March 2021
Last week, I set a goal to include one creative activity (composing or improvising) in every lesson – 22 total.
Here's a simple activity I used with my older students:
Play two notes (I usually start on Middle C, then choose an interval that's accessible for the student). Name the first note.
Have your student play both notes, then add a third. Then, it's your turn again.
Play all three notes, then add a fourth.
Continue taking turns, playing the melody and adding one new note each time until you come to a natural resolution (or you forget what you created!). (source)
To my surprise, some of my students co-created melodies that were 12-14 notes long!
This activity develops aural skills and interval recognition (which I talked about on the podcast last month), but it also teaches tonal tendency, tonal memory, musical listening, melodic shape, and phrasing.
We discussed the different choices we could have made, directions we could have taken along the way. Every note is a choice. Some students began harmonizing the melody (without prompting!); others played it back again as we discussed it.
“Okay,” I said to a 7th-grade student after we had finished our conversation. “That was a fun activity. Let's go to your Lesson Book.” I shuffled the pages to find my place and when I looked up again, I saw that she was writing. She played part of the melody again quietly, then jotted down a few more notes.
She wanted to keep it, to hold on to it.
I was quick to discard it, quick to check it off and move on, but for her, this was a moment of beauty – an original melody, a gift.
Later that evening as I dried the dishes, I turned to Steve at the sink and said, “I've never really thought about this before, but how great is it that we can give someone the gift of a melody? What an honor that is.”
. . .
In case you need the reminder this week, your work matters.
Creating and co-creating music (even in nontraditional ways, as I mentioned on the blog last week), sharing melodies and harmony, experiencing rhythm and movement and creativity – these are gifts we can give and receive.
These are moments of beauty we put out into the world, moments that have the potential to bring new life and hope to someone else.
What will you create and share with the world this month?
