SUMMARY
Examine the process of teaching improvisation in this series of articles by Jeremy Howard. In part 5, we learn about pre-rhythm and pre-melodic improvisation.
by Jeremy Howard
Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to digest the first four sections and how to apply the process of improvisation to pre-literacy activities. Improvising requires opportunities for students to develop vocal freedom.
Students must begin improvising at an early age to gain experience with improvisation components as discussed in The Process of Improvisation, Warming Up with Pre-Literacy Improvisation, and in Pre-Literacy Improvisation in Songs and Stories
The pre-literacy activities discussed in the previous articles provide several concepts students can manipulate to gain vocal independence and control: comparatives: fast/slow, loud/quiet, high/low; four voices: speak, sing, whisper, shout; lyrics, and timbre of emotions. Now, let’s dive into improvising with rhythms and pitches.
Students can improvise without knowing the rhythm/melodic syllables or symbols. Improvisation plays a significant role in the development of learning unknown concepts. Before my students learn the rhythm syllables “ta” and “ti-ti,” they speak “placeholder” words that help carry the meaning of the sounds.
I use the words “step” and “tiptoe,” adding movement to provide kinesthetic awareness. Students are learning music theory in motion! When they say and step “tiptoe,” they make smaller footsteps to represent two smaller sounds in a beat.
I wrote the following two rhymes to help students feel the difference between simple and compound meter through movement. The first rhyme uses “step” and “tiptoe” as the placeholders for “ta” and “ti-ti,” and the second rhyme uses “step,” “tippytoe,” and “gallop” for compound rhythms.
The fourth phrase of each rhyme is improvised:
If you’re interested in the Rhythm Dancers you can learn more about them at my website, Music Makers.
When describing melodic movement, we also refer to unknown pitches by their relationship to known pitches. When learning to discern “high” from “low” in kindergarten, we play a game called Birds and Cows.
In this aural training game, the teacher plays high and low pitches on the piano while students move around the room, flapping like a bird for the high sounds and crawling low to the ground for the low sounds.
I begin with the extreme ranges of the keyboard, as the large interval makes for easy identification. Once the class shows proficiency, I move to a range of a ninth, a perfect fifth, and finally, my target range of a minor third (so mi).
Just as the steady beat takes time to develop, so does pitch discrimination. Don’t rush this process! This game prepares students for melodic improvisation using the modeling of high and low.
We turn birds and the cows from the game into icons. We use these pre-notation icons to notate unknown high and low sounds. For example – in the image below, the bird icon is used as a placeholder to represent “la.” The bird relates to “so” and “mi” solfege students already know.
Now we can play “So, Mi, or Birds.” The game is the same as the Birds and Cows game, but now students have to keep track of three pitches. Not only are they listening for the new high sound, but they are also practicing aural identification of previously taught pitches.
Improvisation to Build Musical Syntax
Students can and should improvise when in the Prepare Stage. They use solfa for known sounds and the replacement word for the unknown sound. Language is learned as ‘sound before symbol.’ Students can begin ‘speaking new words’ (singing) before they can write them
I use this rhyme as an extension of the Birds and Cows game. I set the rhyme to a two-tone tone set and tell the story about Andy Pandy being a traveling trickster.
Andy Pandy, Riddledy Roe
Which would you have, High or Low?
Andy Pandy and the class sing the song:
We explored the first steps in rhythmic and melodic improvisation. In the next section we will take what we learned about timing, choice, and framework in Part 2: The Process of Improvisation and apply that process to develop our students’ improvisational abilities. Part 6: Question and Answer Improvisation.
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