Discover new nursery rhymes with hidden benefits!
Are you an Early Years or Primary Teacher, TA or parent? Would you like to know how to take a song and develop it for children to learn musical concepts such as pulse, pitch and rhythm? By using traditional songs and rhymes you can introduce basic musical concepts to children, here's how.....
Learning musical concepts through song…
The main learning outcome in my Early Years music classes is for children to feel pulse, without this basic musical element rhythm cannot be understood properly. Whether we are playing instruments, using body percussion or moving around the movement is strongly bias towards pulse and this is learnt unconsciously in fun ways. I have recently started working with a new class of children and they are already showing me they are feeling the pulse of songs. Even if you start with simple movements like swinging of arms if you hold a child's hand and swing to the pulse they will eventually swing at the same time as you (unless of course they are deliberately going the opposite way!) - they are feeling the pulse through you. Bouncing and rocking babies is also a great way to cement the feeling of pulse.
Anyway this week we have been playing the woodblock to a song called "Tick, Tock". Already I am noticing the children's feeling for pulse, this is because it is reinforced with every song we sing in class whether we are playing instruments or moving around. Last week we used claves as hammers and nails, we have walked and run as snails and mice, we have tapped finger puppets to the pulse on different parts of our bodies, we perform clapping songs and we have used our shoes and even the radiators! Of course I don't tell the children this is pulse - well not yet anyway - this comes at a later stage when musical concepts are made conscious. This is the Preparation stage.
Singing songs have fantastic benefits for children's development. Not only do they develop better language and mathematical skills but also social and personal skills, creativity, imagination and physical skills through large scale movement. But what I love the most is how they develop musically. Here are some ways you can help children develop their musicianship skills through song - a great way to start learning music before instrumental training.
With very young children the first thing to teach is pulse. What is pulse? I always talk about pulse being like a heartbeat of a song. It never stops (even when we stop singing) its on going and doesn't change. We sometimes have faster pulses and slower pulses of course (this changes the tempo or speed of a song). Pulse is the underlying musical base of all music and song, without pulse we couldn't have rhythm.
To introduce and encourage pulse with young children, simply tapping a part of their bodies whilst singing will help. With small babies you can rock/sway, tap and bounce with older children you can hold hands and shake up and down in time with the pulse. When children physically feel the pulse they begin to absorb it - the physical element I have found also works particularly well with children who are on the autistic spectrum.
Here are some ways you can help develop children's feeling for pulse. Cobbler, Cobbler is one of my favourites - you can listen to it here:
Cobbler, Cobbler is a great song for pulse. The tune is easy to sing as it consists of only two pitches and there are plenty of actions you can use whilst singing it. Here are some ideas to encourage a feeling for pulse: 1. Using simple actions Ask the children to make one hand into a fist - like a hammer. With the other hand flat tap their fist onto their other open hand (palm up) as you sing the song (with babies you can simply tap the babies hand to the pulse). You can repeat with the other hand. Still using a fist action ask the children to tap the bottom of their shoes, again with babies tap each foot with your hand or both of their feet together. Do one foot first and then the other - you can pretend they are hammering nails into the bottom of their shoe just like a cobbler. The image below shows where the pulse beats are ....
2. Making a shoe Developing in from the above you could choose to pretend to make a shoe - a good idea for discussing what a Cobbler is as well!
Cutting the leather - show a cutting action with your fingers;
Spreading glue on the sole (ready to stick the leather on)
show one palm flat and with the other hand sweep the back of your other hand forwards over the palm, then back using the palm of your hand (so palms are touching) a little bit like painting ........ you get a nice swishy sound too
Attach the leather - hands flat out in front palms to ceiling bring right hand turning it over to meet the other hand (clap) first beat, second beat hands back to the starting position continue to do this through the song.
Then pretend to hammer the nails in as above!
3. Using Claves (or sticks) Ask the children to make a tapping sound by tapping them together. You can find other ways to use the claves such as tapping them on the floor, "walking" the claves, alternatively tapping the floor with the end of the clave left, right, left, right etc; using one clave as a nail and the other as the hammer and tapping the end of one clave; tap a clave on the bottom of your shoe. It is important to choose one action and sing the whole song using the same action, then change the action and sing again. The children will probably come up with some of their own ideas too. Remember to tap to the PULSE!
4. Using a shoe last I was lucky enough to be given a shoe last (you can pick them up on ebay) which make a great sound when tapped with a wooden clave. You can also show the children what Cobblers used to make shoes.
5. Using Shoes! This is my favourite and always great fun! Ask the children to take their shoes off and put them on their hands. First ask them to tap the shoes together (like they are clapping) whilst singing the song. They can then tap the floor, walk their shoes on the floor, tap a partners shoes with their shoes. If they have got these actions right and are tapping the pulse make the action harder by asking them to tap their own shoes first then their partners.
6. Moving around. Once children have mastered these actions you could sing the song whilst moving around the room to the pulse. You could walk, march, stamp - pretend you are wearing different shoes ballet shoes - tiptoe or wellies - stamping (in puddles of course!). Let the children come up with their own ideas - children often have fantastic ideas!