In workshop this week, we focussed on singing. I was really excited to learn that because I love going to karaoke! I took home a lot of strategies for teaching music this week. I find myself filing away many activities that can be done in the future.
One of my favourite activities during the music workshop this week was the Rap on school bullies. I would absolutely incorporate it in PDHPE or Literacy lessons in the future!
We also sang two simple songs: Beachcombing and Wet Day Blues. We sang beachcombing with little actions which I fell would really help students remember the lyrics.
Here, the class was split up. We were singing Wet Day Blues and had the class singing different notes in harmony.
The most important thing I took away today was the difference between Rhythm and Beat. Like majority of my course mates, we had no clue there was a difference at all.
So, what’s the difference between beat and rhythm?
Beat is the underlying basic unit of time in music while rhythm is what goes on top of that. A good way of demonstrating this to students is to chant a rhyme while keeping beat with your hands. The words represent the rhythm, while the clapping represents the beat.
Some useful resources for singing lessons are:
www.karaokeversion.com (good quality backing tracks)