I struggle with all the Halloween themed things I used to do and no longer include as I have students who do not celebrate Halloween. I love spooky season and incorporate spiders, monsters, and other "Halloween-adjacent" activities into this time of year but always with a curricular focus. And if I don't have it, I make it. My third graders learn recorder every year and this year's group is just a wee bit behind other years, for whatever reason. Wonderful singers, and wonderful musicians, just not picking up on recorder as quickly as some other groups. So, I needed a quick piece to put together and have always loved the book, Creepy Carrots! Get the full slide set, with the animated book, here (free!). I wrote this yesterday and did the activity with two classes, who walked out the door singing the tune- love when that happens! Easy, accessible, and diversified for students who need to work on EG or BAG passages, or they can play everything, BAGE!
I love origin stories - where did something start, how did it start, how has it changed over time.
Etymology is the study of the origins of words, and in music, this can be the history and development of words related to music.
So, where does the classic song, Hot Cross Buns, really come from?
Dr. Robin Giebelhausen is an assistant professor of music education at the University of Maryland specializing in general music. Robin recently posted about the origins of Hot Cross Buns. Take a moment to read - SO much cool information!
Go give her a follow on instagram - @robingiebes.
And, just in case you are interested, here is a recipe for Hot Cross Buns.
Enjoy!
I am always looking for songs that help my recorder students with specific areas - and often end up writing my own pieces to fit their needs. Since switching the starting pitches from BAG to GE I have been delighted that beginning with G and E opens up so much bitonic and tritonic (SM and SLM) songs and once we add low D we have access to some wonderful pentatonic material!
We are working on some pre-improvisational ideas and so The House Around the Corner was born this week! My students needed more practice with low E, and they were clamoring for something scary and spooky. This song can go in various directions - spooky or with a more autumnal/wintry theme.
I sang this song to them while playing the accompaniment.
Then I displayed these four 4-beat rhythm cards.
As we have been working on something we call the Wizard's Challenge using In the Hall of the Mountain King, I tell the students this rhythm might be familiar. Then I sing it using the word "dude" (which is what we "whisper" when playing recorder) and their little minds are blown that this is the rhythm of the melody repeated over and over. Then we play the first card (top left) only using "E". Then play through each subsequent card using "E." Play the top two cards, then the bottom two, then the full 16-beat phrase.
I change the bordun to quarter notes E B C B, which sounds very spooky, and we play the full phrase using E.
Next, change the quarter notes to G. Play full phrase.
Finally, change the 3rd card (four 8th note pairs) to B and have students work on the transition from third card to final card (transitioning from B to E) and then we play the full phrase.
Perform as A (song), B (recorder melody), A again. Students could also play the melody as it is a simple La Do Re Mi song. If you have Carol King's Recorder Routes you could combine this with Who Has Seen the Wind, another LDRM song.
The students loved it and felt so successful! The next time we will work on improvising beats 2 and 4 of the third measure and will add zombie movement (as they requested), whistling tubes, flexatone, black scarves, and spring drums. They also want to add gongs, cymbals, and other things so it is sure to be a piece we will record to send home to families.
Skin and Bones has to be one of my students all-time favorite songs. It is so full of possibilities for drama, movement, instrument play, recorders, etc. It is also a very spooky song but does not mention "Halloween". This is the perfect song to use all those spooky sound effects on - the gongs, spring drums, vibraslaps, wind tubes, etc.
This music is from Beths Notes- such a wonderful site.
Drue Bullington is a widely respected Orff clinician and teacher. I have had him as a clinician at workshops several times and he is wonderful. The instrument brand, Studio 49, sponsors an amazing blog called "Teaching with Orff". Great lessons there, from creative and talented teachers who use the Orff Approach. Whether or not you use the Orff Approach, you can still use these lessons. Recently I received in my email box a HUGE lesson post on how to use Skin and Bones from first grade through the upper grades each year. I love songs like this - ones that you can use each year but add concepts and skills that spiral in complexity, touching upon concepts previously learned and adding new, age-appropriate skills that further develop students musicality.
The lessons are complete with wonderful graphics and pictures to clearly demonstrate the "how" and the process of how to teach the song at each age and grade level.
The first part of the free lesson is here. Once you have printed that off, you can go on to the second part here.
Amy Abbott also has a wonderful activity using solfege to prepare low la here.
If you dare, try to have your oldest kids watch this version of Skin and Bones - warning, the ending is SCARY!!
When my students perform this, with instruments, some students as "trees" with black scarves over their heads, etc., (we go all out for this one with lots of crazy props!), we ask the classroom teacher to come to pick students up a few minutes before the end of the class. Once they come in, I already have one student hiding in a closet behind the door. We turn the lights off, dress the teacher up like the old lady - scarf on head, cane, apron, the whole nine yards, and the teacher wanders around the room while singing, then as we get closer to the end of the song, "She went to the closet to get a broom.." I direct the teacher towards the door, then at the end of the song, "Boo", the student jumps out of the closet and scares the teacher! The class, of course, goes crazy, and the teacher is either truly scared or, as my teachers have been through this before, they act scared and the kids really love it. Last year I had a fourth grade teacher who had forgotten as she was on medical leave the previous year, and she got so scared she literally fell on her bottom, which was hilarious as she was laughing so hard and the kids were dying. I don't know if she ever got that group back on track the rest of the school day!
I also have lyric slides available, send me an email at musicquilt@hotmail.com for the full pdf of the lyric slides. They look like this:
I love Fall! This is a quick post today about a song I wrote a while back but finally put into Finale just this week!
This goes with the book, On Halloween Night by Ferida Wolff and Dolores Kozielski, available here from amazon.com.
After every page or every two pages, perform the song below. Add gongs, shakers, whistling wind tubes and thunder drums for a super fun book. If your recorder players are learning E like mine, and pretty solid on BAG they will love to play the "Ooo" part!
My stepdaughter is Irish- her Mom is first generation American. She is very proud of her Irish heritage and of her 12 aunts and uncles (yes, 13 children!). They were raised in a 3 bedroom house and her mother has great stories of life growing up with an Irish mother with a very thick accent with 13 kids sleeping in 2 bedrooms!
When I found this Irish poem (similar to Old Dan Tucker), I knew it had to become a song! Email me at musicquilt@hotmail.com if you would like the pdf - not all the pictures are here as there are 13 pages!
I am joining Mrs. Miracle at her linky party called "Three Things". We are blogging about three things that have worked very well for our students and classes over the past week.
#1. Release Me/Poison/Black Snake
I see all students first through fourth grade about twice a week; long story short, 10 day rotating schedule, so some weeks it is once a week (depending on Monday/Friday holidays and inservice days). The first time I saw fourth graders this week we began the lesson by reviewing ti-ta-ti (Syn-Co-Pa). I found a pop song called "Release Me" by Zoe Badwi. It begins (and continues throughout) with a very clear ti-ta-ti ta rest rhythm. Woo hoo!!! I love finding this kind of a "hook"; pop music that is relatable to the children with an element to pull out and relate to "classroom" music.
We listened to a bit, added some body percussion, then came the fun! Woo hoo.. instrument time!! I broke out some of the "big guns" this time; djembes, congas, etc. for skins, log drums, claves, temple blocks and the like for woods, all my crazy shakers (including the goat hooves which are a HUGE favorite!! can you say "Ewwwww!!"), and the last group was tambourines. A quick review of the instruments and technique, and we were off. The song is broken down this way:
Intro.
A Section: 16 measures (4 beats per measure)
B Section: 8 measures
A
B
Interlude/Break: 24 measures
B
A (longer and fades out at end)
I pointed to a card that showed "ti-ta-ti ta rest" (eighth, quarter, eighth, quarter rest) and each group played the pattern 4 times, then on to the next group for 4 times, etc. We went from drums (16 beats = 4 patterns), to tambourines, then shakers, then woods). During the B Section students rotated to the next group. Practice one time through before starting the music, rotate, then start the song and students will rotate through all the different instrument groups.
Whenever we play a rotation game like this I always put 2 more instruments out than students for each group; it eases the "I wanted that and you got it" issues and still provides students with a choice to make.
Intro: No one plays
A: (1st 4 measures, drums, 2nd 4 measures, tambourines, next 4 measures, shakers, final 4 measures, woods)
B: Rotate to the next instrument group
A: (same as previous)
B: Rotate
Break/Interlude: "Raise Your Hands"; dance party, raise those hands.. have kids mirror you, wave hands side to side, turn around and raise hands, etc.... make it fun.. it's LONG!
B: Rotate
A (same)
Coda ... we put instruments down and performed some body percussion.
Then we played poison with that rhythm pattern, Teacher vs. Students; of course they won, but I didn't make it easy!! :) Let me know if you are not familiar with how to play, it is my students FAVORITE game EVAH!!!!!
The next class we reviewed the song, "Black Snake" and played the game, determining where the syncopated rhythm occurred, having them jump up and clap it "out of the air". Funniest thing happened prepping for this class; I had to pack everything in my classroom up this past May as new carpet was being installed. I revamped my room and am still figuring out where "old" things are now in their "new" homes. I have a black rubber snake I looked everywhere for; about 15 minutes.. wandering around the room literally singing "Black snake, black snake, where are you hiding?". Just as my class was about to come in I noticed my daughter coming out of the art room across the hall. She plays in my room with a bunch of other faculty kids in the mornings and so I asked her if she had seen it. Of course she had! "It's in the pumpkin, Mama." Sure enough, there it was!!! Whew.. in the nick of time!
#2. Farmyard Beat Book
My littles (Junior Kindergarten) are learning about farms. After singing through Old MacDonald, Listen to the Ducks, and several other farm songs, I pass out "eggs", (shaker eggs). We wonder what kinds of animals lay eggs, and then I show them the book, "Farmyard Beat" available here.
After each part in the story (see below for example) there is a part where the animals keep a rhythm "Peep, peep, peep peep, peep" is ta, ta, ti ti, ta, I speak the rhythm first then they "echo say and play". This is the cutest book and is a fun way to reinforce beat while learning about farm animals. I also love the playful language; the sheep is the best, "Tat, tat, tattity tat"!
3. Recorder "Hike"
Artie Almeida has some really creative ideas that are a huge hit with students! If you are not familiar with her, get thee to a workshop with her!! You'll be overwhelmed! Several years ago I was at a workshop with her and she showed us how to have a quick review with students that is very active and a great assessment tool as well. Put a rap track on, I usually create one in Garage Band with a bass track to give it some sense of melodic direction (in G), students dance/walk/"jam" around the room while the music is playing, stop when it stops. Show a card like one of these:
Sorry this one is sideways:
I start out with the lettered cards B A G. Once a card is shown, music back on, dance/jump/jam, then show another card like staff cards (first one pictured above) Then song cards for songs we have learned like Hot Cross Buns and Buns Cross Hot (retrograde Hot X Buns!!). We continue to alternate between a card and music.
I can quickly assess who is "reading notes" and who is looking at the staff above my white board, see pic below, made from black electrical tape and CD's, (which is good as it tells me they are trying to problem solve using the tools available), and who is looking at their neighbors fingers (not so good as they are copying and not problem solving). It gives me a lot of information quickly and the students love the movement. Sometimes I give them specific movements (depending on the skill set we are working on) such as "skip" if we are working on song material in 6/8, or "ice skate" or "slither" or "swoop" if we are working on half notes. I can relate back to these movements later in the lesson.
I hope you find some of these things useful! Happy Fall Y'all!
I have always struggled with improvisation with recorders but this lesson I just taught Friday went beautifully! I played accompaniment on piano with students while they were improvising and the combination of the movement and the sequence of body percussion, drums, and finally recorders. It was a wonderful way to begin improvisation experiences on recorder (this was their fifth lesson on recorders and have had 3 previous experiences with B, A, and G.
Old Brass Wagon Recorder Improvisation Lesson
T. plays melody on recorder, students to find the steady beat using body percussion, repeat with students keeping beat in various ways.
Students play 2 finger beat on hand drums, explore playing while moving drums through space
T. sing lyrics of song, at end of song, students improvise quietly on drum while T. plays melody on recorder. Remind students to add space (rests) during rhythms; demonstrate interesting vs. "boring" (all eighths, all quarter note rhythms). Question and turn and talk with neighbor about what makes these "interesting" and "uninteresting".
Refine to improvising during 8 beats only (T. holds up 8 fingers and performs "countdown to visually show beats).
Sing the song again, explain improvising rhythm on recorders using only "B". Sing: "Circle to the left, old brass wagon, circle to the left, old brass wagon, circle to the left, old brass wagon, improvise on B". Holding hands circle to the left. Students perform 8 beat improvisation.
Sing, "Circle to the right, old brass wagon.... improvise on A". Holding hands circle to the right, improvise for 8 beats.
Sing, "In for four, old brass wagon, out for four, old brass wagon, in for four, old brass wagon, improvise on "G" (move out for four beats during final four beats of song). Walk into the center of the circle for four beats, out of circle for four beats, etc.
"Turn around (in place), old brass wagon, turn around, old brass wagon, turn around, old brass wagon, improvise on B and A." Improvise on B and A for 8 beats.
"Jump up and down, old brass wagon, jump up and down, old brass wagon, jump up and down, old brass wagon, improvise on B, A, G. Improvise on B, A, and G for 8 beats.
Chinese New Year is coming up next week! My daughter was adopted from China so this is a big deal holiday in our house; when she wakes up on CNY she has a special red envelope (hong bao) with "lucky money" inside and we do other things to make it a fun and meaningful holiday for her. Our school (where I teach and she attends) also has a sister school in China!
Here's a piece I wrote last year, the title is "Xin Nian Kuai Le" or "Happy New Year". Easy level bordun for accompaniment- add unpitched percussion (UPP) for the percussion line- lots of gongs, drums, etc. to "scare away" evil spirits. Very nice with a big, low gong at the end. Good for your upper level recorder players, too- those who have a solid low "C".
Look on youtube for pronunciation guide - Xin = Shin, Nian= like it sounds, Kuai= kwahee, Le = luh Yi (number 1) = eee, Er (number 2)= are, San (number 3) = sahn, "Jia Yo" (Let's Go! as in cheering people on) = jya yo.
Enjoy!
Here's a song I wrote for Chinese New Year- easy peasy! Simple level bordun for accompaniment- add unpitched percussion (UPP) for the percussion line- lots of gongs, drums, etc. to "scare away" evil spirits. Very nice with a big, low gong at the end. Good for your upper level recorder players, too- those who have a solid low "C".
Look on youtube for pronunciation guide - Xin = Shin, Nian= like it sounds, Kuai= kwahee, Le = luh Yi (number 1) = eee, Er (number 2)= are, San (number 3) = sahn, "Jia You" (Let's Go! as in cheering people on) = jya yo.
Enjoy!
I did a search on the MusicK8 archives and found some really awesome videos on there that I have used in the classroom- a couple of my recent favorites that students REALLY loved watching- this one is the Hallelujah Chorus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_749068&src_vid=Htkx5LNm3SE&v=JtoNHnR_WhE
Bach's Toccatta & Fugue (by the same animator)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATbMw6X3T40&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_78634&src_vid=ipzR9bhei_o
Another thing my third graders loved watching was a clip on youtube by the Discovery Channel's "How It's Made" program.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiSW6LPchSc
Enjoy! PLEASE leave a comment or two- wondering if anybody is actually reading this???
