Georgia Standards

 

South Carolina Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

 

Materials

• Audio recording of drum composition (examples can be found on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, etc.)
• Sound source (computer and speakers)
• Drums of three different sizes (improvise with other objects, such as buckets or pots, that can be used in place of a drum if you do not have drums available)
• Plastic cups of three different sizes
• 8-beat visual (numbers 1-8 spaced evenly)
• Pencils
• “Pitch detective” charts for each student
• “Pitch detective” visual on board

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Classroom Tips: Arrange student groups throughout the room so that they can move far enough apart during the creating process to enable careful listening and minimize distraction from other groups. Perform compositions out of sight of “audience,” so students rely on listening rather than sight to identify sounds heard. 

 

• Play a recording of drums as students enter the room.
• Have students listen and then discuss with a partner what they heard.
• Introduce musical terms (e.g., instrument names, dynamics, pitch, texture, etc.) as students make observations.

 

Work Session

• Take out three different sized drums (or buckets turned over). Demonstrate different pitches (high, medium, low) of various size drums (using the same relative force when you hit each drum).
• Ask students if they can determine the relationship between sound and drum size.
• Now, transfer these acoustical principles to various size plastic cups.
• Play a listening game with students. Out of students’ sight, perform 4- or 8-beat rhythmic patterns (or beats) on different drums and/or cups.
• Challenge students to identify what was heard (e.g., three sounds on a small drum and one sound on a medium drum).
• Have students echo the pattern, using body percussion (e.g., clap for high drum, pat for medium drum, stamp for large drum).
• Perform an 8-beat rhythmic pattern using low, medium, and/or high sounds, and have students identify what they heard (high, medium, and low).
  • Keep the patterns simple by using quarter notes (one sound for each beat) and eighth notes (two sounds on each beat only).
  • Using an 8-beat visual (see below) may be helpful to guide student responses.

1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8

• Divide students into groups of four to six students, with each student having a cup. Have students create an 8-beat pattern using cups.
  • Remind them to include everyone in the composing and performing process.
• Distribute pencils and “pitch detective” charts. While each group performs (out of the sight of their classmates), the other students will be “pitch detectives” and notate what they hear on their charts.
  • For example, using a blank 8x3 table (such as appears below), students could write an “X” in the appropriate boxes based on what they hear. The boxes below would demonstrate four high sounds, two medium sounds, and two low sounds.

 

Closing Reflection

• Compare and contrast student compositions, discussing the differences in pitches and rhythms.
• Finally, have students graph the data that they recorded on their “pitch detective” charts.

 

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator; ability to use musical vocabulary to describe music; ability to identify high, medium, and low sounds; and collaboration with group members to create an 8-beat pattern using cups.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

• Students can identify high, medium, and low sounds aurally.
• Students can verbally describe the impact of size on sound.
• Students can create and perform an 8-beat rhythmic pattern.
• Students can identify pitch elements of peers’ compositions verbally and through notation.
• Students can graph the data that they recorded.

 

DIFFERENTIATION 

Acceleration:  Provide students with a variety of materials (including but not limited to cardboard boxes, plastic hangers, foil, rubber bands in different sizes, etc). Ask students to build (or design) new instruments that play different pitches. Allow students to research and explore how instruments are made. Having different students research different instruments will allow for discussion on how they make different sounds. Combine two student compositions into a 16-beat phrase. Combine two student compositions simultaneously, producing a thicker texture. Alter dynamics and/or tempo of student compositions. Have students write compositions for others to perform using various notational systems. Write 1-2 Xs in each cell of a 3x8 table. Use other symbols (triangle, square, circle) to represent high, medium, and low sounds. Have students write sequential steps for generating new compositions. Remediation: When performing rhythmic patterns, have students perform a four beat pattern. Group students into pairs as they complete their “pitch detective” charts. Make the “pitch detective” charts 4x3. ESOL Modifications and Adaptations: Ensure that students have a clear understanding of the concepts of steady beat and pitch, along with the music vocabulary words texture, dynamics, acoustics, and body percussion prior to teaching this lesson.

 

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Maribeth Yoder-White. Modifications, Extensions, and Adaptations Contributed by: Candy Bennett, Patty Bickell, Vilma Thomas, and Lori Young. Updated by: Katy Betts.

Revised and copyright: September 2024 @ ArtsNOW

 

 

Georgia Standards

 

South Carolina Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

 

Materials

• Variety of unpitched percussion instruments (can be “found sound”, such as, scraping a ruler along a binder spine, tapping a pencil on a desk)

• Plastic cups in various colors and sizes
• Rhythm sticks or dowel rods
• Sound source (e.g., computer and speaker)
• Musical recordings
• Large pads and markers
• Paper and writing utensils (pencils, markers, crayons, etc.)
• Note cards with mathematical equations

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Classroom Tips - You may find it helpful to discuss proper use of, and care for, instruments prior to use. Discuss “resting” position, meaning no sound at all from instruments. Also discuss moving through “space” without touching anything else around. Pretend you are in a bubble and cannot touch anything or anyone in your surroundings.

 

• Turn on music with a steady beat that is easy for students to follow (or, simply play a steady beat without accompanying music).
• Students stand in the space (no formation).
• Leader claps (or plays) the beat while students walk to the pulse.
• Leader plays four beats (while students move); then students stop and clap four beats (same tempo as leader).
• Continue the game, moving around the room freely.
• Have students stop in front of someone and clap their partner’s hands for the second set of four claps.
• Thus, the sequence becomes:
  • Move to leader’s beat (set 1 = 4 beats)
  • Stop and clap beat alone (set 2 = 4 beats)
  • Move to the leader's beat (set 3 = 4 beats)
    • Stop and clap your partner's hands (set 4 = 4 beats).
• Have students move to a new partner each time.
• Extend the sequence by adding additional movements and/or body percussion for subsequent sets of four beats (e.g., move to leader’s beat; clap beat alone; move to leader’s beat; clap partner’s hands; move to leader’s beat; pat beat; etc.).

 

 

Work Session

Wake-up and Warm-up  

• Tell students that they will continue the activator, but now, they will turn it into a mathematical equation!
  • Example: 4+4+4+4=16 or 4x4=16
• Experiment with different tempos and different numbers of beats (i.e., slower tempo, use body percussion or instruments to show 3+3+3+3+=12 or 3x4=12).
• Introduce a variety of rhythm instruments if available (rhythm sticks, drum, wood block, triangle, tambourine). Otherwise, use objects around the classroom, such as scraping a ruler along a binder spine, tapping a pencil on a desk.
• Take time to discuss the various shapes of each instrument (compare and contrast both shapes and sounds—timbre).
• Use students to demonstrate to group various equations that can be solved.
• Teacher will have two students play 6+6=12.
• Arrange students in pairs and pass out equations. Then have students “play” equations and have partners solve the equations.
  • For example if a notecard shows 4+4=8, one student would play 4 beats with one instrument or body percussion (such as clapping) and the other student would have to solve by saying “you demonstrated 4+4=8”.
  • Then switch roles.
  • Then challenge the students to just play the answer (for example, 8). The other student must find a way to “play” 8, such as 2+2+2+2.

 

Question and Answer

• The format of this strategy will have the question being asked on the first eight beats and the answer on the second eight beats); reverse.  Display visuals of numbers.
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 -
  • Have students speak numbers in a given tempo.
  • Have students clap once on each number while speaking; repeat, eliminating speech.
• Divide the class into two groups.
• Have students (in two groups) only clap on the EVEN number (first with speech, then without).
• Have students only clap on ODD numbers (first with speech, then without).
• Have students clap twice on one number of their choice; extend to clapping twice on two numbers.
  • Discuss how if we clap twice on one beat (or one number) it represents two half beats. Show the fraction 1/2.
• Under each of the numbers, draw “stick notation” to show quarter notes and eighth notes. Quarter note =1 and the eighth note =½.
• Now, incorporate questions and answers. Leader provides a question via clapping the first eight beats; students use part of the question in their answer in the second eight beats (e.g., “use the first part of my question as the first part of your answer”).
  • Extend to other body percussion, found sound, and/or unpitched percussion.
• Try the strategy using pairs instead of two groups. Divide students into pairs, with one person providing the question and another, the answer; reverse.
• Incorporate movement; add to a recording if desired (for example, “Hora Agadati” or “Jai Ho”).
  • Have students walk eight beats and then “answer” using body percussion for the next eight beats.
• Tell students that a phrase in music is a musical sentence. Ask mathematical questions such as, if each phase is eight beats and we have four phases, how many total beats?
• Extend to ask questions about the patterns.
  • If we walk the first phase, use body percussion the next phrase and then walk the next phrases, that could be called A B A pattern.
• Have students work in pairs to create a “composition” using rhythm instruments that contains between two and six phrases (each phrase must be between six and twelve beats).
• Have them label the phrases with capital letters and then show equations for “how they play” each phrase (as demonstrated in the previous activity).

 

Composing with Cups

• Display different colored cups and have students reach consensus about desired sound for each (e.g., blue – quarter note, yellow – eighth notes, clear – quarter rest).
• Introduce silently, having students use creative and critical thinking to figure out the values (number of sounds for each cup) independently first.
• Teacher should lead this activity in silence, changing cups (number of sounds) and even length of phrase prior to any discussion.
• Pause and discuss what students observed about the values of each cup.
• Next, have individual students create rhythmic patterns for others to perform using the different colored cups.
• Have students “conduct” their patterns by leading other students in performing them.
• Variations:
  • Experiment with performing multiple patterns at the same time (having two groups perform simultaneously), reading in retrograde (reverse order), adding dynamics (loud/soft), etc.
  • Add to a recording as desired (such as Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Together”).
  • Have two groups face each other. Have a student compose a pattern behind another group and the group facing him/her perform the rhythm.
    • The group with their back to the composer will write the rhythm using traditional or “stick” notation.
• Finally, have students work in small groups to create their own composition with cups. Students should notate their composition and be able to explain the mathematical concepts embedded in their composition, such as multiplication.

 

Closing Reflection

• Students will perform their compositions for the group. Discuss appropriate audience participation prior to performances.
• Ask the audience to help identify mathematical connections.

 

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator, ability to “play mathematical equations”, ability to move and speak to a steady beat, and collaboration with groups to compose and notate a musical composition.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

• Students can identify, speak, and move to a steady beat.
• Students can demonstrate understanding of mathematical concepts, such as patterns, odd and even numbers, addition, fractions, multiplication, etc., through music.
• Students can compose and notate music.
• Students can explain how they used math to create their musical compositions.

 

 

DIFFERENTIATION 

Acceleration:  Have students listen to examples of songs and identify mathematical concepts in the song construction. Challenge students to add dynamics to and/or change the tempo of their performances and discuss how these changes alter the music. Remediation:  Reduce the length of the composition students create at the end of the lesson. Limit the focus of the lesson to one mathematical concept (such as multiplication being a pattern of addition) that students will build upon throughout the three strategies.

 

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Pamela Walker and Maribeth Yoder-White.

Revised and copyright: September 2024 @ ArtsNOW