"Soft Drink Tune"

When asked to brainstorm various names of soft drinks, most kids can come up with 3-4 of their favorites very quickly.  This is how we began our lesson entitled "Soft Drink Tune."  I needed five specific names of soda - Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Seven Up and Dr. Pepper - to teach the poem.  If they didn't come up with all five, I added them in to complete the task. It was also necessary to use the full name of Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper so that eighth notes could be used in addition to quarter notes that were used for Mountain Dew.

                          Poem                                                                                   

Coca-Cola,       Pepsi-Cola,       Mountain Dew                        

So-So-So-So     So-Mi-Re-Do     Mi-Re-Do

Coca-Cola,      Pepsi-Cola,        Mountain Dew                            

So-So-So-So    So-Mi-Re-Do      Mi-Re-Do

Seven-Up,       Doctor Pepper too                                          

La-La-So;       La-La-La-La-So

Coca-Cola,      Pepsi-Cola,       Mountain Dew                           

So-So-So-So    So-Mi-Re-Do     Mi-Re-Do 

I can't take credit for all of this creativity.  I borrowed this lesson from Jay Broeker who presented it at a North Florida Orff workshop several years ago.  The tune is also borrowed from Gunild Keetman's "Erstes Spiel am Xylophone," Page 9, Number 12.  

The lesson objectives include rhythmic reading (ti-ti, tah and quarter rests), ear-training (I ask them to explore the pitches on the xylophone in C-pentatonic.  They must figure out the pitches used in the melody), ensemble playing (once they've figured out the melody, they must all play it together), music vocabulary (main idea, contrasting idea, cadence) and finally, composition (they must write a poem using their favorite soft drinks, create a melody using the pitches C, D, E, G, A and choose rhythmic patterns that align with their text using eighth notes, quarter notes and quarter rests.)

Exploring the possibilities

Student Worksheet - parameters for the assignment;

Sample of original poem and rhythm provided

Form of composition

Building their composition

Student Work - Sample 1

Student Work - Sample 2

The lesson is highly complex and will require several class meetings to finish, but your students will be building musicianship and developing critical thinking skills throughout the process.

Until next time...