Christmas Update

Merry Christmas everyone!  It seems that my last post was made October 15th.  Well, I'm still here, and I've been busy working on two large projects, both of which will be ready for release soon.  One will be a surprise, the other is that I have been recording "Mother Play" with a good friend of mine.

"Mother Play" was written by Fredrich Froebel, who invented Kindergarten.  The music is charming, with an "art song" feel to it.  The original music consisted of unaccompanied duets which many teachers found hard to implement into their curriculum.  The book was widely distributed, but rarely used.  This is unfortunate as Froebel himself considered the music, and especially the moral lessons which accompany them, to be his crowning achievement.


In an effort to make the lessons more musically accessible, a new book, "The songs and music of Friedrich Froebel's Mother play", was published in English in 1895.  These songs have piano accompaniments, and we loved them so much that we decided to record them too.  Watch for our release soon!


Part of this project has been to make these Public Domain files more accessible.  Today I compiled information for the first song, "Play with the Limbs."  More updates will soon follow.

See the "Mother Play" page here.

Rainbow Castle for the international crowd

Recently one of my reviewers in Germany told me that she loved the Rainbow Castle game, which is part of "Beginning Rhythm", except that she could not use it  with her child because Germany uses a different notation system than America.  I forgot to compensate for that when I made the game.  In Northern and Central Europe, there is a variation of using the letter "H" to represent the white note below "C".  ("B" is the black note right below it.)  It was this notation system that Bach used to sign his name into many of his compositions with the notes "B-A-C-H."

In countries that use fixed do, the note names are simply 'Do', 'Re', 'Mi', 'Fa', 'So', 'La', and 'Si'."

I have now updated the "Beginning Rhythm" program to include game boards that accommodate these notation systems, as well as game boards for solfege with "Ti".

You can download international gameboards here for free.

For the entire game with the playing cards, I refer you to "Beginning Rhythm."  I have mostly added these files as an update for those who already have the game.

Rhythm Guessing Game

Perhaps I have been watching a little too much Sesame Street with my children...

In this video, we play a rhythm "guessing game", where a rhythm is spoken, and the student "guesses" where a certain rhythmic element is.  It's a listening exercise.  Watch this video with your student or child...

There are many applications for this kind of game.  As shown, it is best for the younger beginning student.  An older child, even if a beginner, may tire of it quickly.  Here are some extension activities to keep them engaged:

• Notate the whole measure with rhythm sticks or note cards.
• Mix and match different rhythmic elements, as in the last example, to make the game more challenging.
• Don't tell them what rhythmic elements you are going to use.  Make them guess!
• Have the child create a measure for you to guess.  (A memory game in and of itself.  Kids often do better than adults!)
• Rather than clap the rhythm, play it on a percussion instrument.
• Do longer sequences.

If you are interested in the templates used in the video, they are part of the Beginning Rhythm package, but you can easily make your own rhythm cards by hand on index cards.  You can also use Popsicle sticks or coffee straws for stick notation.  Just do it, and have fun!

So what's this comunnity tab at the top?

Ah yes, that tab that has sat dormant all summer while I worked on the e-book.  Well, it's an experiment.  I want a chance to get to know my readers, and for you to be able to get to know each other.  In short, a forum.

There are many ways to contact me, such as commenting on a post, commenting on facebook, and personal e-mail.  Those options will always be there, and I will try to answer questions any way that you feel comfortable with.

However, to get feedback from several people, and to start your own topic, you need a forum.

Why Blog Frog?  Well, for one, it's free for me on my end.  (I'm cheap.)  But more than that, I love how Blog Frog gives you a chance to promote your own blog while participating in other forums.  By being a member of a community, your most recent posts will show up.  When you comment, people have the option of seeing who you are and what your blog is.  That is, if you are into that kind of a thing.  You can also create an anonymous profile linking to no blog at all.  There are options.

Here are the first two discussions:

Getting Started

Getting to know you

Below is Blog Frog's standard tour video to give you an idea of what it is all about.

The music of life

Music is everywhere.  We hear it all the time, but finding it is the challenge.  Music is defined by thefreedictionary.com as

mu·sic ( n.)

1. The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.

2. Vocal or instrumental sounds possessing a degree of melody, harmony, or rhythm.

3.

           a. A musical composition.

           b. The written or printed score for such a composition.

           c. Such scores considered as a group: We keep our music in a stack near the piano.

4. A musical accompaniment.

5. A particular category or kind of music.

6. An aesthetically pleasing or harmonious sound or combination of sounds: the music of the wind in the pines.

Today's I want to emphasize number six.

One of my favorite experiences in my 20th century music class was the day we took a break from the textbooks and went on a "field trip."  We were instructed not to talk, but only to listen as we followed our instructor.  Where did we go?  We walked out of the classroom, past all of the practice rooms, and outside.  We walked past the gardens surrounding the building, and around the sidewalk by the road.  Finally we re-traced our steps and went back to our classroom.

What did we hear?  Among other things:

• Footsteps
• People breathing
• Doors opening and closing
• Professors teaching students
• Students practicing
• The wind
• Birds chirping
• Cars driving
• People talking

What was the form of the "unique musical composition" that we had just heard?  Many possible suggestions were validated by the professor.  The underlying theme that was heard throughout the "piece" was footsteps.  One student wore flip-flops that day, and to her embarrassment, but the edification of all, the steady beat of her walking was considered by some to be the pulse of our number.

May I suggest that you do a "sound walk" with your students?  Preface it by telling them that they are going to hear a musical number that no-one has ever heard before, and will never hear again.  As a parent, you have the luxury of trying it in several places.  Take a minute here or there to say "It's sound walk time."  It may be at the grocery store, on a nature walk, driving with the windows rolled down, or walking through your neighborhood.  When they are done, they can draw a picture of what they heard, or of what made the sounds that they heard.

In a busy place, you can play the game, "I hear with my little ear..." (an alternative to eye spy).  "I hear with my little ear the humming of a machine."  "Its it the air conditioner?" "No."  "Is it the elevator?"  "Yes!"

Music can also be made with anything.  My favorite percussion group is "Stomp!"  They are world-class musicians that make music out of ordinary things, from basketballs bouncing, playing cards, and dicing cucumbers.  I have shown excerpts of Stomp Out Loud to my students many times.  Recently I discovered that they partnered up with Seasame Street to make a DVD called "Let's Make Music", which I love and highly recommend for the little ones.  Your local library may have it.  Here's a little trailer.


What is the take-home message of this post?  Find ways to discover music in your everyday life, and encourage your children to do the same.  Get out the kitchen pots and pans and experiment with the different sounds that they make.  Does a metal bowl sound better when you hit it with a wooden spoon, or a metal one?  When you are driving in the rain, point out the steady beat that the windshield wipers make.  Slap your hands on the wall and have some fun.  Take time to listen.  You don't have to go to the symphony to hear and experience live music.

Egyptian Pyramid

This is a fun little printable to teach your student/child the rhythm pyramid.  The rhythm pyramid shows several notes in layers that all have the same time value.  A whole note has the same time value as two half notes.  Two half notes have the same time value as four quarter notes, and four quarter notes have the same value as eight eighth notes.  Each level of the pyramid has the same time value, but there are fewer notes on every level.  That's the rhythm pyramid.

My children are learning about Egypt this week, and so I made this printable to coincide with our lessens.  The bottom half is the puzzle base, and the top half are cards meant to be cut out.  You can laminate the sheet and use it again and again, or you can print it on cheaper paper, and have the children cut and paste the cards into the puzzle.

Have fun!

Egyptian Pyramid

Beginning Rhythm e-book- NEW RELEASE!!

Welcome to “Beginning Rhythm”, a e-program designed to help you teach rhythm to musical beginners of all ages.  Here is what you will find in the program:

(view on the web to see the videos if you are receiving this as an e-mail)

The promotional price is $10.00

Includes all contents of the original “Beginning Rhythm for Preschoolers” released in 2010, and has been updated to include more time signatures, more notes and note combinations, and a 35-page instructional e-book, “Beginning Rhythm”.

The printables in this version have been separated from the e-book for easier reading, and are contained in separate files.  No resizing should be necessary, check your printer settings before printing.  This is the highlight of the whole program, and has already been successfully used with many beginning music students.  I hope you enjoy it!

Rhythm Bingo

Rhythm Bingo comes with one master sheet (the same printable as the “rhythm reference sheet” in “I’ve Got Rhythm), and 15 individual bingo cards.  They should already be sized to fit your printer.  Here are a few things that you can do with the bingo cards: 

• Play the rhythms left to right as a sight-reading exercise
• Cover all notes except one column and tell your student that you are going to play one of the rhythms and let them tell you which one you played.
• Play bingo!
•  Try three different levels for your students, Easiest: Rhythm solfege.  Medium:  Clapping or percussion instrument, Hardest:  Say and Play

Measure Cards

There are a myriad of ways that you can use these 133 measures of printouts.  There are three sizes, full letter sizes, ¼ of that, and again, ¼ of the medium sized ones.  The large sized cards are best for classroom use, as well as for very young children.  The medium cards are best for young children in studio use.  The small ones are nice for a travel bag, older students, and puzzle exercises.  There are 56 cards for 4/4 meter (which coincide with “I’ve got rhythm” and “Bingo”), available with or without numbers.  There are 33 cards for 3/4 meter, and 50 for 6/8 meter.  Each is available individually if you want to single out a measure for specific use, or in a bulk file if you want to just print them all out.  Be prepared for a lot of printing!  Here are just a few ways that you can use these cards: 

•      Flashcards
•      Printout (or separate from your stack) individual measures that coincide with a song that you want to teach to help students isolate a tricky rhythm. 
•  Give several students one card each.  Have them stand in a circle and say their respective measure.  Then play this game:  One student says somebody else’s rhythm in the circle.  That person has to recognize that the rhythm notated was theirs, and they in turn will say a new person’s rhythm.  If the person saying the rhythm says it incorrectly, they are out.  If a person fails to recognize their own rhythm when it is spoken correctly, they are also out.  Last two players win.  (This game is especially tricky when played with 3/4 and 6/8 cards played at the same time.  Call the game “Syncopation!”) 
•  Printout an extra copy of the time signatures in “I’ve got rhythm”.  Laminate them, and have the student match the time signature with the measure cards.  (This exercise involves the combined use of all meters.  Note that none of these measure cards are in 2/4) 
•  Use as a puzzle to put together the first few measures of a song.  Speak or clap the rhythm.

Nursery Rhymes

The nursery rhymes are as follows:

In 2/4,

Mary had a little lamb

Rain, Rain, Go Away

3/4,

America

Lavender Blue

4/4,

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Ring Around the Rosies (which can also be correctly notated in 6/8, as the eighth notes are often swung.)

6/8

Hickory Dickory Dock

Humpty Dumpty

Rainbow Castle Manipulatives-  Bonus Material!

See instructions here:

http://www.teaching-children-music.com/2011/03/rainbow-castle.html

Matching game information here:

http://www.teaching-children-music.com/2011/03/rainbow-matching-game.html

The promotional price is $10.00