Active Listening Materials to Support a Primary Music Scheme by Helen MacGregor.
This superb curricular kit introduces the building blocks of music—pitch, rhythm, melody, harmony, form, texture, dynamics—with engaging listening activities and interactive whiteboard resources.
Kids learn how to scaffold the elements of music when they create and perform their own music, inspired by music selections from around the globe: Music from China, West Africa, India, South America, and Europe.
The first section—Duration—has the class identifying which instruments make short or long sounds and finding ways to alter those sounds. Then listening to Mu min xin ge Crocodile Snap. Then make a sound picture and sub instruments for the long and short sounds of Sounds In Space.
Progresses logically through Dynamics, Tempo (using Little Train of the Caipira among others), Timbre (identifying unique qualities of sounds like rain, an aquarium, and recreating those vocally and instrumentally), Texture, Pitch (exploring Pythagoras on the Line by Simon Jeffes), and Structure.
Ages 5-10. 64 pp. Highly recommended!
