Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Conducting your Way through Syncopation

I spent this last week setting up my class with my sweet mom and sweet aunt (more on that later!) and now I have some great ideas of things I want to create for my classroom!

I am so excited to share my new Syncopation bundle with you! This bundle includes Canoe Round (prepare and present syncopa) and Land of the Silver Birch (practice syncopa).



I recently added Canoe Round to my store - it's my focus song for syncopation and I can't wait to use this newly designed slides in my class. I've been using old SMART board files with lines for practice and blah black-and-white design.

I've included a slide with icons for conducting to the beat - in my Kodaly levels, Phil Tacka made an impression on me by saying, "Students must conduct their way through syncopation." I have it written in my Kodaly Today book on the Syncopation page! "Ha!"

I have found this to be absolutely true. I have my students conduct on the back of their chairs, so they are actually receiving kinesthetic feedback for the beat as they conduct. Standing behind the chairs, conduct and lightly tap the chair at the ictus.

If you have a music stand, you can have one student "lead" by standing in front. A marker in hand helps make a nice metallic sound as the hands hit the ictus on the music stand. Or an old baton if you don't care about fiberglass splinters *shudder*.

The target phrase gets tapped one at a time at the board. Yes every student. Yes this takes a while. Yes it is worth it. Yes and amen!

You can also have them practice beat and the rhythm at the same time by getting into pairs, one behind the other. The person behind gets to tap the rhythm on the front person's shoulder. The person in front taps the beat on their other shoulder. Then they switch. This helps them FEEL the difference between the beat and rhythm. And it's quite a challenge if they've never done it before! (higher level thinking: check!)

There are also part-work challenges for initial practice, with beat and rhythm. On group conducts the beat while singing the words, the other group taps the rhythm in their hands while singing rhythm syllables. Don't forget to switch!

Also included in my syncopation bundle is the Land of the Silver Birch resource. This is such a beautiful melody. My students LOVE this song. Does anyone know a game for this song because that would just be the icing on the silver birch? *lol*

These are simple practice slides for practicing syncopa, lyrics sheets and rhythm practice pages, solfege/solfa writing practice, plus cards to use with instrument play!

What songs do you use to teach syncopation?

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