Ways to gamify metre in your music classroom.
Comments Off on Ways to gamify metre in your music classroom.A real strength of the Kodály-inspired approach is that it is includes kinaesthetic, auditory, and visual learning modes in every aspect of teaching.
This means there’s multiple ways to deliver concepts, broadening the learning opportunities for students who are more inclined to a particular approach.
So, here’s a few suggestions for gamifying metre that demonstrate these learning modes. The activities are available via the Music Teachers’ Digital Library (note, these are only accessible with a subscription).
Give Me A Hut
Let’s start now with Give Me A Hut, a traditional Australian folksong, with actions created by me. It’s a fun way to unconsciously prepare and practice triple metre for the lower levels. Upper levels love it too as a brain break for those long Friday afternoon doubles!
Students sit in a single circle holding their hands out in front of the people beside them. Their left hand should face up under the person’s hand on their left and their right hand should face down on top of the person’s hand on their right.
Beats 1 to 6: using your right hand, tap your neighbour’s left hand then your right knee, your left knee, under your left hand then tap on top of your left hand twice.
Beats 7 to 12: using your left hand, tap your neighbour’s right hand then your left knee, your right knee, under your right hand then tap on top of your right hand twice. Repeat to the end of the song.
Bounce The Ball
This song is great for introducing and practicing the 2/4 or duple metre.
- Students stand in circle facing inwards with enough space between each student for a bounce pass. One student holds a small ball.
- On the word ‘bounce’ the student holding the ball bounces it on the floor in front of the student on their left (a “bounce pass”).
- On the word ‘the’ this student catches the ball.
- On the word ‘ball’ this student then bounce passes to the next student on their left—this student catches the ball, on beat four (a crotchet rest).
The steps change with the following phrases, so why not watch the video to see them in action!
Metre Build It Up
This generic metre practice activity is pure gamification! Students create the rhythmic patterns of known Duple Metre songs using flashcards with individual rhythms, clearly showing the metre of the song by the placements of the rhythms. The trick is they’re competing in teams against the clock!
Step 1. The students sing a variety of known songs.
Step 2. Divide students in teams and provide each team with the set of flashcards here.
Step 3. The teacher announces the name of the song and starts a stopwatch. The teams begin to create the rhythm of that song using the cards, clearly dividing the beats into correct bars.
Step 4. The clock is stopped and all teams cease working when one team thinks they have it.
Step 5. The team that thinks they have it must clap and sing the rhythm names of the song. If correct, they win, if incorrect, the clock is started again and the activity continues until one team has the song correctly.
And remember…
Using songs like those above to introduce and reinforce different metres is key in a Kodaly-inspired approach.
This allows multiple practice opportunities–the aim being to consolidate the different metres by engaging with them in a variety of formats.
Happy gaming, everyone! – Deb
Comments are closed