Old Mac Boomwhack

Music is made up of three components - rhythm, melody and harmony. 

Since we're cultivating down on the farm this year, I thought it might be fun to use a "farm song" to teach two of the three musical components - rhythm (the beat) and melody (the tune).  This lesson was taught in 3rd grade and the students greatly enjoyed it (once they got over the fact that their teacher used a "baby song!" in their lesson).

We began by singing along with a CD accompaniment of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm."  After determining  the form of the piece - Line 1 (melody); Line 2 (melody); Line 3 (rhythm) and Line 4 (melody), we changed the words on Line 3 from ("chick, chick here and a chick, chick there") to "tap, tap here and a tap, tap there; here a tap, there a tap, everywhere a tap, tap" and transferred that pattern to our laps first, and then to a sound shape drum. I notated the rhythmic pattern on the board for use as a visual aid.

After rehearsing the rhythm section several times with the entire group, I pulled 5 students to play the melody on boomwhackers.

Boomwhackers are colored tubes cut in various lengths that can be played in the palm of the hand or on the thigh (or the head, if you're really creative!)  Each one corresponds to a pitch in the C-major scale.  For this activity, we needed a G, a D, an E, a B and an A (the recording is in the key of G major).  The students were set up in a straight line in the following order (left to right) - B, A, G, E, D.  I notated the pitches on the board for use as a visual aid.

After rehearsing with the melody group, we put it all together and performed with the CD accompaniment.

Rhythm Section with Sound Shape Drums

Boomwhacker Players

Everyone rotated through both parts and played their little hearts out! (even if it was a "baby song!")

Until next time...