Hand Drums, Rhythm Sticks and Other Untuned Percussion

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Hand Drums, Rhythm Sticks and Other Untuned Percussion New Jersey Music Education Association Thursday, February 22, 2018 11:00 12:15 Roger Sams Director of

1 Hand Drums, Rhythm Sticks and Other Untuned Percussion New Jersey Music Education Association Thursday, February 22, :00 12:15 Roger Sams Director of Publications and Music Education Consultant at Music Is Elementary 5228 Mayfield Rd. Cleveland, OH (800)

2 Mince Pie Fly from Purposeful Pathways, Book 1 Used with Permission PATHWAY to RHYTHM: Kinesthetically setting up 4, h, $ Begin with students in scattered space. Play the steady beat on the HD and ask the students to keep the beat in their feet, stationary first then locomotor. When the pulse has been established, speak the poem. Ask the students what Nellie Bly is doing in the poem. Students walk like Nellie on the beat. When the drum stops (on beat 8 of each phrase), the students stop traveling. Invite them to catch a fly during the space (which they haven t yet labeled as a rest). Add traveling the eighth note. Extract patterns from the poem, for the class to echo, example: h h 4 $ h h 4 $ teacher on drum students move rhythm in feet PATHWAY to LITERACY: Discover the rest Model the rhyme, while tracking the steady beat with the fly icons. Which fly did we catch? That fly becomes a quarter rest. PATHWAY to PARTWORK: 4, h, $ Students read rhythm. Add text. Teacher creates ostinato using icons, fly $, fly $, mince pie, fly $. Half the class on poem. Half on ostinato. Transfer to UTP. - Poem on woodblock. - Ostinato on hand drum. $

3 PATHWAY to COMPOSITION: Composing with icons Individual work with rhythmic building blocks -- icon cards (mince pie, fly). Create ostinati by selecting and arranging four cards. Students travel around the room performing the ostinati that were created by their classmates and discovering those who created the same patterns. (May be done after writing notation on cards.) Cluster with those who wrote the same ostinato and practice as an ensemble. Listen to all of the ostinati performed with the rest of the class on the poem. Perform on UTP, if time permits.

4 Play the Woodblock from Percussive Play, by Roger Sams and Michael Vasquez Used with Permission Prepare the students by leading 4-beat echo patterns on wood block or rhythm sticks. Students read the rhythm of the song. Add text and recite as poem. Teach the song by rote. (The students that I do this lesson with don t yet have the solfa skills to read this melody.) Perform in ABA form, with 4-beat echo patterns as the B Section. Turn into a Grand Rondo, with students leading the echo patterns. Working from a grid with four rows of four blanks (each blank representing one beat) the class composes a four-motive wood block composition. Perform this new composition in ABA form with the song. Small groups compose their own four motive composition for the UTP instrument of their choice. Perform in a Grand Rondo. Consider pairing up compositions. Rotate students around the room, so they are reading the composition of other students. Go To Bed, Tom! from Percussive Play, by Roger Sams and Michael Vasquez Used with Permission PATHWAY TO Rhythm: 4-beat echo patterns in compound meter Lead 4-beat echo patterns in compound meter, using only e, 4., and $. Speak the rhythm syllables as you clap the patterns. Ask the students to say the rhythm syllables as they echo the patterns. Repeat. This time do not say the rhythm syllables as you clap the patterns. Ask the students to decode the patterns and say the rhythm syllables as they echo clap.

5 PATHWAY TO Literacy: Compound meter using e 4. $. Students read the rhythm of the rhyme, saying rhythm syllables. Students add text to the rhythm of the rhyme. PATHWAY TO Partwork: Rhyme with BP transferred to UTP Perform the BP ostinato. Ask the students to watch the pattern at least three times and join you when they ve got it figured out. Divide the class in half. Half performs the BP ostinato. Half performs the rhythm. Trade jobs. ADVANCED CHALLENGE: Ask the students to perform both parts. Always establish the ostinato before beginning the rhyme.

6 Transfer the BP to tubano or conga. Keep the clap. Play a low bass sound in the center of the drum on beat 1, then a clap on beat 2, then play beats 3 and 4 of the ostinato as higher pitched tones on the edge of the drum, saying, bass, clap, tone, tone, tone, tone. Put drum/clap ostinato together with the rhyme. Rotate the students through the drumming part, so that all have a turn playing. Add triangle or finger cymbals on the two rests at the end of every a motive. Transfer the rhythm of the rhyme to rhythm sticks or wood blocks. PATHWAY TO Composition: Creating contrasting sections by making excuses Students perform a motivic analysis of the rhyme, discovering that the form is a a b a. Ask the students to notate the rhythm of the b motive. (four dotted quarter notes) Give the b motive a new text to the same rhythm, I m not sleepy. Model speaking this new rhyme, using the same a a b a form.

7 Divide the class in half and perform in ABA form. The parents tell the children to go to bed (the A Section) and the children protest (the B Section). Trade parts. Repeat ABA form, but this time each group performs the BP ostinato, while the other half the class says their rhyme. ADVANCED CHALLENGE: Have each group perform the BP ostinato and their rhyme at the same time. Brainstorm ways in which small children avoid going to bed: o Bathroom o Drink of water o Read a story o I m afraid o Too hot/too cold o Blanket is scratchy o Any others? Divide the students into small groups. Each group creates their own excuse rhyme in a a b a motivic form. The b motive stays the same; I m not sleepy. Remind the students that their a motive must be four beats long. DRAMATIC PLAY: Groups select one of the following personalities and create a dramatic movement interpretation of their B Section. o A baby o Shy o A child who is trying to get their way by being cute o Silly o Stubborn o Soft spoken or whispering o Sulking o Perform in a Grand Rondo, with the parents being the recurring A Section and small groups of children performing their excuses as contrasting sections. A Swarm of Bees from Percussive Play, by Roger Sams and Michael Vasquez Used with Permission PATHWAY TO COMPOUND METER: Experience through movement Students skip around the room while you play the subdivision on a drum.

8 Students alternate between skipping four beats and freezing. Let the students become comfortable with this pattern. Then, change the frozen section to a push and/or pull that is sustained over four beats. Students can also be challenged to use various body parts to push and pull in different directions ( i.e. elbows, wrists, head, shoulders). PATHWAY TO POETRY: Learning the rhyme by rote Say the rhyme for the students and ask them to listen for the meaning of the rhyme. Have a conversation about why a swarm of bees might bring value (a load of hay or a silver spoon) and why the value would change over time. Discuss how bees pollinate our crops and timing is important. July is too late to pollinate for the harvest, while June is prime pollination time. Say the rhyme again and ask the students to take note of the changing value of the swarms, depending on the month. This time, say the first two measures of each line and ask the students to respond by saying the value of each swarm (the second two measures of each line). Students speak the entire rhyme with you. Students speak the rhyme without teacher support. If your students are capable of reading these rhythms (Have you introduced the concept of anacrusis?) you may wish to revisit this rhyme on a second day, but encounter it through rhythmic reading. Although, sometimes you may prefer to build the rhythmic skills in the students bodies without moving toward literacy and rhythm reading.

9 PATHWAY TO POETRY: Part-Work (Ostinato with rhyme) Perform the body percussion ostinato. Ask the students to watch it at least three times and then join you when they have it figured out. Lead the students in notating the rhythm of the BP (body percussion) ostinato. Students perform the BP ostinato. Once it is established you speak the rhyme. Trade parts. Divide the class in half. Half performs the BP ostinato. Half performs the rhyme. Trade parts. When the students know both parts well, see if they can perform both parts at the same time. Be sure to establish the BP ostinato before the rhyme begins. Transfer the BP rhyme to three voices of untuned percussion. Snap transfers to triangle or other high pitched instruments. Clap transfers to hand drum. Pat transfers to tubano or some other instrument that you play with alternating hands. Combine UTP (untuned percussion) ostinato with the rhyme. Consider transferring the rhythm of the rhyme to rhythm sticks, creating an untuned percussion ensemble. PATHWAY TO IMPROVISATION: Rhythms to be completed Model the improvisation structure for the students, counting to four or clicking the tongue four times during the last two measures. Repeat the pattern three times, reflecting the three-phrase structure of the rhyme.

10 Ask the students to join you in speaking the improvisation structure. Ask the students to speak the improvisation structure. Model patting improvisation during the four beats of rest. Students speak for four beats and then perform patting improvisations for four beats. Perform with the rhyme in ABA form, with the rhyme being the A Section and the improvisation structure being the B Section. Now, demonstrate clapping the rhythm of the words and then improvising with patting for the second half of the phrase. Students clap the first half of the phrase (the set part) and then improvise with patting to complete each phrase. Consider transferring to untuned percussion instruments.

Percussive Play: Building Rhythmic Skills Through Partwork, Poetry, and Movement

Percussive Play: Building Rhythmic Skills Through Partwork, Poetry, and Movement IMEA General Music Workshop August 26, 2017 Roger Sams Director of Publications and Music Education Consultant at Music