Last week, I'd planned on going to the TeachMeet in Doncaster...I kind of forgot the map and didn't quite make it! I was going to present about teaching music in primary schools, about how it's something that many primary schools teachers seem to have a fear of and how to take the fear out of the terminology! I know that many primary teachers have a fear of teaching music (apologies to those that don't..) as in my previous life as a professional musician I worked in hundreds of primary schools delivering musical workshops & insets with colleaugues and this 'I don't really know what I'm doing with music' theme cropped up over and over again.
This was the terminology I'd planned to talk about:
- pulse
- rhythm
- pitch
- dynamics
- texture
- timbre
- ostinato - cyclic pattern
Pulse - this is musical 'glue.' It's the 'thing' that keeps people in a band, orchestra, choir etc together. You can have pulses of different speeds but it's a constant. The speed of the pulse doesn't change unless someone tells it to, eg a conductor in say an orchestra.
Pulse can be related to science and your heartbeat - if you run around you have a fast pulse, if you slob out then you have a slow pulse!
2 Simple Music is great! If you look at '
2Beat' you can readily develop pulse - it's very visual as the pulse flashes across the IWB, it can be speeded up and slowed down. Children could learn to clap the pulse by watching, they could then turn around and learn to
listen for changes! You could also use body percussion to have a change from clapping - stamping, slapping knees & thighs, chests etc etc. This also develops listening in that the children learn to recognise different sounds....
Less is more! Developing pulse could easily take three - 30 minute sessions with whole class and small group work!..
Metronomes are also excellent to have to help you to develop pulse!
Rhythm - I talk about rhythm as being 'more interesting to listen to' than pulse. Pulse is vital and very important - if a bit dull. Rhythm works as a team with pulse, rhythms have to fit to a pulse and if there is more than one player than they have to work as a team to the same pulse so that the music sounds as good as it can by fitting together like a jigsaw!
So how do you find rhythms?....
Words are a great source of rhythm for children.
Words have syllables which mean that words can have rhythm. Practise saying words to the pulse yourself, can you fit syllables to a 4 pulse pattern? Listen to 4 beats of a metronome or walk steadily for 4 steps and say words to see how they fit. When I'm out walking I can often be heard chanting things to myself as I step/clap in time to work things out!....so if you see some strange woman out and about doing something similar then do say hello!
Choose a theme for your word rhythms, flavours of crisps is quite a fun theme!
You can have a rhythm that's the same as the pulse.
You could either clap these rhythms, chant them or do both!
(blue balls = 1 beat, brown balls = 1/2 a beat, ie 2 brown balls = 1 beat.....maths!)
You can have a 'simple' rhythm.
You can have a more complicated rhythm for those children who play instruments etc.. G&T
Rehearse your groups until they really know what they are doing. You then have choices!
You could have two groups chanting at the same time - you then have TEXTURE - 2 different layers
You could use multiples (maths) and have each group do their bit for 2 multiples of 4 - or whatever you choose
You could have all 3 groups chanting at the same time - TEXTURE
You could have one group chanting and 2 groups doing body percussion - TEXTURE & TIMBRE (timbre is simply different sounds)
You can vary how loud the groups perform - DYNAMICS - (dynamics is simply how loud or soft something is)...
You keep repeating it - say 4 times - you then have an OSTINATO or CYCLIC pattern.. an ostinato is simply a pattern that repeats and it's another word for cyclic!
Anything you say, you can play!
I always start without instruments. Body percussion is great fun to do and can be used to develop ongoing skills. When you and your class have built up confidence and skill in pulse & rhythm using body percussion it's time to get out the instruments....Less is more, take as long as you feel you need before moving onto instruments!
I prefer to start with the whole class when using instruments and I always set out the rules as well as talking about why I have these rules when we use instruments.
No fiddling, when people are talking instruments are out in front of you away from hands
Instruments need to be respected and treated carefully
Play them as loudly as you need to to hear others playing - ie not so loudly that you can't hear anything else
I talk about rule 3, why is it important to be able to hear others when you are also playing?
If you don't feel as though you want to give out instruments to the whole class then stagger it, use instruments as a reward for great effort with body percussion.
I feel it's important for any children who are learning an instrument to bring it into class and play!....this doesn't need to be something that you feel you don't know how to cope with. You can simply ask them to play a rhythm on a note that they know how to play. If your groups are using tuned percussion (glocks, chime bars etc) then ask them to play the same note(s) as the groups on tuned percussion.
I shall end part one of my musical saga by just saying how fantastic I think it is that in this world of ever increasing technology, music uses rules created hundreds of years ago by composers such as Bach! Notation of traditional music is the same as it has always been, all the terminology means the same as it always has, the rules of harmony, composition and form were all created hundreds of years ago...we use them today.
One of my favourite workshop things was to talk about musical form and classical composers...if in a high school then this usually got a groan.... ABA form, you have one bit, then a different bit and then the first bit comes back...I use Vivaldi and part of his 4 Seasons, then I find a pop song that has a similar form....mouths drop. I talk about film music, what their favourite films are and who has got the soundtracks etc...well what are they played by? Orchestras in many cases. Orchestras whose players use instruments that were created hundreds of years ago - they may have a modern version but they are made in the exactly the same way! It's my favourite fact about music - that that was created hundreds of years ago is alive and kicking today in our ever increasing modern world!...
