MO was fun! This was my second time to be in MO and they run a very smooth conference over there. Tanya Franks excellent job! There was a precious couple in my conference that had been teaching preschool music for more than 50 years! Wow! I asked them "Don't you think that you should be up here teaching and I should be taking notes." With the sweetest smile they replied, "When we stop learning we need to quit." I pray that I can always have a teachable spirit.
Extremely Useful Instruments seemed to be the biggest hits again. This time I'm going to feature Boomwhackers in my notes.
Boomwhackers are very fun and are fairly inexpensive. You can order them from www.rhythmband.com, www.musicinmotion.com, www.westmusic.com just to name a few. If you have a good rhythm track you can allow each child to have a boomwhacker and keep the steady beat.
A Boomwhacker is a plastic toned tube. You hit them on the floor, your foot, your hand, your knee - anywhere - to get a sound. The notes are marked on the Boomwhackers themselves.
We featured a song titled "Did You Hear About the Baby?" We will use the chords F, Bb, and C. The pattern of the chords is F, F, Bb, C. This pattern takes two measures taping each chord on beats 1 and 3 respectively.
The F chord consist of F, A, and C. The Bb Chord consist of Bb, D, and F. If you do not have the chromatic set to have the Bb, just use D and F and it will still sound much the same. The C chord consist of C, E, G.
Each note of the Boomwhackers is colored coded and for the most part matches the colors of the melody bells we spoke about last week.
Have fun using the Boomwhackers! :-)
Keep Singing,
Darlene
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Glorieta - Melody Bells
Yes, it took a little bit for me to get this message up! Being gone every weekend catches up with you after a while. Glorieta, was beautiful this year. My husband went with me, and we actually had an uninterrupted conversation. ;-) It was really fun to be there, but it's always great to get back home.
People seem to love the change of Music Time. We saw a premiere of Joseph - From the pit to the Palace, written by Gail and Jimmy Getzen. It was very good! The young man who played the flour sifter was my favorite. :-) If you were there you know what I'm talking about.
The two classes that received the most comments were Extremely Useful Instruments and Extreme Worship. In Extremely Useful Intstruments we pulled songs from the new curriculum and demonstrated new ideas in using instruments with the songs. The Melody Bells were a hit! We used them with the song "Born in Bethlehem." The melody only contains four notes, therefore making it very easy to direct the children.
Don't worry so much about the melody being exactly in tempo, but work toward getting the notes played close enough together that the melody is recognizable. Ask the children to sing a phrase, then direct them to play their bells to repeat what they just sang. Anytime the children seem to struggle when repeating this activity, go back to having the children echo on the bells what they sing. Remember it's ok to take a phrase at a time. :-)
The Melody Bells can be found at www.rhythmband.com, item number RB107. These wonderful instruments can be played as handbells or left sitting on the table and tapped on the handle like a desk bell. The colors of these bells and boomwackers are the same, so any colored coded cards you use for boomwackers will work for the melody bells as well.
In Extreme Worship we talked about Family Worship Time, a time for children and their parents. We participated in a Family Worship Time and shared a wide variety of resources for songs to use during this time. Participants discovered that Family Worship Time, should they feel led to try it, will look different at their church than what they experienced in class. It has to adapt to the body where it is being implemented. If you are are ever in a town where we will be, I hope you will stop by and allow us to share with you some of the fun of Family Worship Time.
For now, I'm off to remember what happened in Jefferson City, MO.
Keep singing,
Darlene :-)
People seem to love the change of Music Time. We saw a premiere of Joseph - From the pit to the Palace, written by Gail and Jimmy Getzen. It was very good! The young man who played the flour sifter was my favorite. :-) If you were there you know what I'm talking about.
The two classes that received the most comments were Extremely Useful Instruments and Extreme Worship. In Extremely Useful Intstruments we pulled songs from the new curriculum and demonstrated new ideas in using instruments with the songs. The Melody Bells were a hit! We used them with the song "Born in Bethlehem." The melody only contains four notes, therefore making it very easy to direct the children.
Don't worry so much about the melody being exactly in tempo, but work toward getting the notes played close enough together that the melody is recognizable. Ask the children to sing a phrase, then direct them to play their bells to repeat what they just sang. Anytime the children seem to struggle when repeating this activity, go back to having the children echo on the bells what they sing. Remember it's ok to take a phrase at a time. :-)
The Melody Bells can be found at www.rhythmband.com, item number RB107. These wonderful instruments can be played as handbells or left sitting on the table and tapped on the handle like a desk bell. The colors of these bells and boomwackers are the same, so any colored coded cards you use for boomwackers will work for the melody bells as well.
In Extreme Worship we talked about Family Worship Time, a time for children and their parents. We participated in a Family Worship Time and shared a wide variety of resources for songs to use during this time. Participants discovered that Family Worship Time, should they feel led to try it, will look different at their church than what they experienced in class. It has to adapt to the body where it is being implemented. If you are are ever in a town where we will be, I hope you will stop by and allow us to share with you some of the fun of Family Worship Time.
For now, I'm off to remember what happened in Jefferson City, MO.
Keep singing,
Darlene :-)
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