Crescendo Music Education

Debbie's Quick Teaching Tip #21

Let's make the most of your repertoire!

I have just picked the song, Goodnight, from my s m repertoire for this post. I know that I am often guilty of not making the most of the repertoire in my program, so maybe some of you out there are also guilty of this from time to time. To help out a bit, I will just create a bit of a list (by no means exhaustive!) of things you can do with this song, to give you some inspiration and variety in your practice activities.

Sing

• Sing - with gentle, soft voices.
• Sing while rocking soft toys to sleep. 
• Sing with the whole class, half class, small group, pairs and individuals.
• Sing in canon, two beats apart is very easy and not very interesting, one beat apart sound fabulous.

Play

• Play on two chime bars
• Play on the black notes of a piano. Pick any two that have a big gap between them. (obviously we are not playing at the pitch written here)
• Play on xylophones/glockenspiels.

Beat and Rhythm

• Sing while pointing to beat icons 
• Sing while walking the beat
• Sing in rhythm names (if known)
• Sing tas and inner hear the ti tis and visa versa
• Derive the Rhythmic pattern on the board
• Write the rhythmic pattern with paddle pop sticks
• Write the rhythmic pattern with paddle pop sticks on paper plates representing the beat
• Half class sing first beat of each bar, other half sing the second beat of each bar. Try to connect the sounds and make a lovely song.

Pitch

• Sing in solfa (if known)
• Sing with the words 'high' and 'low' before s and m are made conscious
• Sing with the high note and low note in different parts of your body. (Head and shoulders, shoulders and waist...)
• Sing s and inner hear the m and visa versa

Expressive Elements and other concepts

• Sing with dynamics. Discuss suitability of piano or pianissimo for this song.
• Walk the beat in a circle and sing the song three times, the second time sing with inner-hearing. (out loud, inner-hearing, out loud)