More Mallet Madness

I don't have a lot to discuss this week. We did more Mallet Madness, and since it takes a full week to get through every one of my classes, not much was different from last week.

I did a new book called "Once I caught a fish alive." All grades did this book, with varying levels of difficulty.

Kindergarten: Played their instruments only on the words or only on the numbers.

1st grade: Played non-pitched on words, pitched on numbers.

2nd grade: Played non-pitched on words, pitched on numbers.

3rd grade: Experimented with the C Pentatonic scale up and down on numbers, non-pitched on words.

4th grade: Recorders (no mallet madness)

5th grade: Played the C Pentatonic scale up on numbers 1-5 and down on numbers 6-10. Non-pitched percussion on words. Also, added Crazy 8s, introduced some classes to the idea of Original, Retrograde, Inversion and Retrograde Inversion forms.

Students were really excited and receptive to these activities. It was particularly exciting for me to introduce 5th grade to the Crazy 8 activity, especially the forms that we used. That is a concept that I wasn't introduced to until well into college, so sharing that with my students and having them be successful with it was a lot of fun for all of us.

This chance to have everyone involved in the music making has been a great opportunity for us to not only build skills, but also build community. Performing music as a community is the best way to experience music, and this is a chance to go deeper than words for a concert and really be involved in music on a new level.

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