Piano4t PreInstrumental lessons
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Music Sessions for Nursery Schools

 This page outlines ideas for short pre-instrumental learning sessions for younger children.

It includes:

a skills checklist

an outline format

games to practise following musical instructions

games with rhythm and pitch

co-ordination games

an index of activities

Outline format (20 – 30 minutes)

Every session includes playing, singing, moving and listening.  These activities can be used to teach a variety of musical skills including:

·        rhythm (pulse; the patterns of fast notes and slow)

·        pitch, (high and low notes)

·        dynamics (loud and soft; musical expression)

·        timbre (sounds of different instruments and voices)

·        form (eg. structure of songs, musical phrases)

 As well as learning folksongs and nursery rhymes, children should also experience creating their own music.  The emphasis is on group work not solo performance!  Singing and chanting games  (Poor Dog, for example or Here I am) will usually ask children to start at a different pitch from last time so that they are not self conscious if they cannot find the note to start on.  No-one is to be told they cannot sing!

Each session will have the same basic structure

1. Register song
2. Rhythm games
3. Instruments
4. Listening
5. Singing
6. Thankyou song

But each session can have its own theme to fit into the area of study - the Chinese New Year for example, or The Earth and Planets.  There should  be a good deal of repetition across the sessions – this teaches the value of rehearsal and practice as well as being fun for the children.  If you can arrange little concerts during the school year this will give the children a lot of pleasure in their achievements as well.

The activities themselves come from a variety of sources – Suzuki ideas for pre-instrumental training, Kodaly (folksong-based) singing and rhythm activities; SingUp resources; and also ideas published by MATD (Music and the Deaf).

Skills checklist

Other skills

Co-ordination is very important for musicians.  It will help if children know the finger numbers and to teach concept of left and right.

So is the linkage between visual instructions and sound – and between sound instructions and actions.  Many of the above activities teach or practice these skills, and there are others too:

Co-ordination games

• Simon says
• Draw round hands and write on finger numbers
• Hands behind backs: bring out your LH or bring out your 2^nd (pointing) fingers
• Twinkle Twinkle with actions for each line
• Follow my leader
• Pass the beat

 Musical instructions

• Conducting
• Tempo walk
• Growing pp - ff
• Telephone game
• Follow my leader
• Pulse hearts
• Rhythm flash cards
• Happy families
• Spider web
• Graphic scores

Index of activities

Suzuki (S), MATD (M) and Kodaly (K) activities

C

Can you make a sound for us?           Instrument song from All Join In (M)
 

Caterpillar song                              Chime bar song from All Join In (M)

Chime bars                                    Pass around for each to feel vibrations as well as hearing the note (M)

Clap and tap song                           A known song, children clap short notes and tap long notes.  Can be done with children singing only
                         in their heads… Or teacher asks children to guess the song she is tapping…      (S)

Conducting                                    Hand signals direct how children play their instruments or use their voices (trad)

D

Drums                                           Teach children how to hold the drum to get a good vibration, how to strike and then dampen the
                           drum

F

Follow my leader                           Copy cat action game that teaches musical form by changing the action every 4 or 8 bars (M)

G

Graphic score                               Think of shapes and patterns for instruments sounds (timbre), play music from these scores
                               or write down children’s creations (M)

Growing pp – ff:                           Crouch and whisper for pp working up to a stretch and shout for ff(S)

Guess the song                             Teacher claps and taps a song the children know to see if they can guess it from the rhythm alone (M)

H

Happy and you know it  Action song (trad)

Happy families              Give note values a character (Sleepy Grandpa, Running boy etc) to teach notation (K)

Here I am                      Here I am Where from? Chesham What’s your trade? Lemonade Please come in and give us some! Teaches the call and response structure and asks for a different pitch every time (K)

L

Left right front                Circle song and dance from All Join In (M)

Love somebody           Call and response song from All Join In (M)

M

Movement to                 Each instrument ‘calls’ a different movement (jump, hands up, touch toes)

Instruments                   (M)

Move your body!           Copycat action game going from small movements to big movements (M)

Mr Musical Wolf             This wolf beats a drum rather than checking the time!  Small steady beats mean a step forward; fast loud beats mean he’s going to chase you! (M)

P

Pass the beat                Children pass a clap round the ring (in time with pulse); can add instruments or extend to 1-2-3 game(K)

Poor dog                      Poor Dog Lost your bone? Who found the bone? I found the bone…Children pass the ‘bone’ round the ring in time with the pulse of the song – where it stops, that child is the dog in the middle of the ring (K)

Pulse hearts                  Four to eight hearts on the board, children asked to tap each one in turn in time with the pulse (teaches reading music from left to right) (K)

T

Tap and clap song       

Telephone game           Each child has a 4 beat rhythm on a card and ‘answers the phone’ when teacher taps their rhythm(S)

Tempo walk.                 Walk slowly for adagio working up to running for presto(S)

This is my nose             Action song from All Join In (M)

Triangle                        Teach children how to hold the triangle to get a good vibration, how to strike and then dampen the triangle

Twinkle with actions       An action for each line of the song (teaches children about phrases and structure) (S)

Two little hands             Instrumental or action song (based on French Un petit main qui bouge..) (trad)

Two tone block             Teaches children how to differentiate pitch

O

Oh we can play on the.. Action and instrumental song (trad)

1-2-3                             Variation on pass the beat with 1, 2 and 3 beats (M)

One two touch my shoe Action song from All Join In (M)

R

Register song               Call and response song from All Join In (M)

Rhythm flashcards         Once note values taught children can be asked to tap out 4-beat rhythms from these (K)

S

Spider web                   Draw a big spider web.  Children put insects representing sounds onto the web – then play it, traveling round from the outside into the spider sound in the middle; ‘unravelling’ the web helps teach reading music along a line from left to right. (M)

Stories                          Sounds used to tell simple stories; teaches elementary notation and the value of rehearsing over a number of sessions.

Instrument requirements

A good percussion library should have differently pitched drums, tambourines and triangles, maracas and woodblocks.  A set of cymbals might be good but they need careful handling – they have sharp edges as well as being very noisy!  Don't forget brushes for cymbals - children love this magical sound.  Chime bars are better than a fixed glockenspiel or xylophone – because every child can have one chime bar to play.  Also – you can ask children to say which one is higher or lower in pitch and stand them on top of each other in a tower with the high notes (shorter bars) on top.  Then lie the bars down - it makes so much more sense then that high notes go to the right and low to the left.  A 20-note chromatic scale (white and black notes)  and an 8 note diatonic scale (white notes only) are available at www.amusica.co.uk.