Day in the Park: Mixolydian song and movement activity

A new Mixolydian song and movement activity!  

Sing the song on a neutral syllable as students walk to macrobeats, then microbeats.

Have students audiate the resting tone of the song.  Then have them breathe, jump, and sing the resting tone when they land (feel free to add some story imagery here related to what they're jumping on at the park!). 

Have the students do the walking activity again, this time giving a high 5 the person they're closest to at the end of each phrase (the second half note in m. 4 and m. 8). 

Then, during the last repetition, have the students sing the resting tone as they high-5 the person they're closest to at the ends of phrases.


In other days with the song, let the kids use their imaginations to create park related movements to do!  Perhaps they can pretend to walk a dog on microbeats, swing their arms as if they're on the swings on macrobeats, alternate beats with their hands in high space as if they're on the monkey bars, perform vocal exploration like they're going down the slide...sky's the limit!

Hello, the Telephone Rings!

My students love using toy phones for this! :)

This song can be used for:

• Melodic improv conversations (each singer with a toy phone)
• Duple improv conversations with syllables
• Tonal pattern improv: “Hello ___” “Hello ____”
• Minor resting tone or patterns, with or without syllables
• Adding a RE RE DO RE ostinato to the Dorian version
• Changing the tonality of the minor version to major

 

Someone Special Gets the Drum

This is my Dorian version of a classic elementary song (the original version is mostly SOL-MI if I remember correctly).

Use this song for:

•     Moving to macro and micro
•     Rhythm pattern creativity with syllables
•     Drum exploration
•     Rhythmic ostinati

This post also has a video that includes an activity with this song!

Forest: Dorian tune and activities

Another new tune for you!  

Activity ideas: 

• Do a story-related seated or locomotor movement activity: What could the hiker see next in the forest?  Should we pretend it's a scary forest at night (with Halloween characters) or a sunshine-filled forest in the day (with different animals)?

• Have students move macrobeat and microbeat simultaneously, both stationary and locomotor
• stationary (macro in heels, micro in fingers tapping different body parts)
• locomotor (macro with feet walking, micro in hands patting)
• The locomotor activity can have kids take turns taking "a walk through the forest" by crossing the circle. The class stays on the edges of the circle, and the teacher says "[student's name], ready go!" and the student crosses to the opposite side of the circle with this locomotor movement with macro and micro going at the same time in their walking and their patting.

• Pair with duple patterns, group and individual

• Do AB or ABA movement opposites: measures 1-4 staccato flick motion or flow with pulsations, measures 5-7 legato side-to-side motion with hands or swaying whole body.  Measure 8 could be back to staccato, or still legato, depending on teacher preference and student age.

Crazy 8's: chant in 8/8 meter

Here's a chant playing with 3 + 2 + 3 groupings in 8/8 meter! This could be a great one for flow, or perhaps some unpitched percussion at the beginning of every measure or the ends of phrases. Feel free to share activity ideas in the comments!