Thursday, March 24, 2011

Spring has Sprung! (part 4)

Spring has Sprung in Orff-land!

This is part 4 of a layered speech/song/rhythm piece.
Today we take yesterday's percussion ostinati and transfer those parts to Orff instruments.

We know the poem...
Spring has Sprung
The grass is growing green
The sun is shining now and
Birds are seen!

We know the ostinati:  
grass:  growing, growing
birds:  here I am!  sh sh

If you have chanted the ostinati,
If you have played the ostinati on small percussion,
Then you will find the Orff instrument parts very easy!

The Orff Orchestra! 
1.  Set up the Orff instrumentarium in C pentatonic.
Leave in the C,D,E,G,A 
Take out the F and B's (burgers and fries)

It will look like this.

2.  Now play
growing, growing on C and G.  Alternate C - G - C - G. Say "growing, growing" while you play the C and G.  (Don't play them together as a chord, play them separately.) 
Chant or sing the poem along with this.

3.  Now play
here I am sh sh  on any bars.  Don't play on the "sh", those are supposed to be rests.

4.  Now play
all the parts together (grass and birds)...and sing the song.
It will sound lovely because the instrument is set up in a pentatonic scale (no half tones) 

Just a note
I have literally broken down the steps to successful teaching of an Orff arrangement.  
I recommend that you actually perform at least one of the previous posts in this process for this spring piece.  
Using the Orff instruments are considered the "cherry on top" of a learning process.
All the foundation has been built with speech, body percussion, chanting and small percussion so that when you offer the children an opportunity to play the Orff instruments they will experience ease in playing as an ensemble.
If you skip all the foundation steps, it may work, but you've short-changed the depth of learning for your kids!

Links to the previous spring posts (foundation building posts!):
Post 3

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