Ways to gamify melody in your music classroom.
Comments Off on Ways to gamify melody in your music classroom.Melody and pitch is the cornerstone for a lot of what our students need to do aurally, and it fosters several skills at once.
This means there’s a bunch of different ways we can approach practicing it in our Kodály-inspired spaces which increases the likelihood ALL of your students will have the time and means to understand melody.
So, here’s a few suggestions for gamifying melody in your classroom, available via the Music Teachers’ Digital Library (note, some are free, but others are only accessible with a subscription).
Poison Solfa Knockout
Let’s start now with this generic practice activity which gamifies melody by explicit design!
Step 1. Choose a poison note out of all known notes e.g. so
Step 2. Students stand in their places with their eyes closed.
Step 3. The teacher sings a note (either do re mi or so) and students show the handsign of the note they heard, unless it is the poison note in which case they put their hands behind their backs.
Step 4. If correct, the student remains standing. If incorrect they sit down but continue playing the game and when next correct they can stand up again.
Step 5. To increase difficulty, the teacher sings two notes for students to show and so on.
Step 6. Last student standing is the winner.
Brodie!
This song is great for practicing so as well as just being loads of fun!
- Students stand in circle facing inwards. One student moves around the inside of the circle facing the other students.
- On the words ‘run-ning in the’ tap rhythm on knees
- On the words ‘park it’s’ clap rhythm
- On the words ‘Brodie! Brodie!’ student in middle and person they are facing clap right hands together then clap own hands then clap left hands together and clap own hand (pat-a-cake). All other students clap the rhythm.
Once students know how to play the game they can:
- Sing in solfa while playing game
- Sing in solfa INNER HEARING (link to resource) all sos
- Sing in solfa INNER HEARING (link to resource) everything EXCEPT the sos
- NOW it gamifies melody!
The steps change with the following phrases, so why not watch the video to see them in action!
do re mi so Bingo
This activityis perfect for gamifying melody, as students use bingo cards to practice recognising do re mi so
Hand out laminated bingo cards & a whiteboard marker or 9 tokens to each student.
Teacher or a student claps a rhythm from the master sheet (which is then crossed off from the master sheet).
Students clap the rhythm back (no rhythm names).
Students mark (with marker or token) the rhythm off if on their sheet.
Class say rhythm with rhythm names as a teacher/student writes on the board to check.
Note: To win BINGO a student must have any three across, down, or diagonally or for the longer version – all!
And remember…
Practical games and activities like those above use singing and teach aural perception and musical memory.
The takeaway is that as well as being lots of fun, your classroom is also inclusive and open to any musical (or non-musical) background of your students.
Happy gaming, everyone! – Deb
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