I worked with the sixth graders today on rhythm improvisation and composition with a bit of performance thrown in, while tomorrow's mini-lesson will focus on composition and performance.
First, Lizzy gave me the power of her iPod and speakers to do some finding the beat and practice rhythms with the kids. The whole activity is very physical, and the students really start to wake up if it's a song they like and they see you enjoying it as well! First we nod our heads to find the beat, then we step side-to-side on the beat (right-touch-left-touch). Next we find micro- and macro-beats with our hands, either swaying for whole or half notes, or tapping our breastbone for quarter and eighth notes.
After we do some movement and get the beat in our bodies, the teacher holds up rhythm cards and the students step to the quarter note while performing the written rhythms.
Honestly, this is probably my new favorite activity. Lizzy does this with her choirs as well as her sixth graders, and it clearly improves their sight-reading. I think this is something every choir would benefit from, if only to loosen tension and to remember music is something to move to.
The next part of my particular mini-lesson involved call-and-response rhythms: I performed a measure of rhythm, the students would repeat it back to me. After about eight of these, I called on a student to create his own measure that we would repeat. He was thrown off, but successfully created a measure. I called on a few more students who were thrown off, but the class repeated their measures back to them, and the last five or so students were very successful in saying their rhythm actually in time with the music playing!
After the song ended, I split up the students into their previous card game groups with the mission of creating four measures of rhythm in every group, two measures of which must have some kind of rest. I informed them that once every group was done, they would be performing for the class.
I realized after a few minutes that some of the students who were leaders in the card game were bashful and uncertain during this activity, so that's something I can change for tomorrow.
Generally this lesson went pretty well, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to everyone in the class while working with the performers. I also think I need to be clearer about what exactly I expect from the students when they are working, and when they are watching their classmates perform.
Lizzy has a whole playlist for just movement in the classroom, comprised of pop songs with very specific standards:
1) Moderate tempo - Students need to be able to step to each side to the beat and not be rushing or waiting. They also need to be able to perform eighth note rhythms, sometimes sixteenth notes. The tempi of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" or Smash Mouth's "All-Star" are about perfect. This rules out any Aquabats songs (too fast), and unfortunately some of my more favorite Billy Joel tunes (too slow).
2) Strong emphasis ON the beat - (Typing that made me think of the Minnesota ATP choreographer in Drop Dead Gorgeous shouting "ON THE BEAT!"...for those of you in the know.)
Good examples: "Staying Alive," by the BeeGees, and "Float On," by Modest Mouse.
Unfortunately unusable: "The Longest Time," by Billy Joel (emphasis in the "whoaa" sections on the backbeat). Also, though it has a solid tempo for this sort of thing, and might work a little later for syncopation, "Brat Pack," by The Rocket Summer. The accompaniment accents 1(2)&(34)&12&(34).
3) Clean Language - I'm talking not even one. Word.
Good examples: "Firework," by Katy Perry, and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," by The Temptations.
Unfortunately unusable: Pretty much anything by Lady Gaga. "Bad Romance" has all the elements except for number 3, and that makes me very sad.
Not-so-unfortunately unusable: Most rap and hippety-hop. However, there are of always exceptions.
I went through some of my music to try and find my own additions, and while I was disappointed in some songs for their single coarse word or too sprightly a tempo, I was pleasantly surprised at what I did find that fit the criteria:
"You & Me," by Tally Hall
"In the End," by Linkin Park
"Larger Than Life," by the Backstreet Boys
"Story of a Broken Heart," by Malbec
And a few other selections that I've of course forgotten by now. I was particularly tickled that "In the End" is as perfect as it is.
Tomorrow brings another day of scouring my music library, performing rhythms with sixth graders, and of course, writing the dreaded choir final for Thursday and Friday.
(dramatic horn cue)
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