Sonor Glockenspiel Mallet Solution

I have a very specific problem that I found a very specific but magical solution to, and I am so excited about it that I hope this is useful for other music teachers and students! If you have any of the barred instruments similar to the Sonor BWG Soprano Glockenspiel in Boomwhacker Colors, where the mallets go into a slot built into the side of the instrument, this hack is for you!

If you haven't heard me say this before, I am a big fan of the boomwhacker colored glockenspiels, and I definitely did not think I would be. Their sound quality is great, and most importantly, the colors have been an extremely effective teaching tool for every grade level Kindergarten through 6th- I use them so much more than I ever thought I would! But I have always had one bone to pick with them: the mallet holders.

I love how sturdy the construction is in general so they are easier for my youngest students to carry without all the bars falling off, and I love that the extra bars and mallets come attached to the instrument so I don't have to juggle extra things when we're getting them out to play. But my students always struggled to put them back in the slots correctly no matter how hard I tried to explain and show them how to do it properly, to the point that several of the mallets were completely snapped in half, and I resorted to telling my students not to try to put the mallets back in themselves because I was so afraid of breaking more mallets. 

Then a few weeks ago one of my 3rd graders taught me how to get my students to put them away properly, and their explanation has had a 100% success rate in making instant sense to all my students since I adopted their explanation! When I was trying to explain to the class that they need to put the stick side into the hole so the ball part can rest in the notch, my student casually raised their hand and said, 

"it's like putting a baby to bed!"

Don't worry, I didn't get it at first either. Upon further inquiry, she explained that the slot that the shaft slides into is the blanket, the mallet head is like the baby's head, and the notch is the pillow. 

You have to put the baby's head on the pillow.

I kid you not, the entire class (myself included) immediately let out a collective "oooooohhhhh" and suddenly I looked around and every single student was very easily putting the mallets in correctly. I was stunned. Since then I have used the baby explanation in every class that uses them, in all different grade levels, and it has worked instantly every time- even in Kindergarten. No more broken mallets! 

So I think there are a few morals to this story: 

1. Listen to your students. Sometimes they are the best teachers.

2. Just put the baby's head on the pillow.

If you're interested in hearing more about how I teach xylophones and other barred instruments in my elementary music lessons, check out this post. Have you gotten any mind blowing pearls of wisdom from your students? I'd love to hear them in the comments. 

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Ukulele Songs for Beginners

The best part of learning ukulele is being able to play harmonic accompaniment with so many familiar songs in different styles and genres! I teach ukulele in 6th grade general music so we don't have a ton of time to develop advanced skills beyond the first 4 chords. Here are some of my favorite songs to have students play in elementary music using just a few basic chords.

3 chord songs (C, F, Am)

I always teach C major, F major, and A minor chords in one 25-minute lesson- they are all pretty easy to learn and students get them pretty quickly! Once we spend the first lesson just practicing each chord on its own, the second lesson is focused on getting more comfortable with those 3 chords and practicing switching between chords. Here are a few songs I like to use to give them a chance to practice switching between C, F, and Am chords with music that my 12 year old students don't groan about (usually):

4 chord songs (C, F, G, Am)

Once students are comfortable with C, F, and Am, it's time to add G. Learning a G chord is always a bit frustrating for students because it's much more difficult than the first 3, but they quickly realize how many more songs they can play and they get used to it after a few lessons of practice! Here are some of my favorite songs using those 4 chords for my 6th graders:

I hope this gives you some fresh material to use with what I know can often be a difficult to please age group! If you want to learn more about how I teach ukulele, including basic ideas about what instruments to purchase, storage tips, and more, here is my post on all things ukulele. You'll also find all of my sequenced lesson plans and materials incorporated into my 6th grade general music curriculum here. 

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What To Do With Those Triangles

I'm always shocked at how popular the triangle is. I have had multiple experiences with 6th graders telling me the one instrument they want to play most before they leave my class is the triangle! There's definitely something magical about them. If you're looking for some fresh ways to use triangles in your classroom, or strategies for using them more effectively, this post is for you.

1. Storage

If you haven't tried my storage "hack" that I figured out years ago then you are definitely missing out. I use a jewelry organizer/ necklace hanger so I can hang the triangles from the hooks and keep the beaters in the bottom. Not only does it prevent the triangles from getting tangled up with each other, but it makes it easier to grab the triangle by the holder to keep them from falling off when you pick it up, and it makes the beaters easy to find and grab as well. You can use any shape you can find that has hooks on top and a base wide enough for triangle beaters- this is just the one I happened to find at the store on clearance years ago:

2. Management and Playing Technique

The biggest game changer that I will never go without again is rubber triangle holders (like these). I don't know why they are so hard to find, because no other triangle holder comes close to being as sturdy and easy for small hands to hold, and most importantly, keeps the triangle stable instead of spinning endlessly in circles every time they strike it. 

For students to be able to avoid "playing before I say", I always point out specifically- especially for younger students- that they should keep the beater away from the triangle if they are holding it and waiting. If they are sitting on the floor they can put them down with some distance between them, or if they are sitting in chairs they can hold the triangle on one leg with one hand and the beater in the other hand on the other leg. 

I always start off by showing students how to tap on the bottom side (the "base" of the triangle) while holding it just by the holder, making sure nothing is touching the triangle. When students learn half notes in second grade, I show them how to go back and forth in the bottom corner without the gap to play "sustained" notes, which they always think is super fun. 

3. Lesson Ideas

Preschool/ Kindergarten: My favorite way to introduce triangles is with the song, "Twinkle Twinkle". I have half the students students play on the last word of each line while the other half sing and do the motions. 

1st grade: In 1st grade students notate their own 4-beat rhythm composition for the first time, and after they write the rhythms I have them choose an instrument out of a few choices, including the triangle, to perform their rhythm with. 

2nd/ 3rd grade: In 2nd grade students learn half notes and in 3rd grade they learn whole notes, and I show them that only certain classroom instruments can be used to play sustained notes. The triangle is one of the first instruments (along with egg shakers) that I show them how to use to practice playing sustained note rhythms, so we use triangles a lot for rhythm notation reading practice at this age.

4th-6th grade: The triangle is a go-to instrument for 2 basic categories of lesson activities for my older students: soundscapes/ sound effects, and instrumental ensemble arrangements of lyrical pieces. I have a lot of lessons where I create a quick orff arrangement of a song for students to sing and play to practice a specific musical element, whether that's tonality, or a specific rhythm or pitch element, in the upper grades. The triangle is an easy instrument to add as a "color instrument", usually playing on the last beat of each measure or something like that, when the song is more peaceful/ calm, and the students all beg to be the ones to play the triangle! For soundscapes/ sound effects, I find students gravitate to the triangle for any type of "dinging" sound, so it gets used a lot in the videogame composition project, movie music foley project, and soundscape lessons.

I hope this gives you some fresh ideas for using triangles in your classroom! If you want to see how all of these strategies and lesson ideas are incorporated into a fully sequenced curriculum, with all the complete lesson plans and materials to teach them, you can find them in the Organized Chaos K-6 Curriculum. I'd love to hear your favorite ways to use triangles in the comments below as well! 

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"Colors" Theme Elementary Choral Program

For our elementary choir winter concert this year, I've chosen songs with the theme of colors. This is a great theme because there are so many possibilities, and it can work well any time of year! The songs I've ended up choosing have been a big hit with my students and they have been great for teaching a range of skills and incorporating a variety of genres and styles, plus I thought I would also share the other songs I considered that could also work well with this theme depending on the performance and students you're working with. 

The idea for this theme started when Kpop Demon Hunters blew up this summer. I knew I wanted to do "Golden" with my choir, and the program grew from there. Here are the songs I've selected for our winter concert:

Golden I'm having students sing the first verse as a solo, then part 2 sings a lower harmony on the pre-chorus and chorus. I'm also having part 1 drop down an octave on the "born to be" part that goes up to a high A, and that has worked out well!

Blackbird We're doing the song in F to make it more comfortable for them to sing it an octave higher, and I've added a lower harmony for part 2 to sing on "blackbird fly" in the chorus.

All the Beautiful Colors This song was actually the other reason I wanted to do this theme- I have been wanting to do this partner song with "De Colores" for a couple of years now because I have so many Spanish speakers and I don't have my 3rd and 4th grade chorus program anymore, so the 5th graders coming into my choir don't have the same choral skills I'm used to seeing. 

Possible bonus: Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows This is so random but I really want to include it because it fits so perfectly! I have made my students obsessed with Andrew Huang, and this song, so my vision right now is to possibly throw it in as a surprise encore if we learn the other 3 songs in enough time to add it in.

Besides those, another song I really strongly considered is Blue Skies. Besides having a few clear references to colors, it would be great to throw in a jazz piece that accessible enough for a beginning choir. There's even some scat singing!

This is another theme that instrumental ensembles performing in the same concert could easily tie in with- beginning bands often have easy songs called "blues", plus there's "Greensleeves", or anything about white snow for a winter concert. So many possibilities!

I used to say I'm not a concert theme person but after doing 4 themed concerts in the last few years I don't think I can say that anymore! I still think that the priority for me is finding good songs the students will love that incorporate the choral and vocal skills I want to teach them with a variety of genres, styles, tonalities, and languages is the highest priority for selecting elementary choir concert pieces, but when a theme naturally emerges in the process that is a cool bonus! You can see all of the themed elementary choral programs I've put together in this post if you're looking for more great songs:

And if you want to see all of my posts related to teaching elementary choir, from rehearsal techniques to my favorite songs, arranging pieces for elementary choir to my favorite warmups, you can see them all here.

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