My Hat Has Three Corners

• Meegan Hughes
• Posted 12/26/22
• 0 comments

Audiation

Suggested Grades: 3-5 

National Core Arts Standards 

#2 — Organize and develop artistic ideas and work. 
#3 — Refine and complete artistic work. 
#5 — Define and refine aristic techniques and work for presentation. 
#6 — Convey meaning through presentation of artistic work. 
#7 — Perceive and analyze artistic work. 
#10 — Sythesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art. 

Objectives 

• To recognize space in music and poetry. 
• To audiate rests and execute replacement sounds. 

Materials  

• Song: My Hat it Has Three Corners 
• Recordings of the song 
• Power Point optional 

Overview

This lesson challenges students to audiate rests in the folk song, “My Hat It Has Three Corners.” Using both visual and aural directions, lyrics will sequentially be replaced by either rests or new sounds.   

Defining Audiation

Audiation is the musical equivalent of thinking in language. Audiation is not the same as aural perception, which occurs simultaneously with the reception of sound through the ears. It is a cognitive process by which the brain gives meaning to musical sounds. Audiation is the musical equivalent of thinking in language. When we listen to someone speak, we must retain in memory their vocal sounds long enough to recognize and give meaning to the words the sounds represent. Likewise, when listening to music, we are at any given moment organizing in audiation sounds that were recently heard. We also predict, based on our familiarity with the tonal and rhythmic conventions of the music being heard, what will come next. Audiation, then, is a multistage process that is utilized throughout the year. 

Suggested Teaching Process

1. Sing the song for students. 

2. Model three times.  
3. Teach the song using a whole-part-whole approach. 
4. Repeat until students can sing the complete song. 
5. Display a visual of the text. 
6. Alter the original image of the text to eliminate (audiate) specific words. 
7. Each successive recitation subtracts one word.  

Recommended Word Elimination Order 

1st time – Rest on Hat 
2nd time – Rest on Hat and Three 
3rd time – Rest on Hat, Three, and Corners 
4th time – Rest on My, Hat, Three, and Corners 

8. You may choose to change the order of the missing words, but I suggest leaving the word My for last to reinforce the pickups and pulse of the song.  
9. Collaborate as a class to choose alternate sounds to replace the missing words. Ex. Barking on hat, or quacking on the word three.  
10. Add these replacement sounds one at a time. 
11. Repeat until all the rests have been replaced by sounds. 

Suggested Recordings

The Idea of North 
Gondwana Voices 
John Feierabend and Jill Trinka 

Extension

• This folk song is sung across the world. Consider learning it in another language. 
• This song is also frequently performed as an additive song with actions.  

References

Idea of north. YouTube. (2011, May 24). Retrieved August 26, 2022, from https://youtu.be/rEuyyTDEkXM  

My hat, it has three corners – arr. Trish Delaney Brown et al.. YouTube. (2017, May 27). Retrieved August 26, 2022, from https://youtu.be/QfdEKtpI_tk  

My hat it has three corners. YouTube. (2021, June 17). Retrieved August 26, 2022, from https://youtu.be/7t9uC0fKIp4  

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