Experiences and Outcomes:
I have experienced the energy and excitement of presenting/performing for audiences and being part of an audience for other people’s presentations/performances. EXA 2-01a

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. EXA 2-19a

Lesson Outcomes
After this lesson, pupils will be able to:

• Listen and reflect on a piece of orchestral music
• Invent their own musical motifs 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

Warm up. Begin with a quick focusing game and then talk through everything you have made so far. You should have a list like this:

• Rondo piece: The ride (A: trills, swoops, tune; Episodes: ‘falling’ ‘heroic’ ‘explosions’)
• Group 1: Before the ride (narration and leitmotifs)
• Group 2: Why they rode? (narration and leitmotifs)
• Group 3: What happened next? (narration and leitmotifs)

Put these sections back together. Working in small groups first and then slowly bringing the class and bigger pieces back together. Make sure everyone knows what they are doing in each piece.

Ask your children to come up with an order for their pieces so that they tell a story that makes sense and practice your pieces in this order adding in any additional narration or leitmotifs as required.

Finally, invite another class in to hear your finished work – the story of the Valkyrie Sisters!

Additional resources and a more detailed lesson plan can be found here on the BBC Ten Pieces website;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/classical-music-richard-wagner-ride-of-the-valkyries/zdyfmfr

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. EXA 2-19a

Lesson Outcomes
After this lesson, pupils will be able to:

• Listen and reflect on a piece of orchestral music
• Invent their own musical motifs 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

Warm-up. Begin this lesson by reminding your class of the story of Wagner’s piece – eight sisters are riding winged horses into battle. Explain that this lesson is going to be about telling the rest of the story.

Split back into your three groups and label the groups 1, 2, 3. Give out paper and pens and ask each group to write one section of the story as follows –

• Group 1: Before the ‘ride’: what are the sisters doing?
• Group 2: The reason for the ‘ride’: why do the sisters set off?
• Group 3: After the ‘ride: what happens next?

Encourage each group to write their section of the story as just three short sentences. For example, Group 1 might have something like –

• The sisters were knitting
• A pigeon flew in with a message
• The sisters jumped up and screamed

Remind your children about the concept of leitmotifs – short, musical ideas that describe things within a story. Ask each group to underline one word in each of their sentences that could be turned into a leitmotif. For the example above it might be ‘knitting’, ‘pigeon’ and ‘screamed’.

When this is achieved, ask each group to invent a short leitmotif for each underlined word. So, ‘knitting’ might become a fast, ticking woodblock, ‘pigeon’ could be a swoop up and down a glockenspiel and ‘screamed’ could be a screech on a clarinet.

Ask each group to practise reading their words aloud and adding the leitmotifs in at an appropriate time. They can do this however they like – i.e. simply play the motifs after the word is mentioned, layer them up to create a piece or something else.

Finally, hear each group and make any tweaks required. As always, encourage your children to keep a record of their work

Additional resources and a more detailed lesson plan can be found here on the BBC Ten Pieces website;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/classical-music-richard-wagner-ride-of-the-valkyries/zdyfmfr

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. EXA 2-19a

Lesson Outcomes
After this lesson, pupils will be able to:

• Listen and reflect on a piece of orchestral music
• Invent their own musical motifs 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

Warm up. Begin again in a circle and remind your class of the elements they have explored so far. You can turn this into a game by encouraging your pupils to clap back their rhythms, mime playing their tunes and create gestures to help remember elements like ‘swooping’, ‘wobbling’ etc.

Here’s a list of what you should have –

A section:
Trills/ wobbles
Upward swoops
Big tune

3 episodes:
Falling
Heroic notes
Explosions 

Get the instruments out and put these sections back together, then explain that Wagner uses a classic shape for his piece called ‘Rondo form’ (A-B-A-C-A-D). Your full class piece is the A section. Can your children replicate Wagner’s piece by deciding on an order for their group ‘episodes’ and alternating them with the A section? 

Try out several versions until you have all agreed on the ‘best’ one and write it up on the board. Explain that Wagner varies his ‘A sections’ – sometimes the A section creeps back in, sometimes it crashes back in. Sometimes it is very loud, sometimes soft. The length of his A section varies too.

Encourage your children to borrow at least one of these ideas from Wagner and adapt at least one of their A sections accordingly.

Practise performing your new rondo piece until it is nearly perfect.

Additional resources and a more detailed lesson plan can be found here on the BBC Ten Pieces website;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/classical-music-richard-wagner-ride-of-the-valkyries/zdyfmfr

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. EXA 2-19a

Lesson Outcomes
After this lesson, pupils will be able to:

• Listen and reflect on a piece of orchestral music
• Invent their own musical motifs 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

Warm up. Start the lesson with a quick clap around the circle and a reminder of the three ideas you worked with during the last lesson.

Explain that Wagner called these short music ideas leitmotifs and he used leitmotifs all over his music to describe characters, emotions, places, things etc. In Ride of the Valkyries he includes short sections of music using new leitmotifs. These are there to give his piece structure.

Demonstrate these three new ideas:

• New idea 1: ‘Falling’

A short passage that falls down in pitch from high to low

• New idea 2: ‘Heroes’

Loud, long notes

• New idea 3: ‘Explosions’

Big bangs coming out of long trills (wobbles)

Split back into the same three groups as last time and ask each group to make a short new section using these ideas. These ideas are deliberately much vaguer so there is more scope for you children to invent something unique.

Bring the class back together and hear their work. Make any tweaks needed so that everyone knows what they are doing and the pieces have a definite beginning, middle and end. Call these sections ‘episodes’ and keep them separate for now.

If you have time, put the ‘A section’ back together from last week and finish the lesson with a quick performance of it. Again, write down carefully what you have done.

Additional resources and a more detailed lesson plan can be found here on the BBC Ten Pieces website;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/classical-music-richard-wagner-ride-of-the-valkyries/zdyfmfr

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. EXA 2-19a

Lesson Outcomes
After this lesson, pupils will be able to:

• Listen and reflect on a piece of orchestral music
• Invent their own musical motifs 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

Warm-up. Begin with your class sitting in a large circle. Pass a clap around the circle and have a race to see how fast you can pass it. Try clapping two times each, going clockwise and anti-clockwise, passing a stamp or a vocal sound etc. Ask your children to suggest ‘flying’ sounds and gestures to pass around the circle too.

Remind your children about Wagner’s piece and the story behind it. Explain that you are now going to begin making your own version of it on instruments.

Demonstrate the following two ideas; these are taken from the beginning of ‘Ride of the Valkyries’:

Idea 1: The trill (or wobble)

Throughout the piece there is always a set of instruments providing a feeling of excitement and suspense by playing rapid trills.

Idea 2: The upward swoop

To give the idea of flying there are many fast, upward swoops. These occur prominently at the beginning of the piece –

Choose one child to come forward and have a go at playing one of these ideas using whatever instruments you have in class. If you are lacking in pitched percussion, ask them to try and make the same effect using something unpitched – the ‘wobble’ could become a ‘rumble’ on a drum and the ‘swoop’ could become a flourish on maracas for example.

Now, demonstrate the third idea. This is the most complex of the three.

 Idea 3: The 3-note tune

Wagner takes a three note chord (known as a triad) –

(on a xylophone, take off all the notes leaving behind all the C, E and Gs)

  …opens it up with a spiky rhythm –

(any rhythm will work, the children can invent their own)

 … and keeps going upwards (inverting) –

(keep playing the same pattern until you’ve used up all the notes available)

Choose a child to come forward and try this out. They can use whatever rhythm and pattern they like.

Split into three working groups and challenge each group to make a short, exciting piece using these three ideas. Tell them that the ‘wobble’ must be constant, the ‘swoop’ happens only occasionally and there should be one big, loud version of the ‘tune’.

Bring the class back together, hear each group separately making any tweaks needed to make the pieces as exciting as possible. Challenge your class to join their group pieces together to make one big, exciting piece. Call this the ‘A section’

Finish the lesson by encouraging your class to write down carefully what they have done and who played what. They can do this as a simple list, make a clever diagram or a graphic score.

Additional resources and a more detailed lesson plan can be found here on the BBC Ten Pieces website;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/classical-music-richard-wagner-ride-of-the-valkyries/zdyfmfr

Experiences and Outcomes:
I have experienced the energy and excitement of presenting/performing for audiences and being part of an audience for other people’s presentations/performances. EXA 2-01a

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

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

Warm up. As usual, begin with a quick focusing warm-up. This is a good chance to recap all of the rhythms you have worked with so far on body percussion.

Recap. Put your children back into their three groups and ask them to remember their piece from last time. Each group should have a pulse, a mambo rhythm and the mambo tune.

Get out the instruments and allow for a minute or two of chaos as everyone remembers their ideas. Then, hear each group separately.

Structure. Ask the class to come up with a structure for their pieces so that you end up with one full class mambo rather than three little ones. Prompt them with the following questions –

• What order should the groups play in?
• Should they overlap and if not, how do you get from one group to the next without a gap?
• Should you all play at the same time and if so, how do you line up the mambo tune?

Try out a few suggestions before deciding on the perfect shape and then write it up on the board as a list of events. It might look something like this:

• Group 1 – ends with ‘Mambo!’
• Group 2 – ends with ‘Mambo!’
• Group 3 – ends with ‘Mambo!’
• Pulse: 8 beats
• All three groups together
• Cymbal crash signals all three mambo tunes together
• Everyone shouts ‘Mambo!’

FINALLY – record your finished piece or perform it to another class.

Additional resources and a more detailed lesson plan can be found here on the BBC Ten Pieces website;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/classical-music-leonard-bernstein-mambo-west-side-story/zd9cscw

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

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

Warm-up. Begin in a circle again but this time place children from the same groups next to each other so that you can recap all the rhythms you have learnt so far. Add in the pulse too as you layer up all the rhythms again with everyone clapping.

Remind your children that the orchestra shout out ‘mambo!’ twice during the Bernstein’s piece. Explain that there is a musical signal for this and teach them the rhythm (and words).

You can have fun playing with this. Still in your circle and just using body percussion set up the pulse, bring the rhythms in and out and whenever you say the rhythm above, everyone must stop what they are doing, shout mambo and then freeze before you start the pulse again.

Demonstrate this rhythm on a xylophone. Explain that you only need four pitches to make it work, but they might like to work out a different way to play it.

Split back into your three working groups and give out the same instruments as last lesson but also, if possible, give each team at least one xylophone with the above pitches on it.

If you have children learning orchestral instruments, now is the time to get them out, also using these four pitches.

Challenge each group to make a short piece using –

• The ‘weak-strong’ pulse
• Their mambo rhythm from last lesson
• The mambo ‘tune’

 Bring the class back together and hear each group. As last time finish the lesson with a quick ‘jam’ session. Can you find a way to get every group playing the ‘tune’ at the same time?

FINALLY, don’t forget to keep a record of what you have done.

Additional resources and a more detailed lesson plan can be found here on the BBC Ten Pieces website;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/classical-music-leonard-bernstein-mambo-west-side-story/zd9cscw

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

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

Warm up. Begin your session with the children in a circle again and a reminder of the ‘weak-strong’ pulse on body percussion.

Explain that you are going to learn three rhythmic patterns from Bernstein’s Mambo. Clap the rhythms below and encourage your class to copy you. 

Bernstein’s rhythms are tricky so we’ve simplified them a little and added words. Using words will help everyone to remember and distinguish between the patterns. You could refer to them as ‘dance’, ‘hot’ and ‘love’. Do feel free to simplify them further or just focus on one or two.

Split your circle into three teams and give just one rhythm to each team. Ask them to practice saying the words and clapping along until they can perform their pattern confidently and neatly. Hear each group one by one and try putting the three patterns together. At this point you might like to appoint a couple of ‘pulse players’ in each team and give them the task of keeping the ‘weak-strong’ pulse throughout.

Instruments. Ask each group to choose an untuned instrument. The final piece will work best if everyone within one rhythmic group sticks to the same kind of instrument (i.e. all of group 1 play woodblocks, all of group 2 play drums etc.). If your children are struggling with their patterns, split them in half and try them on two contrasting instruments.

‘Splashy’ sounding instruments such as cymbals, bells and gongs are not good for this task.

Practise – Ask each team to practice playing their rhythm on their chosen instrument/s and as they are doing this, make sure that each group has a couple of ‘pulse keepers’ on the ‘weak-strong’ pulse. Also check that each team is playing at roughly the same speed so that putting the rhythms together later on will work. 

Bring the class back together and hear what they have done making any tweaks needed (such as adjusting the speed). Finish the session with a quick ‘jam’ session using their patterns – simply set up the pulse and signal for each group to play on top, alone and then together thus layering up the rhythms. Don’t worry if this sounds messy, it’s just a fun way to end the session.

FINALLY – keep a record of what you’ve done, who’s in which group and especially who plays what.

Additional resources and a more detailed lesson plan can be found here on the BBC Ten Pieces website;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/classical-music-leonard-bernstein-mambo-west-side-story/zd9cscw

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

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

Warm up. Start with your class stood in a circle again. This time after passing a clap around ask the children to suggest other body percussion or vocal sounds to pass along.

Remind them about the work you did with Mambo and tell them that you are going to spend a few lessons creating your own version of Bernstein’s piece. The first and most important element in any mambo is the pulse.

Demonstrate a pulse. Staying in your circle but perhaps sitting down, clap a slow, steady pulse and encourage your class to join in. If children are clapping at a different pace to you or speeding up encourage them to watch you as well as listen and try to stick together

It will help in later lessons if this initial pulse is quite slow. Slow pulses are difficult to perform by a group and will speed up. To prevent this, ask your children to think of a short word between each clap (for example their first name). Filling up the gap between claps can help to steady it.

• Explain that, unusually, the second beat is louder and stronger than the first.
• Saying ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ as you clap will help to reinforce this idea.

Body percussion: With your class standing encourage them to tap and stamp this slow pulse, tapping on the weak beat and stamping on the strong. (This will feel weird – it’s the opposite way around to what we expect!)

Instruments: Ask the class to choose two sounds, one ‘weak’ and one ‘strong’ to play these beats (a shaker and a drum would be ideal).

Split into groups and ask each team to practice the ‘weak-strong’ pulse either on body percussion or on instruments (you can use any unpitched instruments for this, save xylophones, glocks etc for another session). Challenge them to practice starting and stopping together neatly perhaps by appointing a conductor

FINALLY end the session by hearing all the groups and, if time permits, putting together one big mambo pulse piece.

Additional resources and a more detailed lesson plan can be found here on the BBC Ten Pieces website;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/classical-music-leonard-bernstein-mambo-west-side-story/zd9cscw

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;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/classical-music-leonard-bernstein-mambo-west-side-story/zd9cscw