Musik, Serious Gaming und Konzentrationsfähigkeit – mit der App entdecken die Kinder die Magie der klassischen Musik mit interaktiven Spielen.
Activity 1
Talk about music
Whole class
5 min.
Teacher:
"During the last lesson, you played the ‘Grandpa Stradivarius’ level on the Fortissimo app. What did you learn? What can you remember?"
Talk about some of the games with the children.
App questions
General questions
1. What did you learn?
2. What can you remember?
Specific questions
1. What different parts is a violin made of?
Answer: Body, fretboard, 4 strings, F-holes, snail (or scroll) and pegs.
2.Which country does the violin originally come from?
Answer: Italy.
3. What hasn't changed about the violin in 500 years?
Answer: Its shape.
4. What changes did grandpa Stradivarius make to his violins?
Answer: He made the F-holes slightly bigger, used a different varnish (orange-gold) and made the violin bigger. There are over 1000 Stradivari violins. They are all signed and you can see Stradivarius’ signature through the F-holes.
5. What can you use to play a string instrument?
Answer: String instruments can be played with a bow or plucked with the fingers.
6. How do you play string instruments?
Answer: The violin and viola can either be played sitting or standing. To play the cello, you have to sit up right and hold the instrument in between the legs. The double bass is played standing up.
7. What different tempos can you find in music?
Answer: Lento, Adagio, Moderato, Allegro, Vivace and Presto (from slowest to fastest).
Activity 2
Discover musical instruments
In groups
20 min.
Pencils (2 per group), rubber bands of different lengths (3 per group)
M4 printout
Students experiment on pitches in groups of 3.
M4: Animal grid, 2 pencils and 3 rubber bands of different lengths (hand these to each group)
{"type":"root","children":[{"type":"paragraph","children":[{"type":"text","value":"1. Read out the pitch experiment instructions below."}]}]}
{"type":"root","children":[{"type":"text","value":"Tip"}]}
{"type":"root","children":[{"type":"paragraph","children":[{"type":"text","value":"Ask one group to demonstrate how the experiment works at the start. \t"}]}]}
{"type":"root","children":[{"type":"paragraph","children":[{"type":"text","value":"2. In their groups, children experiment with pitches and place the rubber bands on the animal grid according to how high or low they sound. "}]},{"type":"paragraph","children":[{"type":"text","value":"3. At the end, individual groups can present their results to the class. "}]}]}
Pitch experiment instructions
BEFORE THE EXPERIMENT
MATERIAL:
Each group needs 2 pens, and 3 rubber bands of different lengths.
EXECUTION:
Stretch the shortest rubber band in between the 2 pens. Then make a sound by plucking the rubber band with your fingers like a guitar.
Once you are done, try out the experiment with the other rubber bands. As you do this, think about what animal represents the pitch of each rubber band best.
Then cut the animal pictures and stick them in the correct boxes.
AFTER THE EXPERIMENT
OBSERVATIONS:
Students describe their observations and explain why they have assigned a specific animal to each rubber band.
Solutions:
Bird - short rubber band
Dog - medium rubber band
Whale - long rubber band
Activity 3
Discover musical instruments
Whole class
10 min.
Show students pictures of the string instruments: violin, viola, cello and double bass.
1. Teacher: "What differences and what similarities can you see between the violin, viola, cello and double bass?"
2. Teacher: "Now think about the observations you made during the pitch experiment with the rubber bands and try to guess which instrument plays the highest or the lowest, and why?"
Explanation
The explanation can be worked out with the class.
The pitch of a string instrument is directly dependent on the length of its strings. This means that larger instruments which have longer strings will sound lower, and smaller instruments with shorter strings will sound higher. This is because the longer a string is, the lower its vibration frequency is. So if you play a longer string, it will vibrate slower and therefore produce a deeper tone. For example, on a violin there are four strings which produce different pitches. The E string is the shortest string and produces the highest pitch, while the G string is the longest string and produces the lowest pitch. So if you sort the strings of a violin according to their length, the strings will be arranged from high to low.
Activity 4
Z-fold
Independently
10 min.
Z-fold
M5 printout
M5: Pitch experiment (hand out to each pupil)
1. Teacher:
"Cut out the animal picture cards and stick them under the correct pitch."
2. Teacher:
"Then cut out the pitch experiment worksheet and add it to your Z-Fold. If you want to, you can colour the pictures."
A3: 'La Follia' (play as musical background)
If there's still time...
… children can carry on decorating their Z-Fold.
… children can take a physical break (e.g. 15 jumping jacks, 10 squats, etc.).
Skills learned in this lesson:
Students…
… explore how string length impacts pitch on string instruments.
… learn more about the similarities and differences between the violin, viola, cello and double bass.
… recognise the different instruments in the string family while listening to music.