The Story of Ferdinand

Once upon a time we performed the Story of Ferdinand as an improvised opera!  

Author, Munro Leaf wrote this parable for his 5 year old son in 1936 during the civil war in Spain.  

It's a story about a peaceful, nature-loving bull who prefers sitting and smelling the flowers rather than fighting and butting heads like the other little bulls.  

I incorporated some of Manuela Widmer's ideas (shared at the national Orff conference many years ago) with my facilitation of the musical drama.  Manuela is an Orff teacher from the Orff Institute in Salzburg.  I found her ideas incredibly workable for my style of teaching.



Imagine, a class of 5 & 6 year olds...full of energy and ideas!
I sang the story to the children with operatic vowels and vocal trills, etc...

They were mesmerized at first and then they started joining in on the word  "flooooooowwwwwers".

That's all they needed and they were ready!  



Some of the kids wanted to be in the Orchestra and some wanted to act out the various roles.  They chose their favorite places and after we performed we switched up and everyone tried a new part.  



Orchestra parts include:

1. flower music - glockenspiels and metallophones (I set them up ahead of time in C pentatonic)
2. hop gallop music of the bulls - shakers, woods and drums

hop gallop gallop gallop

hop gallop gallop gallop

hop gallop gallop gallop

hop hop hop  OLE!

1. Ferdinand's walking music - drums
2. Ferdinand's sitting music - drums
3. Ferdinand's jumping about music - drums
4. the bee buzz and sting sounds - kazoos and
5. 5 men from Madrid walking music - woods

Acting/singing roles include (this is an opera!):

• narrator (singing like an opera star)  "Once upon a time in Spain..."
• chorus (whole class)

"Ole!"

• hop gallop speech piece
• Ferdinand
• Ferdinand's mom
• the other little bulls - play fighting with their hands used as horns on top of their heads
• 5 men from Madrid - walking through the room side by side...
• flowers
• bullfighters

The Amazing Body Percussion List

The Body Percussion List

What to do with this list?  
I'd play an echo game

• you clap, they echo your clap
• you snap, they echo your snap
• it's an ear/eye training but it's playful...have fun!
• one day, I'll make a video...and post it in our Growing Grounded Kids Community!  (join us!)

listed in general from high pitches to low pitches

snap

tongue clicks

tongue clacks

full hand clap

2-finger clap

4-finger clap 
hand slide (clap with a slide) 

patschen (tap thighs)

alternate patschen (right leg, left leg)

tap top of hand

tap tummy

tap taut hollow cheeks

rub hands

rub thighs

rub face

rub arms

tickle
scratch
drag fingers - also try dragging hand upside down

drum fingers on a body part

stomp

drag feet

slide feet

hand to foot clap
slap foot

2-foot clap

B/P with a partner

partner clap (clap your partner's hands)
hip bump with a partner

Body Percussion Patterns
in 3 time, 5 time, 7 and 9 time. (a la Keith Terry)

1 = Clap

3 = Clap Chest Chest  (ladies may rather hit their stomach)

5 = Clap Chest Chest Leg Leg

7 = Clap Chest Chest Leg Leg Back of leg Back of leg

9 = Clap Chest Chest Leg Leg Back of leg Back of leg Stamp Stamp 




B/P patterns in 2 time 
(combine for 3, 4, 5, 6 time)


Z = rest

2 time 
clap  clap
snap snap
pat pat
stomp stomp
clap Z
snap Z
pat Z
stomp Z


clap snap
clap stomp
clap pat
Z clap

 

Playing handdrums

You need :)  a class set of hand drums.  


I invested in a large bin of small hand drums (20 drums each about 8 inches across) from Empire Music many years ago.  Now I have a hand drum for each child and each parent in my under 3's program.  And it's soooo much fun!

We play drums to:

1.  explore using our hands in a variety of ways to create a sound on the drum (tickly, rub, scratch)



2.  explore using various words to describe what our hands are doing (scrape, rub, knock, tickle, circle, tiptoe)



3.  explore using the drum in unconventional ways using our imagination (drag, roll, skate, fly, blow, wear it like a hat, eat from your drum, eat your soup, eat your cereal)

Tap, tap, tap your drum

Tap, tap, tap your drum

Tap, tap, tap your drum

and now let's stop!

What is an Orff teacher?

What is an Orff Teacher?

 

Me being passionate about something Orff-y

It always sounds so weird.  Orff.


Orff is a participatory art. 



Orff teachers engage people around them and involve them in whole body, whole heart, whole self music using instruments, voice, movement and dance.  


Orff teachers are interested in the process of creation with children.






Music and movement are inseparable.






When I was in university studying to become a classroom teacher I took music education courses and read about Orff. It sounded simplistic.  There was no life in the readings.  


I never experienced the MAGIC of Orff as an undergrad.






The energy, creativity and transformative effect of this approach to teaching music was just not conveyed adequately in ANY book or article I read.  

None of the professors I studied under used the approach and none of them had the unique qualities I experienced when attending Orff workshops and courses after I graduated.




I was never exposed to this way of learning or teaching until after I completed all my teaching practica and had already received my Bachelor of Education degree.




I can only imagine how my entire experience of university might have been changed had I been in the presence of a real Orff teacher, Orff instruments and Orff techniques and creative approach to teaching.



Better late than never, right?!

Making a difference in a child's life thru music and movement

It's true!
You really can believe you are making a difference in a child's life by...

...singing to them

...singing with them

...moving with them

...dancing with them

...making body shapes with them

...using silly voices with them

...playing percussion with them

...keeping the beat with them

...changing the words to songs with them

...chanting rhymes and poems with them

...resting and relaxing with them

How to Get Updates from Make Me Musical

MakeMeMusical is getting a make-over! Check out the new tagline coming... "nurture, heal and educate thru music, movement and creativity".

Dear Wonderful Readers!

I have been away from MakeMeMusical for almost a year.  A year!?!  Yikes!

So, you haven't heard from me in quite a while and I have much to say about this past year but I won't be saying it in today's post.  

Right now, I am writing with some urgency about something else!

If you haven't already signed up, you may wish to take action now and SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER....HERE.

Why??  Cause....

Google is terminating the RSS function which (if you are receiving this message in your email) you have subscribed to.

If you have subscribed to MMM thru RSS then you will (shortly) no longer be receiving blog posts from me in your email inbox.   If you're fine with that, then you don't need to do anything.

If you wish to continue to receive free resources and blog posts from me at MakeMeMusical then you have to make sure you have signed up for the newsletter.  The newsletter will soon be the ONLY way you will continue to receive free resources and updates on the blog.

Because of this change initiated by Google, I have decided to make yet another change myself.  And I am excited about it!

I am moving MakeMeMusical to an alternative platform called wordpress.  It will not be a free platform, I will pay for it but I will also be in complete control.

The best thing about this change is that I will be able to offer more to you in the way of resources for your work with children.  Blogger had many limitations and it often meant I couldn't share things I wanted to share with you.

So, in a few weeks, the move of my site will take place and then I will be back blogging and sharing more creative ideas about music, movement and creativity.

SIGN UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER HERE!

Practise Pillow

click on image to enlarge

We all need a little motivation sometimes.  This is something I recently made for a young fiddle student.  It's a practise pillow.

How to make the practise pillow

1.  Find a pillow that will be adored. 

Notice the glittering flower center!  ooh-la-la...!

2.  Collect several buttons that will be adored.  

  

3.  String the buttons onto a skinny ribbon.

We were going to use beads but then I found adorable doggie buttons and fancy flower buttons.  Perfect for an 8-year old girl who just happens to have a new puppy she is completely in love with. 

If the button hole is too tiny for the ribbon to slide through, use tiny safety pins and attach to the buttonhole.   Then string the closed pin onto the ribbon and slide with the pin.

4.  Pin the ribbons lengthwise across the back of the pillow.  

There's even a "Susan-head" button.  That's to remind this little girl that her teacher (that's me...Susan) thinks she's wonderful and has faith in her and that she CAN DO IT.

5.  Use this practise pillow as an abacus to keep track of boring repetitions in technique work (some kids do find playing a scale or finger exercise to be dead boring) or tricky bits in a song that need to be memorized.  

Every time she plays that tricky passage she's focussing on, she gets to move one of the cute buttons over to the other end of the ribbon.  

We know children feel great once they've mastered something but sometimes they just need a little help getting there. 

This was the perfect solution for this little girl.  She can display her cushion on the pretty side when she's not practising and then flip it over and manipulate those fancy buttons on days she needs a little boost.

9 Reasons to use Body Percussion

Why body percussion?

If you've ever been to an Orff workshop you'll know how integral body percussion is to the learning process.  I was taught (over and over) that you don't need the actual Orff instrumentarium to teach an Orff program.  Body percussion, speech and singing, improvisation and dance were really the foundational building blocks of an Orff program.

In my early days exploring these foundational building blocks I LOVED body percussion.  I used it everywhere and at all times of day in my classroom (I was a classroom teacher then).

If you were to ask me now why use body percussion (B/P) this is what I'd say...

1. It's fun!
2. It improves concentration abilities.
3. Children love to make sounds with body percussion.  
4. It can be an energetic or emotional release to perform body percussion.
5. Using body percussion helps children to get inside the rhythm.  
6. Once a rhythm has been internalized it can be expressed and played on their instruments with more ease.
7. Playing echo games with body percussion builds a rhythmic vocabulary in the body.
8. Playing simultaneous mirror games with body percussion improves ability to focus and increases awareness of subtle body movements.
9. You can use B/P to "conduct" instrument play with non-pitched percussion instruments.

 

with under 3 years:

1. use B/P to develop vocabulary for body parts (e.g. say "clap" when you "clap")
2. use B/P to bring awareness to the body's musical capabilities(e.g. clap a crescendo)
3. use B/P to build confidence (e.g. when we are all clapping together we create a feeling of fun and community and safety)

with 5 years and older:

1. use B/P to make texture in music (e.g.  some groups clap while others stomp and snap)
2. use B/P to learn a rhythm that is later applied to an instrument
3. use B/P to keep kids moving and interested in learning

Have You Ever Found Yourself in Snowy Land?

Our new greatest hit!  This song helps us:

• use our bodies creatively
• use percussion...any ones we want
• play a 8-beat phrase and stop together
• play in ensemble and have fun
• make choices about what and where we play and have it all be okay
• feel good and smile

Have you ever found yourself in a snowy land?

(guitar chords G and D7)

Have you ever found yourself in a snowy land?

An icy town with snowflakes grand?

If  you ever find yourself in a snowy land

just pick up an instrument and join the band!

Now converse with the kids

(what will we play?  body percussion?  shakers?  trumpets?)

Using non-pitched percussion (shakers, scrapers, skins, woods, metals)

Have you ever found a shaker in a snowy land,

an icy town, with snowflakes grand?

If you ever find a shaker in a snowy land,

just pick up a shaker and join the band!

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 (everybody plays...especially the shakers)

Using other instruments

Have you ever found a trumpet in a snowy land

an icy town, with snowflakes grand?

If you ever find a trumpet in a snowy land,

just pick up your trumpet and join the band.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 (everybody plays...especially the trumpet)

(just a note...yesterday the sweetest 6 year old boy brought a trumpet to class and we sang this song and he tooted along with the band...oh my goodness...too sweet...and he really sounded fabulous with the drums!)

Using body percussion (snap, clap, pat, stomp, rub, clack)

Have you ever found yourself in a stomping land,

an icy town, with snowflakes grand?

If you ever find yourself in a stomping land,

just start stomping and join the band!

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 (everybody plays...especially the body percussion people)

enjoy!

let me know what happens!

A Ukrainian Christmas Carol

Susan and Erin sharing the headphones

A few weeks ago my cousin, Erin, asked if I would be willing to work with her to create a special Christmas gift for our Baba (that's our 97 year-old Ukrainian grandmother and there's a more recent pix of her here).  

Erin doesn't live in Victoria so we planned to get together when she came home for some pre-Christmas visiting this week.  We had a couple of hours to explore different instruments and our voices and this is what we came up with.  Erin is playing ukulele, I'm on guitar and we're both singing.  Of course, our families are loving it:).  

We presented this song on CD to Baba last week just before Christmas.   Baba immediately began singing along to the recording in a strong voice.  It was moving and wonderful!  It seemed her singing was coming from deep inside her...truly magical.

This is a song I grew up hearing my grandmother, her sisters and their daughters sing.  It seems to embody a connectedness between the generations for me and it holds a special place in my heart for sure.  Neither Erin or I speak Ukrainian so we recorded it as best we could and it turned out to be the perfect way for our grandmother to sing along to.

I am sharing it with you along with a wish that 2012 be filled with as many beautiful,   c r e a t i v e,   musical,  meaningful,  festive!, celebratory moments you can possibly squeeze in!  

Happy New Year!

Do you hide your creative ideas?

Kandinsky - try interpreting this as a music score!

I've been using modern works of art as stimulus for music-making for over 15 years. 

In fact, didn't know anyone else who did this...until a couple of weeks ago!  I didn't share much of what I did with art...I think because I was a bit afraid of criticism from other teachers.

While studying at the Orff Institute I re-discovered my "tribe"!

First, at the Orff Symposium (held at the Mozarteum) then at the Orff Institute, I met two people who do the EXACT same things with the art that I do! (and I thought I'd made all this weird respond-to-art-stuff up!)

1. One professor uses the art as a score for beginning violin players...so cool...and I do this too!
2. The other (Monika Unterholzner, a dance teacher) uses the art to stimulate creative movement ideas for child-created choreography.
3. I also use it with my baby programs and preschool programs.  We "read" the lines and dots with our fingers tracking along and vocalize. The children LOVE it and the parents think it's so creative.

Read more about creativity at my favorite blog Colour Me Happy.  Maria has some great posts on creativity here and my favorite one ever...here.

 

Shadow Puppets for our Alien Orchestra Shadow Puppet Play (part 2/2)

shooting star shadow puppets

back of shooting star puppets

Our story begins with the lights dimmed and the Morning Mood music playing (from Grieg's Peer Gynt suite).  All the children have gathered behind the shadow puppet screen with their puppets.  It was quite an experience for the class to learn how to share the limited space behind the screen (silently) while holding at least 2 puppets each for different parts of the story.  Check out part one of the Alien Orchestra blog posts.

Our Story Begins...

"Two bunnies are walking through the forest on a sunny day.

It is so warm they sit down to have a rest and fall asleep.  As they sleep they are dreaming.

They dream of a beautiful day in the woods where they come into a meadow.  In the meadow is a giant spaceship!  They are excited to find the spaceship and walk all around it looking for a door.  They enter the ship and suddenly it blasts off! 

The bunnies are peeking out the spaceship's portal

As the spaceship flies over the Earth, they meet up with the most beautiful birds.  The spaceship swoops and turns, flying gracefully with the birds.

As the  rocket leaves the Earth's atmosphere, the birds return to their perches in the trees below and the spaceship zooms through space.

back of the bird puppet - how the stick was attached

bird puppet with a moveable wing - two sticks attached to 1 puppet

Eventually, the bunnies land on the moon.  

When they open the door they see an alien orchestra.  The alien orchestra is playing a beautiful tune.  

back of music note puppet

alien playing violin - 2 sticks - 1 attached to alien and 1 attached to the bow so bow arm is moveable

alien playing flute - flute arm is moveable

alien playing xylophone - body of alien is moveable but attached to xylophone

The bunnies dance and move to the music.

this bunny has a moveable tail

back of bunny - see how sticks are attached to the moveable parts

Eventually, it's time to head back to the spaceship and take off for home.

red tissue was glued to back of spaceship puppet to create illusion of flames shooting out the bottom upon blast-off!

Good-bye, aliens!  Good-bye bunnies! 

It took hours to make the puppets.  I do it every year and I love it.  The parents always notice the beauty of the puppets and the children have what is possibly their only real performance opportunity to play with hand-made shadow puppets created out of their vision and ideas.  It's so worth it to offer this experience for the children!

Thank you for teaching me ukulele, violin and recorder.

Thank you card.  Notice how Moka (the dog) and Dolce (the parrot) make the front of the card!

The little boy who made the card draws himself playing the violin (because he loves it!) and Susan playing the piano (because he says I love that!).  I love these cards!