About this guide

Ideas to get things started, or do something different …

Original Bell

Instead of using imported pop music as the ‘school bell’, make and record a composition.

All in Assembly

Start every school assembly with whole-of-school singing. You can begin with songs that are well known and easy to learn and work up to more difficult songs as the home/classroom teachers gain confidence to lead and teach the melodies and lyrics.

Field Recordings

Take students outside to do ‘deep listening’ and make field recordings of their local environment. The recordings can become a stimulus for composition of rhythms, soundscape instrumental melodies, harmonies or story-telling songs.

World Rhythm Safari

Start a project with students to gather recordings of and learn traditional drumming rhythms from around the world. India, Polynesia, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, China and Japan all have hugely diverse traditional rhythms in different time signatures.

Rainstorm

Use body percussion, shakers, drums and found objects to create the sound of a rainstorm in the classroom. Begin with the wind and first patter of raindrops and then build to a crescendo of booms, symbol clashes of thunder and drumming rain beats.

Bird Calls

Listen to recordings of bird calls from around the world. See if you and the students can collaboratively create a form of notation for the calls

Artist in Your School

Watch the Creative Victoria Great Partnerships videos to get ideas for your own extended music project with a creative artist in your school.

Sound Walk Project

With older students, map an interesting path around the school grounds or neighbourhood. Set moods or create scene or story ideas for particular locations. Set each student a composition task to create a short piece of music for one particular location. You could link the recordings with directions or spoken word and create a complete ‘soundwalk’ for parents, community members or other students to enjoy on their personal listening devices.

Loops Collaboration

In small groups of five or six, get students to one by one record (lay down) a loop (guitar, bass, vocals and percussion). Each progressive loop must work with the previous recording to create a cohesive collaborative composition.

Song Exploder – For Secondary Students

Begin listening to the podcast ‘Song Exploder’, a series of interviews and recording samples that show how popular artists created their songs. Use this to stimulate a discussion and creation of a catalogue of ‘methods’ that artists can use to create original recordings.

Film Score Mood Board

Select some appropriate scenes from films that include moments of suspense, humour, romance, action and sadness. Ask the students to watch and listen to the segments and notice the dynamics, form and instrumentation and how they affect the emotion of the piece. List on ‘mood boards’ elements that contribute to the emotional effect created by the music, for example, suspense board might say ‘rising pitch’, quavering strings etc. Have students see if they can use the ‘formula’ from their boards to write their own music for short movie scenes.

Busk, Entertain, Get Festive

Research as many possible avenues for public performance opportunities. Choose a few opportunities such as playing at a local community venue throughout each term and one or two ‘big ones’ such as a community festival to aim for.

Echo Circle Song

In a circle on the floor establish a stable rhythm by getting everyone to pat their legs with their hands. Begin by singing a single note and get the students to echo it. Go around the circle with each student singing a single note and being echoed. Progress to two-, three- and four-note melodies. See how far the exercise can go before the echo/memory game becomes too difficult and breaks down.

Make Your Own Instruments

Ask students to gather found or discarded materials that could become parts of a musical instrument. Put together sections (strings, woodwind, percussion) and then build your own orchestra. Explore other artists who use found objects to make music.

Poetry to Ballad

Ask students to select poetry that they find interesting and set it to music. What genre does the writing lend itself to?

Interval Slider Harmonies

Working in sections, begin by singing a single note all together. Ask one section of students to slide up two whole notes to a third above. Play with the slider to see how certain combinations are discordant or harmonious. Once the students are comfortable working with two notes, divide the group into three and add a second harmony. The students themselves could take turns ‘conducting’ or choosing the intervals.

 

Creative Victoria Great Partnerships

Song Exploder

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