Recorders everyday!

Many music teachers teach recorders as a unit during the year and review that material the following year. I tried that. I found that my students did not retain much from year to year without practice. Gee, I can barely remember how to input grades in the latest version of Powerschool from semester to semester.

So how could I get my kids to retain more skills?

Teaching recorders on and off throughout the year seemed like a good idea but when I tried that idea, my lessons were kind of hit and miss. Sometimes my students would remember their recorders, sometimes not. And the progress was not where I wanted it to be.

I noticed that my students are required to wear sneakers on P.E. days, bring a pencil to Art and headphones to Computer. They are used to bringing items to Special Area classes. I wanted to capitalize on this idea and have the kids bring their recorders to every Music class.

For years we have done rhythmic reading during each class. The kids clapped, stomped and created body percussion sounds to practice reading rhythms.

Now we play the weekly rhythm on the recorder. So they are touching that instrument every class. I started with the easy notes (I teach recorder beginning with E) and eventually challenged the kids to play more difficult pitches.

Sometimes, I have a different note on each line of rhythm (4 lines of rhythm).

Sometimes we create harmony with 2-3 different pitches.

This has become an amazing confidence booster for my students. Consistently playing the recorder each week has helped them remember fingerings and allows them to focus on technique. (My kids do not like tonguing!)

Now if a student does not bring his/her recorder, s/he stills play an instrument. We have a bucket of recorders to borrow. What I have found is that more and more students are purchasing their own recorder. I think this weekly practice is contributing to that. WIN!

Any questions or comments? I'd love to hear from you!

Happy Honking! Ellen


Don't miss this week's Musician in the Spotlight
 ...   Katy Perry 

and ...Ed Sheeran

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How to Keep Kids Motivated to Play Recorders

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post about teaching recorders by starting on E. It totally changed my beginning recorder program and truly made a difference in the tone of my beginning students. Two years later, I am still sold!

 My students cannot get enough of these squeaky little instruments. I am asked DAILY "when are we gonna play for belts?" It took me a while to figure out how to carve out time for individual testing for new belts BUT... this is my current strategy.

On the first week of the month, I set aside MOST of the class time to work on belt songs. I pair students up according to what song they are working on. For the kids who are several belts behind most of the class, they get to choose another student who has mastered a few more belts than they have and get "tutored"! THEY LOVE THIS - both parties, the tutor and the "tutee"!

All the kids are playing at once or taking turns with their partner. Yes! it is quite a cacophony BUT the kids are SO motivated to practice! When a student feels prepared to play for a belt, s/he walks up to me to perform. I usually have a waiting line. In addition to listening, I am always scanning the room to ensure that everyone is on task!

I LOVE the motivation this first week of the month generates and I want to keep it going. So I open my room up twice a week for a half hour before school to let individuals play for belts too.

How do you work recorders into your curriculum? I'd love to hear!

Happy Honking! Ellen

Don't miss this week's Musician in the Spotlight
 ...   Men and Women of American Idol. 

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How to Create Recorder Tutors

As I mentioned in my previous post (Recorder Belts...), I started using recorder belts to motivate my students to practice the recorder. It had a bigger impact than I expected. Actually all the kids wanted to do was play recorders - all the time! As much as I love these squeaky instruments, there were other songs/dances/activities that I wanted us to sing/dance/play.

Also after a while, I had a wide span of levels that all these kids could play. Some were just emerging while others were quite accomplished. So...I created Recorder Tutors. During each class, I chose a few students who were afraid to play in front of the whole class or who needed some extra attention and paired them with another few students who had mastered a higher level. Of course, EVERYBODY wanted to do this but I found it worked best with just a few.

So while the rest of the class participated in an entirely different lesson, tutorial tooting was happening.

 

I set them up in my "office", each pair on a music stand. The white packet of songs had letter names underneath the notes. These were for practice. I didn't let the students earn belts unless they could play the song without letters. If the tutor felt that the student was ready to play for a belt, they removed the white packet and used the yellow packet (no letter names). I even gave these tutors the authority to award belts. Very big deal to them!

This became so popular that tutors and "tutees" came to the Music Room at the start of the day before I had classes to play. I LOVED how much confidence was generated with this strategy! Both the tutor and tutee felt special and progress continued WITHOUT the teacher (my ulterior motive)!!

Side note: I no longer refer to playing on the recorder as tooting since that word now has the connotation of a certain bodily function and creates quite a round of  laughter when used. I call it HONKING. So as I tell my kids as they leave me...

Happy Honking!

Recorder Belts + a new FREEBIE!

My students are CRAZY for recorders! And earning those yarn belts!

This was the second year that I used "the belt" method and the kids were even more motivated than last year! Whole Brain Teaching says competition can promote better focus and achievement. I avoided competition in all my previous years. Why? Because I wanted kids to succeed at their own pace and not become intimidated by the goals of others. Not a bad way to think but I never saw the kind of excitement that my students have now playing for those little pieces of yarn.

I use the "Rainbow Belts" and you can read about it in my blog post, Beginning Recorders on E. This year I posted everyone's progress by class. This allowed me to include students who had lost or did not own a recorder to participate. I was surprised that kids actually began buying/replacing lost recorders, just to get that sweet little piece of yarn on the instrument.



Using this tracking strategy also helped ME remember who had accomplished which level, who I could choose to coach another student and where each class needed to focus their attention.

I added another PDF to my growing bundle of songs for these Rainbow Belts. I use them on my Smartboard so everyone can see them. Go ahead and snatch them up for ...FREE!

Do you use recorder belts? Some of my students have run out of space for more belts on their recorder. Have you experienced this? What did YOU do?

Beginning Recorders on E

Today I want to talk about RECORDERS and the new "program" I've been following. Freebies to follow.  For over 20 years, I have taught recorders beginning on B and then moving on the A and G. This year I embraced the idea of starting on E and adding G. I LOVE IT!!!

First I purchased Claire Burns' "Recorders Rock" A Beginning Recorder Method on TpT  . Claire begins on low E and G. I had heard of this starting place before but had no idea where to begin.

Here's what I did:  

1. we learned songs about the notes on the staff    

2. we talked about  the recorder - breath, covering holes completely, tonguing (a little bit)

3. we discussed how to correct "squeaks"

4. we worked through the first song "John the Rabbit" combining singing and playing only E

5. we learned new G and did the same for "Rico's Pizza" and "Cuckoo" singing and playing

6. we learned a song in which the entire melody could be played on the recorder - "Pease Porridge Hot"

7. we added a new note A and learned "Apple Tree"

8. we learned another song using E, G and A - "Hammer Ring". This was a substituted song instead of Claire Burns' choice of "Rain Rain". We sang "Hammer Ring" earlier in the year and I thought it made sense to use it now.

9. we added another new note B and learned "Hot Cross Buns"

Click here to get FREE copies of my PDF's of the songs.

If you are using "BELTS" similar to Recorder Karate by Plank Road Publishing, here is the Claire Burns/ Harmony in the Hood list.


Pease Porridge Hot = Red

Apple Tree = Orange

Hammer Ring = Yellow

Hot Cross Buns = Green

UPDATE!
Merrily We Roll Along = Blue          

Old MacDonald = Purple