Sometimes I think teachers who don’t have musical training see music teaching as being as complicated as THIS! Does teaching music have to be this complicated??? NO!!!! You can go right back to the very beginning with music as you can with letters and numbers!
It can be easy, colourful, fun, interactive, straight-forward and progressive in positive little steps! Even though I have a music degree, my favourite part of music is making skills EASY and fun for children and teachers, Think THIS!
You can almost feel the learning taking place when looking at this picture! Here, rhythms are broken down into the simplest of components – Ta for a crotchet, Te-te for 2 quavers and a ‘Z’ for a rest (each worth one beat – it’s like very basic maths) The children already know the chant – ‘Mice, mice, eating all the rice, nibble nibble nibble nibble, nice, nice, nice!’ They are looking at how it is notated and are playing a game with it – one is playing on the Ta’s, one is playing on the Te-te’s and one is playing on the rest. They are learning pulse, rhythm, keeping in time, starting and finishing at the same time and also about different timbres.They are continuously working things out and thinking things through. For you, once you grasp just these 3 elements of rhythm, there are heaps of games and activities the children can play with them, including composing and improvising!
Still feel overwhelmed? That’s why I created VIDEOS of all the activities involved and all the processes the children need to know, so you can learn the activities alongside them. Everything has been done to help you and your staff to be able to understand and enjoy loads of games and musical activities with your primary children – EASILY!!! Honestly!
AND…. through these activities you will be covering all the practical music-making elements of the music National Curriculum!
If you already know all these aspects of teaching music you may feel like this is an element patronising. However, if you are a music specialist in a school it will be your job to teach and inspire all your staff. By allowing us to explain music in this way to your staff and for them to all have personal access to our 600 videos and lesson plans, we can really help you to share the skills of music teaching, easily, to everyone.
Feel free to go in and have a really good look at what’s been made for you. We WANT to make your music teaching as easy as possible and for you to find lots of games and ideas. You can download 40 lesson plans for free and will have access to all the 600 video clips for 10 days. Nothing to lose! My gift to you! Enjoy!
To access the free trial please go to http://www.activemusicdigital.co.uk and click on ‘start free trial’.
Active Music Digital - Online Music Teaching Platform for KS 1 & 2 