Chapter 3

Musical Passports: Building Musical Bridges 

The activities in this section are effective in helping children:

• become increasingly accurate in rhythm and pitch alone, and with a group 
• carry out sequences of tasks
• develop large and small motor coordination
• experiment with a variety of instruments and other sound sources
• identify same/different
• iimprovise instrumental accompaniments to songs, recorded selections, stories, and poems.
• invent and use original graphic or symbolic systems to represent vocal and instrumental sounds and musical ideas
• make decisions about ordering and sequencing of sound events
• move in coordination with a group
• play simple melodies and accompaniments on instruments
• sing a variety of simple songs in various keys, meters, and genres
• solve puzzles
   

On the Bridge at Avignon

This familiar French folk tune provides opportunities for inviting children to move to different ways “on the bridge.” Children learn to attend to directions in the music (such as starting and stopping) as they make decisions about their movements. Adults may substitute the name of their town or city for Avignon.

Procedures 

1. Move in response to the music. (This can be done by you and by the children).
2. Invite children to substitute various developmentally appropriate motions for the entire group (such as walking, hopping, swaying, rocking, or bouncing).
3. The tempo may vary with different movements.
    

Eency Weency Spider

Children of all ages love this song. There are many musical lessons in this familiar activity, as children experience organization in phrases, physically respond to the beat, and explore concepts of high and low.

Procedures 

1. Sing the song with the children, leading them in the familiar motions associated with the lyrics.
2. Create a puzzle strip of the song so that children can experience the phrases both aurally and physically.
3. Provide children opportunities to explore the spider crawling up and down the water spout on a pitched percussion instrument.
4. Lead the children in singing the song in Spanish: La arana chica tejio su telarana / vino la lluvia y se la llevo. / Salio el sol y seco la lluvia / Y la arana chica otra vez tejio.
    

Grandma Moses

This song involves vocal exploration through singing and speaking; sequencing contrasting parts to the song, moving in response to the song text, and playing instruments as an extension of body movements. Children can also improvise, substituting their own or their friends’ names for “Gramma Moses.”

Procedures 

1. Sing the song with children modeling motions that follow the text.
2. Gramma Moses sick in bed... hands on waist Called the doctor… mirror telephone Gramma, Gramma you’re not sick… point and shake finger
3. All you need is a peppermint stick.
4. The B section section of the song is speaking only.
   Invite children to choose a “shaking” instrument for the B section. Follow motions of the speech with maracas.
5. Ask the children about ways in which they used their voices [singing, speaking].
6. Insert other names in the song for Gramma Moses. Other songs with shakers include Tingolayo and Shake My Sillies Out

Click here to listen to this song in MP3 format (503k)
 

Are You Sleeping

This experience involves finding new ways to use this French folk tune. In addition to singing a familiar song, the children have a chance to identify same/different parts of a song, make musical decisions about the order, or song sequence; improvise on a familiar melody, and construct a new melody. The ideas for this experience are adapted from Barbara Andress.

Procedures 

1. Sing the song many times with the children so that they know it well.
2. Duplicate the pictures for the children, cut them out and place in a zip lock bag. Sing and point to each picture to demonstrate how the “pictures” follow the melody. (The children can also draw their own pictures for the phrases in the song.)
3. Ask:
   • How many parts are there in the song? [Children may say 8 to represent the number of pictures; or they may say 4 with repeated parts.]
   • Will you point to each part of the song as you sing?
   • Will you turn over the parts/motives that are the same so that we cannot see the picture? Then,
   • Will you sing that part in your head ?
4. After much practice, ask the children to select their own four pictures to turn over. Then, ask children to sing their “newly constructed” versions of the song.
5. Ask each child to position the pictures to invent his or her own order for the song, and sing that alone.
6. Children can also sing the melody in a variety of languages, including French, German, and Spanish. See translations below.