Unit 2 Instruments & Ensembles Episode 3 The Percussion Family An exploration of instruments hit, shaken, and scraped 1OVERVIEW Percussion instruments produce sound by being hit, shaken, or scraped. Percussion adds rhythm and texture to music. Quaver spends the day hitting, shaking, and scraping percussion instruments to hear what a delightful variety of sounds they make. To explore the diverse uses of percussion, Quaver visits an orchestra, takes to the field with a marching band, adds sound effects to a short film, and meets a profes- sional percussionist who collects way-out instruments, including some that prove a little scary.
LESSON OBJECTIVES
Students will learn: • Percussion produces sound by being hit, shaken, or scraped. • Percussion can be pitched and non-pitched. • Percussion is a BIG musical family: timpani, congas, drums, shakers, xylophone, marimba, and many more. • Percussionists sit in the back of the orchestra towards the left side. • Percussion adds sound effects, conveys feelings, and intensifies emotion in music. • Percussion is used in many musical genres – from Latin music to marching bands.
Vocabulary Percussion Hit Shaken Scraped Texture Timbre Ostinato*
* concepts included in the Teacher Guide, but not in the DVD
© Quaver’s Marvelous World of Music • 1-1 Unit 2 Instruments & Ensembles
MUSIC STANDARDS IN LESSON
2: Playing instruments* 3: Improvising melodies 4: Composing and arranging music 6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music 8: Understanding the relationship between music and the other arts
Complete details at QuaverMusic.com
Key Scenes Music What they teach Standard
1 Playing around with per- Percussion instruments are not limited to a drum kit. In 6, 7 cussion fact, they can be anything that is hit, shaken, and scraped.
2 Discovering percussion in- Examples of the wide variety of percussion instruments are 6 struments in the orchestra demonstrated by an orchestra and a marching band. and the marching band
3 Adding sound effects to Percussion can be used for sounds effects as well as providing 6, 8 Young Quaver’s cooking rhythm and texture in music. video
4 A professional percussion- There are hundreds of unusual percussion instruments. 6, 7, ist shows off Percussion players use many different hand techniques 8 to play their instruments.
5 Song: Hit, Shaken, and This song reinforces the three main ways percussion in- 6 Scraped struments are played.
2LESSON INTRO Introducing the episode Give each student a sheet of paper, and announce that it can be made into an instrument.
Have them follow your example as you hold a sheet up between two fingers on each hand and shake it gently. This will create a small sound of wind. Then have them set the paper aside and clap a simple rhythm of your choice.
Ask them to pick up the paper and keeping the same rhythm, make small rips as you conduct them.
Ask them to scrunch and re-scrunch their paper into a ball in rhythm so they create a Scrunchy Rhythm Orchestra.
Note: Mention to students that percussion instruments can be made of anything, even paper. Percussion instruments add texture, (layers of sound), timbre (tone color), and rhythm to music. They also can produce wide variety of sound effects.
1-2 • QuaverMusic.com * concepts included in the Teacher Guide, but not in the DVD The Percussion Family PLAY EPISODE Discussion Points 3 • Name three percussion instruments played in the orchestra. timpani, bass drum, snare drum, gong, marimba • What are the three action words that describe the way we play percussion? hit, shake, and scrape • What can be made into a percussion instrument? anything • Why might percussion instruments be useful in movies? to provide sound effects
4 CLASS ACTIVITIES Materials Needed Body Percussion - Colored pencils Purpose: How anything (even our bodies) can become a percussion instrument Encourage students to find sounds by tapping various parts of their bodies. Standing in a circle, set up a rhythmic pattern using these sounds. For exam- ple, the order could be slap knees, clap hands, snap fingers twice, or some- thing similar. Repeat this pattern until the rhythm is smoothly produced by all.
Body Percussion Improvisation Purpose: Improvising and working as a percussion team Ask students to stand in a circle. Teach everyone a basic clap, clap, snap, snap pattern as the default rhythm. Make up new rhythms for them to copy after every clap, clap, snap, snap. Example: pop cheek, clap, jump in, jump out, then back to clap, clap, snap, snap. After they are confident with the new pattern or rhythm, allow each student to improvise a 4-beat rhythm that the group repeats. Room Percussion Purpose: Listening and working as a team Allow students to find sources of sound around the room, either objects or instruments. Each student needs at least three items that they can play in succession. Have students bring their sound objects to the circle and demonstrate why they chose them. Note: Encourage quiet sounds to prevent cacophony.
Now, give them time to find an ostinato (repeated pattern) that they particularly like. Choose one student to play his or her ostinato rhythm. When it has been repeated enough times to be fixed in everyone’s mind, point to the next person who then adds his or her own rhythm on top of the first. Continue adding students until all are playing their rhythms.
1-3 Unit 2 Instruments & Ensembles
Worksheet # 1 IWB 1 PRINTPRINT WOWORKRKSHEETSHEET Percussion Grids Purpose: Basic concepts of composing and reading a full score Group students into fours. With the worksheet provided, have them create a “score” by add- ing colored dots to each line of their grid to show when their instruments are to play. Keeping a steady beat, have students follow their own line on the percussion grid as they play their piece together. Once this is mastered, ask each group to perform its percussion piece for the others. Expand the grid to eight boxes across after students are successful with four boxes. Note: Before putting the percussion grid parts together, ensure students are comfortable with their individual parts.
VIDEO REPLAY IWB 2 Sound Effects Purpose: The use of percussion as sound effects Watch the segment of the episode where percussion is added to Young Quaver’s cooking video. Come up with a small series of events in your room to which students can add sound effects. For example, it could be coming in, shutting the door, tripping over the trash can, sitting down, and sighing. See how percussion can add life to this everyday, normal scene. Invite students to brainstorm other scenes.
Show a chase scene from a movie with no sound. Have students create sound effects with found sounds, and/or traditional percussion.
5WEB ACTIVITIES
QBackBeat Metro / Style Venues Using QBackBeat, students can create Students can take the Metro to the their own drum set grooves by dragging Latin venue where they can read all and dropping individual drum sounds about the amazing assortment of onto the time line. Students can also ex- percussion instruments used in Latin port drum set beats into their producer music. window to join with QGrooves and QComposer. Play activities on your IWB INTERACTIVE White Board
1-4 • QuaverMusic.com The Percussion Family
6HOMEWORK My Instrument File Worksheet # 2 Purpose: To identify various percussion instruments At the end of the lesson, distribute copies of this worksheet and ask students to fill in the blanks to test their knowledge of the percussion family. When completed, this worksheet
PRINTPRINT should be included with the worksheets of the other instrument families. WOWORKRKSHEETSHEET
Make a Shaker Worksheet # 3 Purpose: Making a simple percussion instrument Using the worksheet provided, students can make a shaker at home that they can decorate and bring back to the next session. Working together, they can create a percussion band.
Additional session activities
Using percussion is a great opportunity to reinforce dynamics. Use musical terminology: piano, pianissimo, forte, and fortissimo instead of quiet, really quiet, loud, and really loud. 7 ASSESSMENT Listening to Percussion Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 Using the tracks provided, listen for different types of percussion instruments. Ask students to identify the specific instrument used whether they are hit, shaken, or scraped.
Track 1 Conga Pop - congas Track 2 Drummers Delight - drums Track 3 Big Gong - gong Track 4 Xylophone - xylophone Track 5 Holst’s The Planets Suite No.5 (Saturn) - cymbals, timpani, and bass drum
1-5 Unit 2 Instruments & Ensembles 8 CROSS-CURRICULUM ACTIVITIES History Percussion instruments are the oldest instruments known to man. (See Section 5 Web Activities) Percussion has been used throughout history to communicate, to warn of attack, or organize movement of soldiers, and to sound impending doom or signal celebrations.
Challenge students to come up with rhythm signals for these directions: step left, step right, and stop. For ex- ample, step left might be clap, clap, snap. See if these directions work by getting students to communicate using percussion signals.
Discuss why percussion instruments were used. What other options were available? Social Studies Identify the country of origin for various kinds of percussion instruments. Discuss with students why these in- struments came from those areas (availability of materials). Example: djembe, from Ghana made with wood from fig trees and goat skins.
Find the countries on a map and place a picture of the instrument.
PRINTPRINT Worksheet # 4 WOWORKRKSHEETSHEET Language Arts In 1961 Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs devised a system of organizing instruments into groups depending on how they were played. They came up with four groups.
Idiophones - Instruments where the body of the instrument vibrates, such as a xylo- phone or cymbal. Membranophones - Instruments that have a skin or membrane, such as the drum. Chordophones - Instruments that have strings. Aerophones - Instruments that require air to make a sound.
Use the worksheet Percussion Grids to place the instruments from the instrument bank in the correct columns. Note: there may be some non-percussion instruments included.
Materials Needed - 1” PVC pipe - Saw DIGGING DEEPER - String - Nails 9 - A mallet or hammer Build Your Own Xylophone Worksheet # 5 - Length of wooden Purpose: Making a tuned percussion instrument PRINTPRINT dowel WOWORKRKSHEETSHEET For a great hands-on learning experience, involve your students in - Two rubber washers building this simplified version of a xylophone. Although rudimen- tary, it accurately depicts the same principles and sound dynamics - 4 lengths of wood, of the actual instrument. 2 short and 2 long
1-6 • QuaverMusic.com The Percussion Family
TEACHER NOTES Featured Instruments
Drum Box
Congas
Bass Drum
Timpani
1-7 Unit 2 Instruments & Ensembles
Featured TEACHER NOTES Instruments
Snare Drum
Hands
Gong
Orff Instruments
Vibraphone
1-8 • QuaverMusic.com The Percussion Family
Featured Instruments
Marimba
Xylophone
Chimes
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