Category: Successful lessons

Graffiti Board

Elements of Music Graffiti Board

The graffiti board is a technique that can be used in classrooms across the many teaching disciplines and age groups.

Recently I used this technique to lead my class of Year 9 students into thinking about and discussing the elements of music.

I asked each student to think of a word that is used to describe the sound of music. I had to emphasize that I didn’t want words that described  how it made them feel….. such as happy or relaxed, only words that described the sound of the music itself.

I then gave a couple of examples by asking – what words can be used to describe a lullaby? Soft and slow were the first answers to come from the students. After this they were on a roll!

One after another each student came up and wrote a word on the GRAFFITI board!

This continued until the flow of words slowed and the GRAFFITI board was looking very full!

The next step was to categorize the words according to the elements  of music.

I deliberately choose the word FAST and asked what the word described about music. The initial reply was that it described the speed of the music. It is important to establish the correct terminology at this point and so after a little more prompting; the students gave me the word TEMPO.

Students were then asked to locate other words on the GRAFFITI board that described the TEMPO of music.

We continued this way in order to establish the other elements of  music.

Finally students were given a worksheet on which they were asked to write each of the words on the Graffiti board in the column of the correct element of music. 

Click HERE to download the ELEMENTS of MUSIC worksheet

Successful Lesson

SUCCESSFUL LESSON

I have a special needs student in one of my music classes. He has Asperger’s syndrome. He is 12 years old and has had very little formal music training.

Recently he completed his first ever Composition Task by following a strategy that I believe worked quite well. This task ran over TWO lessons.

 

Task:

Compose/create a four bar melody with four beats in each bar and notate it on the treble stave.

 

APPROACH: LESSON

RHYTHM:

  • The student was asked to clap rhythms that were four beats long. (I demonstrated some to get the ball rolling)
  • After coming up with a few different four bar rhythms, the student chose two that he liked and together we notated the rhythms on a blank piece of paper. (no stave involved at this point)
  • He chose the following:    
  • This two bar rhythm was repeated to make the four bars of rhythm needed for his melody:
  • We spent some time clapping through the rhythm so it would be remembered when the student moved on to composing the melody for his rhythm

 

MELODY

  • To compose the melody we used a virtual keyboard found on the following site. (I believe an important point at this stage of the process was that the student was more comfortable at a computer keyboard with a virtual keyboard than a piano or musical keyboard.)

http://www.bgfl.org/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/music/piano/

  • After exploring the different instrument sounds and drum beats available, the student chose the piano to work with.
  • His task was to ‘tap’ out his rhythm on any of the WHITE keys between G and D1 (that way the F# and any mention of key signature was avoided)

 

  • As the student came up with a sequence of notes that he liked  (working on ONE bar at a time AND tapping the notes out to the rhythm he’s chosen), I noted the letter names on his sheet of paper.
  • He could do this by either clicking on the ‘keys’ on the computer screen or by using the computers keyboard: G = G, H = A, J = B,  K = C and L = D
  • This is what he came up with:                                                                                    G      A      B      B      G      D     C      B       G      A      B      C      D      B    A    G

 

APPROACH: LESSON  

Notating the composition

To begin today’s lesson we clapped through the four bar rhythm and played through the melody using the notes the student had chosen on the keyboard.

Then it was time to notate the melody in the treble stave

I gave the student the following information/worksheet (which I had typed up since that last lesson):

YOUR RHYTHM:

 

YOUR MELODY:

G      A      B      B      G      D      C     B      G     A     B     C     D      B     A    G

COMBINE the RHYTHM and MELODY 

The rhythm was on the page and the student had to write the letter names under the corresponding notes. E.g.

 

The student was then asked to notate his composition/melody onto the stave, combining the rhythm with the melody notes he’d chosen.

 

AND he DID it!!

 

This process worked very well. Not only did the student complete the task, but perhaps more importantly it had given him a great sense of achievement. He had composed and notation his own melody which he could also play!