Musik, Serious Gaming und Konzentrationsfähigkeit – mit der App entdecken die Kinder die Magie der klassischen Musik mit interaktiven Spielen.
Activity 1
Playing in the orchestra
Watch the video
45 min.
Rhythm instruments (e.g. - classroom percussion instruments or body percussion)
Give a rhythm instrument to every child. Ideally you'd have four different types of classroom percussion instruments to use.
Sit the children in four groups in front of the projector screen. The children with the same instruments should form a group. Each group should be assigned a colour (blue, green, yellow or red).
Practice exercise: The teacher will call out the name of a colour and the corresponding group should play when their colour is called.
Optional
If you either don't have or have insufficient classroom percussion instruments, individual groups or all children can make body percussion sounds instead (e.g. - stomping, slapping, clapping, finger clicking, wiping etc)
Teacher:
'Now I will play the video. A gnome is driving a cart through a mountain cave. He is on his way to the Hall of the Mountain King. Each time the gnome collects a diamond in the colour assigned to you, make sure to play your instrument.'
The above play-a-long activity (with background clapping as support) can be repeated a second time to help practice. (Surprise: the final notes are played together by all the instruments).
When pupils are able to securely play-a-long to the music, the activity can be repeated again without the clapping in the background. Please refer to the following video.
The play-a-long activity (without clapping) can be repeated. Alternatively, children can change colours (or instruments) and repeat the activity.
Discussion
The teacher discusses the following questions with the class:
- The theme is the main melody or the central idea of a piece of music. It is the melody that always recurs and is easily recognised. Can we sing together the theme from the video?
The class sing the theme from memory (e.g. - with ti-ta-ti-ta-ti-ta-tiii, ti-ta-tiii, ti-ta-tiii...).
- Did the musical theme always stay the same or did it change?
In this piece of music, the theme repeats itself but with changes to the tone colour - each time it is slightly different.
- How has the theme changed? We're going to listen to the video again. Listen carefully and write down how the theme has changed.
The theme starts quietly and gradually gets louder. The theme also gets faster. Other instruments also start to play the theme.
- What is the effect of this change to the theme?
Small changes can have a big impact, as we see in this example from 'In The Hall of the Mountain King'. The variation of the theme creates a sense of tension. The sense of urgency and excitement increases. The music seems threatening, as if it is moving towards a climax.
- What story could the music be telling?
The teacher gathers some ideas.
'In The Hall of the Mountain King' is piece of music by Edvard Grieg which he originally composed for a theatre piece 'Peer Gynt' by Henrik Ibsen. The scene describes how the main character, Peer Gynt, enters into the Hall of the Mountain King (a troll king). He is followed and threatened by the trolls because he refused to marry the daughter of the Mountain King. The music underscores the increasing threat and tension, whilst Peer Gynt tries to escape from the dangerous situation.
Skills learned in this lesson:
Students:
... accompany the piece In The Hall of the Mountain King rhythmically with class percussion instruments and the help of simple graphic notation.