Espresso Shot: Experiencing Syncopa in Concept-Based Teaching
First Experiences:
Sing the song and play the game
Sing the song and walk around the room
Sing the song and create a body percussion steady beat arrangement or a body percussion ostinato
This is happening with all the different songs we talked about yesterday: in this case, Bump Up Tomato, Weevily Wheat, Surfin’ U.S.A, and perhaps another song like Alabama Gal and Bruno Mars’ Count on Me.
Where are we doing these activities?
We talked about a lesson structure in episode 37 on organizing the mus ic lesson:
Welcome song (and / or warm up routine)
Musical concept 1 (this is syncopa in this case)
Change of pace (this might be a syncopa game, another musical game, or something else “just for fun”)
Musical concept 2 (this would likely be a melodic concept)
Closing song (or closing routine)
Activities in Action:
In the November plans for The Planning Binder, here is how we’re using synco-pa in two of the lessons.
Lesson 1:
Warm up routine: This is labeled as teacher choice but I would do a pop song students enjoy and have it playing as we do our warm up routine
Musical concept 1: Synco-pa or ta-di—di - Surfin’ USA: Play the words “inside outside USA” on body percussion with a partner. We also do some critical thinking questions about the sounds we hear - are they even or uneven? (uneven) Which is the longest sound in USA?
Change of pace: Synco-pa or ta-di—di - Bump Up Tomato: Sing and play game, when you’re out you play an ostinato of straight eighths: ta-di ta-di ta
Musical concept 2: La pentatonic
Closing song: We can introduce Bump Up Tomato while students are standing in line
Lesson 2:
Warm up routine: Surfin’ U.S.A.
Musical concept 1: Synco-pa or ta-di—di - Bump Up Tomato: Sing and play the game (quickly) Clap the first eight beats. Identify the long and short sounds of the pattern: short long short - are these even or uneven? (uneven) Write long and short sounds above the first four beats. Notice where the words happen in relation to the ostinato: ta-di ta-di ta (rest)
Change of pace: Seasonal activity of some kind
Musical concept 2: La pentatonic
Closing activity: Seasonal activity, or another game
Notice how the actions students were taking in lesson 2 was built off of the actions they were taking in lesson 1. This is just two lessons but we can see the common thread between these lessons in terms of the rhythmic concepts.
The kicker, and the thing many of us have a hard time wrapping our heads around, is that at the same time there is a rhythmic thread going through the lessons, there is also a melodic thread.
