I'm starting to ease into Halloween themed lessons now, and I had a lot of success with this Rhythm Monsters activity today. My first graders have been preparing half notes for a few weeks and this was the first time they saw it and had practice writing it down. For the rhythm monsters lesson, I created this page with 20 different rhythm examples. I'll be honest: the rhythm content really had NOTHING to do with monsters. All I did was put a picture of a monster above each rhythm example and the students were hooked right away. I had each student select four cards and practice clapping/reading their pattern, and then copy it onto their worksheet. I like this activity because the students are being eased into the concept of composition. They are still making aesthetic decisions regarding what order to put their monsters, but without all the stress that comes with having to create rhythms from scratch. Click here to download the entire lesson (includes SmartNotebook file, worksheet, and monster cards) for free!
This worksheet is great for introducing the names of musical instruments. I like to give it to my students to see how many they already know (often it's more than they think!) before discussing the correct answers. Another good option is to put all the instrument names on sticky notes and post them around the room for the students to find. - ESL worksheets
Exercice ludique à imprimer, relier les musiciens aux instruments de musique qui correspondent.
by Hannah Hoyt Doe, a deer, a female deer, Ray, a spot of golden sun, Me, a name I call myself, Far, a long, long way to run... Sew, a needle pulling thread, La, a note to follow Sew, Tea, a drink with jam and bread, That will bring us back to Doe. Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do -- so, do! When I was growing up, I always struggled with music theory. I had a learning disability in math, and there just seemed to be an impenetrable barrier between me and the advanced mathematics behind how music theory worked. And it is hard. There are scales, chords, key signatures, and time signatures, beyond that there are melodic and harmonic minor scales, strange chords like the N6, Dominant 7, the tritone, picardy third, polychords and polyrhythms, it just makes your head spin! I heard my friends talk about these things, and felt like they were equations of Advanced Calculus beyond my understanding. Music theory was impossible for me to understand until I learned it through solfege. Suddenly the world made sense. I had the building blocks to understand whatever weird chord or scale I saw. My understanding of music skyrocketed and I grew enormously as a musician: composing, transcribing, arranging, improvising, sight-reading better than I ever had before. But despite its reputation for being the ABCs of music, there is not much public information on solfege available. Almost everyone has been introduced to solfege through Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music.” She says it’s the musical ABCs. But unlike ABCs, music is made up of half steps and whole steps, changing patterns depending on what scale is being used. In “The Sound of Music,” the children learn a basic major scale: Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do But this scale is not a bunch of whole steps. It is whole steps mixed with halfs. There is a half step between Mi and Fa, and between Ti and Do. In fact, that Ti NEEDS to be a half step so our ears can hear the note and WANT it to travel upwards a tiny bit to finish the scale and become Do. It’s how a major scale works. You can see (and hear) this best on a piano: But solfege can be used not only in a major scale but other scales as well. Each solfege syllable can move a half step lower or higher. The common vowel for a syllable that’s been lowered by half a step is an ‘e’. Like “Me, Le, Te, Fe.” So how do you sing a minor scale? A natural minor scale, involves moving the 3rd , 6th, and 7th notes down a half step. So instead of Mi, you sing Me. Instead of La, you sing Le, and instead of Ti, it’s Te. Do Re Me Fa Sol Le Te Do 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8 Before we called a scale a scale, it had another name. The Greeks called scales “modes” and had seven of them that musicians still use today. Each of these modes have their own solfege syllables to remember them by. We already know Ionian. Here is it’s closest relative, the Lydian scale. Do Re Mi Fi Sol La Ti Do 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 8 See, it’s JUST like a major scale, except for ONE note. You move Fa up a half step, and sing “Fi.” Because the 4th note in the scale is sharp, I place it ABOVE a normal major scale (Ionian) in the list of modes. The other modes use flat notes. Here is a list of them all, as well as the notes that are altered: Lydian Do Re Mi Fi Sol La Ti Do 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 8 If you go to the piano and play this, you’ll notice it sounds like a 90s film score. Like Titanic, “Back to the Future,” or "E. T.” The raised 4th brings a sense of comfort and beauty. To me, it brings more inner peace than an Ionian major scale. This is why composers like James Horner used it to give a sense of childlike innocence and safety in kids movies like “An American Tail,” and “Balto.” I know you're confused right now, but read the article through a couple of times. You'll catch on! Ionian Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do (a normal “major scale”) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 This is the scale everyone learned in “The Sound of Music.” Notice how I left the numbers at the bottom alone, because these are our default “scale degrees.” Mixolydian Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Te Do 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 8 Te is a useful syllable in an otherwise major scale. If you use the notes Do Mi Sol Te (instead of Ti) in a chord, you get a perfect barbershop 7th chord. This is called a Dominant 7th Chord, and is an essential part of music theory. (Actually, all atoms vibrate the notes Do Mi Sol Te. Your atoms do too. It is theorized that if atoms vibrated the note Ti instead of Te, something weird would happen like they would explode or disappear or something. So this chord holds the universe together. No big.) Dorian Do Re Me Fa Sol La Te Do 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 8 Just like our normal major and minor scales go together, Lydian has a minor scale to go with its major one: Dorian. Dorian is like a natural minor scale without a flat 6 scale degree. That “La” in a Dorian mode is just as beautiful as the “Fi” in the Lydian mode. (would it blow your mind to know they are the SAME NOTE? Start on the note Me as your 1, and work your way up on the piano, There is La, the #4.) Dorian is the scale used in Ralph Vaughn-Williams’ “Fantasia on Greensleeves.” Listen to the piece and see if you can hear the La instead of Le. Aeolian Do Re Me Fa Sol Le Te Do 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8 Aeolian is the name of the natural minor scale that you’re used to. Like Dorian is related to Lydian, Aeolian is related to Ionian (our natural major) in the same way. Use Me as your 1, again, and travel up on the piano. You’ll find 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are all normal like a major scale. This is because all minor scales start three notes below their major scale counterparts. Some teachers like to teach solfege using a “fixed do” system, meaning that your Do stays the same and you start a minor scale 3 notes below that on La. A fixed Do minor scale will go: La Ti Do Re Mi Fa Sol La. Phrygian Do Ra Me Fa Sol Le Te Do 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8 Phrygian is an Aeolian (natural minor) scale with its 2nd note flatted. This makes it sound a little gypsy like. It can also make for a really cool theme in a film score. The “Men in Black” main theme by Danny Elfman is in Phrygian, as is the track “Nice to Meld You,” from Michael Giacchino’s “Star Trek” score. Locrian Do Ra Me Fa Se Le Te Do 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7 8 No one ever uses Locrian. The addition of a b5 to a scale that already has a b2, b3, b6, and a 7b makes it sound very unstable, like it could collapse into random dissonance and tone clusters at any minute. Sorry Locrian, but no one likes you. Now that a whole new world of musical possibilities has been opened up to you, lets try solfeging something a little more complicated than Do Re Mi. You can use the piano to help you out. How about the theme to “Men in Black” that I talked about earlier? Do Do Ra Ra Do Do Ra Ra Do Do Me Me Re Re Ra Ra (it just repeats like that.) That was in Phrygian. How about something in Lydian, with the #4? Do Fi Sol Do Fi Sol La Fi Sol La Fi Sol Recognize it? Now you can solfege West Side Story! How about Dorian? Do Me Fa Sol La Sol Fa Re Te Do Re Me Do Do Te Do Re Te Sol… This is probably pretty difficult right now since you JUST learned all these new syllables. Don’t worry about it, I had to take 4 semesters of Ear Training at Berklee to get all these modes and syllables in my head! It’s all a matter of practice. But hopefully now you see how solfege really is an alphabetical tool in the language of music, and how it can be used to understand complicated things like different scales and complex chords. I hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into the world of musicians and composers, and that it wasn’t too confusing. This topic can be really hard to explain, especially on paper. But I encourage you to try this stuff out. Find out which mode is your favorite (Lydian is mine, and my husband’s is Dorian.) And explore the new world of music at your fingertips! ~Hannah Hoyt As an afterthought, yes, there are hand signals that go with each solfege syllable, but I’ve only learned the ones in Ionian. The hand signals are fun and useful when trying to visualize each sound, but as a person struggling with dyslexia, they’ve been pretty confusing and hard to deal with as well. If you do want to learn them, though, scroll back up to the beginning of this article and look to your right. There's a link to Kodaly's "Hand Signs" book there and a couple of other music books Charlotte Mason recommended, too. Don't forget to click on the highlighted words and listen to all the great music in different modes!
Don’t miss out on one of our favorite toys for targeting all kinds of developmental skills...while making music!
Kirka Babitzinin muisto ei himmene.
Looking for a composing activity for your youngest learners? This set is perfect for early readers or pre-readers. In this activity students take body percussion cards and place them in a music grid to compose a body percussion song. Included in this 25 page kit: -Music Grid -Body Percussion cards (16 to a sheet) in color and in black and white in both one sound per beat and two sounds per beat -quarter rest cards to coordinate with the body percussion cards -a sign for use at a workstation -a task for use at a workstation A variety of skin tones are used in the body percussion cards. Buy this as part of the Body Percussion Bundle and save 20%!
3rd grade classes have been learning how music and math are very closely related! I used pizza fractions to illustrate how the music notes got their names. I also used this as a way to introduce the 16th notes which they will be learning about next year in 4th grade. I made this felt pizza my first year of teaching (9 years ago) and it has held up pretty well! I handed out the pizza slices and had the students take turns coming up to help build the pizza. As they created each layer, we talked about that note, its value, and its equivalent fraction. Next, I taught this song called "Pizza Rondo" (written by J.R. Fretz) and we added Orff accompaniment. Then, we created contrasting sections using these poems that go along with each layer of the pizza. We combined all of these parts and put together a performance for their teachers! Our principal even got to come see one of them. :) I chose a few students to perform on instruments and the other students created the layers on the pizza as we performed the poems in Rondo form: Our finished product: Update: Here is a copy of the melody and Orff Arrangement. So many of you have been asking and I haven't been able to locate a copy of this song elsewhere for purchase so I think I am safe posting this. Let me know otherwise. :)
Finally! The Taxonomy of my Music is complete! While I’m working on my Digital Art assignments I enjoy watching my favorite TV shows. I bring this up to help you get a sense for how long it t…
El lugar para cada instrumentista. Las orquestas típicas, los conjuntos folklóricos, las bandas de jazz o las de rock tienen ordenamientos casi fijos sobre el escenario. Las orquestas sinfónicas, también. Aunque presentan algunas variantes, se ajustan a ciertas ideas esenciales como la que prescribe que ningún instrumento de sonoridad escasa…
My district is one that is implementing Student Learning Objectives...which are basically large-scale goals for each student in class based on their ability levels. Teachers have to set target scores/learning outcomes for lower level learners to higher level learners. That means there has to be some sort of pre-assessment in order to determine the level of the students. I really have struggled in attempting to create pre-assessments for orchestra. It has been hard to wrap my head around giving a test to see what I know students don't know yet...since I haven't taught the skill, yet. Anyway, I am focusing my learning objective on rhythm. I want to be sure my students are fluent note-readers and rhythm readers. For my pre-test, I will use the 'I Got Rhythm' form that I created. This can be used many different ways and can be a useful tool in a variety of rhythm exercises. For my pre-assessment, I will perform the rhythm from one box on each line...and I will have students circle the rhythm that they think I played. This will help me see if students are already recognizing these rhythms. The rhythms get progressively more difficult as you move down the page, so I will be able to set some learning targets for individual students. Eventually of course, students will demonstrate the ability to perform these rhythms on their own - by the end of year 1. I can also use this form as a rhythm exercise...students can perform the rhythms across and down each line. They can cut them up to make flashcards. You can use the different rhythms for warm-ups and scales.
Reading music notes means understanding the value of each note (that is, how long each note lasts) and how notes fit together in sheet music. To know how to rea
Exercice ludique à imprimer, relier les musiciens aux instruments de musique qui correspondent.
Download this HD wallpaper of Music Festival Musical Note Line Background. You can download more Music Festival Musical Note Line Background, Music Festival, Notes, Lines wallpaper photos for totally free and use as phone wallpapers. | 1069178
An introduction to the basic dynamic (volume) terms and definitions. Plus a great picture to remember it all! Download the free PDF to test yourself and write all the terms on. Or stick on your wal…
Fishy Rhythm Matching Cards My beginning student wanted to play the fishing game, so I made some rhythm flash cards for him. He had not learned rests yet, but after playing this game, now he knows …
