Aug 13, 2024 | Activities
Valentine’s Day music for baby and toddler classes is a great request Barb. One of my favorite pieces of music for entering the music room and exploration on the gathering drum is Captain and Tennille’s Love Will Keep us Together. Another is Love Somebody, now one of the free Downloads in Music Box. www.lynnkleinersmusicbox.com. We play on “yes I do” on our little baby/tot Remo drums or keep the beat throughout.
Skinnamarink is always sweet for parents doing the motions for the baby (they love to watch mommy sing and dance!) or use this as a rocking song, in lullaby style. You can also do this as a folk dance, going forward right, then forward left on the A section. Go in on “I love you in the morning and in the afternoon. Go out on “I love you in the evening, underneath the ” On “moon” dip baby, then return to forward right on “Skinnamarink….” and on “I love you” do a dip, a spin and then a hug and kiss!
Little love rhymes are great for beat keeping on the gathering drum. Roses are Red is always a great love poem for keeping the beat. We use our awesome Counting Felt Set for “My Love for You is bigger than…..” We use the number and the item. You can go from 1-10. These felts are colorful and fun for the babies and tots.
Close to You is a beautiful song by the Carpenters that would put everyone in a mood for love and cuddles.
Aug 13, 2024 | Activities
The gathering drum offers a very special, unique experience to the music classroom. Sitting around the huge Lynn Kleiner Remo Gathering Drum* immediately promotes group participation. This bonding experience creates a feeling of community as the vibrations surround the little musicians. Timing and coordination improve and creativity is fostered. A small child has the power to set the tempo of a song, show dynamic changes and lead in creating a variety of sounds and movement.
Beat: A group of children around the gathering drum work together to keep the beat. First with both hands together, once that is mastered, alternating their hands. Other patterns for beat keeping are shared to encourage creativity and leadership from the students. Students take turns sharing their way to keep the beat such as using flat hands, using our fists, tapping just one finger, tapping two fingers, moving hand from open to closed, side to side, in and out, even elbows!
Adding another level of difficulty, different hand motions can be introduced to indicate chord changes in a song. For example, continuing to keep the beat on the drum, hands are closed to make a fist if it’s a I chord, if it’s a V chord, hands are open. Three different movements can be used for songs with I, IV and V chords: fist, open hand, flipped hand (palms up).
The drum is also used for special sound effects. “Dancing fingers” on the drum sound like rain on a roof. Moving the hands in a circular motion on the drum head sounds like wind. Thunder can be created by playing quickly. Turning the drum over, students move it forward and back to create a swishing sound which can be done to the beat of a song. Experience the form of a piece of music by pushing the drum back and forth as you glide it on the carpet for the A section and move it in a circular direction for the B section. The children enjoy working together to perform these two types of movement using the gathering drum. Moving in a circular motion will create another sound. Placing an object or objects on the drum will create other timbres and can be quite exciting as well as players watch the objects “dance on the drum.”
Once the beat is mastered, additional challenges can be introduced. Rhythmic ostinatos can also be played by a group of children to accompany a song. These can be created by incorporating many ways to play the drum so different tones and sound effects are created while playing the repeated pattern.
The drum can be incorporated in the music making of the class by having a group of children at the gathering drum playing on very specific beats, for example, ask the players to play on specific beats, or specific words in a song, or counting while playing on certain beats such as 1, 3, 6, and 7.
*Our newest model is lighter weight, has the new colorful Sound Dot inside and sparkles more than ever! https://musicrhapsody.com/product/lynn-kleiner-s-gathering-drum/
For activities, see drumming activities in the books: https://musicrhapsody.com/product-category/teacher-books/
The annual teacher training https://musicrhapsody.com/teacher-training/, will introduce these 20 Gathering Drum Experiences:
Gathering Drum – 20 Experiences common in Lynn Kleiner’s Activities
- Beat
- Form
- Phrasing
- Dynamics
- Tempo
- Music Vocabulary
- Expressive Qualities
- Improvisation
- Creativity
- Rhythm
- Surprise Props under the drum
- Surprise Props on top of the drum
- Surprise Props in the drum
- Story Telling
- Chord Changes
- Ostinatos
- Gross Motor Skills
- Fine Motor Skills
- Ensemble (different parts played at the same time!)
- Leadership/Self Confidence
Aug 13, 2024 | Recorder & Orff
Hola Lynn, I am teaching in Colombia, and my colleague and I were discussing the need for replacing some of our Orff instruments. The Orff instruments available here are locally made and do not have the sound quality that we would like to have. We are looking at purchasing from the US, but because shipping costs are so high, we would like to find a good quality but still reasonably priced brand. Could you recommend one or more brands that could suit our needs?
Thank you so much, Bonnie Tomm
Aug 13, 2024 | Classroom Management
Question: How can you keep the children engaged and focused, maintaining classroom control as you put the hand drums away and prepare for a circle dance?
Answer: Use your Hello Song! Substitute the first measure or two and fill in the directions, encouraging the students to sing along with the familiar song which now has a new “verse.” For example, this year, my Hello Song lyrics (see song in Music Box Downloads) are
Sing hello, here we go, hope you’re feeling dandy
Give a smile, right in style, sweet as cotton candy.
This becomes: Drums away, here we go, hope you’re feeling dandy, Drums away, here we go, sweet as cotton candy. Make a circle here we go, hope you’re feeling dandy, Make a circle here we go, sweet as cotton candy.
Question: How can we learn all those names?
Answer: Use the Hello Song! Just change the first measures to use the child’s name: Hello Sally here we go, hope you’re feeling dandy…..
To make this more fun for everyone, have the person who’s name is in the song choose how to play the beat on the drum as everyone imitates on their own hand drum. Next lesson, play only on the last 2 beats of the phrase (dandy and candy)
Question: What’s a quick easy way to add movement to the music lesson before we head into a sitting activity?
Answer: Use the Hello Song! Get the children’s ideas how they would like to move. Like a frog? Like a snake? Maybe a cat or dolphin? Change the words and off you go! “Time for frogs, here we go, hope you’re feeling dandy…..
Question: What if you are suddenly informed that that you need to do a few songs at the school event next week. And include some instruments that the PTA just purchased! Performance Surprise!
Answer: Good news! Everyone knows the Hello Song! For unpitched, feature the names of the instrument as a verse. After singing and playing that instrument only on dan-dy and can-dy, have the children with that instrument improvise or play a rhythm pattern as the teacher (or hot shot student) plays the melody of the song on a sopranino, flute, sax, etc.
Sample verses: Time for drums now here we go, hope you’re feeling dandy….
Time for tone blocks here we go, hope you’re feeling dandy…..
Add the steady beat to the lowest instruments (our Hello Songs are in C pentatonic so its easy to add Orff and ukulele!) and have the higher instruments play on the specific beats (in my example, this would be playing any pentatonic notes when singing Can-dy and Dan-dy.). Have the beat continue during a B section where a few students improvise, thinking the words, as everyone else thinks the words and plays on the specific beats “Dan-dy and Can-dy.” If using Orff instruments, its nice to include a verse “Time for woods” for the xylophones and “Time for metals” for the glockenspiels and metallophones.
Just an FYI, I use one of the goodbye songs from the MUST HAVE book Kids Can Listen, Kids Can Move, all year long. This is always a song that’s ready to go at the end of any performance.
There are many awesome “Hello Songs” to choose from in Music Box Downloads. I suggest using the same one all year long, like an old friend coming back lesson after lesson but always having something new to say!
Aug 13, 2024 | Activities
Hi Music Box Friends,
I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day Weekend. Enjoy your weekend with family and friends.
As a new year begins, we are excited about our new Hello and Goodbye Songs. Check out our fabulous Music Rhapsody Teachers newsletter ideas practicing the Orff parts from our new Hello Song.
For our Goodbye Song, we are using the Adagio from Symphony No. 1 by Brahms. As all my goodbye songs, this is from Kids Can Listen, Kids Can Move. We learn it with ukulele and then we sing or sign with the recording. Download your copy!
We had a lot of response from our popular new download last week: Our Fall/Winter 17 Lesson Pack. Thank you to everyone who made our download so popular. This wee, we are offering a FREE preview of the pack. This preview includes 2 lessons for FREE. Download and enjoy!
Thank you to everyone for being part of Lynn Kleiner’s Music Box. If you have any questions or requests, post a message by clicking on Ask Lynn on the right hand side of Music Box.
