Teaching Theme and Variations

I love teaching form. I didn't think much of it at the beginning of my teaching career, but it has become one of my favorite areas to explore with students because there are so many opportunities for creativity, and it's one of the easiest places to incorporate almost any genre of music. Today I want to share one of my favorite upper elementary lessons on Theme and Variations.

Within the topic of theme and variations, I want students to be able to aurally identify it, perform it, and create/ compose it. These lessons allow students to explore each of those areas.

I introduce the idea of theme and variations with this performance:

After we watch the video, I ask students to describe what happened, making sure they all notice that it is the same song different ways, and discussing which things you can change and which things you can't in order for the listener to identify it as a version of the same song rather than a new song entirely/ contrasting section. Once we've talked about the sorts of musical elements you can change and which you can't, I show them this:

For students that struggle initially to concretely identify what constitutes a variation on a theme and not a completely new piece, the visuals in this video seem to be very helpful. After watching this video, I introduce the term "theme and variations". 

Once students understand the concept of Theme and Variations and can identify it, I give students the task of creating their own variation on a given theme. There are a lot of ways to structure this task, but the basic idea is to take a short song (or part of a song) and have students create their own variation, usually in small groups. 

This is a great place to incorporate a song or genre that you don't normally use in your lessons, because you can pretty much take any section of any song for this project! I like to use the chorus from a current song (here are some hip-hop songs you could consider from various time periods) or a silly camp song. 

Start by learning the song together as a class. This could be done by singing a song with lyrics or you could also do a simple melody on instruments. Once students are comfortable with the song (it should be SHORT- no more than 4 lines), split them up into small groups and tell them to come up with their own variation- review the different musical elements that they previously identified could be changed or retained to create a variation, and have them start by coming up with a descriptor for their variation. They might choose a genre, like "country western version", or they could choose an adjective, like "peaceful version", "sad version", etc.

The important thing to remind students as they work is to keep coming back to their descriptor for their variation, reflecting on whether or not the musical choices they're making reflect that descriptor. They could certainly change their minds about which descriptor they use, but their variation needs to be cohesive.

Once each group has come up with their variation, all that's left is to put them all together to create a class performance in Theme and Variations form! I find it helpful to have groups physically sit in the order that they will perform their variation, then have the entire class perform the original "theme", followed by each group performing their variation in succession. 

There are so many ways to get creative with Theme and Variations form, and older students love the creative freedom it gives them when they create their own variations! This lesson is included in my 4th grade curriculum if you are interested in using the full sequence of lessons along with all the supporting visuals and materials. 

Have other ideas you love for teaching theme and variations? I'd love to hear them in the comments!

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Nine-In-One, Grr! Grr! Elementary Music Lesson

As I look for more ways to incorporate representation for a wide range of cultural perspectives in my music class, I am excited about this new lesson I taught for the first time this school year, using a Hmong story to practice sol-mi and instrument techniques with my 1st graders!

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I actually picked up this book at a used book store while I was on vacation last summer. As soon as I saw it I knew it would be perfect for a music lesson, but as with many things it has taken me over a year to finally sit down to figure out a concrete, meaningful lesson plan to use in my classes. It was worth the wait, though!

The book is Nine-In-One, Grr, Grr! and is a story originally told by Blia Xiong, adapted by Cathy Spagnoli, and illustrated by Nancy Hom. The story is a traditional Hmong story from Laos about why there are so few tigers. If you are not familiar with the story, here it is:

There are 3 main characters in the story: the tiger, the bird, and Shao. When I first read the book to the class, I tell the students to motion with their hands next to their face showing their "claws" every time I say Tiger, flap their "wings" every time I say Bird, and point to their forehead (like they are thinking) every time I say Shao. After reading through the story one time, we quickly discuss what happened in the story.

In the story, the tiger sings a short song ("nine in one, grr, grr") several times. When I read the story, I sing "nine in one" with the melody "sol-sol-mi" while showing the hand signs. After we've read the story and discussed it, I have the students practice singing and signing the song with me and identify the notes in the melody.

Once we've sung it and identified sol and mi, we review how to notate sol and mi on the staff and then I show them how to play it on a xylophone (I have them use G and E). Then I have students work in pairs, and they take turns having one of them sing and sign it while the other plays it. This is the first time they've really played a melody on the barred instruments, so even though it's quite simple it's great practice and the students get so excited!

Now it's time to put the whole story together. I split the class up into 3 groups: one group to sing and sign the song, one to play the song on xylophones, and one to play an instrument for each of the 3 characters: I use gongs for Shao, tubano drums for Tiger, and hand bells for Bird. These are instruments I don't use very often with my 1st graders, so it's a great chance to give them practice using these instruments and review playing technique and instrument names!

We read through the book 3 more times (so each group can take a turn on each part), and the third time I like to take a video of the performance so the class can hear themselves and I can share with their other teachers. It's so easy to put together but it gives the students great practice with some important concepts and it's a perfect opportunity to expose them to a culture most of them have never interacted with before. One nice bonus is actually the biographical information in the back of the book about each of the three contributors, which opens up some great conversations about the refugee experience, Hmong culture, and the importance of cultural preservation (yes, with 1st graders!).

Have you used this story in your classroom before? I had never heard of it until I found it at the bookstore and I love it! If you have more ideas for using this book in music class I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below. If you're looking for more ways to bring children's literature into your elementary music lessons, you can find tons more lesson ideas here:

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August Favorites 2019

August certainly zoomed by! Summer vacation is officially over and with a week of the new school year under our belts, our family is getting settled back into a routine. As I do each month, today I'm looking back on some of my highlights from the past month, including things from home and school, with photos from my Instagram account, as well as articles from other music education bloggers I found this month and shared on my Facebook page.

1. Xylophone Mallet Hack

I saw this idea in a music teacher Facebook group and my mind was blown- I attached these pen holders to the sides of all my barred instruments and now the appropriate mallets for each instrument are stored directly on the coordinating instruments themselves! This is going to save me so much time when I'm setting up for the whole class to play an ensemble piece, and it makes it so much easier when students are independently getting out an individual instrument to use for composition! It certainly wasn't cheap to outfit my entire instrumentarium with these, but it was worth it for me.

2. Family Vacation

To be perfectly honest, we didn't do a whole lot of actual "vacationing" this summer- we mostly stayed in the area, practicing riding bicycles with no training wheels and swimming without floaties, working on school stuff here and there, and relaxing. But this month we did manage to get away for a week with my extended family at a lake house we rented, and it was so much fun! I loved spending time with my niece and nephew and the rest of my family, and it was so fun to see my daughters having so much fun swimming in the lake.

3. Back to School

We just finished our first week of classes, and it really is great to be back! I loved wearing my new music dress from Modcloth for the first day of school too ;) Somehow every year I feel like I love my job more and more- elementary music really is my passion, and I'm so grateful to be able to do something I love this much and get paid for it!

4. Music Education Blog Posts

What were your highlights from the month of August? I know this month is always pretty crazy, at least in the US, with back to school season in full swing! I'd love to hear about your favorite moments in the comments below, or come find me on social media and leave me a message!

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Another: Elementary Music Lesson

I recently came across a wonderful new book that I'm so excited to use in my music classes this year: Another by Christian Robinson. I'm planning to use the book to talk about different sound sources, timbre, and communicating meaning through music with my Kindergarten classes. Here is the lesson plan I've come up with for this adorable book!

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If you aren't familiar with the story, this book is a picture book with no words at all. This video gives a sense of what it's like:

First, I'll show my students the entire book. As we look at each page, I'll invite students to share what they notice, and what they think is happening. At the end of the story, we'll discuss what the basic story line was.

Next we'll go through the book again, but I'll tell students we're going to add "sound effects" without using any words. On each page we'll practice making different sounds that I or the students suggest would fit with the page, whether it's the cat meowing, or the sound of the girl sliding through the ball pit. Children at this age love showing off the different sounds they can make with their mouths, so I'm sure they will have even better ideas than I do! This is a great place to have conversations about how loud, how fast, how high etc the sound should be to best communicate what's happening.

Once we've done that, I'll tell students that we're going to add sound effects to the story again, but this time using instrument sounds. I'll assign students to different pages- many of the pages only need one sound by one person, but some of them would probably need a larger group- and tell them when it's their turn they will make a sound to match the picture using only instruments.

I've found with this type of lesson it's easiest to sit close to the instruments, either by putting all of the instruments I want them to use out on the floor in front of the class or by moving to go sit near the shelves where I keep the instruments. Then students can quickly get the instrument they want, play it, and sit back down when it's their turn. Before we go through the story, I always take the opportunity to review classroom instrument names and playing techniques too.

By the end, my Kindergartners will have created their own soundscape from the book- this is a great introduction to the idea of communicating a story, mood, or scene through sound. If you want to see more ideas for incorporating lots of different types of soundscapes into lessons for a wide range of ages, this post has lots of other ideas:

And if you want to see all of my lessons using children's books, I have all of them collected in this post:

Have you ever heard of this book before? I am so thrilled to be adding it to my classroom this year! If you have more ideas for ways to use it in the music room, I'd love to hear them in the comments below!

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