I thoroughly enjoyed this session of music. To start with, we were given a pair of drumsticks/ beaters and asked to follow a rhythm. The teacher explained that we were going to be following an unorthodox music notation, and then said that instead of notes such as quavers, minim’s and crotchets, we were going to be using squares, circles and triangles. This meant that the children that were unfamiliar with musical notation were not confused, and everyone was on the same level. It also ensured that the pattern was easily followed with the rhythm. This was a good idea to teach children, as it teaches them concepts of rhythm and notation without confusing them too much. It can also help the teacher get a grasp of the rhythm without having to learn notation if they are not as confident in music as they would like to be.
Afterwards, we them looked at improvisation on instruments. We were split into pairs and told to choose an instrument (either glockenspiel or xylophone), and instructed to take out the F and B keys, to make the instruments sound better. This showed us the pentatonic scale, as well as improving the sound of our improvisation. We were then given an accompaniment by the teacher, who played “Hit The Road Jack”.
We took it in turns to play 3 bars of improvisation. I really enjoyed this input, as it was very hands on and I hadn’t played this instrument since 5th year at Secondary school.
