Music Models

Earth Beat: Overview

"Percussion Instruments Around the World" (Listening) Introduce the theme by showing students a web page (Drums Around the World) containing links to sound clips, photos, and examples of percussion instruments from many cultures. Explain that during this unit leading up to the Earth Day celebration, students will explore percussion from around the world, learn about famous drummers, and create their own instruments, music, and art from recycled materials. Refer to the web page daily to introduce additional insturments and performers.

Process:

"The Drum Game" (Reading, Playing, Improvising) 
1. Display iconic notation of rhythms distributed across top, bottom, and sides of a rectangle. (A web page with animated icons such as The Drum Game may be more motivating than a static display and can be posted to the school web site for home practice.)
2. Engage students in rote learning of rhythm patterns through echo-clapping. Guide practice from each corner to it's adjacent corners.
3. Model clapping from one corner to another (across row left or right; or up or down a side) and ask students to identify which row/column was clapped.
4. A student who answers correctly moves to the drum area.
5. Continue steps 3 and 4 until three students have been assigned to three distinct-sounding percussion instruments (such as bass drum, snare drum, and high-hat). These students then perform the identified pattern.
6. As an extension of the game, on another day have students select team members. Each team chooses a pattern from the web page and practices it independently in groups. Each team perform their pattern for the class to identify the pattern. Students who identify the pattern correctly move to the drum area and perform the pattern for the class as all play along.
7. Another variation involves having the students who are in the drum area secretly choose a pattern and rehearse it independently while another student improviseds on a MIDI keyboard to distract the class. The group then plays the pattern for students to identify and perform. Students who perform well then move to the drum area.

"Stomp Out Loud" (Listening, Analyzing)
1. Show the video "Stomp Out Loud." 
2. Engage students in a discussion about how the music and instruments were constructed.

"Tin Can Cacaphony" (Improvising)
1. Pair large and medium empty tin cans in the drum area. Place students at pairs of cans with beaters (pencils are adequate beaters).
2. Lead students in a discussion of where the instruments (cans) came from. (They are recycled.)
3. Allow students to explore ways to make a variety of sounds.
4. Play a rhythmic ostinato on a bass drum for students to improvise over.

"Singing Activity" (Singing) 
1. Teach children to sing "I Have A Car" through the whole-song technique. The song is about an old jalopy and has accompanying movements that children enjoy.

"Sound - Waves and Vibrations, Big and Little" (Listening, Analyzing, Interdisciplinary)
1. Allow children to explore the sounds of various steel cans.
2. Demonstrate patterns created by beads or BBs on vibrating drum heads.
3. Lead children in discussion of what they discovered concerning the relationship between the size of the wave patterns and the pitch of the instruments.
4. Show students photos of steel drums from web page. Explain that steel drums are made from recycled oil barrels. Ask them to predict what the different sizes of drums will sound like. Play clips from the web.
5. Assign students to build their own instrument at home from recycled materials.
6. Have students present and demonstrate their instruments for the class.

"Rhythms in Nature" (Composing, Playing, Interdisciplinary)
1. Use a computer attached to a television to display images of nature found on the Internet.
2. Ask students to identify and describe patterns in the images.
3. Choose students to compose and play sounds on percussion instruments in response to the inspiration of the images.
4. Guide students to respond to the patterns from the left to the right of the image.
5. Have students discuss how the sounds reflect the image's patterns.

"Earth Beat Poems" (Interdisciplinary)
1. Take class outside to view a natural scene or a small area of the playground. Students are to call out colors they see, plants and trees, insects and birds. 
2. Return to the classroom. Display a word processing program using a computer projector or a television converter. Type some of the words students called out.
3. Have students choose a few of their favorite words to find rhymes using the rhyming page handout.
4. Lead children's discussion during the process of writing the poem to discover how descriptive words give a poem a mood or character. 

"Wishes On the Wind" (Interdisciplinary)
This project was inspired by Tibetan prayer flags, which are said to bring happiness, long life and prosperity to the flag planter and those in the vicinity.
1. Display the class poem in a word processing program using a computer projector or a television converter. 
2. Distribute 12" x 18" rectangles from a white twin bed sheet and crayons or permanent markers.
3. Have students copy the poem on their flags and illustrate it as they wish. Play drum music from around the world in the background as they work.
4. Take the class outside to a spot where the winds can carry their good wishes and good thoughts to others (i.e., two trees 15' to 20' apart). 
5. Stretch yarn or string between the trees. Staple the flags to the yarn, not just over it, to decrease bunching up. You may also stapled flags to adjacent ones.

"Earth Day Celebration" (Listening, Interdisciplinary, Cultural Connections)
1. Invite a percussion ensemble that uses recycled materials (steel drums, drum brakes, etc.) as instruments to perform for the school.
2. Invite a local conservation group to speak about their efforts to improve the environment.
3. Have the 4-H Club or scouting group build and present bird houses to the school.
4. Have the school chorus perform songs about the natural environment, such as Teresa Jennings' "Mother Earth" and "Nature Starts a Song."