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Preface
Spice It
Up is a collection of songs for students of
all ages. Some songs are traditional, well-known melodies.
Some are folk songs, and some I made up just for fun. All of
the lessons provide ideas for the teacher to help "kick it
up a notch" during the music hour.
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S
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Sing
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P
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Play and Participate
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I
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Improvise
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C
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Create and be Childlike
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E
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Expand Knowledge
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MMM
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Movement
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G
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Group Activity
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O
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Options and Choices
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O
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Orchestrate and be Original
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D
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Dance
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Every selection in the book starts with general
suggestions for teaching. Following those suggestions are
additional ideas illustrating how the songs can be used with
young or intermediate students. How, you might ask, is this
possible? Music educators should always look carefully at
anything they might consider teaching and then plan a lesson
according to the abilities of the class. Many times it is
easy to plan something that is difficult, but not as easy to
minimize the material while keeping the integrity. Teachers
must always be aware of the things that create difficulties
in a music lesson. Some of these items include:
- melody with a wide range
- melody with difficult intervals
- melody that requires a harmonic accompaniment
- multiple ostinati
- dance
- playing a melody on barred instruments or on
recorders
- extending the form to include two or more
sections
With these ideas as a guide, the songs for the young
student frequently suggest that the teacher provide the
accompaniment on guitar or piano. Sometimes special words
are used rather than ostinato. The rhythm of special words
may easily be transferred from body percussion to unpitched
percussion instruments, a much easier task than performing
an ostinato.
Spice It
Up encourages
creative choices by the students. In every class it is
important that there are opportunities for the students to
make choices. The students will take ownership of the music
when they have helped put it together:
For the teacher there is additional information. Within
the collection there are examples of most of the elemental
accompaniments we use in Orff Schulwerk; bordun, moving
bordun, tonic, I-VI, I-V and l-IV-V
The selections are in no specific order: There may be
some ideas for intermediate students that work with your
younger students as well. It is my hope that your students
enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed putting it together:
And let me know if your students add some "Spice" that I did
not think about!
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