Using Live Music in Class

I’m always amazed at how positively children react to live music, from strumming on a ukulele to playing on a flute.  It’s something I try to incorporate into every session, from babies up to musicianship classes.

Using live music adds a visual aspect to music making which isn’t available when using pre-recorded backing tracks. Children can see where the music is coming from and hey! it’s not from a black box on the table.  They can come and explore and see how the sounds are produced, investigate different sounds made by different types of instruments and even look at the difference size makes, comparing sounds between, for example, a bass recorder and a descant recorder, or the differences between a guitar and ukulele.

Playing live also provides the flexibility to adapt to children’s responses to the music.  You can change the tempo, add in pauses (especially useful for listening skills), break part way through and ask questions and change the way you play in response to the children’s actions.

Of course it does present some difficulties for class management.  Playing live can create something of a barrier – there’s something between you and your audience, be it a keyboard or a guitar.  It’s also more difficult to direct the class when you’re playing – doing actions at the same time is nigh on impossible and if you’re playing a wind instrument you can’t be talking or singing at the same time.  Because of this I usually limit live playing to one or two activities within a session, so might have a lively song where I strum on the uke, or a period of quiet relaxation where I’ll play my flute.  The higher frequencies on the flute seem to work particularly well for quiet time and a short passage can grab a child’s attention and settle an over-excited group of toddlers surprisingly quickly.

Over the years I’ve played instruments ranging from mini steel pans to autoharp to recorder and I’d encourage everyone making music with youngsters to pick up an instrument and play.  The children will gain so much from it and so will you!

I Love My Ukulele!

My ukulele

I do, I really do.  It’s a fab little instrument and so easy to play.  The ukulele had fallen out of fashion when I was young and so I had a 3/4 sized guitar as a child – I think I could only ever play How Much is That Doggy in the Window? and songs in G major that used 3 chords.  I bought myself a guitar about 5 years ago with the idea of rediscovering the joys of strumming but for some reason I bought a steel stringed guitar which made my finger-tips bleed which is ‘Not a Good Look’ when you’re playing in front of toddlers. 

I had a rethink and bought a ukulele instead.  No harsh steel strings, so easy to play (you can play a C chord with one finger) and it’s small and easily transportable too which is always a bonus when transporting a carload of props and other paraphernalia about.

I re-affirmed my love affair with the uke today when I found out I’d settled into holiday mode a little too early, setting off to do my final nursery session of the term but leaving my iPod at home.

So what to do…  without the iPod I had to discard my jungle themed ideas for the session. Our listening activity was to be comparing animal sounds – now I’m no match for a real chimpanzee so wasn’t going to attempt that – and I also had to think of something else for the movement activities I’d had planned as I couldn’t use the wonderful pieces of music from the Carnival of the Animals I’d selected.  Time to panic with a nursery group of lively children to keep occupied!

Fortunately this term I’m doing several songs using my ukulele so it is always with me.  I did this term’s topic song Clap and Clap and Clap and Stop! and then asked the children for other song suggestions, especially if it had anything to do with animals.  They came up with When Cows Get Up in the Morning which is one of my favourites and they chose a wide range of animals from lions to donkeys!  It’s a good song for developing vocal awareness between singing and using the voice for other sounds such as roaring.

Elephant and bird

I’d also put my selection of recorders (bass, tenor, treble and descant) in the car because we’ve been looking at pitch and I wanted to show the children how size affects pitch and tone.  I played the various sizes and then asked the children to choose two instruments to use to play a tune for an elephant and a bird.  I was pleased they chose the bass recorder for the elephant and the descant for the bird as it demonstrated the differences in pitch and timbre very well.

I usually have a box of randomly selected percussion instruments in the car and decided that the children could help me sort them into groups, depending on their sound and method of playing.  We then went back to our song Clap and Clap and Clap and Stop! and changed the words to Play and Play and Play and Stop!  It’s a little more challenging to get the children to stop playing an instrument as opposed to stop clapping, but by the time we’d played it quietly and loudly too, the children were listening very well.

And then, of course, there’s the unaccompanied voice – we did The Stretchy Man using the lycra sheet which the children just adore, so we sang it slowly, quickly, quietly and loudly and had  a great time.

There you have it, a completely acoustic session by mistake, but one which worked really well. I may well ‘forget’ my iPod again in future but will make sure I always have my uke!