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!