The grade ones have just begun their unit on xylophone playing! We started out learning how to care for them: always playing in the middle of the bar like butterflies, so the bars don't bounce off. When your bars bounce off that means you are playing them too much like stomping elephants. We also learned how to set our instruments up in a pentatonic, taking bars off with two hands to protect the pegs. And always when we hold the mallets, we pinch and wrap our fingers around.
Beat vs rhythm
Steady Beat: never changes
Rhythm: changes and matches the words of the song
The grade ones demonstrate this difference in their xylophone rendition of Wee Willie Winkie. In this video, the left side plays the steady beat and the right side plays the rhythm of the syllables of the words. Notice, we can say the poems in our heads and still match the rhythm of the words...for the most part.
Our goal is to play xylophones in our concert at the end of the year!
Rhythm: changes and matches the words of the song
The grade ones demonstrate this difference in their xylophone rendition of Wee Willie Winkie. In this video, the left side plays the steady beat and the right side plays the rhythm of the syllables of the words. Notice, we can say the poems in our heads and still match the rhythm of the words...for the most part.
Our goal is to play xylophones in our concert at the end of the year!