MOVE PRIMARY: Art in motion is a new online visual arts resource for primary teachers. It has a focus on contemporary art - in particular 4D moving works and was produced by NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre in collaboration with Kaldor Public Art Projects.
Examples of some stimulus questions are below. Before a lesson, the teacher should carefully think about what questions they might ask and prepare them beforehand,
Structure:
Is there a verse/chorus structure?
Tone Colour:
What do you think the two instruments represent?
Describe how they are played.
Dynamics:
How would you describe the dynamics of the piece?
Duration:
Describe the tempo, rhythms
Pitch:
Are the sounds low or high?
This particular piece of music involves:
gliding of the swan represented by legato - smooth and connected (you could contrast this with another animal who might be represented by staccato, e.g. kangaroo)
The piece is soft/piano and swells
Tempo is slow/adagio, and fluctuates - rubato which means robbing time i.e. changing tempo
Ice Dance by Danny Elfman
Soundtrack to Edward Scissorhands
Ask students to write down the words that they associate with this song. Why do they think Danny Elfman chose to use a music box? What instruments can you hear? What is the pitch of the singers (soprano)? These kinds of questions can lead to further discussion i.e. all the different sections in a choir.
A great idea is to ask students to close their eyes, and conduct along to the music. They should conduct in time with the music and with bigger gesture if it's louder - a great way for the teacher to see who is understanding the concepts in the class.
Composer John Williams talks about how he created Hedwig's theme
It is great to use interviews because children see the process and meaning behind certain instrumental choices. For example, John Williams describes the celeste as gossamer, light, bell-like, just like bird feathers floating.
Isn't She Lovely by Idea of North
An A capella group who use their voices to create instrument sounds
Wall of Sound by Naturally 7
Using only their own voices and some looping
If you chose to use this song to analyse structure, you would give children the lyrics. It has a chorus, verses, a bridge and an instrumental solo.
Roald Dahl's Goldilocks and the Three Bears
We finished up this lesson by pairing up and being allocated 6 lines each pair of this poem, applying musical concepts to reading it out. We considered dynamics, pitch and tempo to express what was happening in the story.
This famous wicked little tale
Should never have been put on sale.
It is a mystery to me
Why loving parents cannot see
That this is actually a book
About a brazen little crook.
Had I the chance I wouldn't fail
To clap young Goldilocks in jail.
Now just imagine how you'd feel
If you had cooked a lovely meal,
Delicious porridge, steaming hot,
Fresh coffee in the coffee-pot,
With maybe toast and marmalade,
The table beautifully laid,
One place for you and one for dad,
Another for your little lad.
Then dad cries, 'Golly-gosh! Gee-whizz!
'Oh cripes! How hot this porridge is!
'Let's take a walk along the street
'Until it's cool enough to eat.'
He adds, 'An early morning stroll
'Is good for people on the whole.
'It makes your appetite improve
'It also helps your bowels to move.'
No proper wife would dare to question
Such a sensible suggestion,
Above all not at breakfast-time
When men are seldom at their prime
No sooner are you down the road
Than Goldilocks, that little toad
That nosy thieving little louse,
Comes sneaking in your empty house.
She looks around. She quickly notes
Three bowls brimful of porridge oats.
And while still standing on her feet,
She grabs a spoon and starts to eat.
I say again, how would you feel
If you had made this lovely meal
And some delinquent little tot
Broke in and gobbled up the lot?
But wait! That's not the worst of it!
Now comes the most distressing bit.
You are of course a house proud wife,
And all your happy married life
You have collected lovely things
Like gilded cherubs wearing wings,
And furniture by Chippendale
Bought at some famous auction sale.
But your most special valued treasure,
The piece that gives you endless pleasure
Is one small children's dining-chair,
Elizabethan, very rare.
It is in fact your joy and pride,
Passed down to you on grandma's side.
But Goldilocks, like many freaks,
Does not appreciate antiques.
She doesn't care, she doesn't mind,
And now she plonks her fat behind
Upon this dainty precious chair,
And crunch! It busts beyond repair.
A nice girl would at once exclaim,
'Oh dear! Oh heavens! What a shame!'
Not Goldie. She begins to swear.
She bellows, 'What a lousy chair!'
And uses one disgusting word
That luckily you've never heard.
(I dare not write it, even hint it.
Nobody would ever print it.)
You'd think by now this little skunk
Would have the sense to do a bunk.
But no. I very much regret
She hasn't nearly finished yet.
Deciding she would like a rest,
She says, 'Let's see which bed is best.'
Upstairs she goes and tries all three.
(Here comes the next catastrophe.)
Most educated people choose
To rid themselves of socks and shoes
Before they clamber into bed.
But Goldie didn't give a shred.
Her filthy shoes were thick with grime,
And mud and mush and slush and slime.
Worse still, upon the heel of one
Was something that a dog had done.
I say once more, what would you think
If all this horrid dirt and stink
Was smeared upon your eiderdown
By this revolting little clown?
(The famous story has no clues
To show the girl removed her shoes.)
Oh, what a tale of crime on crime!
Let's check it for a second time
Crime One, the prosecution's case:
She breaks and enters someone's place
Crime Two, the prosecutor notes:
She steals a bowl of porridge oats
Crime Three: She breaks a precious chair
Belonging to the Baby Bear.
Crime Four: She smears each spotless sheet
With filthy messes from her feet.
A judge would say without a blink,
'Ten years hard labour in the clink!'
But in the book, as you will see,
The little beast gets off scot-free,
While tiny children near and far
Shout, 'Goody-good! Hooray! Hurrah!'
'Poor darling Goldilocks!' they say,
'Thank goodness that she got away!'
Myself, I think I'd rather send
Young Goldie to a sticky end.
'Oh daddy!' cried the Baby Bear,
'My porridge gone! It isn't fair!'
'Then go upstairs,' the Big Bear said,
'Your porridge is upon the bed.
'But as it's inside mademoiselle,
'You'll have to eat her up as well.'
I thought this week had so many useful ideas that I will be able to implement in the classroom, and listening really lends itself to bitesize lessons, integrated lessons (as in Goldilocks), as well as full length music lessons.
Questioning: write down some words that you thought of in response to the piece & class discussion around it.
Creating Soundscapes
This workshop focused on creating soundscapes. In groups of 3 or 4, come up with an idea or theme and create a sequence of events that can be represented in a soundscape.
My group came up with the recent event, which had newspaper headlines:
We then represented the different events pictorially in sequence and selected the sounds that were appropriate to the events using the musical elements we hav learnt about. We decided to have a large drum throughout to symbolise the elephant's steps, but at the beginning this was played softly and haphazardly to symbolise the baby elephant finding its' feet. We also used tiny cymbals to float on top and give it a playful sound. As it grew, the cymbals faded out, and the drum became louder and more steady. We increased in tempo and crescendoed as it neared the crisis of the keeper being pushed against the bollard. There was then a large cymbal clash, we made siren noises with our voices, and then silence to symbolise the heart going out for 5 minutes. A single piano key was then used to represent the sound of a heartbeat, representing her coming back to life.
Creating a Soundscape using a Picture Book
Billy Goats Gruff is used and read to the class. The students then brainstorm how they might be able to create a soundscape as it is narrated to enhance the story.
Examples:
Trip trapping across the bridge: you might use a wooden instrument as the bridge is made out of wood
Different sized goats: you could use different pitches on the xylophone.
Troll: something big, loud and sinister
Splash of water: cymbals are resonant like ripples
This is a great idea that you could apply to different stories, better if they are simple, and brainstorm as a class for sounds to enhance them. Children could also choose their own books.
You can use Audacity to record the layers of sound, i.e. record the narration and the sounds over the top.
Another idea for composition which is great for composition is to get a bit of film and take the sound out. The children then need to create their own composition. I love this idea as it is truly authentic learning. It is just like Tropscore but for children!
Create a Rap
Another great idea which links literacy to music is creating a rap. With a focus on rhyming words, homonyms and rhythm, it develops competencies across the KLA's.
We came up with this rap:
Took gran to the beach and it was hot
Thought hey this is cool but gran said not
Left her on the beach and she did her nana
Came back later to a dry sultana
Students need to put a line above the beat, in this 4 by 4 rap I have demonstrated this by underlining words that fall on the beat with just with the first line. I have already used this rapping idea loosely in my private Maths tutoring with great success and lots of enthusiasm and laughter from students:
Lesson Plan
Activities are ticked if they involve any of the elements: Singing, Playing, Moving, Organising Sound, Listening
Duration
Duration is an amount of time or a particular time interval.
Time signatures tell musicians the rhythm and timing of music. One of the most common is 4 by 4, which means 4 beats to a bar where each beat is a crotchet. 6 over 4 means 6 counts per bar where each note is a crotchet. 6 over 8 means 6 counts per bar, where each note is a quaver.
3 over 4 is 3 beats per bar where each beat is equal to a crotchet -- this time signature is called a waltz as shown below:
An early moving picture demonstrates the waltz
The following excerpts of music can be used to demonstrate different time signatures:
Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker is in 3/4 time
The Can Can by Offenbach is in 4/4 time
Take 5 by Dave Brubeck Quartet is in 5/4 time
Mission Impossible Theme is also in 5/4 time
Hedwig's Theme from the Harry Potter soundtrack is in 6/8 time
Beat Vs. Rhythm
Where beat is the underlying basic unit of time in music, rhythm is what goes on top of that. A good way of demonstrating this to students is to chant a rhyme while keeping beat with your hands. The words represent the rhythm, while the clapping represents the beat.
Once they understand this, you can pair students. One student claps the beat on the other's hands, and the other one does chants the rhythm. Then they can swap.
Tempo
Tempo means: how fast or slow the piece is.
Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov is an example of a very fast tempo (allegro)
Pirates of the Caribbean Sountrack by Hans Zimmer is an example of a moderate speed, moderato
In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg is an example of accelerando, an accelerating tempo.
Italian tempo vocabulary:
Adagio: slowly
Andante: walking pace
Moderato: at a moderate pace
Allegro: fast and lively
Molto allegro: very fast
Accelerando: getting faster
Structure (or form)
The way a piece of music is put together.
Small structural elements may include:
Motif (phrase) - repetition/contrast
Ostinato/riff - repeated musical pattern e.g. in Michael Jackson's Billy Jean, the song starts with strong riffs which continue throughout. It is more underlying, and repeated throughout than a motif.
Call and Response - e.g. Billy Joel's River of Dreams and California Dreaming
Counterpoint - 2 or more tunes running together e.g. Bach's "Little Fugue in G Minor"
An example of Counterpoint: two tunes running together
Structure of larger sections:
Canon - identical piece but starting at different times e.g. Row your boat
Binary form (AB) - 2 sections
Ternary
Rondo
12-bar blues - e.g. Hound Dog: Elvis Presley, this type of chord progression was the beginning of Rock n Roll
Verse and chorus - used in pop music
Part-singing - one idea + harmonies
Partner songs - 2 different songs that can be sung together because they have the same chord progression
Pitch
Pitch is the frequency of a sound, i.e. how relatively high or low a sound is.
Elements to look out for in music are:
Direction of pitch movement - is it getting higher or lower?
Patterns - phrases, melody contour
Melody - succession of pitched sounds
Harmony - different pitches sounded together
In listening for pitch, some examples you might use in the classroom include:
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Hedwig's theme (the celeste: a mini upright piano but hammers inside hit bells)
The Elephant in the Carnival of the Animals (Double Bass)
Batman Theme (example of crescendo, and change of tempo as well)
Kenny Loggins' 'Footloose' an example of medium pitch, and riff
An activity you could do is to provide a few different animals e.g. Kangaroo, Elephant, Swan and ask what the students would expect them to sound like. You could also play bits of music and see if they can guess which animal the music represents. To elaborate on this activity, you could use excerpts of the actual sounds these animals make and compare.
Tone Colour
Quality of the sounds determined by: sound, source material, sound production and single or combined sources of sound.
Dynamics
How soft or loud the sound is, and whether it is getting softer or louder.
Italian Dynamics Vocabulary:
Piano: soft
Mezzo-piano: moderately soft
Pianissimo: very soft
Forte: loud
Fortissimo: very loud
Mezzo-forte: moderately loud
Crescendo: increasingly loud
Diminuendo: getting softer
In listening for dynamics you could use:
Carmina Burana by Orff
Montagues and Capulets by Prokofiev
Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg
Singing
What makes a good singer? Tone , Diction, Support, Breathing, Pitch, Rhythmic Accuracy, Range.
I have a history of singing in choirs, chamber choirs and doing singing lessons, so I will definitely be using my knowledge on the subject in the classroom as I think it is a wonderful, enjoyable thing to learn and do and helps a range of different vital skills. It is important to build students' confidence to sing out loud. I thought the way Nancy did it was a good idea, saying "If you're going to make a mistake, make sure it's a loud one", that way making mistakes is seen as okay and it means that hopefully the teacher can help the student fix it.
These are some examples of singing exercises to develop students' skills provided by Nancy:
Great example of a Partner Song and a lot of fun to sing!
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