach grade level concepts in that context. We are unable to do so many activities that we normally do in the music classroom that I wanted a way to connect our time together in a meaningful way. Literature is always a great way to introduce a new unit or concept and is perfect under our current “no singing” situation!! I also am looking forward to video taping each group’s final product and presenting it to parents online in light of a winter concert.

The second graders at my school study fairytales. I love how some stories have alternate versions ~ either because it is from a different culture or someone thought of a different perspective! It is fun to look at a story, compare it to another version and then use music to help express the spirit of each story.

A couple of years ago. We compared The Three Little Pigs to The True Story of the Little Pigs By Jon Scieszka (told from the wolf’s point of view). We had so much fun thinking about how the wolf would sound in each and how we could convey that with classroom instruments! The final version was used for our spring concert and was a hit! Click HERE to see what we did! With instrument sharing being difficult and the need to separate, here are some adjustments:

  • Each student creates 1 or 2 measures alone and combines it with another student’s work ~ for the B, C, D sections
  • If instruments are an issue, have kids use what is available at their desks ~ pencils as drumsticks or rhythm sticks, their desk/ table becomes a drum or stack different books for different sounds, etc.…
  • This took me about 6 weeks. If you have the time, here are some other activities to add:
    • Create sounds and orchestrations for all of the characters
    • Create music for different actions in the stories
    • Create 2 whole versions with 2 different orchestrations and play them separately or connect them in some way
    • Connect to variations on a theme in music

This year I want to compare the European version of Little Red Riding Hood to the Chinese version of Lon Po Po By Ed Young. Lon Po Po is an intriguing story of 3 girls who outsmart a wolf instead of the other way around ~ which of course, I love!! I also love how the author pays tribute to wolves everywhere for “lending their good name as a tangible symbol for our darkness”. It is written beautifully, and the artwork is stunning!! I encourage you to check it out!!

Here is my outline for this unit:

  1. Compare and contrast stories
    1. Oral tradition lives in both literature and music
    2. Expected role of girls
  2. Compare and contrast music from each culture
    1. Highlighting scales and instrumentation
  3. Briefly compare European and Chinese art
  4. Create a sound story for each.
    1. My classes are split in 2, so one class will take the European version while the other will take the Chinese version
    2. Will look at the events of the story and create them in sounds (depending on what the kids decide, we may or may not have a narration, but will certainly have an introduction)
    3. Talk about mood and instrumentation choices

This is only the beginning! In true exploration fashion, I will present it to the kids and see where it takes us! The above structure will not change, but what the students decide to do within that structure is up to them!! This journey is my favorite part of teaching!!

 

Rhythmic Assessment In 3 Simple Steps

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Last week we received a few new students and I wanted to get a sense of where they are. Because I only see my students weekly for a short time, the assessment needed to be quick, easy and fun! The whole thing took only about 5-10 minutes (For a couple of classes I kept adding rhythms to see how far I could push them!). 

Here is the set up: 

  1. make a list of 4- 5 rhythms on the board (you can make them as simple or as complicated as you would like)
    1. | | ∏ |
    2. | ∏ ∏ ∏ 
    3. ∏ | |  ∏  
    4. ∏ | | |
  2. Clap out one of the rhythms
  3. Have kids hold up the correct finger to indicate which number they think it is (I remind kids not to copy a neighbor, as that person could be wrong OR have them close their eyes)

The best part of this is that you can go for as long as you would like! After you finish clapping out all of these rhythms, you can erase and add harder ones. You can even have kids create a series of 4 – 5 rhythms and have them be the leader so that they are clapping out a chosen rhythm ~ which of course, furthers your assessment 🙂 Either way, you will get the information you need within a few minutes and the kids will have fun seeing if they are correct! Win-win!!

Act Out A Rhythm

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With all of this social distancing, students are not getting as much movement in their day as before. They are not switching classes as much and getting out of your seat in the classroom is kept to a bare minimum…..but they are still kids and need to move!! That is where we come in!! Here is a game to engage their minds, as well as their bodies!

 

NOTE KNACK COLOR = BODY MOVEMENT

  • RED = clapping
  • YELLOW = patching thighs
  • BLUE = ballet’s 3rd to 2nd position
  • GRAY = make a circle with your hips
  • TERRA COTTA = tap head with oscillating hands

 

METHOD

  1. Assign movements to blocks (I assigned movements above, but kids can choose their own, if they would like)
  2. Show a 4 beat red only pattern
  3. Clap it out
  4. Have kids echo it
  5. Next, add yellows ~ red, red, yellow, red ~ perform with movements
  6. Have kids echo
  7. Create a red/ yellow rhythm in your head and perform it
  8. Choose a student to guess the rhythm
  9. Show the rhythm in Note Knacks
  10. You can do as many examples as you see fit
  11. Choose a student to create a rhythm in their minds and act it out
  12. He/ she can choose another student to decode it
  13. Add on colors as you see fit
  14. Keep going until everyone has had a turn to guess and create

This game is best played with 3rd graders and up, as the younger ones might have some coordination issues. Regardless, though, your students will have a lot of fun and will most certainly try and trick each other! ….it might get a little crazy!!