Human Body Music

We had a great time in Music this month exploring all the different sounds our bodies could make. All groups practiced echoing patterns of "body percussion" - an Orff pedagogical staple to help kids learn and internalize rhythm patterns for composition, playing on the instruments, or just plain fun. The traditional levels include stomping your feet, patting your thighs, clapping your hands, and snapping your fingers.

Kindergartners, at left, worked with partners to see how many different sounds they could make with their hands, then planned, rehearsed, and put on performances for their classmates. I was impressed by the focus these young kids were able to put towards the task. The Ks also enjoyed taking their hands to drums to make a variety of sounds, from smacking them as hard as possible to light tiptoeing around the edge of the drum. The students' favorite moment had to be when I allowed them to take mallets to the drums, allowing them to make much louder sounds. Thankfully, they quickly learned to respond to my conducting cues. We also worked with different ways of using our bodies to express rhymes and poems: singing, speaking, whispering, clapping, stomping, patting, and, the kids' favorite, shouting.

1/2 classes worked on a body percussion composition project. First, they brainstormed things they liked to do in the wintertime, leading to interesting discussions of how different families celebrated different holidays at this time of year. The students then chose their favorite activities to use as rhythmic building blocks, fitting body percussion patterns to the rhythm of the words. The class then voted on their favorite patterns, which we used as a basis to improvise and compose melodies on the barred instruments.
Susan's class chose:

Ice skating

Snowball wars

Spin the dreidel

Bake cookies

Ice skating

Snowball wars

Spin the dreidel

Sleep

while Elaine's class is working with:

Throw snowballs

Build a snowchair

Destroy snowman

Runny nose

We also used an idea of Kit's and learned the traditional song "Dem Bones" using the medical names for the bones (and omitting overt religious references). Here're the first two verses of our adaptation: 

Ezekiel cried, "Dem dry bones!"
Ezekiel cried, "Dem dry bones!"
Ezekiel cried, "Dem dry bones!"
"Now hear the names of my bones:

Phalanges connect to the metatarsals,
Metatarsals connect to the tarsals,
The tarsals connect to the tibia,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

Upper school students echoed more complicated rhythmic patterns using body percussion, including syncopation and Keith Terry's jazzier body percussion techniques and patterns. The 3rd and 4th graders are steadily improving their abilities to echo patterns in 3/4 time, differentiating them from the more common meters of 2/4 and 4/4 time. The students used body percussion to compose ostinati to accompany their recitations of "Slithergadee" and practice hand crossover techniques for barred instrument playing. We also tried out various conducting patterns to help students learn to feel different meters. Most of the students took to conducting immediately, some with extreme vigor, and others with extreme precision and grace.

I also used the human body theme to try some musician's yoga with the 3-6 students. The 3/4 students especially showed immediate improvement in their singing and recorder tone after working through deep breathing exercises.

The 5/6 students put on a performance of their instrumental and vocal piece for the K-2s on Tuesday (the students elected to omit the body percussion element, as they were way more enthusiastic about the instruments). The 5/6s were extremely gracious hosts and hostesses, even inviting the younger students to perform for them at the end. The K-2s were an attentive and enthusiastic audience, with Eli shouting "Encore! Encore!" at the end. Mikey then shared a harp performance with us, and several K-2 students stepped up for a turn at the piano. I was so proud of all! Thanks to the K-2 teachers for taking time out of their busy schedules to give us an audience.

For all grades, I couldn't resist playing parts of the Nutcracker Suite for the children's movement warmups, as one of my favorite seasonal traditions. We also sang traditional songs about the season, Hanukkah, and Christmas, as requested by students. Now, time to enjoy one of the season's best traditions: break!

Poem Recordings

Susan’s class finished recording their poem, Shel Silverstein’s “Tree House” last week. I was impressed with how quickly many of the kids were able to memorize the words. They decided to use whispering, shouting, high-pitched, and “adults telling you what to do” voices for contrast and to convey the meaning of the poem. See if you can pick them out! Elliot inspired us with a rendition of Taio Cruz’ song Dynamite (turns out it’s the favorite pop song of SK K-2, who knew?), and I challenged the kids to put that same energy into their recitation. They obliged: 

Susan's Class Tree house Dec 7 by Cara Music

The kids also made some great decisions about different instruments/timbres to use to accompany the poem. However, we found that when kids had the instruments in front of them, all their concentration went into playing, and they weren’t able to give the poem its due. If we had had more time to rehearse, it could have happened, but they chose to finish and move on. They had a great time and were absolutely in love with how they sounded throughout the process; after hearing their first take, one student said, “There’s no way we can do better than that!” Then they did.


Elaine’s class is taking a bit longer to record their poem, as there was some disagreement about which poem they should do, and they are adamant about using instruments. The students were initially excited about recording their own poems, but ended up voting for Shel Silverstein’s “Magic.” Similarly to Susan’s class, the students are fascinated by hearing their own voices coming out of the music room speakers, and can’t wait to hear how each take comes out. Here’s their December 7 recording, for posterity:

Elaine's class Magic Dec 6 by Cara Music

The 3/4 class is also working on recording “Slithergadee” by Shel Silverstein, to complement our study of triple meters (the poem has a 6/8 feel). They came up with hilarious ideas, but we’ve been so busy working on human body and recorder improvisation studies, we only had time for an informal first take so far:

Chris Slithergadee Dec14 by Cara Music

Author/Illustrator Wrap-Up: Shel Silverstein wins landslide victory

Though I offered a range of choices to each class, the 1/2 and 3/4 classes all chose a Shel Silverstein poem for their recording. Good thing I offered different poems to each class! However, Elaine's class is considering using poems written by students instead ... we'll see how the vote turns out tomorrow! 1/2 classes played with dynamic, tempo and instrumental contrasts to aurally illustrate the meaning of their poems. Their results are shaping up pretty well so far!

3/4s had another magical musical moment with their musical piece based on Japanese haiku and children's games. Some decided to learn the Kagome melody on the recorder, while others sang it in Japanese. We then set the melody to an ostinato (short, repetitive melody) created by two of the children and rounded it out with other ostinati on the low and high barred instruments. The results were lovely. The students were so excited and amazed by the music they created, they exclaimed that they wanted to practice it until Reflections Night in May to share with their parents. I got a little teary-eyed, I'll admit.

5/6s have continued to learn various ways to use their bodies as percussion instruments. They've decided they want to perform an intricate piece involving body percussion and barred instruments for the younger kids at the end of the month. They also decided to add additional body percussion patterns based on the Keith Terry patterns we've been learning. In general, we have been working on ensemble skills, and the kids are improving in their abilities to listen to each other and be considerate ensemble members.

Kindergartners' favorite music activities this week included recording their voices to start their digital portfolios, conducting each other in various locomotor movements (hop, gallop, walk, jump, tiptoe) to a steady beat, and hearing the first half of the story of Whiffle Squeek, sung to the tune of "Aiken Drum."