ADVENTURES IN SOUND
Music Composition Project with St Peter's Primary School,
St Nicholas' School and composer, Robert Jarvis.
This
document details the various approaches to music making as used by Robert Jarvis
during the "Adventures in Sound" music composition project, hosted by
St Nicholas' and St Peter's schools during spring term, 1998.
Although at first it might appear that time devoted to creative music making is at odds with a teaching strategy that concentrates on the three R's, I believe that the project demonstrated that music relies on and therefore makes use of a combination of various core skills. Throughout the nine weeks of music making the students gained experience in language, literacy, counting, sequencing, experimenting, inventing, testing, teamwork and expression as well as personal and social education. I would therefore encourage you to try out some of the ideas below. They are not meant as an exhaustive guide to music composition in the classroom, but rather as a document of how I worked with the students during the project. Included are my own notes that I took whilst working in the schools as well as a summary of some of the methods I used to help the music making along.
MY
TEACHING METHODS
As
a rule I would decide what I would be doing before the lesson began, and then
allow the music and the students to dictate the consequences.
Quite often this resulted in me having to alter my initial plan many
times during the life of the piece. This
turned out to be a good thing as it prevented the lesson from becoming dull as
well as keeping the development of the composition unpredictable.
Before
embarking on a new piece, I would find it helpful to preselect a number of
instruments, which the pupils could initially choose from. By setting out
different instrument combinations for different pieces I was able to ensure that
no composition sounded similar. This was important when it came to remembering
them for performance.
In my
experience, group composition is often a slow process.
It is easy to be dismayed at the apparent lack of product at the end of
an hour's session. For me though,
the real value of a composition class is the learning process that has to be
gone through to achieve the end result. It
is no wonder the students find it so difficult at first.
They have to call upon so much knowledge, which they have learnt through
their other subjects for the composition to be a success.
As much as possible I help them through this journey of discovery. The
main thing though, is that it is them who get the chance to discover, and it is
not me telling them the answers. It
seems that the more I hold back and give the students free rein, the more they
gain from this process.
The main
challenge for me is to order the session in such a way that everyone feels that
they are involved. One way to do
this is by discussing and questioning the pupils' ideas with the rest of the
class. That way everyone can feel
they are contributing to the composition even though only a few might be playing
the instruments at a given time.
At the end of a session we record our piece so far, and any other good ideas, onto a cassette tape. This always proves invaluable when beginning the next session, as we are able to refresh our memories before running through the piece and carrying on. I usually encourage the students to be critical of the recording as a whole and not just their own parts. We listen to it a few times and try to work out how it might be improved. After many weeks of music making the recordings provide a reassuring document of the pupils' progress.
STUDENTS
INVOLVED
St Peter's Primary School
GROUP
A:
Rose, Beth, Nadia, Miles, Stephan, Josh, Michael, Ben, Daniel, Dicky,
David, Chris, Charlotte, Delilah, Christian.
GROUP
B:
Dineth,
Kristie, Kitty, Shannon, Mark, Helen, Adam, Nazarin, Nathanial, Jack, Isabel,
Aaron, Richard, Jessica, Cornelius, Joe.
St Nicholas' School
GROUP
C: Daniel,
Tash, Hayley, Lisa, Raymond, Ben, Roy, Lee.
GROUP
D:
Darrell,
Sam, John, Louis, Emma, Katie, Jonathan, Shadhad.
PROJECT REPORT
THURSDAY 11th
JANUARY: St
Nicholas
GROUP
C 9.30
- 10.45
Passed
instruments around one at a time to see how pupils responded to them.
Instruments were to be passed in silence.
With the exception of Raymond, most found this possible.
Moved onto greetings: one instrument playing "hello" and
another responding. Other
instruments joined in, in order. Daniel
went first, then ... Hayley, and finally Raymond.
Recorded children saying greetings as well. Thought I could use them with soundbeam and incorporate them
into a piece. Tash was quite shy
and didn't really join in. Visiting
music therapist recommended giving her a metallophone. Ben & Roy were good on drum.
Daniel and Hayley are very able.
Senior
Group
11.00 - 12.00
This
group is not really a part of the project as the teacher thinks the students are
too old to mix with the year five St Peter's children.
This is a shame as they are quite able.
Did a short piece with them - quite structured - and recorded it.
GROUP
D 1.30
- 2.45
Did
piece to fit in with class theme of transport.
They're doing cars at the moment and so our piece plotted the journey of
a car starting, travelling, stopping, traffic with klaxon horns, rain and wind
for the windscreen wipers etc.
Recorded piece.
Sam is deaf.
Jonathan's first language is Flemish - has limited English - appears to
be a bit moody.
Has a good voice and can easily keep a rhythm once it's going, I'm told.
Shadhad appears to be quite troublesome.
Katie experimented with guitar plucking and strumming and noticing the
difference between the sounds.
FRIDAY
16th JANUARY
St
Peter's PS
GROUP
A&D
10.00 - 10.40; 11.00 - 12.00
The
group five class are doing CHANGE as their theme for this term.
(Their specific topics are: Local Area, English Civil War, Shakespeare,
Maps, Number Measures, Steam Engines, Earthquakes, and Shapes.)
Started by asking group what we would do.
Daniel on bass drum said he could do a drumbeat and played me an example.
I said it was good, but could he do something a little more interesting.
He did, and Rose and Beth came up with a little figure to play in the gap
- as did others.
With that little idea completed we moved onto another, this time starting
with an idea by Miles and Stephan.
Again, when then that little piece was complete, we worked on a
contrasting idea on the cymbals with horns playing long notes.
After break, Group d from St
Nicholas joined us.
I played them the recording of yesterday's composition, explained the
piece to the St Peter's group, and then the St Nicholas group ran through the
piece once or twice.
After the St Peter's group played their new piece to the St Nicholas
students we then came up with ideas to join in with each other's pieces and
eventually to join both pieces together.
For example, as Miles was demonstrating his small group's piece, Sam
(from St Nicholas) knocked the Mark Tree making a sound.
Miles thought that although this was obviously a mistake, it was in fact
a good sound combination, and so we incorporated this into the piece.
With the pieces enlarged in this way and joined together as one we then
recorded our updated composition.
I spoke to the pupils about coming up with new ideas during the weeks
between my visits.
They seemed quite keen.
A rap was mentioned (on the subject of travel - the St Nicholas theme was
cars). Stephan
said he was working on a little tune at the moment on his guitar.
He played it; I recorded it.
GROUP
B
1.30 - 2.45
Chose
a selection of tuned instruments (chime bars, xylophone bars, piano) for the
group to start off using in their piece of music so that it would sound distinct
and explore different ground from the other group's piece.
The session started with us all tapping a steady beat on our knees and
trying various clapping patterns.
We discussed the idea of space (or silence) in music and saw how a
complicated pattern was actually improved when played and a gap or silence
inserted afterwards, but the trick was to restart the pattern in the same place
the next time.
When someone thought of a pattern, they had a go and tried to make it fit
with the rhythm.
This they were quite good at, and so we moved onto the chime bars,
starting with the three bass xylophone bars, which were chosen by Helen.
She made up a repetitive pattern for the other musicians to fit on top.
People in the group then chose their instruments and made up their own
patterns. Once
everyone had something to do, I gave the job of conductor (or controller) to Joe
as he was the only one left without an instrument, and he experimented with
starting and stopping people in the group, so we could determine what patterns
went well together and in what order.
By this time we were running out of time and so we recorded our piece so
far, which started with Mark on chatterbox, then baritones, and eventually the
whole group joining in, the last person being Joe who played a simple tune on
the piano. When
this tune was finished Joe resumed
his role as controller and stopped
everyone one at a time, finishing off with Mark on Chatterbox.
Talked very briefly about the possibility of them sorting some lyrics out
so that we could fit a tune on top.
Mark and Nathan are special needs.
THURSDAY
22nd JANUARY
St
Nicholas
GROUP
C
9.30 - 10.45
This
is the most difficult group, behavioural and musically.
Tried to build on last week's greetings, but group finds it difficult to
play one at a time and in succession.
After greetings ("hello") played one at a time on instruments,
starting with Raymond on the giant chime. (He needs a custom made beater so that
he can't hit the wood of the stick on the chime).
Others came in: Ben first on drum, then Daniel with cabasa.
When drum sounded, different shaking instruments sounded, finishing with
Tash playing the metallophone. Hayley finished piece by playing tambourine.
This group is certainly slower than the others, but progress is to be
seen. Tash
did play, quite boldly in fact, but not in the 'right' place allocated for her.
Instead she chose to play when everyone was making quite a lot of sound.
I was also impressed by the fact that Raymond and Ben wee able to keep a
beat together.
More accurately, Ben keeps the steady beat; Raymond joins in.
Senior
Group 11.00 - 12.00
It's
a cold (almost frosty) day today.
We started session by thinking about which instruments had particularly
wintry sounds.
The marktree was chosen as an example.
I asked the group what happened in wintertime and they were keen on the
idea of thunderstorms.
I asked the groups what happened in a thunderstorm and what instruments
suited each aspect, and this way everyone was allocated an instrument.
The group decided to order the sounds the same way as a thunderstorm,
with the wind beginning first, then the rain, heavier rain, lighting and
thunder. Each
group had their cue to come in.
When the drum sounded at the end (for the thunder) everyone stopped.
Piece was recorded.
GROUP
D
1.30 - 2.45
Experimented
with different people playing, or trying to play, a steady beat.
The problem was, whilst a steady beat could be played, it couldn't be
controlled in the sense that the player would move off to something else after a
short time. It
was therefore well nigh impossible for two (or more) people to support each
other by playing a steady beat together.
I gave Katie three notes on the Metallophone and she played a short
ostinato figure with the help of her teacher.
Jonathan was very quick to lock into this, and a structure for the piece
was born. Unfortunately,
the nature of the performers is that after an unspecified amount of time they go
into random play mode, perhaps because they see another instrument they want to
play, so the assistance of the classroom helpers is invaluable to keep the music
from apparent anarchy.
We quickly worked out an order for everyone else to play, and as we
played we sung the name and instrument of the current performer to the tune of
Katie's ostinato: -
"Katie
plays the glock; Jonathan plays the drum; Emma plays the cymbal; Louis plays the
handchime; Johnny plays the handchime; Darrel plays the handchime; Sammy plays
the glock."
Darrell then hit the vibraslap to end the piece (as before), quickly
followed by Louis on the marktree.
Piece recorded.
According to teacher, Samantha (absent today) might be able to repeat a
pattern.
FRIDAY
23rd JANUARY
St
Peter's PS
GROUP
B&D 10.00 - 10.40;
11.00 - 12.00
(Aaron absent. New person: Isabel on flute.) Ran through piece so Isabel could see/hear what was going on, and found an area in the music where she could play. Did a little work with her on improvisation. (She was very shy, and inexperienced.) Added a bit more to the end of the piece so that it died away quietly with high piano chords. When St Nicholas group c came we played them our piece so far, and saw that their instruments complemented the St Peter's group. We tried out ideas with each pupil from St Nicholas' in turn and found a way of incorporating them into the music. This worked very well, with all responding well to the stop/start commands from our two controllers (Joe & Dineth). Even Tasha played a bit. Her helper appears to be learning what is the right level of encouragement to offer Tash. Some nice ideas came out of this session, including ending the piece with tinkling bells as well as the piano. Richard's baritone was not really working, so he moved to wooden agogo. This was much better. Composition recorded.
GROUP
A 1.30 - 2.45
Ran
through last week's piece. We had a
newcomer, Christian, so Stephan rehearsed his guitar part with him, before we
all played the piece together. We
then started another piece that sounds as though it might follow our other one.
Not only that, but it's tonality is similar to yesterday's St Nicholas'
composition (group d), so it might act as a link to the start of that piece.
As a starting point for this composition we used the tune that Stephan
had played for me the week earlier. He
played the tune several times so that the timing became more solid, and people
could see how they might fit in with it. The
students all had different ideas as to how they could build on the piece.
We tried these and discussed their success. This formed the basis of a sort of introduction, starting
with the bass drum played by Daniel. He
finds it difficult to repeat his pattern, as so do some of the others, and so we
had to work on this for a while. The
afternoon session finished before we did, and so we just recorded our piece so
far.
THURSDAY
29th JANUARY:
St
Nicholas
GROUP
C 9.30 - 10.45
Listened
to last weeks recording at St Peters. Worked
on piece initiated, I think, one week before.
This time we started with Ben on drum, as he's good at a steady beat.
Daniel joined in on triangle, then Raymond on handchime D5. Hayley stopped those already playing by starting to play the
drum. This was also the sign for
the next stage of the music to begin, starting with Roy on shaker, then Lisa on
tambourine and then Lee on bells. Daniel
stops those playing by signaling with his hands.
The next stage begins with Lee quietly shaking his bells, and Natasha
rubbing the notes on the metallophone with her stick.
Lisa switches to ocean drum and makes gentle sounds.
At this point Roy played the guitar (and sung too - but this was not
recorded). This was good and
pointed the way forward to the next session.
Piece was recorded. This is
the first time that the group has been able to work together and accomplish a
structured composition. Unfortunately,
half the group had to leave fifteen minutes before the end, and the session lost
its calmness. Still, Daniel
organised his own piece of music, with him playing some notes on the
metallophone. It is quite clear
that he understands about order in music. This piece was recorded too.
Senior
Group
11.00 - 12.00
Played
group the recordings of the two compositions they have done so far.
Then I played them one of my African dawn chorus recordings.
We listened to the birdsong, how often they sung, and the patterns they
sung. We then made up our own piece
based on the dawn chorus. The piece
started quietly with the metallophone, firstly with the 'wrong' end of the stick
and then as the piece grows with intensity with the normal end. Instruments that were paired came in, listening to each
other, talking to each other like birdsong.
Gradually more instruments joined in.
The cymbal and small gong (both played with soft sticks) came in towards
the end depicting the rising of the sun and the increase of light.
The bass drum also increased in volume, with the result that the ending
sounded a little like last week's thunderstorm!
Maybe both pieces could be joined together.
GROUP
D 1.30 - 2.45
Somewhat
rowdy session with cymbals and sticks being thrown! Probably inspired by two new faces to the session: Gillian
(from PRS) and Johanna (visiting musician).
Something to think about for future occasions, e.g. media.
Worked on and enlarged last week's piece ("Katie plays the glock"
tune). Again, asked for suggestions
from group regarding direction music should go.
Louis was very helpful though found it difficult to keep quiet when not
playing (and when playing too, sometimes!).
Samantha listened well and was very controlled in her playing.
FRIDAY
30th JANUARY
St
Peter's PS
GROUP
A&D 10.00 - 10.40;
11.00 - 12.00
Worked
on last weeks piece and tightened up rhythm, and put a few new ideas together.
Just before break we listened to the "Katie plays the glock"
piece of the St Nicholas group. When
St Nic's came each group played their piece, and we fitted them together, which
we recorded. Piece needs a little
work but main foundation is there.
GROUP
B 1.30 - 2.45
This
afternoon we began work on a new piece. The
class has been learning about steam trains in their normal class, and so this
was chosen as the theme for the next piece of music.
I played a recording of a steam train and got them to carefully listen to
it. In fact I played it to them 3
or 4 times in all, getting them to pick out different sounds.
We then discussed what we could hear before listening to the beginning of
Steve Reich's "Different Trains".
I asked the group how Reich was able to simulate the character of a train
using the string quartet, and they replied that they were playing train type
rhythms and also repeating these rhythmic patterns.
So the next step was to compose our own patterns, and we went round the
group trying different patterns, first on the instruments, and then with
everyone beating on their knee and various volunteers clapping their train
rhythms. They decided on the piece
beginning with some spoken phrases, like on the Steve Reich piece, and so the
composition began with Jack repeating "May I have your tickets please"
interspersed with another's "Tickets please".
Then Helen started on the cornet, directed by Joe, playing the starting
whistle, soon joined by Nathanial on Giant chime bar E with a hard stick playing
the train bell. Next was Aaron playing baritone for foghorn (I guess!), and
the train started with the drums (African & bongos) and then others (Jack on
shakers...). Time beat us.
We recorded the piece so far. More
work to go. Should go well with St Nic's group d.
THURSDAY
5th FEBRUARY:
St
Nicholas
GROUP
C 9.30 - 10.45
Piece
started last week more or less finished, with whole class coming together better
than before. Gradually over the
weeks the class has been able to operate better as a group and concentrate on
the music for longer. Daniel, Lee
and Ben especially seem to know exactly what's going on, while others (to a
greater or lesser degree) need some prompting to fix their minds on the moment,
and then they're okay. Natasha
playing as well as others in group now.
Senior
Group 11.00 - 12.00
Handed
out chime bars, slowly and one at a time, so people could hear the effect of the
gradual build up of sound. Sean
acted as controller and stopped and started players to make up a gamelan style
composition.
GROUP
D 9.30 - 10.45
Rehearsed
car piece and "Katie plays the glock" piece.
Group are working well together. Jonathan
behaved and cooperated well. Katie
for most of the time was playing her _CED-_ tune on her own and without much
assistance from her helper. Managed
to get through pieces quite quickly. Louis
was absent.
FRIDAY
6th FEBRUARY
St
Peter's PS
GROUP
B&D 10.00 - 10.40;
11.00 - 12.00
Worked
on last week's piece about trains. Started
work on another train piece to use as a contrasting idea.
When St Nicholas's came in, they played their piece a few times before we
worked out how the two schools' compositions could fit together.
Ben (from St Nicholas') was very good in the class, offering suggestions
as well as starting the group each time with a "ready?" before
beginning the composition with his regular drum beat.
With his help we made good progress.
Recorded the piece.
GROUP
A 1.30 - 2.45
Class
Five has been studying the following Shakespeare sonnet: -
We
decided to use it as a base for composing a new piece of music.
After reading through the poem many times and deciding what each line
meant. We decided that the poem was
quite soppy, and needed something to make it more interesting.
It would not be enough to just make up some lovely wistful music to
accompany the words. So we searched
the poem for less obvious ways of going about composing our piece of music. It was noted that there were two 'characters' in the sonnet:
Love and Time, and whatever happened (tempests, doom, etc) Love and time
remained. It was decided that the
first step would be to make up some music for these two characters, so we split
up into two groups; one to make the Love music, one to make the Time music.
Before starting with the instruments we discussed how each music would
sound. The Time music would have
short notes like clock ticks, would be very regular, and somehow the different
rates of hours, minutes and seconds would be included in the composition.
By contrast the Love piece would consist of long gentle notes and would
involve a changing texture to mirror the changing nature of Love in different
situations. The groups worked quite
well separately. We recorded both
pieces.
FRIDAY
13th FEBRUARY
St
Peter's PS
GROUP
A&D 10.00 - 10.40;
11.00 - 12.00
Rehearsed
traffic piece in preparation of St Nicholas' coming in.
Delilah invented new bit using chime bars.
Charlotte found same notes on her flute and improvised a tune on top.
The same for Nadia on her 'cello, but playing half time. I asked Charlotte and Nadia to work out a tune on their
instruments for next week. I also
gave the notes to Michael on cornet and asked the same of him.
When the St Nic's pupils came in we put the whole piece together.
I sat with Jonathan as he played the bass drum.
He behaved very well and cooperated very musically. Louis took the role of controller in the new bit of the
music, and gradually stopped everyone by going round and touching them.
It was hard at first for him to do it without verbalizing,
"stop", but gradually he got the hang of it.
GROUP
B 1.30 - 2.45
Worked
on the train piece. Played
recording. Worked on last week's
first idea and added contrasting section. Used
controller to gradually stop everyone so that the piece finished gradually and
gently.
FRIDAY
27th FEBRUARY
St Peter's PS
GROUPS
B&C 10.00 - 10.40;
11.00 - 12.00
Worked
on Groovy piece and then played through Train piece before break.
When St Nic's arrived we went through the groovy piece.
We isolated three different sections in the music that had different
atmospheres. The first was the
groovy beginning, and in this section people were to play in a lively way. The second section involved the cymbals being played in wave
like fashion, Natasha playing metallophone, Nathanial playing his chimes,
Nazarin playing ocean drum, etc. This
was the romantic section. The third
and final section was the snow section, with the bells and high piano.
With the three sections defined the class were able to work towards each
different feel, and have specific instruments to play at appropriate stages of
the composition, thus giving the piece a better form.
I more or less left the St Nic's kids to their own devices in this
session. In fact now it is the St
Peter's lot who have the behavioural difficulties.
The children from St Nic's were brilliant!
GROUPS
A 1.30 - 2.45
Worked
on the Shakespeare piece. Ran
through the Love & Time compositions, before working on the next bit.
This was the music for the tempest part of the poem.
So now the piece starts with the time motif, then the tempest, then the
love piece. Recorded it.
FRIDAY
6th MARCH
St Peter's PS
GROUPS
A&D 10.00 - 10.40;
11.00 - 12.00
Rehearsed
both the Chinese Traffic Jam and the Stephan/Glock piece before the arrival of
St Nicholas students. The students
have now got to get used to playing both pieces, one after the other and all
that entails. Ran through both
pieces again with the St Nic's students & staff.
The staff appear not to have the same understanding as the students
regarding what happens and where in each piece of music, and so they are getting
a little confused. I will write the
pieces out for them so they have a better idea of what is happening.
The Stephan/Glock piece that was based around Katie's metallophone
contribution ("Katie plays the glock") has featured a minor setback in
the sense that Katie is no longer at St Nicholas'.
This is a shame because each week she improved immensely, and last week
she was even playing the part on her own with very little help.
After the St Nicholas lot had gone again, the remaining St Peter's
students ran once through their Shakespeare piece.
They are getting used to thinking faster now, and so are becoming more
disciplined.
GROUP
B 1.30 - 2.45
The
group was keen to do a new piece, so we tried out different ideas.
It was clear that they had learnt about the importance of coming up with
good product; however in the limited time available we were not able to come up
with anything substantial. The
students realised that their progress was quite slow.
From their point of view, they now knew what constituted a 'good'
composition and did not want to settle for anything less.
They felt they could put together something but it wouldn't be as
polished as the others, and now being so close to the final performance it was
decided to try to use some of their new ideas in their existing pieces instead
of continuing with this new composition.
FRIDAY
13th MARCH
St Peter's PS
GROUP
B&C 10.00 - 10.40;
11.00 - 12.00
Ran through the train piece and experimented with changing the volume of sound within the music, sometimes abruptly to create contrast, and sometimes gradually. The students agreed that dynamic changes made the piece much more exciting, and so we spent a while running through the piece and inserting volume changes. Also, we sorted out what they were going to call their compositions and how they might be introduced at the performances. Ran through both pieces when St Nic's kids present. Again we talked of making the most of each section, as well as ensuring that each section was distinct. (Had written down each composition's order of events for the staff present with St Nic's kids, so they would definitely know what was happening within the pieces.)
GROUP
A 1.30 - 2.45
Ran
through their pieces and practised finishing one piece and starting the next
until they could do this smoothly and knew exactly which instruments were
required (and by whom) for each piece.
FRIDAY
20th MARCH
St Peter's PS
Morning
Performance at St Peter's School.
I
was impressed with the St Peter's students, for when I had arrived at the school
they had already collected their instruments. It was good to see that they felt in control, although help
was needed to organise them quickly into a new seating arrangement suitable for
the hall. This must have been
slightly confusing for them, as their music requires visual communication
between players. Still, they
performed their pieces well, only missing out one section when the going got
tough!
Afternoon
Performance at St Nicholas' School.
This
time the students totally organised themselves and seated themselves, and in a
different seating arrangement. This
was a very different experience - performing in the special school.
At times the audience made more sound than the musicians performing.
It was a difficult performance to do.
Nevertheless the musicians performed well and coped admirably.
Alan Wiltshire (the headteacher of St Nicholas' Special School) commented
afterwards that the success of the performance could be seen in the audience in
so much as he'd rarely seen them so 'quiet' and for so long.
They were obviously fascinated with what was going on, as well as
enjoying the music. What was easy
to think of as an uninterested and noisy audience was in fact the complete
opposite!!
Mon 6th April: I was invited to attend the St Peter's talent show, which was to take place the following fortnight. I went along and was interested to note the following observations. Miles and Stephan had made up their own piece of music for the occasion. It was very short, but worthy of being extended. They said they had been working on it since the end of the PRS project. The links were clear, as also when I spoke to another parent who said that her daughter was now making up pieces of music with friends at home, and performing to friends and family.
I
Selective Listening
Explain
to the class that you want them to listen to what sounds are around them.
For them to listen carefully they must be as quiet as possible. You will
clap twice - one to start the listening period and one to mark its end.
After
the 'silent' period, students say what sounds they heard.
Ask
them to listen out for different types of sounds or sounds from different areas,
for example, sounds in the classroom, sounds outside the classroom but in the
school, and sounds outside the school buildings.
II
Listening and Repeating
One
person claps a short rhythm - just a few claps, but something they can repeat.
Another
person claps a different rhythm, again something they can repeat.
Exercise
repeated with different people. Each
must have a different rhythm.
Class
must listen out for any contributions which are repeated by anyone else.
III
Simple Copying
One
person claps a short rhythm - everyone claps it back
IV
Extending Rhythms
One
person claps a short rhythm - just a few claps, but something they can repeat.
Everyone
claps it back.
Next
person repeats the rhythm and adds another rhythm onto the end of it.
Everyone
claps it back.
Sequence
extended until final rhythm is too long.
Repeat
using a couple of percussion instruments - one for the first pattern and the
other for the copied response.
V
Different Sounds
Pass
an instrument round a class.
Each
pupil is to demonstrate a different sound capable of being produced by the
instrument.
When
instrument is exhausted, try another.
VI
Keeping time
Introduce
the idea of a steady pulse.
Pass
an instrument round the class. Everyone
to tap four slow beats on the instrument before passing it on.
Start
by counting "1,2,3,4", followed by tapping out the first four beats.
Count the next four beats out loud whilst passing the instrument on.
The person receiving the instrument taps out the next four beats so that
there is no extra gap between the beats counted and the beats played.
Instrument passed round the group in this manner with the aim that the
pulse should be unbroken.
Stop
the progress of the instrument around the class if anyone speeds up, slows down
or fails to come in on beat number one. Ask
those participating what the reason is for stopping.
VII
Fitting Patterns Over a Steady Beat
Everyone
lightly taps a steady beat (on their knees, for example).
This
time someone claps a short rhythm and repeats it so that it fits with the steady
beat.
When
the repeated pattern is steady, everyone joins in.
Try
suggesting inserting a gap into each repeated pattern by only clapping every
other time. This will give the
person clapping a bit more time to think about what s/he is doing.
VIII
Using Recorded Music
Play
class a short excerpt of music.
Ask
questions about what they heard, for example, was it a man or woman singing,
when do the drums come in, what instruments can be heard, and so on.
Do not give answers immediately.
Play
the music again, and let the class discover the answers for themselves.
Ask
someone to tap the beat or pulse of the tune.
Move
onto them accompanying the piece with percussion instruments if possible.
IX
Percussive Patterns
Start
with Exercise VIII.
When
there are about eight different patterns, introduce instruments.
Ask
someone dependable to play the steady beat to keep everyone in time.
Run
through patterns again, this time ask the person clapping to choose a percussion
instrument to transfer the pattern to. Encourage them to use the instruments inventively.
When
a pattern is steady ask two or three others to join in with the same (or
complementary) instrument to join in.
When
everyone has an instrument and something to play, let the students decide what
order the patterns should be played, including how the piece should begin and
end.
X
Themed Composition
Choose
a theme, story, poem, etc.
Discuss
the chosen theme in as much detail as possible. Do not move onto working with the instruments until the
students have a firm plan for the order of events in their piece.
Ask
for suggestions for which parts of the theme would be most suitable for being
included in the piece of music.
Discuss
each suggestion asking how it might sound. Try to cover as many facets of the sound as is possible, for
example, will it be a loud sound, how will the volume change, will it last a
long time, what instrument might be appropriate, and so on.
When
someone makes a suggestion let them demonstrate their idea on the instrument of
their choice. Encourage students to
think ideas, not just instruments.
Wherever
possible encourage students to extend their ideas, perhaps by repeating them
turning them into patterns.
Ask
the students to place their musical ideas in the piece. For example, will idea number two follow idea number one, go
before it or happen at the same time?
If
the class seems to be getting impatient have each suggested idea played by more
than one person on similar sounding instruments.
The
group of people playing the one idea can be encouraged to divide the sound up
between them. Perhaps one person
can start and others can join in on each repeated occurrence.
Encourage
students to not always just except their first idea or sound but to use their
imaginations and come up with several ideas from which they can make an informed
choice.
Try as many offered suggestions as possible. Experimenting is an invaluable part of the music making possible.