Issue 88: Welcome to the Jungle

Posted on May 19, 2013 by

Spring! Proper Spring weather! Yes, yes, I know the English have a reputation for being obsessed with the weather but that’s because we have so much of it. I lived in Indonesia and Singapore for a few years as a teenager, and found it very weird that you could just about set your watch by the rain when it was the monsoon season, or plan outings weeks in advance knowing that it would hot and sunny.

So this week I have been watching trees explode into leaf, flowers go from bud to over-blown in a matter of days… it has been quite an effort of will to keep my eyes on the road as I drive through the changing scenery.

As for the jungle – Boomwhackers, ABRSM Theory lessons, and the Game of Switch are the topcis. If you can tear your eyes away from the azaleas and blossom on the fruit trees.

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Issue 88: Boomwhackers in Sunday School

Posted on May 19, 2013 by

Now, this is something I did in Sunday School in church this morning, but before you skip straight to the next post because you are not interested or involved in church, stay with me just a moment longer. My “topic” happened to be Pentecost, because today (19th May) was Pentecost Sunday, but you could actually do this lesson using any topic that you wanted. I had about ten children aged 6 to 8 years old, and a couple of adults in the group.

I chose the C, D, E G and A  boomwhackers, as they form a pentatonic scale and would all sound reasonably OK together. We had the usual discussion about what you were allowed to hit with a boomwhacker (your hand, your leg, your head but don’t blame me if you hurt yourself, the floor, the chair, the table) and how hard you were allowed to hit things with (don’t hurt yourself, and don’t damage the boomwhacker), and what you were NOT allowed to hit with a boomwhacker (anyone else at all, ever, and if you do that’s the last time you get to use a boomwhacker in this session).

6 Slices of Boomwhackers Heaven for your Enjoyment

http://boomwhackers.com/6-slices-of-boomwhackers-heaven-for-your-enjoyment/

 

I then gave each colour a rhythm based on a phrase to do with our topic – e.g. reds played “Pentecost, Pentecost”, yellows (E) “Holy Spirit Holy Spirit”, greens “tongues—–of flame” and so on. On the count of 4, we all started to play our rhythms. Gradually everyone settled to a steady pulse, and the rhythmic patterns became established. Then, as we played, I explained that on the count of four, everyone could chose a new pattern, or make up their own one based on words and phrases to do with the topic. I counted us in, and a new pattern emerged. We repeated this a number of times, and I could see the members of the group listening, keeping time with each other, and noticing the way that the rhythms and melodic fragments emerged, stabilised, changed again.

If I hadn’t had enough boomwhackers for everyone, I would have added other percussion (my car is full of bags with rice-in-juice-bottle-shakers, sawn-and-smoothed-claves and tambourines)

So, whatever your class topic, you might like to try this out. As well as reinforcing topic based learning, you also hit composition, improvisation, pulse and rhythm, listening with attention to detail, and you could add changing pulse, dynamics and texture as extra elements to extend the activity.

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Issue 88: Class ABRSM Music Theory Lessons

Posted on May 19, 2013 by

One primary school I work in has been running a music theory club in the lunchtime. The first group of students are all set to take Grade 1 theory this Summer, having started from scratch last October. It was very interesting to see how the club (really a “class”) was organised, and I was very impressed with what she had set in place.

Because it operated as a lunchtime club, the children did not pay to attend, although they did have to pay for a copy of “Music Theory in Practice” and three sets of theory papers in advance. The teacher put a list of all the theory exercises in the book and space for marking the date when they were set for homework inside the front cover of the practice books. Then each lesson, they all worked through a particular exercise and noted down the homework for next time.

By February, they had completed the books and started on practice papers, handed out one booklet at a time, and by now they are doing a complete paper every week, with most children getting merits. The actual exam is in about three week’s time.

This is a complete contrast to how I usually teach theory.

I cover a reasonable amount of theory in passing in my piano lessons, and start including Grade 5 level theory more formally once they are at Grade 4. I always like to spend a term between grades doing “stuff” – learning a number of pieces “for fun” (and to improve sight-reading and technique), tackling some of the scales (I have a strict policy of not starting Grade 2 until I am sure that they can play the scales), developing an “ear” for style and period. Theory fits in nicely as part of the “stuff”.

I also get a lot of students of secondary school age ringing up for theory lessons because they have taken Grade 4 (or worse still, Grade 5) on their instrument, and need Grade 5 theory before they can progress to Grade 6. Occasionally I get AS or A-level students who discover they need Grade 5 theory in order to get on their university course. So my students are older, and more experienced, and I teach them individually or in small groups of 2 or 3. My job is to get them through Grade 5 as quickly and as safely as possible. We aim for merits (to be sure of a distinction you have to know an awful lot of French, German and Italian performance directions). We crash through the syllabus, learning what needs to be learned to pass, making a start on past papers almost from the very first lesson. I admit that I have been caught out a couple of times, when Grade 4 theory questions suddenly started turning up without warning in Grade 5 papers. Writing chromatic scales, and converting simple to compound time, were the most unexpected questions in recent years. Luckily they were only worth four or five marks, and I am now careful to include these topics in the lessons!

I may well be looking after the primary school theory class next term, while the usual teacher is on maternity leave. I am looking forward to seeing how the younger children get on. There will be two groups – the beginners, working towards Grade 1, and a second group, working towards Grade 2. I’ll keep you informed.

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Issue 88: Switch – Taking it to another level

Posted on May 19, 2013 by

To my amazement, I met a music teacher who didn’t know how to play “Switch”. It’s a great game for pulse and rhythm, focus, and independence.

So here’s how you play it. before you play it with the children, you have to explain it first. And probably a couple more times until they ALL get the hang of paying attention to what you are saying and following instructions.

The leader starts by doing a repeated action – e.g. patting the pulse on their knees. The children DO NOT COPY THIS – yet!

When the leader says “Switch”, two things happen. The children copy the original action AND the Leader starts doing something else, e.g. clapping a rhythm.

Once this is established (the Leader doing action 2, the children doing action 1) the Leader says “Switch” again, and starts action 3, while the children do action 2. To stop the game, the leader says “Switch” and just folds their arms, standing still. The children should still be doing the previous action, until the Leader says “Switch”, whereupon everyone should stop.

I alternate quiet and sounding actions, simple and complex actions, choosing things that are suitable for the age and experience of the class.

When you are all good at the game, you could let one of the children be the leader.

So now, taking it to another level… Divide the children into two groups. Group 1 follows the leader, and so is always one action behind. Group 2 follows Group 1, and so is always two actions behind the leader. If this isn’t sufficiently challenging, just add more and more groups!

At the start, I mentioned pulse, rhythm, focus, and independence. The independence part is when you stress that everyone must be responsible for getting it right – at the beginning, everyone must keep their eyes on the leader and think about what they are doing. Once you have more than one group on the go, each child must be responsible for themselves, picking the best person to watch and staying focused.

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Issue 87: Welcome to The Jungle

Posted on May 12, 2013 by

I’m really pleased to report that the method I used to teach the dotted crotchet rhythm has really worked! So I have no hesitation about tootling my trumpet and making a bit of a noise about it.

I haven’t taught my tricksy class yet, but I have tried out this game on a number of other classes and had the children totally mesmerised, so I am still hopeful. I’ll report back on that when I’ve put it so the test.

So what have we got this week?

Sight-reading for piano exams, My Hat it has Three Corners for ukulele, and Kumala Vista for all sorts of instruments and occasions.

There you go!

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Issue 87: Sight-reading skills for piano music exams

Posted on May 12, 2013 by

I’ve a student preparing for a grade 5 piano exam who is totally terrified of the sight reading element. Her note reading skills are good, and she is fine with rhythms.

So, what is the problem? I think it is to do with confidence, and maybe some bad experiences in the past.

We tackled some grade 1 and 2 sight-reading tests in the lesson, and I began to get an inking of what was going on.

To begin with, she wasn’t reading the notes in relation to each other – i.e. looking at the next note in terms of higher, lower, and how many steps away, in notes, or fingers you need to go. Instead, she was working out what letter the note was, and then finding it on the keyboard.

The other problem is that when you are sight-reading an orchestral instrument – as in trombone (her other instrument) or cello (my other instrument), you only have to read one line at a time. Obviously it is better if you can read and understand more than one note at a time, but at base level you deal with just one note and another note and another note etc.

When you are sight-reading piano music, you have to deal with two lines, and make decisions about which notes are played together, when, and how. These decisions start happening at grade 2. Obviously, it is far quicker and better to read the notes as “miss two fingers” or “thumb” than try and identify letter names.

So, to build up confidence and expertise, I gave her a book of grade 1 specimen tests to get her eye in, and build up some positive experience. That went well, and we moved on to grade 2. A week at grade 2 and she is reading the tests reasonably fluently and accurately, and her confidence is building.

I reckon it will take a couple of weeks at grade 3, which is when your hands start to change position, indicated by a change of fingering on the music. Grade 4 by half term, and then, with a fair wind, we should be in a position to tackle grade 5 without tears, if with trepidation. We shall see.

 

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Issue 87:”My Hat it Has Three Corners” for Ukuleles

Posted on May 12, 2013 by

The song, “My Hat, it has Three Corners” featured in the very first issue of The Music Jungle. I realise that I’ve been singing a slightly different tune recently, so here it is again:

It’s an action song: make a hat shape on your head for hat, hold up three fingers for three, and put your hand on your hip, sticking your elbow out for corners. Then you sing it again, leaving out hat but keeping the action, and then three, and then corners. Finally you can sing it all in your “Thinking Voice” (count 1 2 and start).

I wrote it up on the board like this before we started learning it

The children all have notebooks for writing chord charts and other bits and pieces in as we go along. I added the chords (which mostly fitted very sweetly into the symbols!) and asked them to write the song into their books while I zipped round tuning all the ukuleles. If they finished writing before I finished tuning (which they did), they could practise the chords (and I could check their fingering) as I went round.

It just so happened that there were a couple of stuffed toys on a display – a koala with a bush-whacker hat, and a wombat. (their topic is Australia). Perfect. I grabbed the koala, directed the children to make a C chord, and we sang the song, strumming the C chord in the appropriate places, which I indicated by brandishing the unfortunate koala. They were already experts at missing out things from singing the song with all the actions. Next it was the turn of the wombat. Everyone made an F chord, and we sang again, strumming F chords whenever I waved the wombat at them.

Then, I divided the class into the C group and the F group, and we set off again, with the groups playing when it was their turn. Both the wombat and the koala had a hectic few moments. Swapped groups sang and played again. Amazingly, the children were having a whale of a time watching me wrestling with the stuffed toys and singing and strumming.

For the final challenge, I suggested that the children should choose whether they wanted to be C chorders, F chorders, or SWITCHERS, playing BOTH chords. We sang and strummed again, and I encouraged the children to either upgrade the group they had chosen to be in, or just see if they could do it better. I was very pleased to see that most of the children wanted to be in the Switcher group, and hardly anyone had opted to stay in the C chorder group. And every child was singing AND strumming. Result!

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Issue 87: Kumala Vista – singing, samba, djembe, recorders, percussion

Posted on May 12, 2013 by

Since I’ve found this song all over the place, and have been taught it by ear on various occasions, by various teachers, I hope I’m okay in giving the words and melody here. It’s also in this book Kumala Vista where it appears in a nice little 2-part arrangement along with some other useful songs and rounds.

It is a “listen and copy” song; the leader sings a line, and everyone sings it back.  However I plan to develop the tune, I always start by singing it through to the children, and than teaching line by line. I refuse to even sing the last line again until they have learned all the others. Listen carefully to the pitching – the children will sing what they thought they heard, not what I actually sang, and they will sing “Rat-en-dood-en” instead of “Dat-en-dood-en” for the last line.

So – it’s just a little nonsense song – yes? If you like. Or: try varying the tempo or the dynamics. Divide the children into groups; maybe each group having a different line to lead, or a different line to answer. See if one of the children is happy to be a leader.

Samba: as for percussion. Can they hear the call when you give it in your “thinking” voice? Suppose one group of instruments gives the call and the others reply – all together or in turn?

Djembe: Decide on bass and tones for the low and high notes in the melody. What about the medium notes? how will you play those? Or  will you play one line on tones, another or bass, another as a mixture? What works best?

Recorders: I use this as another tune to practise “new note E”. The first line is the easiest, the last is really quite challenging. You really do need to get your fingers spot on over the holes going from B to E. I practise this by doing it backwards a number of times in succession: E up to B, and then pointing out that by doing this over and over again, you are also practising B to E. The other trick is to get them to incorporate three stages: 1) play B 2) put the fingers over the holes to make E WITHOUT BLOWING  3) play E!

Percussion: the leader sings each line, the children reply on instruments. Choose different timbres for different instruments. Which rhythm works best on which instrument? Swap around, listen and discuss.

Good luck!

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