Suggested Activities |
Possible Resources |
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| Putting It Together The students will:
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Note: All resources listed in this column appear in Arts Education: A Bibliography for Grades 6 to 8, 1994. Citations appear in full in the bibliography, alphabetized by title. | |
| Discuss the use of form in music. Form refers to how the phrases
and larger sections are organized to make a unified whole. How do composers
achieve unity in a composition? How does the composer use repetition and
variety to create the form? Is it necessary to have an organizational structure
in a composition? Are some structures more obvious or easier to identify?
Recall the selection by DUCT heard in Unit One. Was the form easy to identify
in that selection? Why not? Think of some childhood songs that are familiar
to your students. Examine the form by looking for repetition and variety
of phrases. For example "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" has three phrases;
the first and third are the same with a contrasting phrase in between. The
resulting form is labelled ABA.
Some common forms are AB, ABA, AABA, Rondo and Round. Many folk songs use these simple forms. Sing songs that are organized using these forms and become aware of the form. Identify the form in instrumental music or popular music supplied by the students. Much of the popular music uses AB form, alternating between the verse and the chorus. |
Songs |
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| Students should work in small groups to create a simple AB composition using the ostinatos composed in Unit I or new ostinatos that the group creates. The students may use instruments or body percussion (hand claps, foot stamps, finger snaps, patting legs). Have each group share their composition with the class. Using each group's composition create one large work. Decide on some aspects that should be common to each section -- tempo and phrase length, for example, 8 beats for the A section and 8 beats for the B section. Allow each group to adjust their composition to make each section the same number of beats, as agreed by all students. Have each group perform its reworked composition. The performance might be helped by the teacher keeping a steady beat so that each group can match the tempo. Also, it may be helpful to leave 4 or 8 beats between each group's performance. This would allow for some preparatory time. Now, instead of just having the beat tapped between each group's composition, create a new rhythmic pattern that the entire class can perform. The resulting large form would be a rondo: A (unison section) B (group one's AB composition) A (unison section) C (group two's AB composition) A (unison section), etc. Have each group notate its AB composition using stick notation or invented notation. The teacher can use a visual symbol such as a square, a star, a circle, or notation to represent the unison section. Each time the unison section occurs the same symbol should be used. Chart the entire work. Perform the work again following the notation. | Available percussion instruments, traditional or non-traditional | |
The students will:
Sing songs that are built on a pentatonic or minor scale. Ask the students how these songs sound different. What do the songs remind them of? Do the songs in a minor key sound lonely or melancholy, for instance? Why do the students think music is written using different scales or tonalities? Can the tonality help the composer convey certain feelings? Do the students think all music needs to use a scale/tonality? Listen to music from various cultures and have the students discuss whether all music uses similar scales or tonalities. (The teacher might want to focus on music of India, Aboriginal North America and Indonesia as examples of different tonalities.) Invite community members into the classroom to play and/or discuss music that they are familiar with. |
Songs (Minor)
Video
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Suggested Activities |
Possible Resources |
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| Making It Your Own
The students will:
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| In groups, have the students make or adapt instruments to
create a scale of four to seven notes. (If no other instruments are available,
glasses filled with various amounts of water, jars with sand, or several
different desk tops for tapping on might suffice.) Is the scale similar
to any they have previously heard? Ask each group of students to create
a short (20 to 40 second) sound composition using a melody created from
the pitches of their new four to seven note scale. The students should also
create a rhythmic ostinato to accompany their melody. The melody could repeat
several times or it could have two or more different sections. If they wished,
they could reinforce their instrumental melody with their voices. Ask the
students what their melody reminds them of: a theme, an event or even a
mood, for example. Students should keep a record of their compositions and
ideas in the portfolios. Encourage the students to perform their compositions
for each other. Do the other groups associate the same themes or moods as
the composers? Discuss how each group could improve its composition to better
reflect the intended ideas. Can the students think of other sounds or timbres
that might work well? Could their melody be performed by other available
instruments? Can the students hear all the different sounds (including the
melody) in each composition, or should more attention given to a balance
in dynamic levels? Create a new rhythmic ostinato or re-use one previously
composed that the entire class can perform. Create a large, multi-movement
work by starting with the ostinato, then having one group perform its short
composition based on a melody. After the first group performs its composition,
the entire class could play the ostinato, followed by another group's composition.
This alternating between the ostinato and each group's composition could
continue until each group has performed its composition. After the performance,
discuss the problems that were encountered. Was it difficult for certain
groups to begin immediately following the ostinato? How can allowances or
adjustments be made for changes in tempo between the ostinato and a group
composition? Perhaps a conductor could help in this regard. Did the differences
in the choice of scales create a problem? Ask the class to generate possible
solutions to the problems they are encountering. Rework the compositions
using the students' suggestions. Provide time for the students to record
in their journals or portfolios their thoughts about the project and their
feelings about the feedback they received.
The students will: |
Traditional, found and created instruments
Student journals or portfolios |
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| Using one of the pitched instruments previously played, sing a simple, well-known song such as "Frere Jacques" using the lowest sounding note of the instrument as a starting note. Then sing the song again using the second lowest sounding note of the instrument as a starting tone. Was it more difficult to sing correctly the second time? Why? After discussing, sing "Frere Jacques" again on the second pitch. Was it easier this time? Why? Music can begin on any different note a composer might choose. Can the class offer any reasons why a composer wouldn't always start on the same pitch? Can the students think of songs that they have tried to sing that have high notes they couldn't quite sing (e.g., "O Canada", "Happy Birthday")? If the starting pitch was lower, would it have been easier? (The range of some traditional instruments could also be discussed here.) | Available instruments, traditional, found or homemade | |
| Have the students working in groups of three or four. Ask them to choose a fairy tale or a folk tale from the school library. Read the story and become familiar with the characters. For each character the group should create a signature sound or melody. Each time the character appears in the story, the signature sound should also be heard. Students should choose sounds that represent the character's disposition. For example, if the character is evil, how can this be portrayed through sound? Students should ask themselves, "What do I want my audience to know or feel about this character?". They should then attempt to communicate this through sound. Guidelines for composition should be determined by the teacher and the class. For example, one of the character's signature sound must be an original melody composed by the group on available instruments; there must be at least one signature sound that is improvised each time it is played; the melody and any other non-improvised sounds must be notated using traditional or invented notation. Allow several class periods for students to accomplish these tasks. Instruments may have to be shared among the groups. The groups will have to rehearse their story so that they are comfortable. Then have each group share their story with the class, including their improvised and composed signature sounds. The group could use a narrator to read its story while other students play the signature sounds at the appropriate place in the story. An alternative would be to have one group member act as the conductor while the other students tell the story through sounds, without narration. If using a conductor, the group should explain who the characters are and demonstrate each character's signature sound. Afterwards, other students in the class can give their accounts of what they heard happening in the story. | Available folk or fairy tales |
