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

 

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!

Room on the Broom (part 1 of 2)

Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

I discovered this book about 7 years ago.  I turned it into a musical puppet play almost instantly and have been having fun with it every Halloween ever since.

Meet the characters

The Witch

The Cat

The Dog

The Frog

The Bird

The Dragon

Process (I use this process Grade 1 and 2)

1. Read the book and sing the Room on the Broom song with your group!

 

I adapt the text as I'm reading to the children to include my own version of the "room on the broom" tune.

Storyline

Throughout the story, the witch has some challenges and meets animals that help her with them.  After helping the witch, each animal asks if there is room on the broom for them.   

Instead of asking the question, we sing the question (D dorian mode)!

Is there any room for me?

Is there any room for me?

On the broom, on the broom,

Is there any room for me?

The witch says, "Yes!" everytime and eventually, the broom is overloaded carrying a witch, a cat, a dog, a frog and a bird. 

The broom is not strong enough and breaks in half.  The animals fall into the bog and the witch has a rumble with the dragon.  

The dragon stalks her, catches her and is about to eat her when the animals come to her rescue.  

The witch rewards them by casting a spell on the broom and transforming it into a modern 5-seater broom that can accommodate all of them.

A modern witch's 5-seater broom!

Tune in tomorrow for Part 2!

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My Book Review is out!

Last spring Angela Barker (Editor) asked if I would write a book review for Perspectives, the professional journal for the Early Childhood Music & Movement Association.

Apparently, you have to be a member of the ECMMA (which I encourage you to become!) to read the review and many other wonderful articles.  

If you are not a member, this is the book I reviewed.  I consume many books...and I don't usually say this...this is a book EVERY music and movement teacher or therapist should have on their bookshelf!

So, if you're not going to read the review...just go get yourself a copy of the book.  It's a book I now recommend to all parents and teachers of the very young!

You're Not Too Late!

The August newsletter is coming out tomorrow!

I'm squeaking it in just under that calendar wire.  Yikes.

This month the newsletter group receives 

• a relaxation technique from "Barnyard Bodies"
• a listening game 
• two percussion games
• an autumn speech piece
• monthly book recommendation

If you haven't signed up yet, you're not too late.

Just head on over to the sidebar and fill in the info.

I'm pressing "send" tomorrow morning!

Are you a Conscious Listener?

 

Julian Treasure speaks in this TEDtalks video, about conscious listening. 

It reminded me of the listening classes we had to complete when I was in Grade 4. We wore headphones and listened to sounds, stories and voices and then had assignments to complete around those sounds. It made me very aware of "listening" as a specific act I could consciously engage in. I think I became a more conscious listener by participating in the classes...at least for a few years.

Do you remember learning to listen?

Was listening taught as a subject when you were in school?

Early childhood

I remember being brought back to the everyday world of listening via my nephew's toddlerhood. He would be pointing to the plane in the sky before I could even hear it coming. His lack of listening filters reminded me I had filters and defenses around listening.  Hanging out with him brought consciousness to my listening.

Deaf listeners

This fall I have a student registered in a class who we have recently discovered is deaf. The way this child listens is different from the way most other children listen. And yes, I do think this child listens even with the challenges of being deaf.

Becoming conscious again and again
I'm becoming conscious about listening again. 
You'd think as a music teacher I'd always be conscious of listening with all the sounds and songs and instruments we use.

Well...we all have patterns and fall into routines.  It's the thought that I will be planning listening activities that need to accomodate this deaf child that has me waking up...again!

No More Saturdays...

Merci de Nathan!   (Nathan speaks French!)

Au Revoir!
Today was my last "teaching" Saturday...ever...well for at least a year or two!   

I predominantly teach classes at my studio and over the past few years, my private teaching schedule has grown...and grown...and grown...and taken over my evenings and much of Saturday and any little pockets of time in between classes.   

I decided that next year I wanted to carve out a little more family time in my schedule so I would let go of my evening and weekend teaching schedule and most of my private students.

 

Nathan playing and singing his good-bye song for me. 

 

Nathan's good-bye was one of the sweetest good-byes, especially considering he didn't even like music before he started his lessons with me in January.

Mom wanders in to Musicalia...
I met his mom just before Christmas when she wandered into my studio looking for donations for her youngest daughter's preschool fund raising auction.  I donated private lesson time.

She told me that both her husband and herself had taken lessons as children and didn't want that experience for their children.  After speaking with me and my philosophy about music for children she decided to bid on my gift of lessons.  She won the bid and after Christmas we started lessons with her 7 year old son, Nathan.

Nathan's love of music has a chance to sprout...
It's been pretty spectacular to watch this little boy's lights literally turn on as he sits at the piano.  He has realized how easy it is to make music and have fun doing it.  

He told his mom to tell me that he never liked music at school before he met Susan, but now that I've been his teacher, he is even is beginning to like music at school. 

He figured it out on his own!
What is so amazing to me is we only had time to experiment with writing chords for the left hand. (I call them "bridges" and "buddy notes".)  His lessons were only 15 minutes long so we really had little time to write much!

He did learn to read some treble clef, but we didn't have time to try writing melodies at all. 

His mom drew a 5-line staff for him and he figured out how to write this little tune and play it all on his own.  Honestly, I hope a traditional music teacher doesn't get hold of him!    He has so much creativity and natural talent that traditional methods might curb his enthusiasm. 

Thank YOU, Nathan!  It's been a blessing to be your music teacher:) 

"Our Palm Oil Story"

A local elementary school here in Victoria, BC, created this amazing youtube video.

Enjoy!

Dreamcatcher Drama (part 3) Invites & Programs!

A Story of Enchantment and Inner gifts

Photo Gallery showing invites and programs!

The invitations were written in a word doc and printed out.  I rolled them into a tube and drew a ribbon of glue on one edge.

Each invite (there were 8) was rolled in a pile of small feathers.

Lots of feathers!  The glue is working:)  Now just a bit of pruning with scissors so the feathers aren't quite so wild.

To complete the invite each one was tied with a hemp string.  A wooden bead was added to each string for a finishing touch.  The invites had an organic, native feel to them.  I would definitely do this again...maybe not right beside my computer keyboard though...much feather dust to deal with after!

I printed out the name of each child's spirit animal and attached it to the invites.  See post 2 of the Dreamcatcher Drama series for more info on how we discovered each child's spirit animal using spirit animal cards.

Parents were intrigued by the labelling and asked questions about it.  This allowed the children to begin explaining a bit of how our show was put together and what their spirit animal had brought them as an inner gift.  Invites went home one week before our show.

What the invites said once they were unwrapped!

The programs were prepared using a word doc template.  Front of program shown.

Back of program shown

Inside program showing.

Photo of the white board in the studio entrance.  It was blank as the children arrived and they requested a quick welcome sign be drawn for parents and siblings to see as they arrived.

Dreamcatcher Drama (part 2) Discovering our inner gifts using Native Medicine Cards

This book is available at Amazon.com

We spread the animal cards out for the children to choose the one that spoke to them above all the others.

These were the animal cards chosen by each child. We looked each one up in the Medicine Card book to discover the inner gifts brought by each animal.  Each child made symbols to remind them of their inner gifts.  We molded our symbols using Model Magic (a crayola product).

  

One of our completed dreamcatchers.

Once we had worked through the ideas for our play (see last post about the Dreamcatcher Drama) 

and had learned the dreamcatcher song (click to hear the song), 

the children asked if they could make their own dreamcatchers.

We used branches from my yard and bent them into a circle shape and tied them with hemp string purchased at Michael's Craft Store.  

We tied our medicine shield symbols around the edges of our dreamcatchers.

Discovering and creating our medicine shield symbols

1.  I just happen to have a book titled Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams and David Carson.

2.  I spread the cards out on the floor and asked each child to pick the card they were most drawn to.  Each child picked their favorite animal card.

We used the medicine card book to find out more about each animal's medicine.  We read about the gift each animal brings to each child.  The children's response was overwhelmingly positive.  It was AMAZING!

Each child took the information to heart discussing and exclaiming how each inner gift fit them perfectly.

Note to reader:  I'm having a lot of trouble uploading my pictures to blogger the last while.   It seems that blogger will not let me place the pictures where I'd like them to be.  So next post will just be a series of photos with captions.  If you'd like more details about any part of this musical-inner gift-drama process...please send an email!

I will load one more post with photos of invitations and the program we created for our play. 

Dreamcatcher Drama (part 1/3) with the Evil Fairy!

 

Dreamcatcher

In our story, the Evil Fairy places an enchantment over the children.    

They awaken on a dreamship where they discover their own personal dream catchers and medicine shields.  They learn about their personal gifts.   

The ship is marooned on a forgotten island and after a battle with the Evil Fairy there, they discover they have the gift of music for life.    

Eventually, the children sing the Evil Fairy to sleep, steal her magic wand and use it and their gifts to get back to their real lives. 

How we created our Musical Story
One of the Maestros classes asked to create their own play for their year end celebration.  In all it took about 7 weeks from initial brainstorming to final presentation.  

It doesn't always take this long, but this one did.  In fact, I emailed all the parents and asked if we could extend our year by one more class in order to get it all together.

Process
1. Brainstorm
We brainstormed all the elements/characters they wanted in the  play.  It was a terrible, random list from my perspective and I had my own moments of doubt part way through whether or not I could pull their ideas together into a cohesive whole.

This is what our brainstorm sheets looked like.

strange ideas that we tried on...

2.  Role play and scene creation

We worked together, trying on each role and talking about the storyline.  There was much silliness.  One boy was removed from the group a couple of times to regroup and gather his focussed energy.  

I shut down the process a couple of times so as not to waste time with too much silliness.   I also realized that the silliness was appropriate because their ideas were quite silly...kind of like a strange dream.  

We really needed something to tie these strange ideas together.   I had a eureka moment with thinking the whole story could be a dream and then the Dreamcatcher Song caught my eye.

3.  Dreamcatcher Song
This beautiful song called "Dreamcatcher" written by Teresa Jennings, found its way onto my desk.  It's one of those haunting modal tunes that is also a round.
Click here to listen to a snippet of this haunting melody.  

I played it for the children and they loved it.

4.  Learning the song.

We learned it within a couple of sessions and then experimented with instrumental accompaniments.  We tried the frame drum with jingles (like the recording) and sang in 2,3 and 4 part rounds.  We experimented with an improvised harmonic accompaniment using the Orff Orchestra.

5. The Orff Orchestra
This is how I set up the Orff instruments:

Leave in D, F, G, A, B flat

Take out everything else. 

 

alto xylophone

alto metallophone

alto glockenspiel

The Evil Fairy (me) played the G & D contrabass bars for the improv.  The song was in 3 time so alternating G with D on the strong beat of each measure.

 6.  The Improv Exploration Process

1. We spent time playing in 3 time. 
2. We counted 1,2,3, 1,2,3  1,2,3  and played any bars to the counting.
3. I added the contra bass bars to give a solid strong first beat.
4. We experimented with playing melodic patterns.  Some of the patterns were very long, some short.  We didn't dissect it much past that point (these are 7 and 8 year old children).
5. I asked them to choose their favorite pattern.  Each child chose their favorite and played it for the class. 
6. We practised layering them in one at a time.
7. We practised a unison beginning (tutti).

The thinking behind my improv process
I am a huge fan of improvised performance with this age.  It's a bit risky but I believe it builds confidence and musical independence.  

Most Orff arrangements that Orff teachers purchase and Orff arrangements we are taught to compose/arrange have definite rules.  Those rules are for sound musical reasons. 

Teaching those rules to children once they are about 10 years old allows the children to be creative musically.  With this group, they are only 7 and 8 years old so I didn't feel they needed the burden of rules beyond  "start on G"  "end on G".  

We did try starting on G and some tried ending on G.  It was easy to see and hear which children already have an ingrained musicality that intuitively creates a satisfying musical pattern from a traditional theoretical perspective.

Over many years I have explored turning over the patterning of ostinati to the children and not try to orchestrate everything myself.  

Even if the final result is not perfect or perfectly sound from a musical theory perspective, the children love what they hear and they truly own their work.  
Opportunities to own your music and be a creator builds a life-long love for music.    
 

For the performance the room was set up like this:

The children played the improv as the audience entered to dimmed lights.  Each child took a turn playing an improv solo and then we would all play together.

7.  Our final form for the Dreamcatcher song:
intro - Susan plays alternating G/D on the contrabass bars
part A - Tutti playing their patterns
part B - Solo when Susan whispers your name
part A - Tutti playing their patterns
part C - Acapella singing 'dreamcatcher' in unison voices and then as a 2-part round.

The Dreamship that transports the children to the Isle of Enchanment!

This was an engaging and complex process.
I have more to share with you from this celebration.
Come back next time!