Here’s another round that I will be using with my beginner keyboard ensemble.
It works on a similar principle to Nanuma except that the last line is even easier – just repeated Cs. That will be useful for when a new person appears, unannounced, having never touched a keyboard before, which happens almost every other week. They will be able to join in with the group almost immediately!
I’ll have to make sure that the children are comfortable counting in three-time. I’ll teach a selection of 3-time rhythms, using “Listen and copy”, the words of the song and rhythm cards.
Then I’ll teach the first phrase as
finger numbers (1 23 14 33214 3321)
and notes (C DE C F EEDCF EEDC).
Once that is secure, I’ll teach the second phrase, by duplicating the fingering but starting on E, just as we did with Nanuma. This will also introduce “new note A” (some of the children know the note already from picking out “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”).
Again, extension activities will be playing the chords, or using the final line as a drone.
These two posts have made me very happy – I reckon that’s a good deal of my planning for the beginner keyboard ensemble sorted for the start of term!