Teaching Melody and Melodic Contour

On a recent poll, music teachers were asked what they struggle the most with and melody and melodic contour was the top answer. So, I spent my morning while home sick with Covid, yup, it has finally arrived - gave it my best shot - 3 in fact, but it hit my family this week and you know me, I can't sit still. I have been working on this for a while and this is a Patreon exclusive.  This is a 24-page mini-book available for less than the cost of Starbucks. You also get access to everything already posted there and I continue to add new material weekly. There are monthly mini-workshops and opportunities to work with me 1:1 to delve deeper into organization, lesson planning, behavior management, or anything else you might be interested in. 

So, this mini-book includes lessons, activities, and ideas about teaching Melody and Melodic Contour. There are twelve children's books listed with several lessons from my Playful Possibilities and Painted Music books. Ideas on using manipulatives, songs, games, and instruments and many other things are part of the mini-book.

Check it out today, click here.

Here is a sampling:

Enjoy,

New Community to Learn and Grow With!

 I am so excited to announce my new community of music makers and teachers!  

If you have spent any time on the blog you know how important sharing is to me. Sharing my creativity and experience in teaching music using the Orff Approach has been gratifying, exciting, and a tremendous honor.  There are a plethora of posts here, on Facebook, and Instagram, and I present at workshops and conferences in the US and Canada.  I also create lesson activities and exclusive playful and process-based lessons and video chats on my Patreon page for the O For Tuna community. 

We are all looking for ideas to streamline and energize our music classrooms. We are all wanting to be the best we can be for our students- more organized, prepared, excited, and to make lesson planning easier. For about the price of a latte mocha once a month, you will connect with other music teachers who are excited to grow and learn together. We will have Zoom discussions, work on lesson planning, develop children's literature into music activities, attend workshops, and much, much, more.  I hope you will consider joining us! Check it out here! 

What We CAN Do and Moving Forward

Can you relate to the question marks above?  I think many of us are stumbling forward with Remote/E/Distance Learning but also looking to next school year and asking the question of "What will that look like?"
Are you feeling the pressure of all this uncertainty?  Take a moment and watch and listen to Jimmy Fallon and crew (with pots, pans, glasses, even a toaster as instruments) perform Under Pressure:

We are all wondering and there are no clear answers. If you would like to see me talk about this, head over to these links - technology was not my friend today, so it is in two parts.

What We CAN Do Now and Moving Forward, Part 1: 

https://www.facebook.com/ofortunaorff/videos/292163971950026/

Part 2:

https://www.facebook.com/ofortunaorff/videos/576850692962689/

Here's What We Know

• Virus is not going away.
• Singing can be dangerous -Webinar:  What Do Science and Data Say About the Near Term Future of Singing with National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), Chorus America, Barbershop Harmony Society, and Performing Arts Medical Association (PAMA).

• Comparing your lessons to others creation of padlets, flipgrids, SeeSaws, Google Slides, Google Classrooms, and Virtual Classrooms damages your

1. Sense of Self
2. Doesn't Help You Get to Your Goals
3. Limits You

• Next year may include a mix or one of these teaching realities: remote, streaming live from our classrooms, face to face with small groups in our classrooms, face to face with large groups,  traveling on a cart, with a mask, without a mask, with a face shield, without a face shield, seeing our students on a different schedule, remote one week or day, face to face the next, etc.

We Also Know

We are creative.

We want to be relational with our students.

We will teach children.

We will teach children music.

We will teach the elements of music; rhythm, harmony, melody, form, and expressive qualities. 

Things to Consider

 Some things will be more important than ever - a focus on social/emotional learning. Students will need music to heal, to celebrate, and to move forward in a positive way.  

Structure and routine.  Students will have been out of school and away from tradition, routine, and socialization for almost six months. It will be a time of re-learning, particularly for our youngest students, and our more vulnerable students. 

Moving Forward

So, what can we do now?  SO much!!!Think about what you want your Kindergarten, Fifth Graders, ________ to know about one element of music - rhythm, for example.  What would you normally teach your students to prepare division of beat?  A song?  Ok - If we are unable to sing the song together due to restrictions, make a recording of yourself singing the song to play during the class. Students can sing the song "in their heads and hearts". Perhaps they can sing specific words or the highest, lowest or "home" pitch.  Learn the song the same way you normally would- maybe you record yourself teaching the song by rote in sections with space for students to sing "in their heads and hearts" until they can lip sync the whole song. Now of course, that is not the best and it will be awkward at first, but we are moving forward, right?  Then maybe you may have had students keep the beat with the song - use body percussion or non-locomotor movement- jump, twist, wiggle, sway, etc.  Perhaps students clap the "way the words sound". Then maybe you had them play instruments. Uh oh- sharing may be problematic due to virus.
But wait - what if each student brings in an empty oatmeal box, 4-5 pairs of chopsticks, and 2 plastic eggs filled with pennies, plastic beads, paperclips, etc. (no food items- bug/insect/vermin issue).  If parents are unable, others could donate. No plastic eggs?  Oriental Trading has 144 for less than $5.00. The best part - everything goes INSIDE the oatmeal box, AKA drum. These would be stored in classrooms along with art supplies, etc. They do not take up much space and everything for music class goes inside the oatmeal box. Play with lid only, use chopsticks as mallets or create rhythms using chopsticks as manipulatives or use as conducting batons, tap together for light wood sound, etc. 

  

Hopefully, you are getting the point here - we can still teach music!!! No, it won't be the same. Grieve that, mourn it, and choose to move forward.  

Technology

Obviously, there is some amazing tech, sites, and apps available to many of us that we will continue to use remotely or face to face.   

 If your students will not be able to use barred instruments next year or you are on a cart AND your students have access to tech in their rooms, Brent Geyer has created some fabulous internet based virtual xylophones for our students to use. Not an app, nothing to sign up/in, no personal info shared, and beautiful sounding!  Many thanks to Brent for providing these for FREE!!!

Full Diatonic:

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/388230026

G Major Pentatonic:

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/395530134/

C Pentatonic:

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/389122389

F Pentatonic:

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/395199236

       

   There is a line from my favorite medical drama that is in every episode. The director of the hospital asks a simple, yet powerful question - "How can I help?"  

Let me know.  I may not have an answer, but I am here for you. 

Pairing Partners without Pain

Grab your partner and promenade. I can't help but think of this when I hear the word, "Partner". 

We often ask our students to partner or pair up for dance, movement, instrument play, and other activities in the music classroom. Some of us have "work buddies" that are permanent or semi-permanent partners and others are more random and allow for student choice each time. 

My students are able to self-select and most of the time do a great job with this. Of course I am always aware of who will most likely need help or those that need a different kind of partner - a non-human one. AKA: Works Better Alone. 

Here are some things I have learned over the years about partnering:

1.  Expect Some Bumps

Expect some issues and be ready with strategies to help THAT group that may not be excited about working together. Know who to watch and who to encourage. Also know who is likely to dominate a conversation and try to influence/push/bully their ideas or thoughts in activities. This is especially important when working on creative ideas - someone will always think their idea is better and will be unable/unwilling to let others voices be heard.

2. Self -Selecting Partners

I train my students from a very early age (Kindergarten) to find a partner "sitting next to them". When my students self select partners, I know if there is an even or uneven number of students ahead of time. I am also looking for the student that may need some help in finding a partner. If an even number of students, everyone will have a partner. If an uneven number of students, I ask ahead of time who would like a buddy from the buddy basket.  Depending on the activity and materials, I also allow students who might work better with a non-human partner to get a buddy from the buddy basket.

3. Buddy Basket

Many moons ago I asked parents to donate Beanie Babies. I love using "Beat Buddies" and have several ways I use them. Along with the Beanie Babies came some super special animals and I have found others over the years that have made their way into a special musical basket called the "Buddy Basket". This basket is at eye level and students are able to choose a "buddy" from it.

There are many favorites, including the super soft panda and the silly monkey we call "Kissy Monkey" as he likes to kiss everyone on the neck and arms when he comes out for folk dancing. He has long arms with velcro and is a perfect partner for folk dancing or other movement requiring a partner.

4. The Beauty of Rock/Paper/Scissors

I am fortunate to have enough Orff instruments for each student. My class sizes are small and I have been at my school for 23 years and have built up my instrumentarium and unpitched percussion instruments. 

Orff Instruments

Often, and especially the first time we play something, I might want to have less sound and for students to learn from each other so they will partner. Immediately after partnering my students know they will need to rock/paper/scissors.. shoot! We do this for SO MANY THINGS.  It solves disagreements about order and other things. Once we have a "person who won" and a "person who did not win", I pick one or the other to go to the instruments and it isn't always the "person who won".  Those students select an instrument to play and of course, everyone moves to the back row to play the Basses. If two students are first to get there, they rock/paper/scissors to decide who will stay. It is a quick and effective means of determining who is going to play that particular instrument.  There are other rules in place about how often people go to the back row and we are constantly moving between instruments so no one gets the instrument for a long time. 

Unpitched Percussion

I have a lot of tambourines but do I want everyone in the classroom to play this instrument all at the same time? No, I don't care to have a headache for the rest of the day.  Sometimes too many instruments creates too much sound so we partner.  Same process as above with rock/paper/scissors which determines who plays first and who has to wait a turn to play.

5. Use a Rhyme to Switch Between Partners

I have several nonsense rhymes I use to switch partners and my students know when I say, "Intry mintry tribbledy fig, deema dima, doma dig, howdy powdy, noma nouchy, olliga bolliga boo" that it is time to switch. This allows for me to move partners without saying the words, "Please switch" and losing the beat of the song. We move from song and instrument play with first partner to the nonsense poem immediately into the song and instrument play again.  Nursery rhymes work perfectly, too, in case you don't want to learn a crazy nonsense rhyme -though it impresses the kids and they are AMAZED at these funny rhymes!

Here's to partnering with positivity! 

Hope you enjoyed this post, how do you use partnering in your classroom?

Ending the School Year with Purposeful Fun

It's the end of the year and once again many of us are questioning HOW to end the school year.  Do we show videos or musicals? Do we do singing games? A composition or writing project? How to finish strong?

Much depends on the culture of your school and your students. Much also depends on you.
Where are you at with meeting the needs and behaviors of your students?
 I had a wonderful teacher friend many years ago encourage me to meet students where they are at. If your students come in bouncing off the walls crazy, it is going to be difficult and painful for all to attempt to immediately make them sit, be still, and quiet.
I have found it to be so much more enjoyable for all to spend the time meeting them where they are at (Seven Jumps dance always is my opening activity when classes are like this), then leading them down the path to where we need for them to be. Doing so is purposeful yet playful, and encourages relational teaching and builds community.
Enforcing immediate compliance without time to transition into your class is similar to a prison guard trying to re-establish control during a prison riot and can lead to you and the students feeling like this:

Ugh.. or uh oh.. or grrr, right?

So, what to do?  Some use the following:

• Practice Songs/Concepts Already Learned
• Project Based Learning
• Prepare Concepts/Skills/Sequences for Next Year
• Active Music Making - Vocal or Instrumental or Both (Orff Pieces)
• Show Video Musical with Writing/Drawing/Fill in the Blanks
• Games/Fun

There are pros/cons to each one - some have more teacher prep, some leave the kids bored and disengaged at what is usually the craziest (and funnest, let's be honest) time of year, and others engage the students in a meaningful, purposeful, and memorable experience!

I choose to meet my students where they are at with playful, meaningful, purposeful fun!

The What:  

• Campfire songs
• Clapping Songs and Games  
• Singing Games and Other Games  

The Why: 

• Purposeful - Review Concepts and Skills Previously Learned
• Active, Engaging, and FUN!
• Memorable

The Process:

• Allow several class periods to teach songs (about 20-25 campfire songs/games/activities total).  
• Last day of music with each class we have a campfire sing along. I project a campfire from youtube (lots out there like the one below):

• Build a campfire using tissue paper folded and tucked into black plastic plant pots from Dollar Tree and flickering tea lights.  The logs are made out of construction paper and are taped into place around the plastic pots.  The sticks each have a white label sticker with the name of a camp song printed on it. Each student picks a stick one at a time and that is the song we sing. 
• 

My students LOVE this so very much and it makes our last music together truly special and memorable. When I announce we are getting ready for campsongs they are so excited and teach me new ones they may have learned at camp last summer!
No matter what you are doing with your students, I hope you are having fun!

Blessings,

Songs of the Month

When I first began teaching 23 years ago (yikes!) I didn't keep track of song repertoire the way I do now.  I also often felt pressed to sing lots of songs (still do) but would only sing them once or twice and then be done with that song.  Now I keep a list of repertoire learned and frequently revisit songs. I also try to "double dip" concepts and skills and repeat songs learned in previous grades but with a focus on a different concept.  That So Mi song that has Do, Re, Mi at the ending may be great for SM in Kindergarten, but also works beautifully in first for DRM. 
I have a lot of different ways to start music class, see the post here about Musical Moments to Start Class, but one thing I really love to do is a "Song of the Month" (SOM) for each grade level. 

I have found SOM also helps students to "change gears".

 

Opening songs set the stage for musical learning, provide a warm-up for the voice and the brain, and offer a predictable, structural transition to music class.

The song we sing may or may not be connected to the specific concepts or skills we are working on. An opening song is not the focus of the lesson and should not take up more than a few minutes. I see my students on a 4 day rotation, so 1 to 2 times a week depending on the week.  You could certainly sing these for 6 to 8 weeks, depending on how frequently you see your students (and how sick of the song they or you get!). 

 

Here are a few ideas for grades K-1:

• Hello, Hello

Thanks to Katie Traxler for introducing this one to me.
I am not sure of the source, but it is a familiar tune to all of us music folks!
It is performed in a circle with partners facing each other and is a changing partner song/dance. 

 

• Hey, There, Friend

(Another thanks to Katie for this one on her youtube channel, I changed the word "glorious" to "wonderful".  My kindies LOVE this!  I am not sure of the source, if you know, please let me know.   

 



• Hello

This is one I wrote late last week for my littles. 

 

 

Grades 2 through 4

• Bow Wow Wow

My 2nd graders love this song and dance.  I love the giggles each time they turn around to find a new partner! 

 

 

 

• Chocolate, Chocolate

Third graders enjoy this song about chocolate!  We often add a "B" section with composed rhythms created from, what else, chocolate!  Kit Kat, Hersheys, Peanut butter cup!  

 



 

 

• Boom Snap Clap

Fourth graders love this as it sounds like "beat boxing"!  They love the challenge of it and that there are "levels" of play.  This is in my book, Hands to Hands, available here. 

•  To Stop the Train

Another of my favorites! Love the way Rob Amchin processes this with movement first!

 

Teaching High/Low

I am linking up with Elizabeth at Organized Chaos today for a Fermata Friday linky party!  Several fellow music education bloggers join up together and share resources.  After you read this post, click on the link to see more from fellow bloggers and teachers!

I saw a recent post on the AOSA Facebook page: "How do you teach high and low to kindergarten students?".  I was already planning a post when I saw that and it made me think more about what "vehicle" used to take the "trip". 
I like structure, and though I am blessed with creativity, I find structure and organization comforting and makes lessons go much more smoothly!  I always begin lessons with the same format; knees-a-knees-a-pizza-pie, see the post about that here.  Echo clapping and singing, vocal exploration in some format, sometimes like this (always asking "Does it start high or low" and vocally demonstrate where to start.  Email me for full set of winter vocal exploration cards at musicquilt@Hotmail.com :



We also do a variety of movement activities; I consider all this to be warm-up activities. 
There are several lessons I use to prepare "high/low"; some of the warm up activities also include elements of high and low; I play the slide whistle while the children move (or sing) up and down; they love it when I play one scale degree, then another, slowly, make 'em wait for it, then quickly slide back down, (or up if we began high), adding a scale degree each time.  Hysterical giggles in the music room when I play very fast glissandi up and down. 
Someone Standing on a Big High Hill
I recently found this song and love it for it's flexibility to teach many concepts!

Up, Up, Down by Robert Munsch

Can I just say, BUY THIS BOOK!!! Wow... rife with possibilities for teaching high and low.  It's also a bit naughty.. hahaha... in a good way, people! It is about a little girl, Anna, who likes to climb things, but usually she falls down.  Can you see the musical values already?  I have the students go to the instruments after moving with the story up, up, up, up, fall..... down, then we learn to play up, up, up, up, faaaaall down (glissandi up and down).  We also sing "ow, ow, ow, ow, ow" (in the book) as S M L S M each time.  This is a definite keeper and the book and illustrations are pure Munsch magic!  Book available from amazon.com here. 

Mortimer by Robert Munsch

Another awesome Robert Munsch book about a naughty little boy this time, Mortimer, who likes to sing long after family members have told him to be quiet.  The repetitive lyrics make this a perfect choice to orchestrate for a song.  I know there are several out here; the one I use was composed by a friend many moons ago and I love the simple pentatonic melody and simple orchestration.  Of course we review this song in first grade and add to the orchestration and act it out.. which is simply divine!!!  Much happy music making and dramatic possibilities!

So there are a few things to get you started, hope you enjoyed some of these. What are your favorite ways to teach high and low?

Books, Books, and MORE Books!

I LOVE BOOKS!!! Yes, the paper kind.. I'm a little anti-digital when it comes to the printed word!
I also love using them in the music room; they are a perfect vehicle to teach, review, sing, create, and play around with! 
Here are a few favorites; each one of these is a picture file you can download, print, and use!

*A note about organization; begin to make an excel spreadsheet or word doc that includes grade levels you would use the book with, what skills/concepts can be taught, and when you might use this during the year; for example, when I introduce rests with kindergarten students in the spring after experiencing it, now we're ready to label it, I will put in my Kindergarten sheet,  "Wide Mouthed Frog", SPRING, quarter notes, eighth notes, rest, LABEL rest, song, rhythm, Orff instruments.   
This helps me to keep track of not only what concepts/skills I can work on using that book, but when I might want to use it! 
Also, print a copy of the lesson, fold it and place it into the front page of the book!
Sorry the Mitten in the Snow visual organization page is out of place.. couldn't move it and it's late.. :)

If you haven't read this post:  http://www.musicalaabbott.com/2014/06/dazzling-discipline.html
READ IT!!! Wonderful advice, well written and informational!