Recently Pipes & Keys has been putting together ideas for things we could do at elementary school visits. It is a bit tricky because we are trying to create programs and activities that will engage the young audience, involve music for two flutes, and exhibit good use of materials in the time allotted. Playing for younger audiences can be especially challenging due to their general lack of attention span. Unlike in a recital, when playing music for children the program needs to be more interactive, unless you want the children to stop listening after the first five minutes.
So I read excerpts pertaining to such events in "The Savvy Musician" and "Beyond Talent". Both books gave the same general guidelines. For instance, consider using musical excerpts or shorter arrangements of the music so that attention is more easily maintained and the excerpts can be repeated and more easily facilitated in the performance. Only plan on a 30-45 minute presentation/performance, again for the attention span. Try interweaving other school subjects into your musical presentation: writing (or English, as it were), Math, Art, etc. Stick to one theme/concept for the whole presentation. You don't want to overwhelm them and, despite the most well thought out lesson plan, too many details will be just too much. I say this with experience as I taught Italian while working on my Masters degree. Even college kids can only handle so much information in 45 minutes.
As I thought about things Pipes & Keys could do, I tried to treat the whole affair as a call and response activity, or as interactive an experience as I could make it given the musical pieces I was considering. Here are a few of the ideas that I came up with:
A) We could play a piece, any piece, and ask the students to respond in some manner. It could be something as "serious" or "dense" as Bach's Partita and we could have them write a story while we play, or it could be as "fun" and "light" as RK's Flight of the Bumblebee and we could ask them what makes it sound like a bee. Is it the speed? The buzzing sound created by flighty half steps in constant eighth note rhythm? Is it the shape created by the melodic line? Or does it not sound like a bee at all to them? There is a chance that could be the case, especially if they have never heard it before and therefore don't associate the melody with a bee.
You could also take this time to give a brief, but fun, music history lesson on the composer of the piece you are playing and an introduction to the world they lived in when they composed the piece. There are fun music history books out there geared towards younger audiences. There are also theory books of the same mold. And there are also just hilarious books like "Bach, Beethoven, and the Boys". Seriously, just read the first page and if you aren't laughing then I am a bigger music nerd than I already thought.
B) We could play short excerpts of music from their favorite movies or play excerpts of Carnival of the Animals or Peter and the Wolf and introduce the idea of a musical motif. If we play music from, oh I don't know, How to Train Your Dragon, do the students associate a particular melody with a particular character, place, or event? After going through all the characters in Peter and the Wolf musically, can we tell the story, or even have them make up a story with those characters? Finally, at the end of the day, do the students understand what a motif is?
C) Using theory, we could make work sheets with rhythms written out, a string of varying lengths of notes and have them tell us the total beats. For example, they will see an eighth note, a quarter note, and a doted quarter note and they will add that up to equal three. This is basic math in a musical context. You can work on addition, fractions, greater/less than/equal to all while using musical notation. You can also write out rhythms, give them a time signature and have them insert bar lines. The possibilities are endless here. You can have them clap rhythms and play them yourself.
A) We could play a piece, any piece, and ask the students to respond in some manner. It could be something as "serious" or "dense" as Bach's Partita and we could have them write a story while we play, or it could be as "fun" and "light" as RK's Flight of the Bumblebee and we could ask them what makes it sound like a bee. Is it the speed? The buzzing sound created by flighty half steps in constant eighth note rhythm? Is it the shape created by the melodic line? Or does it not sound like a bee at all to them? There is a chance that could be the case, especially if they have never heard it before and therefore don't associate the melody with a bee.You could also take this time to give a brief, but fun, music history lesson on the composer of the piece you are playing and an introduction to the world they lived in when they composed the piece. There are fun music history books out there geared towards younger audiences. There are also theory books of the same mold. And there are also just hilarious books like "Bach, Beethoven, and the Boys". Seriously, just read the first page and if you aren't laughing then I am a bigger music nerd than I already thought.
B) We could play short excerpts of music from their favorite movies or play excerpts of Carnival of the Animals or Peter and the Wolf and introduce the idea of a musical motif. If we play music from, oh I don't know, How to Train Your Dragon, do the students associate a particular melody with a particular character, place, or event? After going through all the characters in Peter and the Wolf musically, can we tell the story, or even have them make up a story with those characters? Finally, at the end of the day, do the students understand what a motif is?C) Using theory, we could make work sheets with rhythms written out, a string of varying lengths of notes and have them tell us the total beats. For example, they will see an eighth note, a quarter note, and a doted quarter note and they will add that up to equal three. This is basic math in a musical context. You can work on addition, fractions, greater/less than/equal to all while using musical notation. You can also write out rhythms, give them a time signature and have them insert bar lines. The possibilities are endless here. You can have them clap rhythms and play them yourself.
D) In relation to the above mentioned idea, we could delve into simple composition as well. You would have to teach them the range of your instrument -- not a bad idea -- and if you're feeling up to it and you play multiple instruments, you can emphasize the fact that not all instruments have the same range. At any rate, the composition can come into play by you giving them pre-written rhythms that they can copy and to which they can merely add pitches. If you want to be extra crafty, give them famous rhythms they might not recognize without the proper pitches, Beethoven's 5th for example. The kids will have fun hearing what they composed played out loud and it might inspire them to go home and compose some more. Think about it, you may inspire a future composer in 30 minutes of playing!
It seems like the possibilities are endless. Plus, it will be fun and we can leave them some fun music related puzzles or activities for them to take home. I loved doing music math, and using note names to finish stories when I was younger (see example below). Actually, I still do. That shouldn't come as a shock considering I got my degrees in music. Why would I take music theory and history classes unless I enjoy it? And now that I have a plethora of music stickers I feel more than ready to go out into the young educational community and participate in the simple joys of music making!
Do you have more ideas on how to engage a young audience? I would love to hear them as well as hear about your experiences in the elementary classroom! Teach on, my friends. :)
It seems like the possibilities are endless. Plus, it will be fun and we can leave them some fun music related puzzles or activities for them to take home. I loved doing music math, and using note names to finish stories when I was younger (see example below). Actually, I still do. That shouldn't come as a shock considering I got my degrees in music. Why would I take music theory and history classes unless I enjoy it? And now that I have a plethora of music stickers I feel more than ready to go out into the young educational community and participate in the simple joys of music making!
Do you have more ideas on how to engage a young audience? I would love to hear them as well as hear about your experiences in the elementary classroom! Teach on, my friends. :)
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