How Should I Use Percussion as a Vocalist?

Written By Victoria Boler

Hi Victoria, I’m a PreK - 12 general music and chorus teacher in upstate New York. My experience is strictly in vocal singing and not with instruments. How do you recommend going about creating lessons for little kids if I don’t have a huge amount of experience with pretty much any percussion instruments?

 
How Should I Use Percussion Instruments as a Vocalist?
 

What’s the Purpose?

  • Long-range plans: Why did I choose this song? What musical concepts are we exploring? What is the musical outcome?

  • Musical outcome and sound properties of the instrument

    • Examples:

    • Clapping the rhythm of the words - rhythm sticks

    • Playing four 16th notes or 16th note combinations - tubanos

    • Speaking a sound elongated over two beats (half note) - finger cymbal

    • *Flexible, but intentional (half notes don’t always equal finger cymbals)

Intuitive Progression to Percussion Instruments:

Blog post: Beginning Unpitched Percussion in Early Elementary Music

Blog post: Scaffolding Mallet Instruction in Elementary General Music

  • Voice (speaking or singing)

  • Body Percussion

  • Instruments

Bee Bee Bumblebee:

  • Beat

    • Speech and body: Speak the rhyme and pat the steady beat

    • Instrument extension: Speak the rhyme while a few students at a time pat the steady beat at a tubano

      • This is one reason I like having a tubano as a first instrument

  • Rhythm

    • Speech and body: Speak the rhyme on “long” and “short” and clap the rhythm of the words

    • Speech and body: Inner hear the rhyme and clap the rhythm of the words

    • Instrument extension: Speak while playing the words on rhythm sticks

      • one reason I like having rhythm sticks as a first instrument

  • Rhythm vs beat

    • Body: The person who is out chooses if the class will pat the beat or clap the rhythm

    • Instrument: The person who is out plays a steady beat on tubano while the rest of the class plays the rhythm of the words on rhythm sticks

    • Every other student in the circle has rhythm sticks and plays the rhythm of the words, the other half plays a steady beat. Hand rhythm sticks to the right.

      • A few episodes ago about handing out instruments

  • Loud and Quiet

    • Speak loud and quiet

    • Speak and clap the words loud and quiet

    • Inner hear and play the words loud and quiet

  • High and low

    • Speak the rhyme with a high and low voice

    • Speak and clap the words high above your head, then pat them on the ground with a low voice

    • Play the rhythm of the words on the high or low part of a barred instrument

  • Just for Fun / Expression / Exploration

    • Speak the rhyme, then speak “buzzzzzzz, buzzzzzz, buzzzzzz, buzzzzzz” as you move in open space. Land back in your spot.

    • Speak the rhyme, then use jingle bell bracelets to buzz in open space, landing back in your spot

    • Pull families out - What instruments sound like rain? Snow? Sun?

      • Pat the rain, shake the snow, clap quietly for sun

      • Read The Boy Who Los his Bumble - pat the rain on hand drums, shake the snow on maracas, play triangles for the sun

How can we create lessons for young students that use percussion if we’re trained as vocalists?

You may not have percussion experience, but you do have experience as a musician, as a pedagogue, as a vocalist, and as someone who uses your body to create music. If you have experience in all these areas, you are set up to think creatively and pedagogically about the percussive experiences you want your students to have.

We’ll start by clarifying the purpose of the activity, and then use percussion as a natural extension of the voice and the body.

Victoria Boler https://www.wemakethemusic.org
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