dancepulse

Every level has fun with percussion, but the 5th graders have control and can actually listen to each other! [This summary is pretty sketchy — if you want more details, just ask!]

By 5th grade, our 2-week session on Music for Dancers focuses on ensemble playing, from warm-ups through songs.

Vocabulary & concepts: note values, timbre, melody, presto, allegro, adagio, dynamics, accents, solo & ensemble

Skills: making rhythmic patterns with voice & percussion, changing tempo, using pitch, creating silences, etiquette around instruments, taking turns & working in ensemble, hearing & using contrast in dynamics, creating & reading rhythmic patterns

Ensembles: Various songs & structures, both composed & improvisational, including Echo with student leaders, the “I’m a Percussionist” chant, Sansa Kroma (a stick-passing rhythm game from Africa, with multi-part percussion accompaniment), Concentration, Rhythms & Rests, Circle Beat [see Music for 3rd & 4th Graders, previous blog], and a song or 2 such as Take Time in Life or Everybody Loves Saturday Night, with percussion accompaniment.

Highlights throughout the 2-week session:

Body percussion, with the help of Keith Terry

Instrument picture file sort, classifying musical instruments by sound production or examining the orchestra seating conventions — and where percussion fits in with those.

Vocabulary assessment, using “I’m a Percussionist”

Lots of drums & supporting percussion, with students changing places frequently in order to learn all the parts of each structure or song

Resources I couldn’t live without:

D.R.U.M. Discipline, Respect, and Unity through Music by Jim Solomon. Belwin-Mills Publishing, 1998.

World Music Drumming: A Cross-Cultural Curriculum by Will Schmid. Hal Leonard Corporation, 1998.

Geoff Johns — cross-cultural percussionist who taught me a LOT during his few weeks of residency at my school years ago!

Action Songs Children Love, Volume 3: Grade 2-5 by Denise Gagne. Themes & Variations, 2000.

Body Music, by Keith Terry. A 2-volume set of DVDs. The first volume keeps us busy.

The chant I use for assessing and front-loading vocabulary (GLAD technique — that’s Guided Language Acquisition Design):

I’m a Percussionist

by Meg Mahoney, copyright 2008

Note: With English language learners, a major goal of the chant is to practice the rhythm of the language, which is why the accent words are underlined.

I’m a percussionist, and I’m here to say
I’m the heartbeat of the music every day.
In a musical ensemble, I am the base.
I keep the beat, and I set a steady pace.

Shake it, hit it, give it a tap –
That’s percussion – Clap! Slap!

I keep the beat, steady and strong.
Sometimes I play a rhythm just to vary the song.
I can play percussion with my hands and feet.
Just add a melody to make the music complete.

Strike it, scrape it, give it a tap –
That’s percussion – Clap! Slap!

Maraca or cabasa – each has a special sound.
If you can hear the difference, that’s timbre, I’ve found.
Sometimes I play the quinto, sometimes the tumbao,
I’ll play any instrument that I know how.

Shake it, hit it, give it a tap –
That’s percussion – Clap! Slap!

The tempo may be fast, medium or slow.
That’s presto, allegro, and adagio.
Sometimes the sound is gentle, sometimes I play with force.
Dynamics like that have emotion as their source.

Strike it, scrape it, give it a tap –
That’s percussion – Clap! Slap!

I’m a percussionist, and I’m here to say
I’m the backbone of the music every day.
If you want to play percussion, just take a chance…
Let the beat take over, and make everybody dance.

Shake it, hit it, give it a tap –
That’s percussion – Clap! Slap!