Experiences and Outcomes:
I can sing and play music from a range of styles and cultures, showing skill and using performance directions, and/or musical notation. EXA 2-16a
I can use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to experiment with sounds, pitch, melody, rhythm, timbre and dynamics. EXA 2-17a
Inspired by a range of stimuli and working on my own and/or with others, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through musical activities. EXA 2-18a
I have listened to a range of music and can respond by discussing my thoughts and feelings. I can give and accept constructive comment on my own and others’ work. EXA 2-19a
Lesson Outcomes
After this lesson, pupils will be able to:
- Listen and reflect on a piece of orchestral music
- Create their own Latin inspired rhythmic ostinatos
- Learn rhythms from Bernstein’s ‘Mambo’ and structure them into a piece
- Perform as an ensemble
- Learn musical language appropriate to the task
Curriculum Checklist
Learners will:
- Play and perform in ensemble contexts, using voices and playing musical instruments
- Improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music
- Listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
Activities
Bernstein’s music is littered with Latin rhythms. The fun lesson below outlines how to make your own Latin dance music
Warm-up. Clear the classroom and ask your children to stand in a circle. To wake them up, pass a quick clap around the circle.
Pulse. Using a drum or a woodblock, play a steady pulse and encourage your class to clap or tap along. When they are good at this you might like to choose a child to play the drum and lead everyone else. Pay particular attention to starting and stopping together.
Now encourage your class to count to eight as they clap. We are heading towards making patterns that will fit one bar of 4/4 and so are counting the 8 quavers.
Demonstrate. To make an interesting pattern we have to choose some of the beats to be highlighted or made ‘special’. Ask your class to choose one of the beats (one number from 1 to 8). Challenge your children to tap out the pulse and count in their head. When they reach their ‘special’ number they must say it out loud.
Now ask your class which instrument should play on their chosen ‘special’ beat. Give out that instrument and practise with everyone clapping the 8 and the players just playing on the ‘special’ beat.
When this is achieved, go through the process a couple of times more choosing other numbers to emphasise and add these (with new instruments playing them) into your pattern. Limit your class to a maximum of four ‘special’ beats. Perhaps appoint one child to play the pulse throughout to help keep everyone in time.
Split into small groups and challenge each group to go through the steps above to create their own Latin rhythm. When they are getting good at playing their pattern challenge them further to replace one beat with a flourish, shake, or glissando (slide between notes) or even two quicker notes. Such modifications must still only take up one beat of time! This will make your pattern even more ‘Latin’, but don’t overdo it!
Bring your class back together and hear what they have done. End the session by either layering up all the pieces to create one big Latin dance or by dancing to the patterns (this is easily done by inventing one move for each ‘special’ sound)!
Additional resources and a more detailed lesson plan can be found here on the BBC Ten Pieces website;
