Ragtime Dance Ragtime music is a forerunner of jazz music and was popular around 1900. It grew from African American musical traditions, combining the jig and march styles commonly performed by African American bands. Ragtime became immensely popular as a musical style and a dance. It is called ragtime because of its syncopated, or ragged, […]
Drumline A drumline is a group of percussionists and performers that march and move their bodies while they’re playing music. Watch this video to see the Montbello Drumline in action. Now, create your own classroom drumline. Choose three (or more!) simple rhythms as a class. We suggest that one of the rhythms is just quarter
Teamwork for Two (and more!) As any practiced performer knows, performing in a small ensemble, like a duet, can often require more concentration than performing in a larger ensemble. In a duet, you have to be completely aligned with the other musician – you have to listen to and hear what they’re doing, but you
Musical Thunderstorm Lightning and rain storms are perfect to go along with with a thunderous piece of music. The thunderstorm section from Rossini’s William Tell Overture is a great example of how music can help us to imagine amazing stories and situations. This is a fun activity that can take as little or as much
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Carnival of the Animals Carnival of the Animals is a short 14-movement suite by French composer Camille Saint-Saens. It was composed in 1886 and, when it was written, audiences would have found it to be pretty funny- it is full of musical jokes that listeners would have instantly recognized. Each movement is about a character,
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Animal Tempos Vocabulary Let’s focus on just four main tempo dynamic markings: andante, moderato, allegro, and presto. Here is a helpful way to imagine four different tempos as animal speeds. Activity Step One: Try acting each animal move while you listen to these four pieces in this playlist: Feel how each animal has a different
Mystery Choice Tempo Activity Have fun playing with tempos as students learn to feel them with their bodies. Write down different tempo names on slips of paper and put them in a pile or in some sort of container. Create another set of papers that have different body movements on them.Take turns choosing a tempo
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