So, I've seen bucket drumming videos all over YouTube. It got me really excited so I decided to do a bucket drumming unit in 6th grade to end the year. The only thing....where to start??? My middle school students are difficult to say the least so I knew this might be a challenge; however, they are the most capable for this kind of activity. I was hoping that they would catch a bit of success early and run with it. We started this unit in April. I wanted to write a post about what has worked and what could go better for anyone in the same boat as me. Getting Started Getting Buckets 5 gallon buckets are expensive! Ok, not Orff instrument expensive, but for what they are, they are expensive! So, one day I had a brilliant idea! Ask the cafeteria manager if they have empty 5 gal buckets that they are just going to throw away. And....they did! Woo-hoo free buckets!! The only downside: it will take a few weeks to gather enough buckets for an ensemble. Plan B: The Dollar Tree! I got several different shaped (different sounds) buckets. They had mop buckets that sound great! I also got some popcorn bowls and mini trashcans without the lids. It is really nice to have different timbres. Drumsticks: For now we have been using mallets from the sound shapes and some wooden mallets intended for elementary music. This has worked fine and no one has complained! I'm amazed! How to Teach In my class, we reviewed note values. I didn't spend a ton of time on values that they don't see when drumming. We covered quarter, eighths, sixteenths and quarter and eighth rests. Our main focus was counting! Everyone has their own way to teach this. I just made sure that there was no confusion on the eighth notes and counting 1 &. HERE is a PDF of my smartboard presentation. (For some reason, when I saved it as a pdf my drawn eighth rests have disappeared. Just pencil them in when you use this) We did a bunch of rhythm echoes! I think this is a great method to get kids to perform without all the stress of reading, especially when they are beginners. We started out with body percussion, then did a day of Boomwhackers and now on the buckets. Boomwhackers were a great help in this unit. We played echo patterns, poison, pass the rhythm and several tunes from the Boomwhacker song book. 6th grade really enjoyed this and it helped them develop their skills when playing together. It also made everyone more responsible for their part. ;) Music and Teaching Materials A great intro to this unit was "Boom Sha Boom"! This was fantastic! Everyone loved it and it really served the purpose of learning to play together and listen across the ensemble. Once we knew the words, I had them close their eyes and chant. When they were successful at that, they then closed their eyes and said the chant to themselves, silently. It is very entertaining to watch! I found a great site when I was researching materials for this unit. Bucket Drumming Stuff from Mr. Moss Music Teacher is a wonderful resource. You can download rhythm exercises and ensemble pieces here. Fabulous! And the sequencing is great! If you can't download them from that site, try HERE for the pre-levels and HERE for levels 1-7. When we finally started drumming with the buckets (week 5), I took the time to hook up the metronome to the loud speaker and make them follow the beat. As awful as that was, the results were miraculous! They are so excited and wanted to go so fast. I stared them off at 120 and it was a huge failure. I turned it back to 80 and they were a million times better instantly. I also set the met to subdivide eighths and made them play straight eighths at different tempos for a while. Also, I ALWAYS COUNT THEM OFF WITH THE SUBDIVISION!!!!! (1 and 2 and ready and go now). They melt down without it. I taught them a modified version of Eight on a Hand. We play eight clicks (4 eighths) on the right hand, 8 on the left, 8 with hands together and 8 eight with hands alternating. Set the met at 100 and use the eighth note subdivision. We play through it once, fix hand, posture, etc. then loop it 2 or 3 times. This really helps coordination, especially with the left hand. I am planning to use "Sonata for Seven Rulers" by Cathy Blair. I found it in an old Activate magazine and thought it would be a perfect "end of the unit fun song". I did buy wooden rulers and yard sticks and painted them with glow in the dark paint like the piece suggested. I have loved bucket drumming! I want to start an after school ensemble next year! I am so optimistic with this unit that this will become a core part of my curriculum. If you are interested in starting a bucket drumming unit, I really hope this helps! Questions or concerns? Let me know in the comments!
Reading and performing note values in music is easy when you use rhythm patterns with your music students with these 10 simple lesson ideas.
3 Exercises For Orff Body Percussion 1. An easy and fun rhythmic exercise for Orff Body Percussion. 2. Follow up to the first Keep the Beat. Slightly more difficult rhythmic exercise for Orff body percussion with dotted quarter note, eighth note rhythms. 3. Follow up to Keep The Beat 1 and 2. Emphasis is on precision with rests needing care. Each part should follow on to the next in a seamless flow. This exercise can be repeated at faster and faster tempos. TERMS OF USE: © Yvonne Johnson Music. All Rights Reserved Free downloads are intended for your own personal, non-commercial use or for use with students in your private studio or classroom. You may not sell, resell, distribute as your own, share or upload to the internet any sheet music either purchased or available as a free download. The copyright of all music, paid or free is owned by Yvonne Johnson Music
The kids and I are now HOOKED on bucket drumming. I went to a PD session on it last year and I noticed the similarities between teaching bucket drumming and actual drumming. As a drummer, I was ins…
Learn all the tips and tricks for playing the rhythm chairs game in the elementary music classroom.
Tour the set of the iconic film, High School Musical with this mini travel guide. In this guide we share everything you need to know before you go, including, when to go, what to bring, and all about our experience visiting East High.
All the reasons you'll want to include bucket drumming for music in your homeschool. Includes tips and even videos to try bucket drumming now.
High Shoals Elementary School Music Blog, Oconee County GA, Orff Music Instruction
A complete bucket drumming program for teaching bucket drumming in primary or elementary school. Includes screen animations, lesson plans and sheet music.
Here is a quick and easy play-along for the start of the 2014-2015 school year. The song is "Love Runs Out" performed by the group One Republic. There is much good news with this popular song, not the least of which it is in G dorian mode. Our Orff instruments are all set for this - all you'll need is B-flats and you're good to go! The other good news is the lyrics have no "bad words" so you're safe to use it completely in tact in your classroom. Please be sure to PURCHASE THE SONG before using this play-along. A $1.23 investment isn't much. Once you have it, you can use it as-is, there is no need to alter the key or tempo using a program such as Audacity. This song follows a very simple I, IV, V chord progression, but in case you're not quite clear on the chord changes, I've posted the beginning play-along below. Once you try it out, I'm sure you'll notice where the changes occur throughout the song. Feel free to add or subtract instruments at will. This is a fantastic review for students to see and hear the difference between BEAT and RHYTHM. The hand drum part (or any type of drums will do) clearly plays the steady beat. The other parts are playing a rhythm pattern (some more intricate than others). I did this with my students by having three groups that used the Boomwhacker colors - Green (the G minor chord) Red (the C major chord) Orange (the D minor chord). This was easier for them than having each student play all the chord changes. I placed the three colors on the board and pointed and called out the changes as the recording played. There is a part in the actual recording where the bass line moves from C to B-flat and then to G, but I have only written "the basics" here for you. Have fun!
Discover Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club, a 55+ retirement community in Utah Find your dream home in Entrada Snow Canyon Country Club. Learn more!
Credit- Raymondsanti Students in grades K-4 began the Lion King unit this Monday during Arts Enrichment time. Arts Enrichment is an extra music/art time a week taught by the Art teacher Mrs. Divis and the music teacher Ms. Moon. Photo Credit The Lion King on Broadway Trailer For the next two Mondays students will be learning a fun dance to "The Circle of Life" and making African necklaces. Students will wear the necklaces while showcasing "The Circle of Life" dance at an upcoming school assembly. Photo by: Swiss.frog After those two weeks students will explore The Lion King theme more through various art projects and music activities. Some of the music activity videos are shown below: Hakuna Matata: The Lion Sleeps Tonight Music Video Lion Sleeps Tonight- Just Dance 2 Video I made two different arrangements of Lion Sleeps Tonight (and found the ukulele online) for grades 2-4, to align with what instruments they are learning in general music class. Grade 2 will learn the song on boomwhackers, grade 3 on the barred instruments, and grade 4 on the ukulele. I will also give a brief description of some common African instruments and add appropriate percussion parts (likely only one or two per grade of the percussion parts listed below). Below is a video from a 2nd grade class of students playing the boomwhacker part and some African instruments. Here is a 3rd grade class practicing the mallet accompaniment to "Lions Sleeps Tonight". Although the Lion King takes place in Kenya, the theme of the unit opens up the wonderful opportunity to explore musical activities from all parts of Africa. Obwisana is a folk song from Ghana. Students will play a rock passing game while singing the song. The words of the song mean "The rock has crushed my hand, grandma." I found this description in a book I have: "A child singing this song is repeatedly receiving a message of security and comfort, even in the context of a phrase and game which tells of injury. The injured child can take comfort in the fact that he or she can turn to "Nana" for sympathy and assistance- the ever-present circle of relatives supports Ghanaian children and adults during times of misfortune and celebration both." Che Che Koolay is also a folk song from Ghana. The words have been said by some to be nonsense words. But the movements to the song lean toward this translation: Hands on your head Hands on your shoulders Hands on your waist Hands on your knees Hands on your ankles Hands on your ankles Hands on your ankles, hey! Notation found here Students will learn a dance similar to the popular American song, "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" to Che Che Koolay.
Don't Stop Believin' sheet music by Journey. Sheet music arranged for Piano/Vocal/Guitar in E Major (transposable). SKU: MN0044401
My district is one that is implementing Student Learning Objectives...which are basically large-scale goals for each student in class based on their ability levels. Teachers have to set target scores/learning outcomes for lower level learners to higher level learners. That means there has to be some sort of pre-assessment in order to determine the level of the students. I really have struggled in attempting to create pre-assessments for orchestra. It has been hard to wrap my head around giving a test to see what I know students don't know yet...since I haven't taught the skill, yet. Anyway, I am focusing my learning objective on rhythm. I want to be sure my students are fluent note-readers and rhythm readers. For my pre-test, I will use the 'I Got Rhythm' form that I created. This can be used many different ways and can be a useful tool in a variety of rhythm exercises. For my pre-assessment, I will perform the rhythm from one box on each line...and I will have students circle the rhythm that they think I played. This will help me see if students are already recognizing these rhythms. The rhythms get progressively more difficult as you move down the page, so I will be able to set some learning targets for individual students. Eventually of course, students will demonstrate the ability to perform these rhythms on their own - by the end of year 1. I can also use this form as a rhythm exercise...students can perform the rhythms across and down each line. They can cut them up to make flashcards. You can use the different rhythms for warm-ups and scales.
Most of us teach multiple grade levels. I teach 4 year olds through 94 year olds. I skip 12 year olds through somewhere in the 60's, though...
Discover how sound travels under water with this simple science experiment for kids
I started back to school this past week with my kids on Tuesday. I had such a great first week and I am so excited to be back making musi...
Bucket drumming for kids is a great boredom buster and gross motor activity for toddlers, preschoolers, and kids of all ages!
Fun and engaging hand clapping game to teach your kiddos!
There are so many lessons to learn from music, and these 6 DIY instruments will have your family learning and making homemade music in no time.
Giving children the opportunity to get hands-on for music class is invaluable. Grab a bunch of buckets and introduce kids to bucket drumming!
You'll love this variety of preschool songs for every season of the school year!
This is a little clip chart that I use for behavior in my classroom. All students place a clip with their nam...
Music Inspires Bulletin Board. This music advocacy bulletin board is a great way to included EVERYONE in your building! Read about how to put this display together and inspire your school from the Bulletin Board Lady. Great for Music in Our Schools Month or any time of year.
"The Common Core is Like an Apple" Bulletin boards for back to school: excellence in education. Author school visit.
A fun craftivity flap book where students write about all the friends they are going to see this summer, the places they want to visit, and the things they want to do. The perfect craft for the last couple weeks of school.
An update to everything happening in the world of Musicplay, MusicplayOnline, and Themes & Variations directly from Denise Gagne!
It is finally starting to feel like fall here in Wisconsin which means lots of fun traditions like apple picking, hay rides, and pumpkin patches. This was the perfect week to do fall themed tot school activities and talk about the changing weather. Here were our plans for Fall Week: And here are the details […]
It's been a while since I posted anything that you can take right to your classroom. Here's a new one that you can use right away - well...with a little work on your part. The song "Happy" from "Despicable Me 2" by Parrell Williams is a very catchy tune. I feel it's a great teaching piece for many reasons. For one, it's a catchy, popular tune with lyrics you can actually play in the classroom! Another reason I like it for teaching is that it illustrates a very important concept when learning music. So often we tell students "major" songs sound "happy" and "minor" songs sound "sad." Well...here is an example that flies in the face of that logic. When you hear this song you can't help but feel "happy" even though it's actually in the key of F minor! First: BUY THE SONG. Please don't use a free service to play the song. It's available from most music services of your choice (Amazon, iTunes, etc.). Now, if you have a plethora of instruments at your disposal with a full compliment of chromatic notes, then by all means, transpose what I've provided here and use it as-is with the original. Most folks with Orff instruments are limited with the only accidentals available being F-sharps and B-flats. For this reason, I needed to transpose this song down a half step to E minor. Not to mention my fourth graders do not have any idea of how to play A-flat or B-flat on the recorder and I have no desire to confuse what we've already started by teaching those pitches. The way I have it here fits beautifully with the fact that my fourth grade students have just learned the pitch E, so this will be excellent (and fun) practice. "But...how do I get the recording in the correct key?" you may ask. There are options. I transposed mine with a program that I love called "Wavepad." Transposing it down took a little trial and error (it goes by percentage rather than actual pitch or half steps - 94% did the trick) and yes, the result sounds slightly different than the original - but as I find myself saying so often when I have to make do "It's close enough for this side of town!" They do have a free version available here: Click here. Another option that many music teachers like is to use Audacity. You can download Audacity completely free here. To get you going on how to transpose music with Audacity there are several resources available on the Internet. Simply Google "transpose with Audacity" and you should be well on your way if you need help figuring that task out. So here's the play-along notation for the transposed version in E minor. If you have instruments at your disposal with lower pitches (for example, I have some of the bass Joia tubes) I recommend changing the pitch B in the bass xylophone part an octave lower - but that's just a personal preference. The unpitched percussion part can be anything you have - sticks, hand drums, tambourines, etc. The alto xylophone part also provides a great opportunity to teach the famed "syncopa" rhythm pattern in the second measure. The ostinati laid out here can be played throughout and the wonderful thing about the original recording is that it gives you a nice set-up count-off at the beginning. Enjoy and...be HAPPY!
