Elementary Improvisation — Part 4

• Jeremy Howard
• Posted 4/13/21
• 0 comments

Pre-Literacy Improvisation in Songs and Stories

Pre-Literacy Improvisation: The Early Stages 

Students must begin improvising at an early age to gain experience with the components of improvisation as discussed in The Process of Improvisation and in The Warming Up with Pre-Literacy Improvisation. We will now expand our student’s experiences with musical improvisation through singing and stories.   

Bounce High, Bounce Low 

There are many options using this familiar playground song. I will provide a few examples to get you started. We’ve all played “Bounce High, Bounce Low,” where students dribble a ball to the beat, state the name of the person they are going to bounce it to, and then bounce it to that person.  

Easy, right?  All they have to do is sing one name.  Any name.  Any name of the same kids they spend the whole day with… every single day… for the entire year.  Except, it rarely happens that way.  See the example below:

Bounce high, bounce low 
Bounce the ball to… 
… 
… 
To… 
… 
(still waiting) 
… 
Zoltán! 

*This is a reenactment from any number of my elementary classes. 

Let’s explore why this simple song and game so difficult for children. 

1. Processing Time: there is a relatively short time for the student to think of a response provided by the preceding phrases. 
2. Physical Response: bouncing the ball. 
3. Outside Factors: the distraction of thirty other students wildly waving their arms, hoping their name is called. 
4. Internal Thought Processing: hearing the text of the song while trying to think of their response. 
5. Internal Distractions: “I still have that rock in my shoe from recess.”
6. Social Pressure: which friend to choose and the perceived ramifications of that choice. 
7. Memory: remembering who has and who has not already had a turn. 
8. Vocal Production: using a singing voice because their teacher has already reminded the class the past ten times. 
9. Physical Coordination: “Wait, do I even know how to bounce this ball across the circle?”. 

After you have endured this activity for a while, add an incentive to help students respond on time: 

Teacher: “I’m going to set my timer for two minutes.  Do you think you can make sure five people get the ball today?” 

The critical aspect here is for you, the teacher, to stay in “play-mode.” If your students don’t meet the challenge, that’s okay.  Let the challenge come naturally from the game, not from “because the teacher said so.” Then, increase the rigor each time.   

We Are Dancing in the Forest 

This fun song can be used for improvisation and compared to our singing and speaking voices, question and answer, and AB binary form!  Now those are some reasons to dance! 

Students start the game standing in a circle.  A single child, “the wolf” (please use a student for this), is in the middle.  The students jauntily walk in a circle singing the song.  Then, at section B, students ask, “Wolf, are you there?”.   

The “wolf” improvises a response such as, “No, I’m [brushing my teeth].  The question repeats, followed by a different “No, I’m […].  Then, after the third question, the “wolf” responds, “Yes, and I’m very hungry!”.   

The chase begins!  The “wolf” must try to catch as many students as possible.  Or, depending on your space, you may have the “wolf” capture only one person.  Or, maybe the “wolf” and the students can only move every time the teacher taps the drum.   

Although this improvisation activity uses all the components (timing, choice, framework), students use a non-rhythmic speaking voice.  They are merely answering a question; however, this gets the creative juices flowing.  

It’s always fun to watch the students think of their responses.  Their eyes drift up as if they are flipping through their rolodex of answers.  This is the process at work! 

Fortunately

The book  Fortunately, by Remy Charlip, expounds upon the last activity of having students improvise spoken, non-rhythmic answers.  The premise begins with, “Fortunately, Ned got a letter one day that said, ‘Please Come to a Surprise Party’.”  

Each group of pages begin with the word “fortunately” is illustrated with bright colors.  The following page always answers with the word “unfortunately,” depicted in grays.  This AB pattern continues through the whole book.   

I enjoy reading the first few pages and stopping to have students predict the subsequent outcome.  I rarely read a book to my students in one sitting to allow students to think of results, build relationships with the characters, and increase the excitement of returning to music class!   

Upon their return, we continue the book to see if their prediction was correct. 

Eventually, we play a game without the book creating our own story.  Someone begins with a story-starter.  Each student adds either the next “fortunately” or “unfortunately” statement in turn.  However, their response is dependent upon the previous student’s response.  Students naturally respond with vocal inflection mimicking the excitement or disappointment of their opening word. 

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

The classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? the book written by Bill Martin Jr., Illustrated by Eric Carle, is easily found.  Chances are it is already in your classroom book collection, another teacher’s collection in your building, or your school library.  You don’t need to be “going on a bear hunt” to find it!   

Once you reach the page with all the animals at the end of the book, leave it on that page to serve as a “menu” offering response choices.  The teacher can choose to do this spoken or with a tone set.   

So, mi, and do work well for this activity to reinforce question and answer phrases.  The teacher sings the question:

 s    m   s   m      s    m   m    s 
“[Zoltán, Zoltán], what do you see?” 

Student responds: 

s  m   m   s        m     s    s   m   d 
“I see a [green frog] looking at me!” 

Change the melody of your question (be sure to stay in the assigned tone set and not end on ‘do’) to assess if the students can hear the finality of ‘do’ to end their answer. 

Recap 

In  Part 1: Learning the Language of Music we compared musical and speech development. During Part 2: The Process of Improvisation to we identified the three parts in the improvisation process (timing, choice, framework).  Next in  Part 3: Warming Up with Pre-Literacy Improvisation we implemented the improvisation process using a variety of vocal exploration activities. Finally, in this article, we applied the three principles of improvisation in songs and stories. 

Next, we will apply these principles to improvising using rhythm and pitch.

References

• “Https://Music-Makers-2.Square.site/.” Music-Makers-2.Square.site, music-makers-2.square.site. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021. 
• “Receptive Language (Understanding Words and Language).” The Edvocate, 1 Feb. 2021, www.theedadvocate.org/receptive-language-understanding-words-and-language/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021. 

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Elementary Improvisation

Article Series

Part 1: Learning the Language of Music
Part 2: The Process of Improvisation
Part 3: Warming Up with Pre-Literacy Improvisation
Part 4: Pre-Literacy Improvisation in Songs and Stories
Part 5: Pre-Rhythm and Pre-Melodic Improvisation
Part 6: Question and Answer Improvisation
Part 7: Rhythm and Melody Improvisation Games
Part 8: Putting the Puzzle Together