Composition in the Elementary Music Room

Maryland MEA

Roger Sams Director of Publications and Music Education Consultant at Music Is Elementary 5228 Mayfield Rd. Cleveland, OH 44122 (800) 888-7502 [email protected]

BIG IDEA FOR THIS WORKSHOP: The most effective way to birth students who can compose well is to integrate composition into the life of your classroom. Begin with very small opportunities to compose that are integrated in with singing, instrument playing, and movement play.

Charlie in the Tub from Purposeful Pathways, Book 1 Used with Permission

PATHWAY to PITCH: so mi • Lead solfa echo patterns using so and mi. • Students learn the songs through echo imitation.

PATHWAY TO LITERACY: Discover and label do • Utilize visuals to lead the students through identifying the pitches. • When the pitch is lower, the students move those icons down.

• Practice with solfa, to help identify the do. • “Which pitch is different than the others?” Have the students discover the do. • Introduce the hand sign for do, then sing and sign.

PATHWAY to ENSEMBLE: Steady beat chord bordun with color part utilizing word cue • Pat the steady beat while singing the song. • Transfer to steady beat chord bordun on BX/BM. • Teach BP pattern. The four levels of BP will transfer to four timbre choices. • Lead the class in a discussion about pitch and duration as class selects four different UTP instruments. Guide the discussion with questions like. “For the word TUB, do we want a high sound or a low sound? Do we want a long sound or a short sound?” Once the students have made their choices, you go looking for an instrument that meets their criteria, sampling the sounds and discussing the properties they hear. High or low? Long or short? • Add UTP choices to rhyming words. • Put it all together with singing.

PATHWAY to COMPOSITION: Rhythmic building blocks • Students create ostinato rhythms using known notation with the following rhythmic building blocks:

4 h 4 $ 4 4 h h soap bubble pop! soap soap bubble bubble

• Rhythms may be 4 or 8 beats in length, depending on the ability of the students. • Practice chanting and clapping student rhythms. • Transfer to UTP, and add to the arrangement one at a time as an ostinato.

Zudio from Purposeful Pathways, Book 2 Used with Permission

PATHWAY TO Movement Play: Singing game

• Begin in a long-ways set. Students learn the song by rote while playing the game. • Students criss-cross hands with their partner across the set. They pull and tug to the steady beat, creating a twisting motion. • On “step back” they break their hold and jump backwards, creating an alley. One member of the lead couple struts down the aisle as the class sings their name. On the repeat, the other member of the lead couple struts their stuff as the class sings their name. (This is a time for showing off!) Each pair moves toward the top of the set as the lead couple comes down the aisle. • Begin again with a new lead couple until all have had a turn to “strut their stuff”.

TEACHER TALK: Adapting to meet the needs of your curriculum This is our abbreviated/adapted version of “Zudio.” We are using the first half of the song/game. This portion serves our curricular needs (do-la). We have adapted the singing game to this shortened version. If you’d like to do the full version, it is easy to find online and in printed material.

PATHWAY TO Pitch: Focus on do-la • Using the solfa tone ladder, have the students sing patterns you point out. • End up working with the following two patterns, until the students are secure with the do-la leap.

h 4 4 4 do re mi so la

2 2 do la

• Once they are secure on the do-la leap, point to the pitches on the solfa tone ladder that outline “Zudio.” Ask the students to sing the pitches you point to, using hand signs.

• Analyze the motivic form: a a a b

PATHWAY TO Instrumental Technique: Playing the melody • Acclimate the students to C=do pentatonic on the barred instruments with singing and playing solfa echo patterns. • Teach the initial, do-la-so-la by having students echo-sing and play on barred instruments. Have them play that motive three times. For purposes of this song, they may use repeated hands on the repeated notes. • Teach the syncopated descending mi-re-do motive using echo imitation, as above. • Put it all together.

PATHWAY TO Composition: C=do pentatonic, a a a b form • Review the motivic form of the song. It is a a a b form, with a repeat sign. This song is a good model for composition in a a a b motivic form. • Lead the class through the composition process together. Provide an example for the students before having them create their own compositions, such as the following: • Create an a motive.

• Play the a motive three times.

• Compose a b motive. It is important here to have students identify that C is do. Ending on C will create a strong cadence at the end of the composition. This is an important concept at this point in time. Have the students name and use your preferred term; home tone, resting tone, or tonic for do.

• Play in a a a b form with a repeat sign.

• Put together with a motivic accompaniment that emphasizes do-la. The sample accompaniment motive borrows from the playing skills used previously when playing the melody of “Zudio.” • You may use our accompaniment motive or have the students create their own.

• Have students form groups of 2 to 4. Have them repeat the process, creating their own unique compositions in a a a b form. Remind them that they want their pieces to end on C, the tonic.

Can You Plant Your Cabbage So? from Purposeful Pathways, Book 3 Used with Permission

PATHWAY TO Literacy: Reading rhythmic notation with anacrusis • Remind the students about the concept of anacrusis. With the rhythmic score on the whiteboard, ask the following questions: o How many beats per measure in this song? o How many beats are in the first measure? o What is it called when there is an incomplete measure at the beginning of a song or phrase? (anacrusis or pick up) o On what beat does this song begin? (Beat 2) • Students read the rhythm of the song. You may wish to count off, “1, 2, 1,” before the students enter on the anacrusis.

h\ hh\ 4 h\ hh\ h

h\ hh\ 4 h\ hh\ 4

PATHWAY TO Singing: Rote teaching of song • Sing the song to the students in French or English. Ask them to notice patterns that are repeated in the text and in the melody.

2. On les plante avec les pieds; 2. Can you plant it with your feet? À la mode, à la mode, Just like we do, just like we do, On les plante avec les pieds; Can you plant it with your feet? À la mode de chez nous. Just like we do when we’re home.

3. On les plante avec les g’nous, -- etc. 3. Can you plant it with your knees? – etc.

4. On les plante avec les mains, -- etc. 4. Can you plant it with your hands? – etc.

5. On les plante avec le nez, -- etc. 5. Can you plant it with your nose? – etc.

6. On les plante avec le coude, -- etc. 6. Can you plant it with your elbow? – etc.

Create additional planting verses with other body parts, if you’d like!

• Students sing the song with you.

PATHWAY TO Pitch: Discovering fa • Lead 4-beat solfa echo patterns in F=do pentatonic. • Acclimate the students to the staff: F=do G=re A= mi G=so • Sing the last phrase of the song, "Just like we do when we're home.” • Sing mi re do and ask the students which words fall on those pitches, “when we’re home.” Students write mi re do under the notation at the appropriate place. • On what pitch does the last phrase begin? (so) Have students write it on the staff. • There is an unknown pitch in between so and mi: label as fa. • Sing the phrase with solfa syllables. • Students find and circle another place in the song where fa occurs. • Sing the song with solfa and then with the text.

PATHWAY TO Ensemble: Level bordun with two melodic ostinati and one UTP ostinato • Model the level bordun through BP. Ask the students to join you when they have figured out the pattern. (simultaneous imitation)

• Class sings the song together while keeping this BP ostinato. • Transfer the pats to BX/BM and the claps to AX/AM and put together with the singers. • Students sing the AX melodic ostinato, using solfa with hand signs. If you are reading staff notation with them, then this is a perfect time to introduce the need to adjust the pitch B to B flat.

• Students prepare AX melodic ostinato, by singing solfa and patting their laps as barred instruments. Transfer to AX and put together with level bordun and singers. • Students read the rhythm of the UTP ostinato, patting their laps and saying rhythm syllables.

• Divide the class in half. Half sings the song while the other half pats the UTP ostinato. Trade parts. • Transfer UTP ostinato to temple blocks, conga drums, or other UTP that can be played with two hands. Put together with the other parts in the arrangement. • Students read the top melodic ostinato and transfer to GL or SR.

• Put all parts together with the song.

PATHWAY TO Creative Movement: Cabbage planting dances • Divide the students into small groups of four to six. Each group is a cabbage planting village. Each village has their own cabbage planting tradition. One village plants cabbages with their feet, another with their knees, etc. • Each village group creates an 8-beat cabbage planting movement ostinato. Their ostinato should emphasize the body part that they plant with. Encourage them to include some of the following characteristics of interesting dances: o Level change. o Body facing change. o Mixture of locomotor and non-locomotor movement. o Interesting pathways. • Small groups share their dances with the class. You might have them perform their dance when their verse is sung, or you might use the dances as a contrasting section between verses which are accompanied by the compositions created in the next pathway.

PATHWAY TO Composition: 8-beat UTP ostinati • Students read the following rhythmic building blocks.

H h

H 4

H H

h H

h 4

4 $

4 4

4 h

h h

• Small groups of students create 8-beat rhythmic ostinati by arranging four building block cards. • When the groups are pleased with their ostinati, they may transfer the rhythms to UTP of their choice. • Consider using these UTP compositions as accompaniments for the cabbage planting dances in a rondo, with the song as the A Section.