3 Ways to Teach Duple vs Triple Meter

In the last few years I've developed some series of lessons I love to use with my 2nd and 3rd graders to teach duple vs triple meter. These lesson activities help students identify, perform in, and respond to music in each meter and compare the two meters together. Not only are they super fun but they have been very effective for my students, who now have no trouble identifying the meter of a new song and are able to work in triple meter so much more naturally!

1. Frog Songs

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole of frog songs from around the world last year after discovering some wonderful songs about frogs in different languages, but my favorites are the Puerto Rican song "El Coquí" and the Japanese song "Kaeru". For each of these songs, I like to have them sing the song, move with the downbeats, and add instrumental accompaniments to reinforce the meter. Here are the detailed lesson plans I use with each song:

 

2. Mary Poppins

This may sound a little random or old-school but my 2nd graders LOVE learning "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and these days most of them have not heard of it until I introduce it to them in class! They love learning how to say the long word and they're so proud of themselves once they get it. I teach them to do a basic vine step with the song and they also learn a simple clapping pattern to do with a partner while they sing. Then I teach them "Let's Go Fly a Kite" and I teach them a basic waltz step and triple meter clapping pattern to do with that song. It's fun to show them the short clips from the film for each song when I'm first introducing the songs and having them identify the number of beats in a group.

The great thing about the songs from Mary Poppins is that there are an unusual number of songs in triple meter, so after we spend some quality time with those I have them practice identifying the meter of other songs from the soundtrack: "Feed the Birds", "Chim Chim Cher-ee", and "I Love to Laugh" are all in triple meter and songs the kids love, and "Step in Time" and "Spoonful of Sugar" are great ones to use for duple.

3. Move and Freeze

My favorite way to have students experience, respond to, and identify meter is through movement. This can be used as an assessment as well if you watch closely to see who is able to move with the meter independently (without following other students)! The idea is to pick a movement word (run, spin, hop, march, etc) and sing the word in either duple or triple meter, preferably with an instrumental accompaniment that emphasizes the meter, and tell students to move to match the word you sing and freeze when you sing "stop" (which obviously happens at random times in the song). Here's an example:

I know comparing duple and triple meter is a common skill we ask our students to demonstrate, so I hope these ideas give you some fresh inspiration to use with your students! My students really enjoy these lessons and their learning has improved significantly since I started using these activities to teach them! To see all of my tips and ideas for teaching meter in general, and for lesson ideas to teach specific meters, here is my post on teaching meter.